Clean Up Crime

[Towntalk]

Where are they?

They're sitting there in City Hall laughing right in your faces because they know that you folks are all talk, and no action.

They have absolutely no fear of you because they know that you'll gripe amongst yourselves, but lack the backbone to use the one resource that has asked for it over and over again.

So what's with you?

Dan Rivers and Ron Verb as well as Mangino now that he's back on the air after a very serious accident have all pleaded with you to make your voices heard because without your voices they are limited in what they can do.

Only one person from this group has made her voice heard and that is not acceptable.

What will it take before you step forward? Does one of our group have to be murdered before you act?

In my humble opinion, not even that would stir you up. Is it laziness? Fear? Or apathy? You be the judge, but so long as you aren't willing to follow Maggy's example quit belly aching here, because your posts ring hollow.

[jay]

Connie's experience is one that is repeated over and over again throughout the city.  People will continue to flee neighborhoods that are filled with crime and violence. 

Where are our councilmen and other civic leaders?  Where are our council candidates?  What innovative ideas and programs have they proposed to save the neighborhoods in our city? 

P.S. I'm surprised that the home left vacant on Hilton hasn't been vandalized already.

[northside lurker]

My neighborhood is on the verge of being in trouble.  There are still a lot of good people, and it's still mostly quiet.  But, blight is moving in, and there are quite a few houses for sale.  Anyway, as I see it, as long as I'm still here, a slum lord doesn't have my house; I'm one small barrier to my neighborhood's further decline.

I realize that talk is cheap, though.  I don't even hear gunshots, let alone have bullets enter my house.  So, I can't say I would stay if I had that to worry about.

[connie254]

The problem has many expanations. Some of them racial. Some of them are rental properties that are not taken care of the renters and/or the owners. Some of them are elderly who are stuck in their current homes and cannot or will not leave and are afraid of the repercussions of reporting crimes.
I left the city last month when our home finally sold on Hilton. The person who bought it was going to use it as rental property and wanted the keys as soon as we moved so he could make the place looked lived in to avoid being broken into.  i think he has a freakish idea of "lived in". My husband drives past it every other day.  The grass is over a foot high and the porch lights and inside lights are always on. No one has moved in yet.
I reported  crime all the time mainly as concerned citizen.  The absolute turning point was when we found a bullet in our living room that has traveled through our front wall and was lying on the floor a few feet from the wall.  It turns out when we called the police, they had mentioned a driveby shooter poor aim. We figured what happened when we went out the next morning. The neighber's front glass door was shattered.  These are the same neighbors that gave us nothing but trouble (they owned the house, not renters). They gave us dirty looks when the SOLD sign went up. I think they knew something worse than them were coming in.
Block parties are a good idea but you should be safe enough to actually go to the meetings.
We actually enjoy the peace and quiet of our house now. An occassional duck quacking or a dog barking but nothing like the constant noise, car boomboxes, police cars, dogs, bullets, shouting that went on. We can go outside and say hello to our neighbors. We have a garden and fruit trees-those won't be stolen or trampled on the kids like on Hilton who actually went over our backyard fence to cut through yards and steal our produce. After 13 years I got tired of all of it. It was nice when I moved in but my life and those of my family are worth more.

[Towntalk]

So what's your answer Mickey ... sit around and whine ... run away and hide under the bed hoping that someone else will do the job for you?

The only way that we'll accomplish anything is if we do our part as I've suggested in other threads. Or is that too much of a sacrifice?

I go right back to what I've said before ... the one thing that politicians fear most is activist citizens. Why do you think that the Immigration Bill was defeated ... COMMITTED CITIZENS PUT THE FEAR OF THE LORD INTO ENOUGH SENATORS THAT NOT EVEN SENATOR KENNEDY COULD GET IT PASSED. And where did that fear come from TALK RADIO and MILLIONS OF LISTENERS WHO MADE THEIR VOICES HEARD.

Youngstown is just a microcosom in the grand scheme of things, but if enough of us made our voice heard where it counts we could bring about change.

If you don't care enough about Youngstown to fight for it, why should anyone else. So quit the excuses and get off your duff and make your voice heard OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN. If 10 people in this group were to call the talk shows and demand action every day, that would be multiplied by ten more callers who don't get on the internet. The average call takes three minutes tops, surely everyone here has three minutes to spare.

[Micky]

We wish they would! 

Even if the police would try to rid the neighborhoods of drugs, gangs, and crime, the attorneys, prosecutors, and judges fail us miserably. 

[jay]

I listened to most of the presentation on the Dan Rivers' Show today.  Why can't our police be as creative when trying to rid our neighborhoods of drug dealers?

[Towntalk]

Here is the web site that Dan Rivers was talking about this morning.

Take a look at it and see what you think.

http://citizencrimefighter.com/

Should we bring them into Youngstown?