Fuzzy Navel

July 29th, 2011 at 9:45 PM ^

I remember in 2009 I had a friend stay at my place for a few days (he went to SCAD). When walking around at night he said something akin to, "Man, I can't believe all these girls walk around alone at night. It must be super safe here." To which my response was, "Well, yeah." I'm sad to see this stuff going on. 

Later in the summer of 2009 some silly amount of robberies occured around the area I was living. I'm fairly sure a few of them were armed robberies, but I can't say for sure.

Either way, that summer I made damn sure I didn't walk around alone late at night. Fortunately, I lived like a block from the Jug, etc. So it wasn't much of a concern if I went out and came home late.

Either way, am I the only one who's noticed a rise in crime over the last ~8 years in AA?

jcgold

July 29th, 2011 at 9:59 PM ^

Crime has definately gone up in A2 in the past few years, especially in that Oakland neighborhood.  Same goes for the homeless, but I doubt these are connected.  Seems that crime from neighboring towns is finally spilling over into town.

CRex

July 29th, 2011 at 10:34 PM ^

It definitely has.  Part of the problem is that AAPD's only real skill is parking enforcement.  

To this day is amazes me AAPD doesn't have a few young female officers on staff that look like college kids.  Dress them in plain clothes, have then "drunkenly" wander down dark alleys and have the SWAT team trail along a few blocks back.  Instead AAPD dresses up old guys in Michigan gear and tries to infiltrate them into our college parties.  Had a guy who was freaking balding try to slip through the door and he pulled an AAPD badge when we stopped him.  Too bad for him those of us on door duty were all over 21.  

M-Wolverine

July 30th, 2011 at 1:52 AM ^

They still couldn't patrol every inch of the city. As CRex said, if they laid off their ticket writing/parking enforcement officers, they'd have more than enough money to keep officers to investigate, like crime and stuff. But finding rapists doesn't make the city money for it's next boondoggle. The fact that we have to call in the FBI for a rapist means maybe we should lay everyone else off too, since they can't handle basic crime that doesn't involve MiP.

IncrediblySTIFF

July 30th, 2011 at 2:52 AM ^

There is not enough money in law enforcement to have your swat team on patrol on random nights.  Also, there probably aren't enough girls going missing to warrant that.

I live in Bloomington, Indiana, and just recently a girl went missing. (Lauren Spierer)  She (allegedly) wasn't abducted, although foul play is absolutely suspected.  Its a tragic thing to happen, but the reality is having a SWAT team rolling around in a truck all night is not going to prevent much crime.

Also, when is the last time you saw a young hot female cop in AA, or anywhere for that matter?

M-Wolverine

July 30th, 2011 at 12:16 PM ^

Give the taxpayers their money back for stupid things like fountains, artwork, and ANOTHER parking structure, so we can vote yes to tax increases for things like police, fire, snow removal, and all the stuff we want the city to do rather than all the junk they want to do.

IncrediblySTIFF

July 30th, 2011 at 12:56 PM ^

I think fountains, artwork, and especially parking structures are what bring character to a town. /s

In all seriousness, I think that the police should be out spending more time writing traffic tickets.  It's easy money for the state, and it gets filtered back into the department.  Police departments should be like a buisness, and the police officers are like the salemen, sorta.

tbeindit

July 29th, 2011 at 9:49 PM ^

You know, this may or may not be related, but I just saw a article that talked about how Ann Arbor has become the Homeless capital of Michigan.  Apparently they found that since Ann Arbor is so kind to its homeless that many found ways to move there.  At least that's what the article claimed.

Regardless, if this is true, it may be part of what's causing Ann Arbor to become more filled with crime, though this isn't exactly a direct translation of course

Fuzzy Navel

July 29th, 2011 at 9:52 PM ^

Keep in mind this is mostly an overt generalization:

There's a decent amount of money in Ann Arbor (whether it be students or townies). I'd guess it's easier to make a (homeless) living in Ann Arbor than most any other city in the state.

For those of you who know Ronnie, he has a god damn cell phone and still panhandles.

Wolverine318

July 29th, 2011 at 11:16 PM ^

It is pretty close actually. The Delonis Center on Huron Ave. is one of the best homeless centers in the state of michigan. There was an article published by AnnArbor.com a couple years ago with quotes from Detroi officers who would bus over homeless people to Ann Arbor they don't wan to deal with or because Ann Arbor's resources are much better. There are also several tent cities that have spouted up in the past couple years. There is one tent city behind Arborland and one in Bird Hills Park. 

Mitch Cumstein

July 29th, 2011 at 9:53 PM ^

I've been in and around Ann Arbor for the past 10 years or so and my girlfriend and I were just talking about how the homeless population is getting more aggressive.  Apparently one followed her to her car asking for money when she left work a couple days ago (for like 3-4 blocks).   I told her she should have called the cops.

Tater

July 30th, 2011 at 12:07 AM ^

Ann Arbor certainly seems to attract its share of serial killers.  While I lived there, I can remember three, starting with John Norman Collins, another one who never got caught, at least for those crimes, and another who didn't seem to be all that bright and got caught early.  So, this would be the fourth including Collins.  

One of the most important things we did back then at work and school was to never allow women to walk to their cars alone at night, no matter how much they protested or how "silly" they thought it was. We simply never gave them the option of saying no.  

My point here is that it doesn't matter how things have changed, and that I hope guys are doing the same thing now.  One murder is too many, and one more is too many more.  You may not save anyone's life, and if you do you will probably never know.  But you just might.

WolverineHistorian

July 30th, 2011 at 10:10 AM ^

John Norman Collins was from Ypsilanti.  I believe 2 of his victims were Michigan students.  The rest were Eastern students and a couple Ypsilanti residents.  And he IS in jail for those killings. My mom's cousin was a UM Law School student in 68 when this was going on. 

ak47

July 30th, 2011 at 1:39 AM ^

Listen this isn't really that much crime. This is clearly a bad situation but it just proves shit can happen anywhere as long as there is one person, guys should never really let a girl walk home alone late at night, I don't care if there hasn't been an incident in like 10 years its still a stupid idea.

blueguard5

July 30th, 2011 at 8:47 AM ^

describe what late at night is? one of the attacks was at 10:00 PM. i'll make sure i'm never alone after 9! or wear skirts above my knees! 

i'm not saying people shouldn't be cautious when they go out, but clearly these events are upsetting to the community because people usually would feel safe walking down a popular, well light street somewhat late at night. i have before and didn't feel threatened at all. people now feel threatened and no one should feel threatened where they live. it changes the way people usually live their life and no one wants that.

ak47

July 30th, 2011 at 11:22 AM ^

Its late night when its dark, and the one at 10 happened in front of community high school which I can tell you has no lights and is pitch black at night the second the sun goes down, so yes I wouldn't recommend walking their alone after the sun goes down.  I am not trying to say this isn't a bad situation it clearly is, I just don't think this should be altering people's behavior to things they should already have been doing, I'm not blaming the women for being  harassed its clearly not their fault but that doesn't mean there aren't measure people should be taking to be safe either.  Maybe its cause I am from a city but I can tell you six sexual harrasments never changed the way people lived there lives and we all lived happy lives.

bryemye

July 30th, 2011 at 9:18 AM ^

It's all pretty shocking, especially with the locations of the crimes. When this happens around Greenwood, Oakland, etc at 3AM it doesn't shock me quite as much as 11PM at State and HIll. That's insane.

To those talking about crime getting worse... maybe. It's always worse during the summer than during the school year though.

cigol

July 30th, 2011 at 10:30 AM ^

The university should be ashamed with how many students have been affected by crime over the last year. With the amount of money they spend on useless crap/employees, it is truly immoral that they don't have a security team that patrols the neighborhoods on bikes with direct communication with the police. The police department does everything it can, but the reality is that resources are limited. All you need is a presence. Given that all of this happens in the same square mile and all the university can offer is "safety awareness" classes, it is truly inexcusable and flat out wrong. This is Ann arbor. Not the Bronx. Figure it out administration. If you're going to raise everyone's tuition above inflation every year so the assistant administrators can have secretaries, you sure as hell better make the proper investment to keep your students safe right around campus. I wrote a much more tactful recommendation to the administration, but this was the general message.