OT: crime on the Bradley campus

[Old Coach]

http://www.pjstar.com/news/x1217101186/BU-students-victims-of-armed-robbery-attempted-robbery

[tornado]

Old coach - some stuff has not been widely reported - like this incident...

just a week ago FOUR armed thugs robbed the McDonald's that's just a half block off campus...

http://www.bradleyscout.com/news/investigation-continues-for-mcdonalds-armed-robbery/

and that's far from the first time gun violence has occurred there -

[Gary the Gargoyle]

Old coach - some stuff has not been widely reported - like this incident...

just a week ago FOUR armed thugs robbed the McDonald's that's just a half block off campus...

http://www.bradleyscout.com/news/investigation-continues-for-mcdonalds-armed-robbery/

and that's far from the first time gun violence has occurred there -

I knew that McDonald's has dealt with serious crime issues. I either read that story at pjstar.com or one of the tv station websites.

[KMart]

The fact that we don't get text message warning over the past two years really has frustrated me, along with many of the students. And with all this happening so close to the Bradley Police department really doesn't make them look too good.

[tornado]

Happened to be reading the current BU Scout - the whole issue seems to be centered on crime on campus..at least they're doing something about it
- but it's a problem on all campuses - LINK - LINK - LINK - LINK - even ISU-Blue LINK

http://www.bradleyscout.com/news/crime-incidents-on-campus-cause-concern-for-bu-parents/

http://www.bradleyscout.com/news/despite-campus-crime-faculty-confident-in-police-safety/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=despite-campus-crime-faculty-confident-in-police-safety

http://www.bradleyscout.com/news/officers-move-in-as-select-neighborhood-residents/

[tornado]

ooops - better do something quick - here's another report

http://www.pjstar.com/news/x1978603444/Bradley-University-student-reports-robbery-Thursday

[KMart]

Students weren't informed of the most recent robbery until 10 p.m. last night.

[SFP]

I have lived in troubled areas before with much larger and denser populations then Peoria. Peoria for whatever reason has this us against them type of feel to it. I have to believe the students become a mark because they go to BU and it qualifies as a bonus to the muggers. I'm not sure how you can minimize this part of the social fabric unless there is an economic revival in the area. I hate to see the campus become a police state but what options do you have that will not impede on your civil liberties. Perhaps BU needs to create a fence around the campus along with high technology security to keep the students safe. I'd even have to believe that the students could develop a system that monitors the campus along with some type of social media where they can respond to concerns and inform BU police of any unusual activity which could be then used by the rest of the student body.

While I was at BU the BU police were more of a pain to the students at large but with all this violence I'd welcome their deployment along with the Peoria police within the community with open arms.

[BUBraves fan]

Three weekends ago, I was at a wedding reception in WI and met a couple who told me their son had been recruited to play baseball at BU two years ago. The two main reasons he opted not to come, the down-trodden look of the area around the campus and the crime in the area that the players told him about when he spent time with them on his visit.

Crime has only gotten worse since then. It can never be the "Ivy League" school of the midwest that President Glasser wants it to be with the crime creeping around and on the campus, and no amount of paint is going to cover up the shabby houses and businesses in the surrounding area.

[abesimpson]

I think Bradley students make easier targets because it's the first time a lot of the students have ever been away from home and they don't realize how close the crime is to them. The Scout has always covered crime around campus, but when I was a student, I don't remember anything official from BU or other organizations about preventing crime or how much there actually was around the campus area (my time was before the alert system).

By the time I graduated, I knew people who had been mugged or had their dorms, houses, apartments, or cars broken into. Just about everything I ever heard about had a similar story: 1 or 2 people being jumped at night walking a few blocks away from campus or a robbery occurring during winter or spring break when the criminals know students are not around, but their electronics are.

The new technical stuff is nice to have if there is a dangerous person on the loose, but students need to use some common sense to minimize crimes of opportunity: don't walk alone late at night, keep doors and windows locked, keep valuables out of plain sight when possible, and lock everything up or take it with you when you go home for break (maybe invest in some light timers and have the mail stopped).

[Chico]

I have lived in troubled areas before with much larger and denser populations then Peoria. Peoria for whatever reason has this us against them type of feel to it. I have to believe the students become a mark because they go to BU and it qualifies as a bonus to the muggers. I'm not sure how you can minimize this part of the social fabric unless there is an economic revival in the area. I hate to see the campus become a police state but what options do you have that will not impede on your civil liberties. Perhaps BU needs to create a fence around the campus along with high technology security to keep the students safe. I'd even have to believe that the students could develop a system that monitors the campus along with some type of social media where they can respond to concerns and inform BU police of any unusual activity which could be then used by the rest of the student body.

While I was at BU the BU police were more of a pain to the students at large but with all this violence I'd welcome their deployment along with the Peoria police within the community with open arms.

Maybe their being a pain to the students was what kept the scumbags away. Mr. Baer was a great guy and a great head of security for a long time on the hilltop. He was another Bradley employee who mysteriously retired

[Braves4Life]

Mr. Baer was ... head of security for a long time.. He ... mysteriously retired

Mysteriously retired? Laughable chico. He was just old and it was time to go. Come on man! Everything really doesn't have to be a conspiracy under Glasser.

[SFP]

Crime has only gotten worse since then. It can never be the "Ivy League" school of the midwest that President Glasser wants it to be with the crime creeping around and on the campus, and no amount of paint is going to cover up the shabby houses and businesses in the surrounding area.

In reality it could fit right in. University of PA and Yale are not in an environment I 'd call a sanctuary.

[amckillip]

That isn't entirely true from what I've heard, while I'm not 100% sure, I believe Baer was told to seriously consider retirement.

[JMM28]

In reality it could fit right in. University of PA and Yale are not in an environment I 'd call a sanctuary.

I don't think this a problem exclusive to BU. There are quite a few universities built in urban environments which were started 100+ years ago when those neighborhoods were thriving. Now many of them are the only things worth going to in those neighborhoods. SLU suffers from the same problem. They have taken the approach of buying up every piece of property they can in order to buffer them from the bad areas and make the actual campus into a pedestrian mall with ornamental lighting and such.

Again, Glasser and gang aren't as ruthless as some make them out to be -- http://campaign.bradley.edu/updates/baer.shtml

A lot of this would be totally different if it were a Mr. Glasser instead of Mrs. (Dr.) Glasser.