Quote:
Originally Posted by cybele
Are these just isolated incidents or is there actually a problem? If so, who's responsible for these attacks and what can be done to stop them?
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Not isolated. Not at all. Not even a little. My husband (at the time) was in grad school at GT from 2000 to 2002. He was robbed in front of a house on Hampton street the very same way not long before he graduated. One guy jumped out and held a knife to his throat while the other guy waited in the car. Home Park is (or at least was while I knew people living there) notorious for being a car break-in/mugging/kick in your back door and steal your stuff while you're gone hot spot. It's beyond ridiculous that's it's not only continued for the better part of a decade now, but is becoming so much more violent.
The same problem plagues residential areas heavily populated by students in rental housing in every large city I've lived in. Those people know that kids are coming home at all hours of the night, (sometimes after drinking), frequently aren't paying attention to their surroundings and are likely to be carrying/wearing something expensive or have expensive stuff in the house or the car.
Some of it is environmental also. If things haven't changed since I was spending time over there, many of the owners of rental houses in that neighborhood aren't exactly super-meticulous about keeping shrubbery trimmed and the porches and yards well-lit. The street lighting wasn't exactly top-notch, that I remember, either.
I hate it not only because it's just foul to steal from and shoot people, but also because it maligns the whole city when college students aren't even safe a block from campus. (No one is really ever "safe" anywhere, but you know what I mean.)