‘Campus safety’ a joke
October 20, 2008
I would like to call attention to how much of a joke “campus safety” is. Saturday night as I left the bars on Daniel Street I was bombarded with squad cars and police officers writing tickets and filling patty wagons with underage drinkers. It is a somewhat normal event on Saturdays. However, I couldn’t help but notice how as I walked farther and farther away from the campus bars, police presence dropped off. With 5-10 squad cars outside of Kam’s and Co’s and many more outside of Joe’s and Station, I couldn’t imagine there were many left patrolling the rest of campus ensuring students got some safe. In fact, as I walked to my street (Oak St.) I did not see one police car the rest of the night. This is an area plagued by crime and attacks over the past few months. Three girls have been attacked; one mugging and COUNTLESS homes and apartments have been burglarized. That night in fact (Saturday) two houses on my block were robbed around 3 in the morning. Laptops, iPods, credit cards and other electronics were stolen. It is unbelievable that such an area known for crime would be left unpatrolled because they needed to allocate all officers to crack down on 19 year-olds drinking. All-over campus safety has become an issue. Of course there is a probable reason behind all of this. Drinking tickets are one of the city’s prime sources of revenue. The city does not receive $290 for every block they patrol, or every attack they prevent. They receive no economic benefit for actually protecting the public. It is really a blatant disregard for students’ safety. I think Sergeant Freidline should refocus his efforts on cleaning up the campus before he goes back to raiding bars.