Excerpts of some of the comments made in a Vindy.com discussion group in reaction to the Bertram de Souza column titled "Swarmed! What would you do?"

Excerpts of some of the comments made in a Vindy.com discussion group in reaction to the Bertram de Souza column titled "Swarmed! What would you do?"
"Mayor Jay Williams needs to step up and take care of this situation. So far Mr. Williams has shown that he is quite capable of leading the city of Youngstown. He is a refreshing leader of a community in trouble. It is time for him to once again step up and make the City safe, that is if he wants us suburbanites to continue to frequent establishments in his town and spend our money ..."
"It is time to crack down on these punks [who] are selling drugs. We need laws to try them as adults, sentence them like adults, and make the adult parents responsible for their actions through monetary awards and sentencing them to jail also if they cannot pay. Any juvenile found with a weapon in his possession should be given a minimum of 10 years in jail. Any selling drugs the same sentence."
"God help me, I don't know what I would do in such a situation, but I definitely intend to try to avoid such a situation. As someone who was born on the North Side and lived there through high school, I have enjoyed an occasional nostalgia driving trip while needing to head in that direction. No more! The police are already stretched so thin that it would be foolhardy to count on being rescued. As the first writer said, let us hope the mayor can do something about this."
"Imagine being a woman alone in a car when juveniles are swarming around your vehicle. Drive along some of our streets before and after school (I do because I work in Youngstown). Students walk five abreast on major roads, cross in front of traffic daring drivers to hit them, and think it's funny to push each other into traffic if indeed they did manage to find the sidewalk to walk on. Parents, school administrators and especially the Youngstown Police Dept. need to address this issue, not drive by or around (as I have seen them do)."
"Ohio has a concealed-carry law, which allows law abiding citizens to carry firearms. All it will take is one of these legal gun carrying citizens, confronting a group of these thugs, to actually use the weapon if physically assaulted. I would encourage more law abiding people to legally carry firearms."
"I would like to see the new Mayor get together with serious high school students to set up a citywide student court. Youths involved in anti-social behavior could be ordered to appear before the special student court to review the individuals' actions and then assign them to community projects, such as neighborhood clean-up projects and required them to attend social consciousness classes to promote appropriate social behavior."
"I was also raised on the Northside of Youngstown and still like to visit for dinner and for nostalgic purposes. This swarming scares the hell out of me. It also angers me because what is the point of the 2010 revitalization plan and all of the good things happening in downtown? Stories like this will be the demise of any rebuilding. I agree that Mayor Williams needs to step up and get something done about the punks who are going to undermine all the attempts of the GOOD citizens of Youngstown. I think had it been me who had been swarmed I probably, out of sheer panic, would have gunned my car. Would anyone blame me?"
"I'm still in shock after reading about this. Where are the North Side church leaders? You won't find me on the North Side, EVER!!!"
Source: Vindy.com discussion group