In the past year, there has been a rise in the brazenness with which our young people commit crimes. How can you tell? You can’t. The Maryland General Assembly essentially legalized crime last year by passing a law that prevents children under the age of 13 from being “charged with a crime” unless the offense was violent. This must be reversed. The legislature also made it difficult or even unlawful for law enforcement officials to conduct interviews with children who were accused of committing crimes by “prohibiting the interrogation of a child by a law enforcement officer until the child has consulted with a certain attorney and a notice has been provided to the child’s parents, guardian, or custodian” when a child has been taken into custody — yet another way in which lawmakers restricted the authority of law enforcement. It too, must be changed.
