Migrant gangs are taking advantage of New Yorks weak juvenile-justice laws

The pint-sized Diablos of 42nd Street — Tren de Aragua’s JV squad — are Exhibit A in the case against progressive state and city policies that empower juvenile street gangs, and indeed encourage older gangbangers to recruit the kids.Yes, Biden-era open-borders policies let TdA set up shop here, but New York’s own policies gave us the Dickensian “little devils.”Migrant thugs aged 12 to 17 brutally attacked two NYPD cops who tried to stop a “wolf-pack-style” mugging in Times Square over the weekend; police have arrested five suspects so far, thanks significantly to the gang database that progressives want to eliminate. Allegedly led by a 12-year-old mastermind, the Little Devils robbery crew has more than 34 known members with over 240 arrests among them, per police.By law, these tween and teen terrors must have their crimes adjudicated in Family Court, where judges are reluctant to remand even the worst offenders to juvenile detention. That near-immunity encourages adult gangbangers to do heavy underage recruiting, yet another perverse result of “reforms” like the Raise the Age law.But the powers that be don’t want to hear it: Last year, Democrats ousted “progressive” Albany DA David Soares for blaming soaring youth gun violence on the state’s bungled criminal-justice reforms.New Yorkers can at least hope to see career-criminal Tren gang-groomers deported, but “asylum seekers” are only part of the problem.

Teens and even tweens caught with loaded weapons, in violent attacks or in repeated crimes shouldn’t go to Family Court for little more than lectures; police and prosecutors must be able to treat them as the menaces they’ve become.In a press conference Tuesday, Mayor Eric Adams pointedly asked city and state lawmakers, “Whose side are you on?”Good question.But will any of the candidates in the city’s Democratic mayoral primary stand with the mayor in demanding the Legislature stop siding with the criminal class?...