Author: Berit Anderson
I feel completely safe wandering the well-manicured lawns of Occidental College at night. Lamp posts are scattered about campus to ensure my well-lit migration, I frequently find myself greeting friends as our nocturnal paths cross and my route home takes me right past a blue-light station (although I’m not sure I would know what to do with it should the need arise). Perhaps most comforting is the familiar sight of a white Campus Safety sedan rolling down Bird Road, the muscular arm of campus law perched confidently on the sill of an open window. It’s enough to make even my hangnails feel secure.
Events of the past few weeks, however, have made me more cautious about stepping off-campus on foot. First there was the armed robbery of a cheerleader and her mother on Campus Road during the evening of October 27. They made off with her pom-poms of all things. Then, just last Wednesday, two more Oxy students were robbed at gunpoint while cavorting about Avenue 46 after dark. Campus Safety has issued a reassurance to the Occidental community via email that both they and LAPD will be adding more patrols to the neighborhoods around Oxy. I myself have finally begun using the dawn-to-dusk Campus Safety escort service rather than walking the block home from campus at night.
While this recent crime spree has inevitably driven up heart rates (last week I dreamed I was assaulted in the middle of Eagle Rock Boulevard), I’m not terribly puzzled as to why armed men have chosen to descend upon the students of Occidental College. Many of us don’t have motor vehicles, an anomaly in Los Angeles, leaving us to traverse the streets on foot. Even those who do own cars usually opt not to use them when party-hopping, braving the dangers of the residential street rather than driving under the influence or abstaining from lining up at the keg.
There is no denying our appeal as victims. Vulnerable, often intoxicated, and clad in outfits most non-collegians would find inappropriate for walking about Los Angeles during the wee hours of Sunday morning, we stick out like sore thumbs in the area. Our status mid-week isn’t much different; less intoxication and in more sensible clothing perhaps, but we’re often en route to or from the library toting shiny laptops, an extension of our usual array of personal electronics. Still, there are disadvantages to robbing a college student.
Although many of us come from privileged backgrounds, we aren’t traipsing about with our parents’ life savings in our back pockets. Those are sent directly to Occidental College via personal check, money order or wire transfer. Thanks to the convenience of the student ID, we rarely carry cash. At most I might pocket five dollars for a dance production ticket or a politically aware cupcake in the quad at lunch. Should a gunman force me to turn my pockets inside out, I could buy my assailant a copious amount of grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches from the Cooler—on sourdough no less.
I wouldn’t be a much more fruitful victim in the personal electronics arena either. Until recently, my cell phone was missing its battery cover, which I feel would severely depreciate its resale value. I don’t even own an iPod—another thief beat the Eagle Rock bandits to the punch, stealing mine from a friend’s locked car over the summer. The most valuable things I generally carry with me, aside from my maimed cell phone and student ID, are my textbooks. I could be wrong, but I don’t feel that most armed robbers would be too thrilled at making off with my copy of Islam and Democracy.
According to the California Felony Sentencing Schedule, robbery is a felony in the state of California, punishable by 36 months in jail (if first degree, up to 72 months). I can think of many more productive ways to spend three to five years, as I’m sure could our robbers. In light of this fact, I would like to extend an offer to you, dear robbers, which would save us all a lot of time and energy. I will voluntarily hand over as many grilled cheese sandwiches as you can eat, my phone (it’s insured) and my copy of Islam and Democracy if you will stop harassing my fellow students and me. Just so long as I can feel safe walking around my neighborhood again. While I’m at it, I’ll even throw in my Arabic flashcards. It’s nothing, really. You would have gotten them anyway if you’d robbed me.
Berit Anderson is a junior DWA major. She can be reached at banderson@oxy.edu.
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