There’s no excuse for lawlessness

There’s no excuse for lawlessness

I have lived in the Youngstown area all my life and I guess like many urban communities across the country the inner city of Youngstown is going down the toilet. And I am saying that in a nice way because how I really feel couldn’t be printed in The Vindicator.

It amazes me that I can’t drive through certain parts of Youngstown even in the daytime because God knows what might happen to me or my car, and I am putting my life in jeopardy. It is almost like watching the news from Baghdad when the city was divided up by the American military into zones and you couldn’t go into certain zones because of the danger. Youngstown is the same way.

If I want to go to Boardman I am afraid to drive through certain parts of the South Side because of what might happen.

Many in the Youngstown area play the race card and say they are the victims of racial discrimination by America for decades and this is the reason for the high crime rate. That argument is getting old and this is now the 21st century. Many in these neighborhoods feel it is that another day in the hood with the high crime rate and oh well that is the way it is. It gets to be one big joke after a while when you see night after night the same shootings in the same neighborhood.

Many leaders in the neighborhoods put up their hands and make excuses for the crime situations. Bad economy, bad this, bad that. Why is it during the 1930s that when you had a major economic depression that you didn’t see people shooting each other on the streets?

I live on the West Side and it is turning into a garbage dump. Chaney, which used to be a nice school, is now a war zone. But many feel in Youngstown that they are the victims. Wipe away the tears. Aren’t we all victims? Clean the neighborhoods up and stop playing the victim.

Gary Gergel, Youngstown