Brownsville, Brooklyn, Is Terrorized by Gangs Yizbeth Leon said she had stopped walking to the bus stop after work and doubted the police had much control over Brownsville. In the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, Yizbeth Leon and her co-workers stopped walking to the B12 bus stop after dark for fear of being robbed or attacked. Janice Romero does not allow her two children to spend time outdoors at any time of day. J. R. Clarence steers clear of groups of teenage boys, believing the best thing is to "just keep walking, pray and move on." A day after the authorities announced charges against 43 people from rival gangs in Brownsville, residents described on Friday the terror they felt in their own neighborhood and expressed both relief and skepticism about lasting change. They agreed, though, that members of the gangs, the Wave Gang and the Hood Starz, had added a new level of fear to the traditionally crime-plagued neighborhood. The authorities blame the gang members for crimes including six homicides and 32 shooting episodes in the last 18 months. The gangs were not focused on drugs, the authorities said, as much as controlling certain streets and buildings in Brownsville, populated with housing project towers and blocks of low-rise public housing buildings. Sarah Andino, 34, has lived in the Tilden Houses in Brownsville for the last three years with her four children, ages 6 to 16, and said it was common to hear gunshots, which is why she keeps them indoors. A crystallizing experience for Ms. Andino and several other residents was the shooting death in October of a mother picking up her child from school. The woman, Zurana Horton, died while shielding children from at least a dozen bullets fired from a nearby rooftop in an episode attributed to gang violence. "I'm scared for my life," Ms. Andino said. You've got to be real careful going out because you don't know if you're going to get shot or get robbed. Ms. Leon, 36, the woman who avoids the bus after dark, said her co-workers at an office for Women, Infants and Children, a government nutrition program for low-income mothers and children, often talked about shootings in the neighborhood. She commended the police for the indictments but doubted they had much control over the neighborhood. "If you live in this neighborhood, you try to mind your own business," she said. It's a way of life now. It's sad. Vincent Mattos, 45, who owns a salon and barber shop in Brownsville, said he knew many of the people who were arrested this week and disputed the idea that they were major gang players. "They're only kids," he said. They're not organized gangs. This started out from these kids" being bored." Mr. Mattos said he thought that the teenagers became susceptible to gangs when community programs ended and after-school havens like boxing gyms closed. Now, he said, the neighborhood is sectioned off by gang control of certain streets. "I'm very disappointed," he said. We had those kids. We had their attention. He predicted the arrests this week would calm the neighborhood's violence and might alert parents to the violence. "They don't even know their children have major street beefs going on," he said. Jesus Cruz, 24, lives in the Brownsville Houses and frequently sees gang members in the neighborhood, he said. Having spent seven years as a Latin Kings member before quitting two years ago, Mr. Cruz said he understood the allure of gangs, but he now drives a milk truck and keeps a low profile. "In this neighborhood, if you mind your own business, you live," he said. It's not a good place to live, but what else can you do? On Friday afternoon, Ms. Romero, 24, who does not allow her children, ages 7 and 6, to play outside, was picking them up from Public School 298, the same school Ms. Horton visited before her death. Ms. Romero said gangs had terrorized the neighborhood. "I stay inside," she said. It's not safe to bring your kids outside. I hope to get out of the neighborhood soon.