A spate of incidents in St. George's allegedly involving youths make the strongest argument yet for keeping a Police station in St. George's.

Without an active Police presence in the town, there is a real risk that these incidents will increase in frequency and severity and may cause damage both to residents of the town and to Bermuda's image.

No one disputes that working conditions in the current St. George's station are poor. But the benefits of putting Police in a state of the art station at Southside that will provide better working conditions are outweighed by the costs of not having Police on call in the heart of the town.

If the Police have their way and do move to Southside, the town of St. George's should still have a substation to be kept in the town. But to remove the physical Police presence from St. George's altogether would be unwise.

This will not, in and of itself, solve the problem of youth violence in the town or the Island.

That requires longer term and more wide-ranging solutions. Bermuda Sun columnist Larry Burchall yesterday compared angry youths to "grenades" that might go off at any time, the gunpowder being frustration, lack of discipline and poor education and the "pin" being the expulsion of these young people from society.

There is some merit in that argument and, as with traditional forms of punishment for adults that clearly are not working, the traditional methods of dealing with youths aren't either.

Of course, it is one thing to say the current system is broken, and quite another to figure out how to fix it. And at the same time the many youths who have nothing to do with the violence should not be tarred with the same brush. The public deserves to be protected.

The youths who break the laws and damage property and life may have grievances, but that does not justify their actions. Indeed, they have to be held accountable for what they have done.

At the same time, programmes that show them there is a better way, and that to be a productive member of society is better than being an outcast, need to be put in place as well.