The crime on and around the DePaul Lincoln Park campus is becoming a weekly occurrence. It is getting more and more ridiculous and putting many DePaul students at risk of their safety. Just in this past week i have heard of 4 students being held robbed at gunpoint, one who happens to be a friend. Although for him, it turned out fine, was not robbed and was actually quite a good story. Upon getting on the redline late Thursday night, he was approached by 2 men who told him they had a gun and told him to give them his phone and iPod. He said "Are you serious?" "Im just a hard working guy like the both of you trying to make ends meat." After say that the criminals responded by saying, "Man, that's a good answer!" And at the next stop they got got off the train and let him be. He was one of the lucky ones who got away unharmed. I read an article and heard about a local DePaul student who was at a bar and got into a little argument with a few other kids and we asked to leave. This simple harmless argument escalated and the boy was stabbed 6 times and put in critical condition. As the crime increase here at DePaul what does public safety plan to do to make DePaul a safer place. I know that public safety only takes people to the ends of campus, but a lot of the crime is happening right on the outskirts, which is why I feel they should extend the boarders of how far they are willing to take students. You know it has become bad when they install one of those blue light police cameras on the corner on Sheffield and Fullerton. These are placed on corners to help capture crimes being committed, but usually tend to go on corners with a high crime rate. Since DePaul University is located in the city, there are bound to be crimes, just like any college campus, but how bad will the crime have to be before the University does something drastic to help the overall safety here at DePaul?
in another one of my journalism classes, we actually had a representative from public safety come in and talk about all these things. a lot of students asked why they don't expand the borders for how far the escort service goes, but i guess they are already using the maximum number of officers and cars. kids already get impatient if they have to wait more than 5 or 10 minutes for a ride, imagine what it would be like if the escort service was extended all the way to armitage.
ReplyDeletealso, i am pretty sure that public safety advocated installing the blue light at fullerton and sheffield in order to increase safety on campus. i think that the bluelight is not an indication that we go to school at a shady intersection, but a safe one. there's cameras all over campus for student's safety, this is just one more to kind of reinforce that. i think maybe it also discourages criminal behavior at that intersection because it's so obvious that there's a camera there, you know?
your friend is lucky that he got away from that potential robbery. i think it's scary to realize how desperate people are, especially in this economy.
hopefully depaul students will realize that times are tough and they should be extra alert in order to protect themselves against crimes!
good post.
I agree that the blue light camera reinforces that it is a safe intersection, but other then that camera, where can another one be found. There are the blue help buttons at random place but what will those really do to help. so what, the blue light flashes, but how long will it actually take public safety to get there and will it be too late by then. I know of a few place right around campus that are known to be "rape streets". One being Montana, which barely has any lights an has been known to be a place where people have been raped. The intersection of Sheffield and Fullerton is a busy intersection, which might discourage crime from happening with so many people around, so why not put the camera in places on campus that actually need the surveillance.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to the public safety, they say they are using the max amount of officers and cars,well maybe they should hire more. Its not like the University is truly lacking in funding and the students safety should be one of the top priorities, not what activity or group they will provide for our entertainment. Sure it is a good to have activities for the students, but what more important? Also, students will have to deal with waiting. So what if you have to wait 5-10 minute for a ride...Deal with it. Would you rather wait 5-10 minutes or get robbed at gun point?!?! Last night another crime was committed when my friends boyfriend was walking home was robbed at gun point and had his laptop, phone and wallet taken. So the way I see it, I rather wait 5 minutes than have to spend over a thousand dollars to get you valuables back.
Now im not saying that the boundaries should be extended to wherever the students please, but they should definitely be extended a bit past the school's boundaries. Either that, or they need to figure out some other way to keep the safety around campus up above par. Even in the buildings crime is committed. Last year in the library my roommates gf went to the bathroom and when she came back all her things had been stolen. Laptop, book, phone, everything. Witnesses had said that it was a man who clearly was not a student at DePaul. There are no safety aspects that keep people who are not DePaul students out of the library. I personally know that there are a ton of people who go to the DePaul library that are students at other schools around the city and not here. So what do they plan to do about that? Should we really allow just anyone in our library or should there be a safety measure that only allows students at DePaul. In my opinion there should be some sort of swipe card to allow entrance. I mean at the downtown campus you have to swipe your ID card to get into the bathroom so why not the library?
Where is the media coverage of this increased crime on campus? Is there even coverage of it?
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