LCPD fail to show true concern
Anonymous
Issue date: 9/19/06 Section: Opinion
- Page 1 of 1
Last weekend, as I took a cab back to campus, I found myself outside Newman Towers, needing to get back to the east side of campus. Because it was nearly 2:00 a.m., and I had received all of the incident reports concerning the violence on and around Notre Dame Lane, I knew that it was not a safe walk to make.
I walked around to the back of the building to see that the next shuttle would not arrive for another half an hour. It was a cooler night, so I attempted to swipe into the building to wait inside for the shuttle.
I, of course, was not granted access because, God forbid I have access to a building on campus that I don't actually live in, and therefore decided to call the escort service. As I listened to a voicemail telling me that the shuttle was not running on this particular Friday night, I spotted a campus police car outside of the Gardens apartments.
Clearly on the prowl for students drinking on campus, I waited until the officer was done speaking with the students, and approached him asking if he would escort us back to our Aquinas apartment. He very rudely informed me that he could not drive me back to my apartment, and that I would have to wait for the shuttle. Even after I explained that it would be a 30 minute wait outside in the cold, and that there was no escort service, the officer still refused, turning his attention back to the juniors congregating outside.
This incident leads me to seriously question the priorities of our campus police. I would hope that student safety would be of the utmost importance to these men and women; however, now I sincerely doubt that.
Is catching students involved in underage drinking in order to make a buck off the fines more important than assuring that our seniors get home safely?
How many incident reports do we have to get about our own students being beaten up outside their apartments for their wallets, before we realize that perhaps protecting our student body is more important than making sure some 20 year-old students don't have a beer?
I recently received another incident report about a mugging right down the street from where I live in my on-campus apartment. The bottom of the e-mail advocates students making safe decisions, such as not walking home alone after dark. It enrages me to think that even if a student wanted to make a safe, responsible decision, the authorities on campus make it so difficult.
It's disheartening enough to read these e-mails about my fellow classmates. What makes it even worse is the thought that the ambivalence (or is it laziness?) of our campus police only exacerbates the situation.
I walked around to the back of the building to see that the next shuttle would not arrive for another half an hour. It was a cooler night, so I attempted to swipe into the building to wait inside for the shuttle.
I, of course, was not granted access because, God forbid I have access to a building on campus that I don't actually live in, and therefore decided to call the escort service. As I listened to a voicemail telling me that the shuttle was not running on this particular Friday night, I spotted a campus police car outside of the Gardens apartments.
Clearly on the prowl for students drinking on campus, I waited until the officer was done speaking with the students, and approached him asking if he would escort us back to our Aquinas apartment. He very rudely informed me that he could not drive me back to my apartment, and that I would have to wait for the shuttle. Even after I explained that it would be a 30 minute wait outside in the cold, and that there was no escort service, the officer still refused, turning his attention back to the juniors congregating outside.
This incident leads me to seriously question the priorities of our campus police. I would hope that student safety would be of the utmost importance to these men and women; however, now I sincerely doubt that.
Is catching students involved in underage drinking in order to make a buck off the fines more important than assuring that our seniors get home safely?
How many incident reports do we have to get about our own students being beaten up outside their apartments for their wallets, before we realize that perhaps protecting our student body is more important than making sure some 20 year-old students don't have a beer?
I recently received another incident report about a mugging right down the street from where I live in my on-campus apartment. The bottom of the e-mail advocates students making safe decisions, such as not walking home alone after dark. It enrages me to think that even if a student wanted to make a safe, responsible decision, the authorities on campus make it so difficult.
It's disheartening enough to read these e-mails about my fellow classmates. What makes it even worse is the thought that the ambivalence (or is it laziness?) of our campus police only exacerbates the situation.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Rob
posted 9/26/06 @ 9:59 AM EST
This is not a new problem. I graduated from Loyola over 10 years ago and the campus police had the same priorities then as now. Truly sad.
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