BALTIMORE — By now, opinions on the crowd of teens causing chaos near the Inner Harbor have spread, from the people who live nearby to Baltimore's Fraternal Order of Police.
RELATED: Police, community react in aftermath of large juvenile gathering at Harbor
Baltimore Mayor Jack Young shared his thoughts on what he called 'mayhem' on Tuesday.
"It's unacceptable for anybody to do that. Not just down at the Inner Harbor, but in our neighborhoods and in our communities," Young said during remarks at a morning press conference. "It's totally unacceptable, and I just feel like we need to reach out to our young people."
Police ballparked the number of people in the midst of it all as somewhere between 300-500 people; the majority were teens, but enough Young says that should've known better.
"I wouldn't want my family members to be attacked. It's just totally unacceptable. But it wasn't all of the youth of Baltimore, just a few," he said.
Cellphone video shows the aftermath – additional officers were called to man the harbor to stop anyone from potentially getting hurt. It was an unpreventable set of circumstances, says police Colonel Rich Worley.
"It's not just juveniles. I think we focus too much on one group. It could be criminals in East Baltimore, criminals in West Baltimore. I mean, this is kind of a minor issue to me compared to all the other crimes that are going on in Baltimore City," Worley said.
Still, Young says the conversations need to be had, not only by leaders on addressing ways to stop this from happening again, but inside the home.
"Are the parents talking to their young people know that downtown belongs to you too, the Inner Harbor belongs to you too, but you go there and act with common sense and decency and not to go down there to disrupt, and fight, and create mayhem," the mayor said.
