"City Residents Deserve to Live Peaceful Lives,"
Youngstown Vindicator, June10, 2003

There's a reason it's called a "noise ordinance." The sounds that emanatefrom the boom boxes in cars on Youngstown's roads isn't music by any stretchof the imagination. It's noise-and as in all things noisy, it should bemuted.

Mayor George M. McKelvey and the city council have tried to deal with this persistent problem by enacting harsher laws, but the social misfits who believe that anything goes in Youngstown just don't seem to care. Even the threat of jail, a mandatory fine of $600, and mandatory forfeiture of the sound equipment haven't brought a change in their anti-social behavior.

As Councilman Artis Gilliam, Sr., D-1st, chairman of the safety committee, put it recently: "Most of our calls are about boomboxes" or other sources of loud music. The complaints have been pouring in and they can be expected to increase now that the mercury is rising and car windows are being rolled down. The mayor and the city council agree that something drastic must be done to send a message to the boombox bullies that they don't have a right to destroy the community's quality of life. But the city officials disagree on
the penalties that should be levied.

McKelvey favors mandatory seizure of car stereos. Gillam wants to give judges the option of tossing a violator in jail even on the first offense. "Sometimes you just have to hit people on the head," he says. "Some people need to go to jail."

We have no doubt that this sentiment would be expressed by a majority of city residents. The mayor, on the other hand, argues that the jails are already bursting at the seams and that incarcerating individuals is an expensive proposition. But he does favor impounding the car and seizing the stereo equipment on the second offense. Currently, the law requires confiscation of the equipment on the third offense. It does not address the issue of vehicle impoundment.

On the first offense, McKelvey believes a $50 fine would serve as an appropriate warning. In the end, for harsher penalties to have any effect, the judges of the Youngstown Municipal Court must treat violations of the city's noise ordinance as a crime against the community.

Judges can be merciful the first time an individual appears in court charged with polluting the air and disrupting the peace. But the second time the lawbreaker makes an appearance, there should be no mercy. As the mayor correctly points out, seizing stereo equipment worth a couple of thousand dollars will certainly deliver a message not only to the scofflaw, but to others of his ilk. And the confiscation of the car? It's like taking the manhood of these individuals.

A no-nonsense approach in dealing with this plague on society is exactly what a city such as Youngstown needs. Its physical and economic deterioration should not be an invitation to the lawless to further damage the quality of life of law-abiding citizens.