Saturday's Aggravated Assault: Unpreventable?

Early Saturday morning, around 4 a.m., GW students received a university "infomail" describing an "aggravated assault" that occurred a block or so from GW's campus (19th & Penn).

The e-mail describes a "white male" with a "medium build" who verbally assaulted female students in a group walking by, and then got out of his BMW, threw a vodka bottle at the students, and punched one of the male students in the face.

At the end of the e-mail, the university reminds us to take 4-Ride or the Colonial Express Shuttle, to be aware of our surroundings, to travel in a group, and to remember the location of the emergency blue light phones.

But from the sound of it, none of those resources could have prevented this "aggravated assault" from occurring. According to the e-mail, the students were travelling in a group and were so aware of their surroundings that someone had managed to jot down the suspect's sedan's Maryland tags.

Can't the university find this person if they have his description and tags? Will university students know that there is a repercussion for his assault?

These university crime alert e-mails are meant to remind us to use GW resources, like 4-Ride, but unfortunately, sometimes they just can't prevent assaults like this from occurring.

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.

Crime Alerts: The Ultimate Stereotype Enhancer

George Washington University is a school in a very urban location. Along with this comes one of the problems that come with living in any city: Crime.

The numbers of robberies around campus this year has increased significantly. Along with each robbery comes an email from GW, explaining the incident and the subject, and read something like this:

Robbery at Gelman Library Starbucks

On Tuesday, Feb. 16, at approximately 12:10pm, a robbery occurred in the Gelman Library Starbucks. A suspect attempted to steal an unattended laptop when a witness stopped him. The suspect forcibly pulled away from the witness, and fled the store with the laptop. The suspect was pursued by another witness and was stopped across the street and the laptop was recovered. The suspect then fled the area and was last seen entering the Foggy Bottom Metro Station. GW Police Officers searched the area for the suspect, but were unable to locate him.

SUBJECT DESCRIPTION: Black male, approximately 6' 1", 130 lbs., wearing a dark colored leather jacket. The suspect was described as being between 17 and 20 years old.

This email was sent over 24 hours later than the crime occurred. Aside from the ridiculous dimensions of the suspect (6'1", 130 pounds?), there is no point in even putting it in the email. There are thousands of 6'1" black men in dark colored jackets that travel across our campus each day, and these suspect descriptions only serve to increase racial profiling.

No one is going to find this specific guy 24 hours after the crime occurred based on the description, and all that students get out of emails like this is that there are black men running around our campus stealing things from people. It's time that GW stopped this ineffective and unnecessary policy.