North End Residents Call For Neighborhood Watch
BOSTON (CBS) - Some residents in the Boston's North End neighborhood say they're ready to take matters into their own hands.
"It's like a war," says Janet Gilardi, who grew up in the neighborhood and raised her own family there. She and others are fed up with the noise from people spilling out of nearby bars at all hours of the night. They're also concerned about a string of attacks on women.
She is among residents advocating for a neighborhood watch group. She says it worked in the old days. "All the men in the community gathered together. They put themselves together in different parts of the North End. They organized their own groups. But it worked."
The head of the Neighborhood's Public Safety Committee says she may have a point. "I certainly don't think it could hurt," says David Marx. "I think anything would help at this point."
Boston Police have vowed to beef up patrols on the weekends. "We don't have a 'stand your ground' law in Massachusetts," says Captain Tom Lee about the idea of a North End neighborhood watch group. "You don't carry baseball bats or flashlights. It's not that type of thing. If you want to walk around the neighborhood and report things to police, that's one thing, but don't take matters into your own hands."
Police plan to hold a seminar for interested North End residents, on how to keep watch in the neighborhood, and help fight crime in the safest way possible.
