Editorial

Editorial

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The mayor's stand

We too, are sorry that the confrontation between a group of young people who hang out around Washington’s Post Office and Trinity Church and the town government has escalated to the point where three of the group were arrested early last Sunday morning.

Mayor Dean Morehouse requested the Sheriffs Department’s assistance, he said, after watching them roughhousing and cursing in the Post Office parking lot at about 2:30 a.m. Sheriffs deputies arrested the trio for public drunkenness.

We will make the point right now that the three are presumed innocent of the charges until found guilty by a court. That is their right.

But as Mayor Morehouse told the Town Council — and several members of the group who attended its September meeting — the town’s residents, guests and visitors have rights too. They have the right to sleep through the night without being disturbed by loud, rude and sometimes obscene language, by cars racing up and down the town’s streets, and by the other behavior which has drawn repeated and increasingly vociferous complaints to the council members.

We don’t know exactly what happened outside the Post Office last Sunday morning. If the cases go to court, perhaps an explanation will be offered then.

We do know one thing, however. One of the complaints of the group is that there is nothing for them to to, and no place for them to go. In this situation, that doesn’t wash. Even if there were a community center or other “hangout,” it would be closed at 2:30 a.m. There are precious few places, even in large cities, where people of any age can go to gather — legally —at 2:30 a.m.

Perhaps Councilman Newbill Miller offered the best advice to the young people. Though he opposed Mayor Morehouse’s “get tough” stand, he suggested that the young people abandon the confrontation. “You have too much to lose to fight this — and you will lose,” he told the members of the group who attended the council meeting.

Mr. Miller’s advice is wise counsel. The town is not trying to make examples of anyone, or trying to run anyone out of towm. But it does have a legitimate concern in protecting the privacy, peace and quiet of the majority of its residents, as well as visitors to the town and its businesses.

We support the Mayor’s concern, and the council’s action in dealing with the problem. We hope that since it has been demonstrated that the towrn’s resolve is real and not just another idle threat, that the confrontational tactics will be abandoned and some sort of solution worked out.

That would be to the long-term benefit of all the towm’s residents, and is the only avenue w hich leads to a constructive resolution of the problem.