By Suzie Ziegler
ATLANTA — After multiple teens were shot over the weekend, the Atlanta Police Department is asking parents to step up.
On Tuesday, the department released a statement on Facebook castigating parents and community members for not “doing their part” to stop juvenile crime.
“Parents and family members are responsible for the rearing and accountability of their kids. We need parents, juvenile advocates, social services agencies, school officials, courts, churches and other criminal justice partners to step up and do their part,” the department wrote in a lengthy missive. “Police alone cannot fix the juvenile crime or juvenile gun violence issue. If it is to be ‘fixed,’ it starts at home and expands to the village.”
The department pointed to an incident on Sunday where five people between the ages of 15 and 19 were involved in a shooting. Five people were shot, after which two wounded teens carjacked a citizen at gunpoint to drive themselves to the hospital, police said.
“A 15-year-old with a gun presents the same threat as a 44-year-old with a gun,” police said. “Their age says they are teens, but their crimes are very much adult.”
APD ended its statement by calling on caretakers to help put troubled juveniles “on the right path to a better life.”
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