Diaries of A New Kid On The Block

Is it just me, or does it seem that the spur of criminal acts lately on and around campus are progressively getting worse? The recent thefts of the cell phones in GWU residential areas and the laptop from the Gelman Starbucks has struck me the most.

Being new to GWU’s campus, I am unfamiliar with the criminal activity that goes on. On the other hand, ever since I became a victim of theft via gunpoint my freshman year at my alma mater, crime and violence on any campus has always been a concern of mine.

Has the crime activity here on campus remained consistent, or has it gotten worse in recent times? Does anyone think that the spur of crimes lately are a result of the recent economic downturn, and if so, can anyone assume that it is only going to get worse? According to the Hatchet,

Six robberies have been reported in police service area 207 in the month of February, according to the Metropolitan Police Department's crime map Web site, compared to one in January and three in December. Many reported incidents have occurred within the vicinity of the Foggy Bottom Metro station, and MPD officers have repeatedly mentioned the public transit stop as a means robbers use to flee the area.Are there any suggestions that upper classmen can make to newer students unfamiliar to the campus in order to help keep themselves safer and less of a target?

Are there any suggestions that upper classmen can make to newer students unfamiliar to the campus in order to help keep themselves safer and less of a target?

Is there anything different that UPD can or should be doing in order to keep the criminal acts at bay?

Sincerely,

New Kid on the Block

Campus Safety Needs to be a Top Priority

Three. That's the number of crime alerts we have received from the University in the last five days. If I were to go through all of my emails from the last month, that number would probably be closer to ten or more.

UPD increased patrols on the west side of campus at the beginning of the month, but crime is still a major issue on this campus. When I was a freshman, we never received multiple crime alerts in the same week, nevermind the continuous flow of monthly emails that we get now.

UPD and University administrators need to find a more effective way to address this problem and make it one of their top priorities. In every crime alert email, students are urged to take 4-Ride to avoid thefts. If that is the solution that the University has, it should be working towards an increase in the 4-Ride budget to ensure shorter waits times and more effective service of the system. They should also look into rerouting the Colonial shuttle routes to more central locations on campus. This could be a great supplement to 4-Ride but the shuttle system is not well utilized.

The easiest way to put pressure on the University to address this issue is to advocate loudly on behalf of the student body. Towards that end, this should be one of the top priorities for SA President-elect Jason Lifton and his administration. Time will tell if he can deliver on his campaign promises, but let's start with the issue of campus safety.

In the mean time, we could try submitting a number of 4-Ride feedback forms to get UPD's attention. Click here to find the form.

STOP! The World is Coming to an End

Snowmageddon, snowpocalypse, or whatever you chose to twitter-hashtag this snowstorm is coming to an end. Snow has stopped falling and now it is time for D.C. snow removal teams to take to the streets and begin a cleanup effort. If Mayor Fenty’s plan for the city to be open for Monday morning is going to come to fruition, then it is going to take more than his “750 employees working 12 hour shifts” to get it done; individuals, businesses, and even GW are going to have to remove snow from their property if the city is going to see anyting resembling regular business Monday, since by Saturday night, DC canceled Sunday's Circulator bus service and WMTA shut down everything except underground Metrorail service.

Watch a Washington Post Video of Mayor Adrian Fenty discussing snow removal:

Venturing outside Saturday afternoon was not hard at all, there was not that much ice, and the sidewalks and roads were easy to walk on. For those choosing to drive, it might have been more difficult, not only were pedestrians choosing the road over the sidewalk, ostensibly for the more compacted snow and better walking conditions, but it took a big car to take on the snowpocalypse.

What would a snowstorm be unless people on the internet decided to overplay the intensity to which the people of D.C. overreacted to the pending “snowstorm-of-doom.” On the internet you could find sites like snowpocalypsedc.com and snowpocalypse.com which (hopefully) were mocking the intense overreaction of a the city to snow.

Never fear, during the storm, UPD could be seen patrolling the streets, keeping us safe.

Schenley, Burning

The pictures pretty much tell the story. As mentioned in the Hatchet article about the event, the alarm was a bit hard to hear. I was on the 8th floor at the time, and the alarm sounded as if it was coming in through the window from a different building.

I waited a minute or two to see if the alarm would turn off, thinking it was a malfunction or a drill, then headed for the stairs at the persuasion of a friend. Looking down the stairwell, I saw a faint haze of smoke toward the lower floors, which got a lot thicker as I got closer to the lobby.

UPD was in a frenzy trying to make sure everyone was safely out of the building. Having never observed UPD acting in an emergency situation, it's comforting to know that they can spring into action and take control of situations quickly. Even though it wasn't the largest of fires, running up the smoke filled stairwell of a burning building isn't something I think I'd like in my job description, so I have a new appreciation for what UPD does for us around campus.

A Case for Armed UPD?

An incident this weekend at that other DC-located university that begins with "George" might help make a case for arming UPD. The Georgetown community is blaming lax security measures at dorms for an armed sexual assault, according to The Hoya.

Looks like a broken door and card swipe machine allowed the man to enter the building without a GOCard (read: GWorld).

DCist's report pretty much sums things up:

"At 3:40 a.m. on Saturday morning, an assailant described as a black male between 17 and 20 years old allegedly attacked a female student, forcing her off a public balcony and into a common room, where he threatened her with a gun and sexually assaulted her."

What do you think? Would armed campus police have prevented this? Or should we just ensure current security measures are followed out?

EXCLUSIVE UPDATE - GW Student Arrested at HellWell: "The Hatchet twisted my words and conveniently omitted information"

On Thursday, The Hatchet featured a story about Jennifer Sales, a GW student who was arrested after entering HellWell without her GWorld, then calling MPD when UPD tried to detain her.

While several other GWBlogSpot bloggers wrote about aspects of this story, including a critique of the article's placement in The Hatchet, a critique of the article itself and two examinations of the story as a whole, I e-mailed Ms. Sales to get her side of the story, and find out exactly went on. Was she happy with how her side of the story was told? Did The Hatchet do a good job of exposing the facts?

According to the following response e-mail from Ms. Sales, the answers are "No" and "No":

Hey Andrew-

In fear of retribution, I cannot say much. The Hatchet twisted my words and conveniently omitted information. "Student-run paper" i don't think so. I called MPD for a valid reason- i'm not a rebel without a cause.

I asked Ms. Sales to elaborate on her criticisms of The Hatchet, and why exactly she called MPD. I got the following e-mail in response:

retribution from SJS- I just got a judicial letter saying I may be expelled.

Although she doesn't mention specifically what the omitted information was, it's pretty clear that Ms. Sales is unhappy with The Hatchet's coverage. Given Hatchet editor in chief Jake Sherman essentially saying that he thinks The Hatchet did all they could to provide the facts, despite the fact that Sarah and I got additional information, and given the strong student interest that this story seems to be generating:

POLL QUESTION:

~ flexiPoll: free online web poll ~

Student Goes to Jail for Forgetting GWorld

The Hatchet is reporting a female junior was arrested last Friday for "unlawful entry" at HellWell. It appears she forgot her GWorld and wouldn't take no for an answer. After being turned away at the front desk and still not being able to find her GWorld, she succeeded in sneaking past staff monitoring the Juice Zone entrance and hopped on an machine.

"I had my iPod on loud, and a UPD officer tried to get my attention," she said. "I told him that I would be off in 10 minutes and that I was a GW student."

The officer then removed her from the machine and arrested her for unlawful entry, UPD Chief Dolores Stafford said. When the officer threatened to arrest her, Sales said she called 911. The Metropolitan Police Department arrived several minutes later.

"The MPD officer said 'I have some bad news. I'm sorry, I have to arrest you. UPD is pressing charges for unlawful entry,'" Sales said.

Now, this may not have been the brightest move on the girls part, but don't you think UPD may have over reacted? After verifying she was indeed a student, was it really necessary to press charges? I'm no lawyer, but how do you charge someone for "unlawful entry" to a facility they are, in general, allowed to be in... she is after all a paying student.

Further, I found the Rules & Conduct page on GWellness' site and the word GWorld does not appear on the page. Then I searched the entire GWellness website the word GWorld and none of the results had anything to do with building access. So, the question remains, how do you break into a facility you're allowed access to?

Finally:

After being processed at the Second District station, Sales said she was released several hours later - but officers had already locked up her money and told her she could not access it until the next day. Sales said she called UPD to pick her up, but they said they could not help her.

She said, "I walked a couple miles and then told a cab driver my story to convince him to give me a ride home."

I'm also concerned that she found herself wandering home late Friday from the police station with none of her possessions and having to convince a cab driver to take her home. Isn't UPD's job to protect students?

Please vote the comments section. Did UPD over react?

Campus Safety / Complancency

The Hatchet is reporting a 7% murder rate jump in the District last year after the figure hit a 21 year low in 2006 (with only 169 killings... keep in mind the District is a tiny 68.3 square miles).

However, despite this rise in murders, the GW area has remained largely safe and crimes tend to be of a non-violent nature.

None of these killings occurred in the city's Second District - an area of the city which encompasses Foggy Bottom - though the number of assaults with a deadly weapon has increased in the area, peaking in September with a high of 16, according to MPD data.

"The Second District has continued to have a very low rate of homicides. The prevalent crime problem in the Second District has continued to be property crime, burglaries and thefts," said Dolores Stafford, chief of the University Police Department, in an e-mail.

The Washington Post keeps an interactive crime tracker that overlays crime reports on a map of DC. It is amazing to see the difference between campus and most all other areas of town (though do keep in mind UPD statistics are not included in this... only MPD).

So, while its reassuring to know that campus has remained relatively safe, I feel many students has become complacent and allow themselves to be put in situations that are unnecessarily risky.

Remember the basics you learned as freshmen like staying to groups at night and take simple steps that could make a big difference like putting UPD's phone number in your cell -- I didn't realize we were supposed to call them first until just the other day after this incident became big news on campus and the administration sent an email around with the number. Its (202) 994-6111 fyi...