Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Lawrence feels safe: A liberal, laid-back college town in the Midwest, with no big cities for miles down Interstate 70. Unfortunately, just because we feel safe, doesn’t mean we are.
While studying abroad in Spain, I went to a national celebration called Las Fallas. More than two-million Spaniards and travelers gather in Valencia, a large city on the eastern coast of Spain, for this celebration. Throughout that day my friends and I each had an acute sense of awareness as we were in a new place, experiencing new things, among people we didn’t know.
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Don’t let yourself bask in a false sense of security.
When we propelled ourselves through the overwhelmingly crowded streets, we left our purses safely on the bus. We kept our things in our fleece pockets, which were zipped tightly. We kept our eyes open and were aware of our surroundings. Nothing was stolen.
This weekend, in safe, familiar Lawrence, that was not the case. I had friends visit for their last time before my graduation in May. I smiled proudly, showing them all of the traditional sites in Lawrence: The dorms I lived in freshman and sophomore years; Kokoro’s, the Sake-bombing capital of the city; and good-old Allen Fieldhouse. I awoke from this rose-colored tour by an alarm I had not expected: My roommate’s purse was stolen at It’s Brother’s.
It’s Brother’s is a crowded bar, which is clear to anyone who drives down Massachusetts Street and sees the line outside the door on Friday or Saturday night. We all held onto our jackets and purses at the bar, and never mentioned that we should keep an eye out for our things. My roommate set her purse down for one minute, and when she went to pick it up, she had lost everything except a Dunkin’ Donuts punch card and a business card. But more than the items she lost, she felt violated. She was in her hometown. With her friends. Having fun. Her safety and comfort in this place allowed her to let her guard down.
After canceling credit cards, scouring Massachusetts Street for the lost items and buying a new phone, we called it quits, assuming filing a police report would only result in more wasted time. If you have a sense of security from low crime rates in Lawrence, know that my roommate’s failure to file a report is the norm. An article from Criminal Justice and Behavior magazine said that although many victims of crime in college discussed these incidents with friends, they rarely filed police reports. Thus, crime statistics are reliable in comparing crime from one city to another as they will have the same ratio of unreported crimes to population, but not to evaluate safety in one city, Lawrence, alone.
Don’t let yourself bask in a false sense of security. Always be aware of your surroundings, even in quaint Midwest Lawrence.
Hughes is a St. Louis senior in journalism.
- Edited by James Pinick
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Comments
Hughes: Not as safe as you think
Yeah, but its still pretty much one of the safest urban places in the world.
Hughes: Not as safe as you think
Brother's is what this "unsafe" determination is based on. If you don't go to overcrowded places and leave your things unattended things like this won't happen. This is true anywhere. I can walk down the street at night and feel extraordinarily comfortable. That is "safe"
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