"Goth" vandals invade Howard Gilman Park.

At last night's St. Marys City Council meeting, council candidate Sidney Howell alerted council to the fact that a pack of nearly 20 "Goths" (the misfit, teenage idiots who dress in all black, often including a black trench coat (year -round), wear dark eyeshadow, lots of body piercings, etc.) have been invading the park of late. To date, they have carved a swastika into the exterior wall of the restrooms, smeared human feces all over the interior of the restrooms, pulled the concrete top caps off of some of the fence posts and smashed them, and defaced or destroyed a number of other things. Howell said he had personally witnessed the pack harassing and intimidating an elderly woman in the park. To confirm what Howell was reporting, a man (whose name I missed), a member of the St. Marys Yacht Club, said that on several occasions when he had spent the night on his sailboat, he had observed this same pack of human debris partying in the park as late as 2:00 AM, well beyond the park's closing time. Someone said that they were pretty sure that this pack of vermin comes from Kingsland. The more I thought about it as the meeting went on, the more frosted I became. So, at the final "Comments From the Public" opportunity, I suggested that the mayor might want to put a bug into the ear of the municipal judge concerning an appropriate punishment for these punks when they are apprehended. I suggested that they be fined an amount equal to the cost of all of the materials needed to repair the damage they have done. Additionally, they would be sentenced to a year of community service, to include performing all of the needed repairs under the supervision of someone from Public Works. When they finished the repairs, for the remainder of the year, they would spend every Saturday, from sunup to sundown, in the park, continually cleaning the park and the restrooms. Finally, they would be required to show up for their community service sans any makeup; wearing NO body piercing jewelry; with conservative haircuts; white shirts and ties for the males; and "Sunday-go-to-meeting" dresses for the girls. Those suggestions drew applause from both the council and the audience. Catching them will not be easy. My guess is it will take video tape to succesfully prosecute them. Let's keep an eye out for this scum.