CHEEKTOWAGA, N.Y. (WKBW) — New York State Assemblymember Patrick Chludzinski (R) is calling for 16 and 17-year-olds to be charged as adults in violent crimes by reversing the 2019 Raise the Age Law. The legislation allows 16 and 17-year-olds to be prosecuted in Family Court, rather than be charged as adults in criminal court.
"The growing trend of youthful violent offenses is widespread and alarming," said Chludzinski, who has introduced two bills surrounding this issue, and teen auto thefts.
Last Monday, three teens, two 14-year-olds and a 16-year-old, led police on a pursuit through Cheektowaga Town Park with a stolen SUV.
They drove through baseball and football fields, almost hitting multiple people, according to Cheektowaga Police. They did crash into a car that Angela Scholl's husband was sitting in.
WATCH: 'We need consequences': NY Assemblymember proposes reversing Raise the Age law after recent teen violence
"He spent about 8 hours at ECMC," said Scholl, who said her husband is recovering. "They had to make sure that he didn't have any spine damage, nerve damage…He's left with chemical burns and bruising, and he's just really sore in the shoulders and the neck area."
Scholl had just dropped off his son at soccer, and decided to stay in the car to watch. Thankfully, he was wearing a seat belt.
"When a teenager chooses to steal a car and drive it through a public park at high speed, that is not a youthful mistake; it is a criminal act and there must be consequences," said Chludzinski.
"It's a game, and the game has to stop," said Cheektowaga Councilmember Anthony Filipski Sr. (R). "It's a dangerous game, as you can see."
"I want to be clear, we are not here today to villainize kids, we are here to protect our neighborhoods," said Chludzinski. "We are here to draw a line in the sand between misguided behavior and dangerous criminal life threatening acts."
However, New York State Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes (D) opposes Chludzinski's proposal. She told me more teens behind bars will only teach them to be better criminals.
"There's no reason why family court can't apply a stiffer penalty if in fact a young person is repeating themselves," said Peoples-Stokes. "We need to do a little bit more of a deep dive to figure out what's creating the problem, and some of it has to do with societal issues in general."
Chludzinski held a press conference Monday morning at Cheektowaga Town Park with town board members, talking about last week's incident.
Nangie Alexander, a Cheektowaga mother of three, said there needs to be more consequences.
"If [teens] just do it the one time and they get released to their parents, it's kind of like 'OK, just an appearance ticket, fine, whatever, I can do this again,'" said Alexander. "My parents, they would always tell me at a certain age, we can no longer protect you from the law. You have to listen to us, and I pass that on to my kids."
"There's got to be accountability and punishments," said Greg, who has lived in Cheektowaga his whole life. He played at this exact park as a kid. "When we were kids in the 50s and 60s, we had a ball, three ball diamonds. We didn't have the pool, we didn't have the community center. We found things to do."
Chludzinski is hoping to get a Senate sponsor for his bills.
