To the Editor:

The story in the August 21 issue [“Volunteers from Princeton Say They Won’t Abandon Capital City in Crisis”] is very enlightening regarding the problems in Trenton. Giving the children opportunities and activities is one way to help give them a future.

This is in reference to a couple of things in the story, such as Tony Mack shutting down the soccer league. Last year the Trenton City Council eliminated all funding for the Trenton baseball teams. It may be they did this to the soccer also.

About the idea of allowing neighborhood schools instead of sending all the city’s teenagers to Trenton Central High, what about those remaining who cannot go to a charter school? If you use public funds, they are subtracted from the city schools. You are pushing money to the charter schools, while those remaining at Trenton City Schools will suffer even more.

I know where these kids live because I am the girl’s tennis coach at Trenton Catholic Academy. Every day I pick my girls up from their homes, take them to practice and then take them home. Last week the last drop off was the 400 block of Stuyvesant Avenue. It was getting dark and my player said “stop the car, I am getting in the front seat so the people see there is a black person in the car.” She lives between the two gangs. Last month she watched a murder from her porch. Last June was attempted murder, where the victim was shot in the head while talking with her brother.

Yes, crime is out of control in Trenton. We have a murder a week and multiple shootings every week. The police need the support of the people of Trenton to work with them and the city. The block party on Saturday Night violated the rules. Was the correct response to send in a Swat Team along with the State Police and every police officer in Trenton and Hamilton? This sounds more like Egypt or Syria, than the U.S. I cannot even imagine being there. No violence was reported until the police demanded that they shut it down. A non-violent gathering may have been an opportunity. For Christie? For Mack?

Don Swanson

Stanford Place, Princeton Junction