Meeting addresses ‘disorder’ among youth in Carrick
After a mob of teens forced the closure of St. Basil Catholic Church’s summer festival last week, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto met with police, neighborhood representatives and the church pastor Tuesday on policing, public safety and “youth disorder” in Carrick.
The festival had been in existence for more than 50 years but was shut down after a slew of fighting teenagers spilled out into Brownsville Road on Wednesday night.
"The discussion was about how police could work with community members, building inspection and other stakeholder city agencies to be more responsive in dealing with public safety issues, particularly when it comes to the issue of youth disorder," police Chief
Cameron McLay said in a statement.
James Boland, a 47-yearold block watch captain from Carrick who attended Tuesday’s meeting, said his youngest daughter was at the festival last week and saw the brawl.
“It was not a good scene,” Mr. Boland said. “It was very scary for people.”
He said Tuesday’s meeting was about developing a consensus and goals.
“It’s not that we’re looking to lock all these kids up,” he said. “What do these kids need to be successful? We can’t have 200 kids fighting in the street at a church festival.”
Though roving groups of teenagers have caused havoc at Monroeville Mall and Kennywood over the past year, Mr. Boland said Carrick had not previously seen anything on the magnitude of last week’s fighting.
“We’re not letting this go,” he said. “I don’t want my family to leave the city because of a few bad apples. … We’re just looking to take our community back and make it the community it once was.”
The Rev. Stephen Kresak, St. Basil’s pastor, said the future of the festival is uncertain. Though it won’t be back this year, there is a possibility, albeit a slim one, that it could happen in the future.
“I’m not even sure if I can even get the volunteers to come after their experience this year,” he said.
Councilwoman Natalia Rudiak said that the fight most likely occurred as part of a “turf” dispute among teens from different neighborhoods and that a more definitive plan will come out in September to address many of the issues surrounding blight and crime in Carrick.
“This is not a problem that can be single-handedly solved by the police,” she said. “We need to be thinking about a team-based approach to combating crime and blight. ... It’s the same people, the same drug houses that are doing this and causing disturbances over and over again. The community is frustrated with this and I am as well because we’re looking for the cycle to stop. …We need to think of different strategies to tackle the problem.”