Luzerne County restaurant inspections: April 27 - May 1

Letter to the Editor: Congress urged to hike minimum wage

Would it be a good idea to &#8230;&#8230; identify and try a slew of policing and safety strategies &#8211; beyond &#8220;saturation patrols&#8221; &#8211; focused on stopping Wilkes-Barre&#8217;s deadly wave of shootings?This spring, the city police department&#8217;s tactics, the obvious and covert, seemingly haven&#8217;t slowed the gunfire that erupted in mid-March. Ten incidents have been reported; the most recent, on Friday morning, involved the shooting death of Donald Bachman outside his Willow Street residence. Bachman, 49, had worked as a Martz Trailways mechanic and was described as a community activist who had complained about a &#8220;drug house&#8221; in the neighborhood, according to initial news reports.The tragedy on the first day of May suggests that current law enforcement efforts in the county seat of Luzerne County aren&#8217;t sufficient. What else can be done? Why aren&#8217;t the nearby cities of Stroudsburg and Scranton enduring similar violent outbreaks? Are gang members and their drug-dealing associates more comfortable here?U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Scranton, last week requested the Department of Justice give special consideration to Wilkes-Barre&#8217;s plight. He wrote, in part, &#8220;the resources and expertise of federal law enforcement may well be critical to addressing this issue.&#8221;Meanwhile, the candidates vying to become Wilkes-Barre&#8217;s next mayor, and who have been invited to attend a forum at Wilkes University tonight, have voiced a variety of ideas for re-establishing order in the streets. Among them: Create within the police department a violent crimes unit, adopt harsher sentencing for certain crimes, crack down on &#8220;qualify of life&#8221; offenses and revive the use of police substations.Other people in the community, as well as experts outside the region, could quickly expand the list of possible approaches. Isn&#8217;t it time to put all the possibilities on the table and try something new to quell the violence?Give us your feedback by sending a letter to the editor or posting comments to this editorial at timesleader.com.Likewise, tell us your ideas for improving the community and making area residents&#8217; lives better. Maybe we&#8217;ll spotlight your suggestion in a future editorial and ask readers, &#8220;Would it be a good idea to &#8230;&#8221;

Our Opinion: Stopping Wilkes-Barre’s shooting spree requires new strategies