What’s Causing Teen Riots in DC? | 8.1.26

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**John Bickley** (0:39)
That was Daily Wire contributor Leona Salinas reporting on her first-hand experience in a so-called teen takeover in Washington, DC that erupted into violence, including shots fired and attacks on national guardsmen.

**Georgia Howe** (0:53)
While the trend of these teen riots is becoming a regular occurrence in many big cities, what Salinas learned has sparked a Daily Wire investigation. The teen takeover she experienced grew out of a hype night event put on by DC's Department of Parks and Recreation, and participants say every one of these racially charged events put on by the department has likewise devolved into violence.

**John Bickley** (1:14)
In this episode, Salinas joins us to give her first-hand account of the riot she found herself swept up in and the troubling details she's learned about its origins. I'm Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley with Georgia Howe. This is a weekend edition of Morning Wire.
Joining us now is reporter and Daily Wire contributor, Leona Salinas. Great to have you on the show.

**Leona Salinas** (1:35)
Thank you so much. It's an honor to be here.

**John Bickley** (1:37)
So we read with interest your report on this teen takeover, which is the euphemism used for these events that you experienced firsthand in DC.
And we'd like you to just tell us what happened. What did you experience that night? When did this happen? What did you see?

**Leona Salinas** (1:55)
So it happened last week, and I was just leaving a dinner with a couple of friends. And I was on the way back to my apartment. I was heading to the metro station, and all of a sudden I just see hundreds, nearly thousands of teenagers, all African American, very urban youth, essentially. And what happened was is I just saw them running, screaming, and most of them were wearing masks and holding signs that were somewhat intelligible. And so immediately I just went up there and started recording. And I said, why are you here today?
What is this for?
And they just started yelling obscenities at me and kept running down the streets. And all of a sudden there were cop cars on my left and right, sirens blaring. And I just decided that it would be a good idea to probably follow them for a story. So I let a few people know where I was and where I was going, just in case there was any safety issues.
And I followed them. And I immediately went to the end of the very, very long line of teens. And I stuck with this one very sensible young lady. Her name was Michaela. She was 18 years old.
And I started asking her, why are you here? What is this for? And I started interviewing her and a couple of her colleagues and trailing her. And we just had to keep running from alley to alley because fights kept breaking out. People were jumping each other. And I started asking her, how many of these have you been to?
What happens? Why are you here? Who coordinated this? And immediately she said, DPR. I said, what is DPR? She said, I actually don't know. But they send us text messages on Instagram and tell us where to meet, when and why. And I said, well, why? And she goes, I don't exactly know, but we're supposed to just share a sense of community. I said, what community is that? And she said, black youth. I said, all right, that works. I said, how often does this end up in violence? She said, every single one that I've gone to, someone jumps another, someone gets robbed, someone gets shot. She said, she's seen multiple individuals be shot. And as I was walking, we started to run from alley to alley as I aforementioned. Then we went to this one alley and a bunch of teenagers started running towards us. There were cop cars cutting us off on either side. Then I saw a bigger fight break out. So, you know, working for the Daily Wire, I thought right now, oh, this is great to clip this. You know, my boss would love this. So I started inching closer as much as I possibly could. And then all of a sudden just bam, there is a gunshot. And I saw the person who shot the weapon. Yes. And so I hesitated, made sure that my hand was decently steady so I could get good footage. And then immediately after that, continued to run with the crowd.