‘ Saturday’s email from the Boston University Emergency Alert system notified BU students of the armed robbery that occurred early that morning outside of Rich Hall, which yielded a campus-wide feeling of unease. Those who didn’t check their emails were shocked at the news when approached by a reporter from The Daily Free Press who was seeking student reactions. It is this kind of lack of awareness that helps to enable campus crime, unfortunately, and it is the responsibility of the students to keep track of BU Emergency Alerts and become more wary of their surroundings on campus.
Campus crime is an uncomfortable reality that will continue to occur in the same way that crimes occur in every community. The victims of Saturday morning’s robbery were not considered particularly vulnerable. In fact, they were following some key safety rules, such as staying with a buddy and sticking close to well-lit areas close to home. They were also just a block away from a BU Police Department station, and yet they were involved with a relatively serious robbery, losing only $50 and a pack of cigarettes yet being held up with a knife. This proves that there’s no real way to avoid falling victim to these types of crimes ‘- both on campus and off ‘- and the only way to prepare oneself for them is to become educated and maintain diligence of one’s surroundings.
There isn’t any way for BUPD or BU administration to have prevented Saturday’s crime, or any of these types of random crimes that are bound to happen in the future. What BU can do is notify its students of the particular cases and follow up with them any time there are new developments. BUPD can patrol and answer calls for help, but beyond these things, it is up to the students to behave like the adults they wish to be treated like. They shouldn’t resort to paranoia, but they should be cautious and exercise common sense by heeding warnings issued by BU’s security experts. And if they do become the victims of any sort of campus crimes, no students will be considered fools, as it’s an inherent part of the community. Where they will be judged is if they ‘- like many students were after news broke out of Saturday’s robbery ‘- are not knowledgeable about the realities of campus crime.
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