elanya | YEEEEE D:

I always felt that crime in Greenville was a little out of control when I was there -there were a lot of muggings, and break in and entries, and convenience stations and restaurants getting held up. I mean *really* a lot. I remember looking at crime statistics on the city while I was there, and they were quite high for that kind of crime as compared to the national average (which reminds me, I should check out the B/CS stats). Campus had its own police force, even. We used to get alerts notifying us of crimes on an almost weekly basis. It was the only place I've lived that made me nervous walking on my own late at night.

This morning I got an e-mail on the alumni list informing me about a shooting - a student in the hospital with multiple gunshot wounds after a gang of four (or maybe six) people, armed with a gun, a shotgun, and a knife, and robbed ten people *at a party a block away from campus*. On Monday night.

D:

I should add that 4 suspects were rounded up within 5 min of the crime being reported, with two more arrested the next day. But still. I'm kind of in a 'how could that be allowed to happen!' sort of state. Also, following up from a post on speeding earlier this week by

gwengothelf, I don't really see how their recommendations on safety really have any impact on this kind of crime. Don't walk alone at night? How is that going to stop a group (I hesitate to use the word 'gang' *really*) of armed people from crashing your party? Security cameras? Buses to and from campus and downtown at night? That shit is fine for mugging, but really that's not the problem here!

Bah.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

When I was living on ryerson campus, a man was stabbed outside our building and stumbled in for help. There was blood everywhere. Apparently I had just missed it by 1 min. I went upstairs and then tunred around to get somthing else from downstairs when I was told the downstairs was blocked off.

Just *stunned* and not in a good way :(

It's not as dangerous as you think. If this sort of thing - a group of armed thugs attacking a party - was anything but very unusual you wouldn't be so freaked out. So it's unusual. Which means you shouldn't worry about it. As you said, the suspects were picked up pretty quickly.

As to "how could this be allowed to happen?", well... it's not *allowed* to happen, really, but it *can* happen, since, you know, people can go places together and choose to start violence. There's little that can be done about that, in itself, but it really doesn't happen often.

I'm surprised Campus 5-0 are new to you. They're pretty standard. It doesn't mean the crime rate is high, by itself. U of A in Edmonton has campus 5-0 and it's a pretty safe place.

I don't know really what else to say, except that it seems like you're really overreacting strongly, by the tone of your post. Which I *totally* understand, but I hope it also doesn't last.

Well... They referred to this as a 'crime of opportunity' - the suspects were already armed, they saw a chance to make some quick cash, and they took it.

People having their houses broken into by armed people in Greenville is *not* uncommon.

People being mugged by armed men is Greenville is also not uncommon. It isn't common for people to get shot - in this case I suspect that alcohol was probably a factor :p

And I am accustomed at this point to the idea of campus police (though it was a new one on my at ECU), what really gets me, in regards to this being 'allowed' to hapen, is that they have yet to implement any *effective* strategy to reduce the over all crime rate both in the city, and in neighborhoods that are that close to campus. I knew people who lived in the area. Literally, once you got off the eastern end campus (and even in that end of campus), it really wasn't safe to go out at night.

It's clearly still a problem, and I guess we'll have to see whether they are able to do anything to reduce the crime at this point, or if it will keep getting worse.

The U.S. as a whole has failed to implement effective crime reduction strategies! There are some regional examples to the opposite, but they're just fighting the tide of misinformed policy...

Yes, well, Greenville is more personal to me, I think it's fair that my interest is more focused in its case ;p

what gets me about Greenville is that it is a college town, but it really doesn't act/feel like one in some ways...

Compare, if you will...

College Station crime stats

Greenville crime stats

Although the CS rape stats are not encouraging ¬_¬ ECU has a better panic button system on Campus, whereas here we have school spirit and a naive belief that the kids in the Corp are all trustworthy honourable young gentlemen :p

The rape stats may actually be a good sign for CS; because such a large population of the city is made up of A&M students, it may reflect a high reporting rate due to good rape education. Greenville may have a lower rate, similarly, because its population is poorer and less well-educated, and thus reports are not made (e.g. due to distrust of police).

The murder rate is, on the other hand, generally quite accurate, because few murders go completely unreported. And there, CS has Greenville beat by a considerable margin.

yeah...

The rape stats get even scarier when you include Bryan, which you really have to, they are separate in the same way that Kitchener and Waterloo are separate. Bryan is 3.29 times the national average. Education will account for some of that, sure, but that is still quite high!

A population made up almost completely of twenty-something college students is going to have a high rape rate AND a high reportage rate. It stands to reason.

Except in Greenville :V

Oddly enough, the other two categories of violent crime are way above average in Greenville.

That was exactly my point :V

...And way below average in CS.

Really, Greenville seems worse all around except for the quite low forcible rape rate. That's hard to explain. Maybe it really is a reporting problem in Greenville.

Yikes. Intuitively that does seem too high to be just an artifact of reporting rates. But you live in College Station itself, right?

So is the equation Waterloo:College Station :: Kitchener:Bryan? Because, you know, Kitchener can be kind of a hole.

As soon as I posted it, i was regretting the comparison.

Kitchener has more of its own industry than Bryan, which is mostly a satellite community supported by the university.

CS doesn't really have it's own town center, though - the closest we come is Northgate, which is really more the restaurant/bar district pretty much right outside of campus where the residences are, hmmm... The real 'downtown' area is in Bryan (I think - I've been there all of twice :p). Bryan is a bit more ghetto (cheaper housing attracting more students, older neighborhoods, etc) in some ways, maybe, but not as bad as Kitchener!

And yes, I do live in CS proper ;)

That is tres stinky.

To cheer you up, I have officially immortalised you in fanfic. And there's nothing you can do about it. With any luck, I will finish the chapter and post tomorrow.

Err, you did? Which flavour? Which series? :o

*feels flattered, she hopes!*

You wandered into The Tropical Adventures of Moony and Padfoot and started talking about pirates. Sirius got all excited.

Gosh, me yammering on about pirates to anyone who seems remotely interested? I don't know if that is really in character :V

I'll be watching you fic journal ^-^

Not that I don't already...

Heh. I have Cat Island maps and tourism pages open in my browser. Your presence is slightly anachronistic, considering the story takes place in 1994, but then, so is the car my pups are driving. Sometimes I just can't resist. Poor impulse control, you know.

YEEEEE D:

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I'm such a narcissist...

Re: I'm such a narcissist...