Police warn of campus crimes

[kimpossible]

By STEVE BAUER
Published Online September 30, 2002
Copyright 2002 The News-Gazette


Police are warning women to be careful and alert in the wake of a recent string of assaults and street robberies in the campus area.
Champaign, Urbana and University of Illinois police are cooperating in investigation of six reports of robberies and assaults against Asian women.
“The only reason this stands out is that Asian females were the victims,” Urbana police Lt. Michael Metzler said.
That's an anomaly, Metzler said. Overall, the numbers of assaults and robberies locally have been down in recent years, he said.
Police representatives are meeting with Asian student groups to inform them about the recent incidents, according to Champaign police.
All women should be cautious, police said.
Metzler said police can't tie all the crimes to a single suspect description or even two people. Descriptions in some cases involved a black male about 5 feet 4 inches tall to 5 feet 10 inches tall and in his mid-20s, while in other cases, the attacker was described as a white male, about 5 feet 10 inches tall and in his early 20s.
Urbana had two reports of similar crimes, both early on July 29, where Asian women were approached from behind, forced to the ground and ordered to give up their money, Metzler said.
Together with reports of incidents in Champaign, police are investigating six similar crimes:
– July 3, Third Street and Gregory Drive, C;
– July 6, 300 block of East White Street, C;
– July 29, 400 block of South McCullough Street, U;
– July 29, 1000 block of West Clark Street, U;
– July 31, 600 block of East White Street, C;
– Sept. 11, 500 block of South Fifth Street, C.
University of Illinois police Capt. Krystal Fitzpatrick said campus area crime data show that in 2000 and 2001, there was an increase in assaults and batteries, but in general they have been down in recent years.
UI police will provide crime prevention information to students on and off campus, Fitzpatrick said.
“This may just be a spike here because of one or two individuals,” she said.
Champaign police Deputy Chief Troy Daniels said police can't be sure how many cases are related, if any.
“We certainly don't know there is some sort of serial attacker in our community,” he said, “due to the different descriptions we've been provided.”
Women should use the same precautions now that they normally would, Daniels said. All citizens are reminded to pay attention to their surroundings and be alert when walking anywhere, he said.
Other safety tips include:
– Go with family or friends, not alone.
– Plan a safe route and use it; choose well-lighted busy streets and avoid vacant lots, alleys or construction sites.
– Avoid jogging and biking at night.
– Don't wear headphones.
– If someone or something makes you uneasy, trust your instincts and leave.
– When in a car, keep doors locked and park near an entrance to a parking lot or garage.

[kimpossible]

Attacks spark fear on campus

By JODI HECKEL
Published Online November 07, 2002
Copyright 2002 The News-Gazette


URBANA – Pauline Chow and her friends are looking over their shoulders more often lately when they walk around campus. They take more notice of strangers, and they'll stay in their cars an extra minute to let someone pass by.
“I'm definitely being more aware,” said Chow, a University of Illinois student. “It's just little things – even if where I have to go is in close proximity, to have someone accompany me. My guy friends are more willing to walk me home. They're more concerned.”
Chow and other Asian women on campus are nervous because of a series of attacks against women, including many Asian women.
“My friends are much more aware of being attacked in general,” said Annie Yoo, also a UI student. “It's more on their minds. They think about it more, that there is a chance they could be robbed or sexually assaulted. It's more on their minds something could happen.”
There have been 14 incidents in the campus area since early July, nine of which have involved Asian women, said Capt. Kris Fitzpatrick of the UI Police Department. One incident involved an Asian man, and four of the victims were white women. Most of the incidents were robberies, but one was a sexual assault and one an attempted kidnapping.
Police, administrators and Asian student organizations are trying to make students aware of the attacks and how they can stay safe.
Chancellor Nancy Cantor sent a mass e-mail to the campus, including information from UI police Chief O.J. Clark on the attacks and safety tips, and she posted a notice on the UI Web site.
Chow said student groups have been sending e-mails to their members and trying to spread information by word of mouth to Asian students, especially international students. Chow and Yoo are concerned that many students aren't aware of the attacks or aren't taking precautions because they don't think anything will happen to them.
“(We're trying) to create an atmosphere of more emergency or alarm, because it seems some people aren't concerned, even after this,” Chow said.
The Asian Pacific American Coalition, an umbrella organization for about 15 Asian student groups, is organizing a rally and unity walk Friday. The rally will begin at 12:30 p.m. on the Quad with several speakers, and at 1 p.m. participants will walk from the Illini Union to the areas where some of the attacks occurred.
“There is a perception that if Asian women are specifically targeted because they are Asian, that they won't speak out, that they are passive victims, they aren't going to protest or make noise,” said Sharon Lee, assistant director of the UI's Asian American Studies Program. “This is specifically to counter those stereotypes and say our community isn't just going to let this happen.”
The events are being held on the first day of the East of California conference, a national Asian American studies conference being held at the UI on Friday and Saturday. Yoo said the conference participants are aware of the attacks, and some may participate in the rally.
Chow said the Asian Pacific American Coalition is trying to find a date to offer a self-defense course to students.
The UI police are increasing patrols in the areas where the attacks have happened, Fitzpatrick said. They are also telling students about services providing escorts or rides after dark, and they are making safety presentations to international students.
“We're giving them some ideas on how to be street smart, to pay attention to your surroundings, walk with friends, some basic self-defense tactics,” she said. “It's trying to teach them an awareness of their environment.”
The descriptions of the attacker have varied. Fitzpatrick said a juvenile suspect is in custody for the attack on the Asian man, and police are still trying to determine whether he was responsible for any other attacks, but one attack has occurred since he's been in custody.
It also isn't known whether Asian women are specifically being targeted.
“There is not enough evidence from the scenes to indicate this is a hate crime versus a robbery, which is a crime of opportunity,” Fitzpatrick said. “Certainly the bad guy is looking for someone to overpower. It could be the perpetrator has found he can easily overpower this type of victim and he's been successful in his robbery attempts.”
UI police Investigator Jeff McCracken said a series of attacks this summer seemed to target Asian women and were likely the work of the same man. Reports of some of the crimes were of Asian women being approached from behind, forced to the ground and ordered to give up their money.
McCracken said the incidents since early September seem unrelated to the attacks during the summer.
He said there have been five strong-arm robberies in which women are attacked and robbed of their purses. Two of the victims have been Asian and three have been white.
The most recent attack happened Oct. 30. The Asian woman who was attacked struggled and kept her attacker from taking her purse, but he hit her before fleeing, McCracken said.

[enygma]

hey! i know pauline! i think......
i got those emails about 4 times and only after the midpoint in the semester. sheesh. what sucks is that groups like AAA and KASA had to email us because the paper didn't run any articles on it until about 2 weeks ago. <_<

[enygma]

hey, hapa!
how did you hear about this?

[deez nuts]

Wow I actually know those streets, when I went to visit my cousin to head down together for Mardi Gras, while we were in college.

Her dorm was called I.S.R, took me forever to find it, damn college acronyms. U of I is HUGE! I felt so out of place down there coming in from NYC. And the drive from O'hare to Urbana-Champaign, was soooooo long and boring.

Beware the Townies, that's all she told me, avoid the Townies. Didn't click in till later that she meant the residents on the outskirts of the college. Green Street was pretty cool, kinda took me by surprise.

Frankly, I found the locals weird that one night I was down there. I think it's the first time I ever seen hicks ;) .

[enygma]

Originally posted by Chasiubao_Boy@Nov 14 2002, 07:04 PM
Wow I actually know those streets, when I went to visit my cousin to head down together for Mardi Gras, while we were in college.

Her dorm was called I.S.R, took me forever to find it, damn college acronyms. U of I is HUGE! I felt so out of place down there coming in from NYC. And the drive from O'hare to Urbana-Champaign, was soooooo long and boring.

Beware the Townies, that's all she told me, avoid the Townies. Didn't click in till later that she meant the residents on the outskirts of the college. Green Street was pretty cool, kinda took me by surprise.

Frankly, I found the locals weird that one night I was down there. I think it's the first time I ever seen hicks ;) .
hey dude, i ain't no hick! :pissed:

[kimpossible]

Originally posted by enygma@Nov 14 2002, 06:49 PM
hey, hapa!
how did you hear about this?
I checked out asianguy.com and saw it there. Just wanted to give it some coverage here also. Had a similar predator on my campus attack my friends.

[deez nuts]

Originally posted by enygma@Nov 14 2002, 10:13 PM

hey dude, i ain't no hick! :pissed:
Wasn't talking about you and the students. Was talking about when me and my friends went off campus to go site seeing when my cousin had class.
We kinda met and mingled with the locals.

Plus she took us to the gay club that all the Asian students go there that one night, which was designated Straight Night. I think it was called C-Street. Night kinda ended early, a fight broke out. Those bastards, the drinks were mad cheap!

Pretty memorable one night stay there.

[artsfartsyjanet]

Wow, I was at Urbana Champaign last year for the MAASU (Midwest ASian AMerican Students Union) Spring Conference. Thanks for raising the article to my attention. I'm thinking about speaking about what people can do in the event a hate crime (or any crime) occurs.

[kasia]

thanks for the info, hh. i'm going to actually move this to the women's forum if you don't mind.

[kimpossible]

:angry: This makes me so angry every time I think about it. It seems like when crimes against Asian women happen on campus the school never takes it seriously. Like it's swept under the rug as a general 'international student problem' even if the women are American Asian and god forbid their precious school reputation get tarnished as unsafe.

Campus security is bullshit. Yeah, I am taking this personally. I realize it.

[enygma]

Originally posted by Hello_Hapa@Nov 15 2002, 09:07 AM
:angry: This makes me so angry every time I think about it. It seems like when crimes against Asian women happen on campus the school never takes it seriously. Like it's swept under the rug as a general 'international student problem' even if the women are American Asian and god forbid their precious school reputation get tarnished as unsafe.

Campus security is bullshit. Yeah, I am taking this personally. I realize it.
i agree. like i said earlier, the first time i heard about this was through friends who were down at school last summer. the second time i heard about it was from the asian organizations on campus. it was only in october when the chancellor actually sent out an email to all the students about these attacks. this school really sucks in terms of security.

[enygma]

Originally posted by Chasiubao_Boy@Nov 14 2002, 07:21 PM
Originally posted by enygma@Nov 14 2002, 10:13 PM

hey dude, i ain't no hick! :pissed:
Wasn't talking about you and the students. Was talking about when me and my friends went off campus to go site seeing when my cousin had class.
We kinda met and mingled with the locals.


i'm just kidding. some of the students are hicks since they're here majoring in ACES (agriculture and consumer economics services (?)) otherwise known as "farm school". :lol:

[kwalan]

certainly not a unique incident... we experienced a hate crime here about a month ago, and it took almost 2 weeks for it to get any mention in the paper.

http://www.dailynexus.com/news/1969/3639.html

and then the response meeting article:

http://www.dailynexus.com/news/1969/3648.html

a committee was formed to respond to this and protest regarding the university's lacking security in providing a safe and secure place for all ethnic backgrounds.

[karizma]

>> i think theres a molester/rapist in san jose thats targeting eldery asian ladies...thats some sick shit man =P.

[amietron]

Originally posted by karizma@Nov 15 2002, 09:27 PM
>> i think theres a molester/rapist in san jose thats targeting eldery asian ladies...thats some sick shit man =P.
yeah, he's a white male around 5'10". he poses as a plumber and knocks on the doors of asian women in the fremont/newark area and also, like you said, in san jose. supposedly he uses blunt objects and sometimes a handgun.

they interviewed an older asian woman and she explained that asian women have a harder time than other women, because of their culture and how it's shunned. do you think there's anything we can do to help this cause?

[angel nympho]

^-- How what is shunned?

[amietron]

Originally posted by angel nympho@Nov 15 2002, 11:51 PM
^-- How what is shunned?
She spoke about how Asian women have a harder time "coming out" about rape than other women most likely for cultural reasons.

[angel nympho]

Originally posted by amietron@Nov 16 2002, 10:51 AM
Originally posted by angel nympho@Nov 15 2002, 11:51 PM
^-- How what is shunned?
She spoke about how Asian women have a harder time "coming out" about rape than other women most likely for cultural reasons.
Oh.

[deez nuts]

Originally posted by amietron@Nov 16 2002, 05:51 AM
Originally posted by angel nympho@Nov 15 2002, 11:51 PM
^-- How what is shunned?
She spoke about how Asian women have a harder time "coming out" about rape than other women most likely for cultural reasons.
yeah statistically Asian women are least likely to report a sexual assault to authorities and go to a hospital, because of shame.

[kimpossible]

Originally posted by amietron@Nov 15 2002, 10:33 PM
do you think there's anything we can do to help this cause?
Same goes for me. I'm pretty far away and I'm not even sure what I can do but I will NEVER forget the guy who got away with it on my campus. Nor all the people who ignored our requests for help.