Councilwoman Brooke Pinto ended her effort to pass a Washington, D.C., curfew extension bill after failing to garner enough votes.
The emergency bill would have granted the district the authority to impose 8 p.m. curfews for teenagers over the summer. It was intended to stymie the epidemic of violent youth crime and garnered the support of Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser.
Pinto faced an uphill battle in one of the bluest areas of the country, dominated by progressive Democrats. She and Bowser pitched the extension as a way to protect the city’s youth.
An almost identical saga played out in October, when she sought to extend through December a curfew that would be implemented at 11 p.m. instead of the usual midnight and apply to everyone under the age of 18 rather than under 17, as is typical. It also gave police the authority to designate special curfew zones where juveniles wouldn’t be allowed past 8 p.m.
Progressive Democratic councilmembers objected, arguing it was racist.
“I’m afraid extending the provision will be used as a pretext to target Black and Brown youth, who are already being targeted in this moment,” Democratic Councilwoman Janeese Lewis George said in October.
Pinto countered that the measure was intended to protect young criminals from federal agents.
“I worry not acting exposes our young people to more of the possibility for federal overreach,” she said at the time. “This is really a preventive, protective measure to make sure there’s a tool in place so we don’t have groups of federal agents coming up on groups of young people in a way that would be counterproductive.”
Pinto has pitched herself as a candidate prioritizing public safety, in contrast to some of her progressive rivals. The chairwoman of the D.C. Council’s Judiciary Committee is viewed as a more centrist Democrat.
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In 2024, she backed measures designed to overhaul some of the district’s progressive criminal justice policies, which had garnered controversy amid a crime spike.
Pinto is running for mayor and has drawn impressive fundraising totals with bipartisan support.