by Jason Cherkis – Washington City Paper
Metropolitan Police Department Assistant Chief Diane Groomes tells City Desk that District kids enrolled in the Mayor’s Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) are still getting mugged on paydays. So far, five kids have been mugged on paydays and a sixth was mugged the day after a payday. The program started with knives and thefts. Washington City Paper recently reported that muggings and violence against jobs program kids became a common theme last summer. Officials had blamed the muggings on the fact that the kids were required to wear the now-infamous Mayor’s Conservation Corps T-shirts.
Groomes isn’t sure if the kids who were mugged this year were wearing T-shirts. She has recently suggested that the kids remain indoors during their lunch hours on paydays. Of the five muggings that have taken place on paydays, all of them occurred at 12:30 p.m.
*file photo by Darrow Montgomery