City Desk » Mayor’s Conservation Corps

D.C. Summer Jobs Program: Payday Muggings Continue

Jason Cherkis — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 23:18:44 +0000

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.

These D.C. Summer Jobs Are Smokin’ (Marijuana)

Mike DeBonis — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:17:21 +0000

Gotta love the Summer Youth Employment Program: Nothing like a hard day's work to teach kids a thing or two about holding a job and personal responsibility and keep them away from things like gangs, violence, and illicit substances.

Well, gangs and violence, anyway.

A City Desk reader captured this sight with a cell phone cam yesterday morning, around 10:30 a.m., on the 1500 block of Marion Street NW:

The reader explains: 'Took some photos yesterday of 6 kids from the Mayor's Conservation Corps rolling [a] joint and smoking pot....I did call the police but they didn't show up before the kids finished up. You can see a lighter and smoke in the photos. You can tell what he's smoking from how he's holding it. :-) I could smell it...(don't ask me how I know what it smells like).'

(Because the alleged tokers are likely minors, City Desk has blurred their faces.)