Hold parents accountable when their children commit crimes

After reading the recent article, “Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and state prosecutors promise juvenile justice accountability, services” (Feb. 20), I am astonished. It states that the team of Gov. Wes. Moore and both state’s attorneys from Baltimore City and Prince George’s County have a plan to “hold juvenile offenders accountable” for their crimes and “the systems whose job it is to make sure our children get the rehabilitation they need.”

Is everyone afraid to state the obvious, that there is someone who should also be held accountable for the actions of children, specifically their children? How can you hold a “child” accountable for damage to an automobile that crashes into other automobiles when these youngsters do not even have a legal income? Or is the “accountability” limited to punishment and rehab time, billed to taxpayers, while the insurance companies are held actually accountable for the cost, which, of course, translates to higher insurance rates for the same taxpayers, especially in the city?

I believe we could really stem the tide of myriad problems — for the police, on the streets, in the schools — as well as cut back on incarceration and rehabilitation by going back to holding parents responsible for their “children.” There was a day if a child broke the window in a neighbor’s house, the parents were responsible to repair it. How has this responsibility been dissolved to the point that it is regarded as acceptable when parents bear no accountability for their progeny?

What started as a slogan about how it “takes a village to raise a child” has had the corners of the envelope pushed to “let the village raise my child.” This has produced disastrous results for the city, for the neighborhoods, for car insurance rates and for the population as a whole.