Pastor and Project H.O.O.D. founder Corey Brooks says parents and children need to be 'held accountable' for America to rebuild a culture that respects law and order.

For some time now, we have watched chaos roll through our streets in various forms. Authorities call it "teen takeovers." Hundreds of young people, rallied by a social media post, flood an area — whether it be the Loop in Chicago or a gas station in Atlanta — and jump on cars, loot stores and attack police. They film it all on their phones as if it were a video game with no real-life consequences.

We all know the obvious: It is a sign that something deep in our culture has broken. That is true, but how? What strikes me is the lack of fear these youths show. That, for me, is the first sign.

When I was a young boy living in the country town of Kenton, Tenn., I feared God. I feared my elders. This was a good fear. It was the fear that kept me on the straight path.

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There is none of this fear in these kids and their teen takeovers. It is anarchic, free-for-all chaos. These young people surround police cruisers, throw objects at officers, tackle them, terrorize bystanders and then laugh about it online. That isn’t just bad behavior. That is a generation acting as if there is no God above them, no authority over them and no justice waiting for them.

How do you get to a place where teenagers can look a police officer in the face, attack him and feel nothing? You don’t get there overnight. You get there one broken boundary at a time. You get there when parents stop being parents, when schools stop enforcing discipline, when churches stop preaching about sin and judgment, and when the justice system stops delivering consequences.

Let’s talk about that last one, because that is the least our government can do. Over the last decade, we have seen the rise of a new kind of prosecutor: the so-called progressive prosecutor. They run on platforms promising to decarcerate, go soft on so-called "low-level" offenses and "reimagine" prosecution. They tell us we live in a systemically racist nation and that we must reduce racial disparities in our prison system. They act as if we locked up people only because of their race. White-guilt progressives elect these people into office.

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The consequences have been damning. From Chicago to St. Louis, and outward to New York and Los Angeles, there have been fewer prosecutions, fewer charges and fewer juveniles held to account, even for serious crimes. These prosecutors have simply refused to uphold the law and have gone to great lengths to undermine police.

Young people are not stupid. They are watching. They see viral videos of mobs overrunning downtowns and hear that "no serious charges will be filed." They see repeat juvenile offenders picked up for robberies, carjackings or violent attacks and then released right back onto the street. What message does that send? It says, "You can do this and still sleep in your own bed."

This laxness, along with a lack of structured discipline in the home and a lack of belief in God, is how you kill fear in a teen. It is how you take a healthy fear of consequences and replace it with a cocky confidence that nothing really happens.

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At the same time, we’ve created what feels like a two-tiered justice system. The ordinary citizen who defends his business may face the full weight of the law, while a mob of teenagers that turns a city block into a war zone is described as "just kids blowing off steam." The shop owner is treated like the villain; the mob is treated like a sociology project. People may not use legal language, but they feel that imbalance in their bones.

As a pastor, I cannot talk about this without talking about the soul. Law alone cannot fix what is broken here. But when I see young Black teens laughing as they jump on cars, beat strangers or taunt officers, I see hearts that have not been taught to fear anything higher than themselves. No fear of God. No fear of dishonoring their families. No fear of a judge. No fear of wasting their lives.

We have taken away the guardrails and then acted shocked when the car goes off the cliff. We’ve preached entitlement instead of responsibility, therapy instead of repentance, and "root causes" instead of consequences.

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So what needs to change?

First, we must restore the link between crime and consequence. That means electing prosecutors who believe their job is to enforce the law, not erase it from behind a desk, and ending policies that treat violent mob activity as a minor disturbance.

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Second, we must stand behind police who act lawfully to restore order. No officer should have to wonder if stopping an out-of-control crowd will cost him his career the next day. When we undermine officers for doing their jobs, we weaken the thin line between our neighborhoods and chaos.

Third, adults — parents, pastors, teachers and coaches — must recover the courage to say, "This is wrong," and mean it. Teen takeovers are not protests. They are not a phase. They are a moral breakdown. We need to say that plainly, in our homes, our pulpits and our politics. And when parents refuse to intervene, they too should face legal consequences.

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The fear I grew up with — fear of God, fear of dishonoring my elders, fear of real consequences — was not a curse. It was a gift. It kept me alive. It got me through college and seminary school. It kept me focused on a future I could be proud of. These kids running wild in teen takeovers have been robbed of that gift.

If we want our streets back, if we want our children back, we have to rebuild a culture where there are lines you do not cross and laws you do not ignore — because if you do, there will be a reckoning. A society without fear of consequences is a society without peace. And if we don’t change course, we are going to learn that the hard way one day, and by then it may be too late.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM PASTOR COREY BROOKS

Pastor Corey Brooks, known as the "Rooftop Pastor," is the founder and Senior Pastor of New Beginnings Church of Chicago and the CEO of Project H.O.O.D. (Helping Others Obtain Destiny), the church's local mission. He gained national attention for his 94-day and 343-day rooftop vigils to transform the notorious "O-Block," once known as Chicago's most dangerous block, into #OpportunityBlock. Learn more at ProjectHOOD.org.

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