Raise the Age is ruining the lives of New York’s kids

Behold the fruits of Raise the Age: A generation of kids who become career criminals before they can even vote.

The latest case is Julian Turner, 17, a gangbanger and drill rapper who’s racked up 20 arrests in his short life, thanks to criminal-justice “reforms” that invited him to keep reoffending.

His lawbreaking began at just 10, with an arrest for threatening two other kids with a fake gun; the next year, he escalated to actual violence, allegedly slicing a 14-year-old’s ear open with a boxcutter; two months after that, he allegedly stabbed a 71-year-old woman in the hand.

At 14, with 18 arrests under his (undersized) belt, he was busted for attempted murder for allegedly shooting a rival gang member in the leg from the back of a scooter.

In a sane world, that would have earned Turner a lengthy stay behind bars — for the good of others and the teen himself, who was clearly digging himself deeper into a life of crime.

But because of Raise the Age, which progressives argue is supposed to keep kids out of jail and so reduce their interactions with the criminal justice system, Turner was free on Sept. 2 to score another arrest for holding a man up at gunpoint.

And still free on Oct. 10, he was busted again with a loaded gun with a defaced serial number at Penn Station.

Violence committed by teens and against teens has skyrocketed since Raise the Age took effect in 2019 — 96% more youngsters under 18 were shot so far this year than in the same period in 2018; the number of teen shooters has leapt 148%, even as overall shootings fell

Raise the Age isn’t keeping kids out of jail; it’s creating more teen criminals, more teen victims and more futures ruined by crime, not saved from it.

Teens are impulsive and bad decision-makers; it’s up to adults to show them what behavior society will and won’t accept.

Intervening in the life of a wayward kid with real punishment early on teaches him to stay away from lawbreaking, and discourages making a lifestyle out of victimizing others.

New York’s progressives instead let children run wild until they end up killers — or killed.

This is the reverse of true compassion; lawmakers must drastically revise Raise the Age before it ruins an entire generation.