There’s an old joke about the City of Detroit: If you fly into the airport there, they ask you if you have a gun. If you don’t — they give you one.
Detroit a few years ago was the “murder capital” of the United States where one in every 37 male babies were destined to eventually die a violent death. While that has improved considerably, the Detroit-style violence has moved on to other places — including the Shenango Valley.
A recent shoot-out in Sharon that left an 18-year-old dead and others wounded, mirrored the kind of violence that once filled the Motor City. And it’s no secret that Detroit gangs have infiltrated this area for drug sales and brought with them gunplay that was very limited before the last decade.
But now the question every citizen is asking is: What do we do about it?
Police are still sorting out the apparent drug-deal-gone-bad that led to a shoot-out Nov. 6 and death of 18-year-old John B. Hosey III. Reportedly a group of locals drove to a house on Wallis Avenue seeking to buy drugs. However, it was a setup for a robbery attempt by the people there. That led to the gunfire.
Several arrests have been made, but no one has been charged with murder.
In another story this week, Farrell police are still linking people to a 2008 shooting death of a 38-year-old Detroit man during a robbery on Roemer Boulevard.
One of the big problems for police in solving any crimes in parts of the Shenango Valley is the refusal of citizens to come forward with information. At one meeting of concerned citizens a while back, Southwest Mercer County Regional Police Chief Riley Smoot pointed out that even in minor-crime situations, there is a reluctance on the part of the public to help authorities. In fact, they sometimes hinder the police.
Until citizens are willing to come forward and supply information to help drive out the drug dealers in this area, we can expect more gunplay. And probably more deaths.
Young people are lured into dealing drugs because of supposed easy money. So if anything positive might come from the death of John Hosey, a senior at Keystone Education Center, it is the example to all teens on what can happen when you get involved with drugs and guns.
In the recent shutout, there was a great cooperative effort between the Mercer County District Attorney’s office; Sharon, Hermitage, Sharpsville and Southwest Mercer County Regional police; Pennsylvania probation and parole agents, as well as Sharon firefighters.
But even that kind of cooperation won’t succeed, unless local residents decide they have had enough and help the police.
Reportedly the state has been contacted in the past about getting help from a drug task force, but it was denied because there haven’t been enough people killed.
Well, those numbers are mounting. Exactly how many more deaths do we need?
Opinion
OUR VIEW: Another dead in the street and no solution in sight
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