STREET BASKETBALL GAMES ARE HAVENS FOR DRUGS, GANG VIOLENCE

Re. July 11 editorial, "Keep city kids busy":

On the streets and playgrounds of the East Bluff, basketball games
are loud, rough, riddled with profanity and often end in violence.
These games start as early as 7 a.m. and end as late as 2 a.m. They
are also the ideal setting for drug deals and gang violence.

Glen Oak Elementary School placed permanent basketball hoops on the
playground a few years ago. After just one summer, they were removed
for this very reason.

Here are a couple of ideas:

Open school, church and park district gymnasiums with paid and
volunteer monitors. Keep the noise inside and control the activity.
On the outside there is too much noise and no control.

Police need to crack down on these kids. Whatever happened to
disturbing the peace? Issue more citations to the parents if their
kids are caught loitering in front of private property and bus stops.
Modify the curfew and then enforce it. Adopt a zero tolerance policy
on these issues.

Stop the violence before it starts. Give control of the neighborhoods
back to the adults and take it away from the kids and teens.

Why are the parents of these kids not held accountable for their
children's poor behavior? It seems to me that everyone else but their
parents is expected to raise these kids.

Mary King

Peoria