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The year 2024 in the city of Youngstown has started off with a bang -- far too many bangs, to put it bluntly.
Gunfire over the first six weeks of this year snuffed out the lives of four people within city limits, and at least a dozen shootings have injured many others.
In retrospect, it took four full months in 2023 for Youngstown to log four slayings. At this rate, the city could close 2024 with far more homicides than recorded in recent years.
At all costs, Youngstown must avoid the type of street slaughter it experienced in 1995 when 69 homicides were recorded in the span of 12 months. No one wants to see a return to anywhere close to that level of danger.
The current uptick in carnage therefore demands a concerted and immediate offensive to fight back among police, residents and community groups.
City leaders must marshal all available resources to staunch the violence, increase public safety and work to cleanse the soiled image that Youngstown's continuing far-above-average homicide rate creates.
How far above average? The homicide rate nationally as of last year stood at six homicides per 100,000 population annually, according to the FBI Uniform Crime Reports. With a population of barely 60,000, Youngstown already has exceeded the average for the entire year.
And while no quadrant of the city today lacks tension, turmoil and violence, law enforcers can start by focusing heavily on the South Side where a majority of fatal shootings have taken place over the past year. The ShotSpotter program on that side of town has worked well to alert authorities of trouble, but more crime-fighting resources certainly could not hurt.
Second, a zero-tolerance policy should be more aggressively enforced throughout the city. In past campaigns, such efforts have made a difference. Guns and drugs -- the stuff of which violent crime is made-- have been confiscated, disarming would-be criminals.
Violent crime, most notably homicide, has fallen during the height of such high-vsibility offensives.
Toward those ends, we sincerely hope the city's police force can soon return to full strength. Short staffing caused by retirements and resignations no doubt has hurt the crime-fighting abilities, but we're heartened that police Chief Carl Davis is determined to bring the force up to its needed strength as expeditiously as possible.
We also urge leaders to exhaust any and all grant opportunities. During previous crime spikes, for example, hundreds of thousands of dollars have been awarded toward anti-crime initiatives such as strengthened community policing and zero-tolerance offensives.
The public and community groups must play pivotal roles as well in promoting urban tranquility. Witnesses to violent crime must be willing to speak honestly and fully to police and other authorities as a means to get troublemakers off the streets.
Community organizations such as the well-respected Community Initiative to Reduce Violence, directed by longtime leader Guy Burney, must double down on initiatives to steer young people toward productive endeavors and away from criminal temptations.
To be sure, the city has come a long way from the days it was chided as "Murder Town USA" by a popular national magazine or when gang warfare were common sights.
City leaders, law enforcers and residents alike must commit themselves to ensure this recent violent crime surge is short-lived and the days of "Murder Town" and gangbangers become points of no return.
editorial@vindy.com