Whether Bangor has gangs in its midst is less important than recognizing that a substantial group of teen-agers, hanging out together, are pushing each other to commit small-time crimes and are a danger to themselves and others. Without overreacting, the city should take steps to ensure 14-year-olds have something better to do than earn trips to the Maine Youth Center while developing a taste for nicotine.

First, Bangor has had packs of kids hanging out downtown as long as it has had a downtown. What is different about this latest version is the number of teens, their relative level of organization and their self-identified affiliation with notorious national gangs. Recent car thefts, vandalism and, more seriously, a stabbing have been attributed to the Bangor groups; required criminal activity, beatings or sex reportedly are part of their initiations, making them a problem no matter what the groups are called.

Bangor police can and do what is immediately apparent: check the teens for underage smoking and drinking, arrest them for breaking public property, bring them in for a variety of offenses. Certainly, the police should enforce these laws and the arrests may help keep the peace, but they can do nothing to dampen the desire for these teens to belong to a group and provides no positive alternatives. Similarly, placing cameras at Pickering Square has made that a less desirable hangout, but placing cameras everywhere is unlikely to be popular and could lessen the effect.

This is not merely a matter of kids lacking something better to do. At the risk of sounding like a nagging parent: The extracurricular list in the school system is long; the YMCA and YWCA are busy dawn to dark, sports and outdoor activities abound. City councilors recently decided to pave over a good portion of Bass Park to provide a skateboard park. The region offers enough opportunities for teen-agers engaged in healthy pursuits with their friends.

Any generalization about teen-agers who adopt destructive behavior would fail to capture the individual lives being messed up by these groups. Whether they are from Bangor or away, had troubled or ideal parents, are victims of tragedy or creators of it makes very little difference. If seniors are afraid to walk in certain parts of the city, if young girls are being raped as a prerequisite for belonging, if personal property is not safe downtown, Bangor needs public hearings to get a better sense of the challenge and to look for solutions. The city wouldn’t be the first to deal with this problem; it may want to be known as the one who addressed it before it got out of hand.