When I read the part of the story "Red Bank melee" (Oct. 25) where the owner of Chubby's agreed to a "borough-sanctioned" ban on hiphop concerts, I laughed out loud.

I instantly thought of the period of time in the late '50s and early '60s when some adults wanted to ban rock 'n' roll music because they felt it was corrupting the morals of the youth! It was silly then, and it's silly now.

Clearly, there was a serious problem on the evening when fighting broke out in front of Chubby's, but it wasn't because of the music. Banning hip-hop music in town just makes the town council look like a bunch of pinched, uptight adults from the 1950s.

As far as the comment about Red Bank experiencing "instaurbanization," that's another knee-jerk reaction to the problem. The crime statistics reported in your column bear out that crime has decreased in the area, not increased.

It would be more interesting to see a report that gets to the heart of the matter of what really happened that night.

Sandra Talarico

Red Bank