Quail2theVict0r

July 18th, 2011 at 9:48 AM ^

Not blaming the victum - just saying that walking around in the middle of the day is different than walking around at 1am in any city. Most of these crime alerts happen in the middle of the night - robbery, assault, rape - not in the middle of the day. No one should feel unsafe walking to class.

Noleverine

July 18th, 2011 at 8:04 AM ^

One of the most unforgivable crimes.  I hope all are OK.  I also hope they arrest the prick(s), and give them a taste of their own with Bubba in prison.

CleverMichigan…

July 18th, 2011 at 8:40 AM ^

When my dad told me to buy mace my freshman year, we all laughed because Ann Arbor was considerably safer than my high school. I'm a senior now and people are no longer calling me paranoid and instead asking where I got it (Bivouac, if anyone was wondering).

CRex

July 18th, 2011 at 9:45 AM ^

As a side note*, ladies get yourself a nice little compact pepper spray can that you can easily hold in your palm.  A larger can of pepper spray rattling around in the bottom of your purse is useless when you get grabbed.  You'll never have time to dig it out.  The best solution is to remove the small one from your purse as you leave the bar/party/etc.  Walk home with it concealed in your palm.

You can get a larger bottle of pepper spray as well.  Just get one with a clip so you can clip it near the top of your purse, handbag, whatever.  That way you can easily get to it when in panic mode (instead of digging through your purse).  The big can can always be used to finish the job if needed.  

Beyond that, interspace your keys between your fingers (brass knuckle style) and make a fist. Punch for the eyeballs, crotch or under the ribs depending on what angle is open to you and goods things happen (for you, not him).  If you're ever walking home late at night and suddenly realize "Hey it's 2 am, dark and I'm alone", just go ahead and do this.  

*I bring this up because it's a common flaw we see in self defense classes.  The lady tells me she has pepper spray.  I tell her "Okay, I'm a rapist, get your spray out and hit me."  Half the time I can walk to the vending machine, get a candy bar bar, eat it, come back, put in her a headlock and she is still digging around her purse looking for the pepper spray.

 

BlueTimesTwo

July 18th, 2011 at 7:42 PM ^

This was my thought too, but even many CCW states don't allow guns on campus (some are considering changing this, though).  This also doesn't help if these girls are coming back from a party, since most states don't allow concealed carry when under the influence of drugs or alcohol.  Still, it would be nice to hear that the next time that this scumbag tries to assault someone he ends up choosing someone who is well trained and carrying, and who puts him down like the animal that he is.

MGoJoe

July 18th, 2011 at 2:36 PM ^

I'm not a lady, but I'm quite scrawny and I like to take precautions when I am walking alone. I don't carry pepper spray (I'm too accident prone), but I do carry a 4.5 inch flashlight in my palm at night. The flashlight is 220 lumens, which is bright as fuck. It will burn out your eye sockets if you look directly into the beam. It's also useful for getting the attention of passerbyers. The $60 amazon link is here:

http://www.amazon.com/Fenix-PD30-Level-Performance-Flashlight/dp/B001H4MWA4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1311012006&sr=8-1

For $40 more dollars you can buy a slightly larger flashlight (about 6 inches long) with 820 lumens, which will light up a fucking football field.

http://www.amazon.com/Fenix-TK35-Performance-Lumen-Flashlight/dp/B004I2EMXM/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

Both flashlights are made of hard metal and can be used as a tactical weapon.

Purkinje

July 18th, 2011 at 8:54 AM ^

I hope they catch the animal, put him through a meat grinder, feed his bloody rotting remains to pigs, feed the pigs to worms, and drop the worms in a furnace.

hailtothevictors08

July 18th, 2011 at 1:23 PM ^

as long as they are related to Michigan and not just general Ann Arbor ... seeing as this was directly adjacent to campus and since it was a DPS alert, this was also probably a student making it on topic

also, many michigan students (and other aa people) read this board like it is the bible even though many dont post, any chance that it could serve as a warning to those walking home is a positive imo

goblue20111

July 18th, 2011 at 9:30 AM ^

Can we maybe leave the moderating up to the mods?  Hell I've often felt a little paranoid walking home alone in AA during summers.  Not as many people around and well TBH some interesting characters frequent AA during the summer months. 

Quail2theVict0r

July 18th, 2011 at 9:52 AM ^

I think that is more the point I was making up above. There's some really odd people in ann arbor and in the summer there's a lot less people walking around. No city is completely void of all crime and even I, as a dude, feel a little uneasy about walking around in the middle of the night, alone, where there isn't a lot of other people - but feel completely different about walking in the same spot in the middle of the day.

Ron_Lippitt

July 18th, 2011 at 10:09 AM ^

Same thing happened my freshman year in A2.  I think every campus goes through this because college women are such easy prey - particularly drunk ones.  They will catch this dude.  They always do.

In the meantime, don't walk around at night alone.  Duh...

True Blue Grit

July 18th, 2011 at 10:23 AM ^

I've lived in Ann Arbor for 20+ years now, and more years as a student.  Most of the violent crimes in the city occur between 1 and 3 in the morning, and adjacent to the campus.  Sometimes also, they occur in the area between the campus and downtown.  I've told my daughter this many times (she's a U-M student now), yet sometimes I know she walks home  from the library late at night by herself despite my warnings.  I've been around the campus a few times late and I'm amazed how many people are still walking around.  A lot of students just don't think about these kind of risks.  But, there are certainly options like calling campus security for an escort.  Many students just don't want to bother with it.  I certainly hope they catch the creeps who committed these 3 recent assaults quickly.

Profwoot

July 18th, 2011 at 12:32 PM ^

Most of the attempted sexual assaults seem to fail, so I was sad to see the most recent one succeeded.

I was also sad to see that the description of the assailant fits me perfectly. I promise I was home at 12:40 last night.

hailtothevictors08

July 18th, 2011 at 1:18 PM ^

5 days ...

just very sad that we can't walk safely home from the library and bars. The 700 block of State is still on campus even. For whatever reason, this last year has been the worst since I have been a student and has really gotten to the point where I don't want my female friends walking home alone.

Also, great tips from CRex above

notetoself

July 18th, 2011 at 1:27 PM ^

700 block of state street at 12:40am has people walking around everywhere during the school year. during the summer, there's no one outside on a sunday night. i'm guessing this was a freshman girl who was conditioned to it being okay to walk home alone at that time of night during the school year.

either way, this totally freaks me out. my wife is in the Ford school right now, which is right where this happened.

hailtothevictors08

July 19th, 2011 at 5:00 AM ^

 

As a fraternity member this is just straight insulting. Just like ever sub-section in the community, we have our bad apples but the overwhelming majority (like 99.99999%) of us find rape to be a heinous crime. When I got this crime alert, all I could think was I wished I was in town with a few guys to see the fucker try this. I would love to personally kick the shit out of this dude for it. Taking advantage of students walking home pisses me off to no end.

Also, I am far from the only fraternity member on this board. A few of the at least one time mod level guys were Greek at Michigan and I know a decent number of regular posters are as well. To insinuate that being in a fraternity makes us rapists is just straight uneducated slander.

Also, as the above responder said, fraternity boys are famous for not wearing cargo shorts/pants.

Ted Kaczynski

July 18th, 2011 at 6:49 PM ^

I get a kick out of people who think these girls are delicate little flowers who should be protected by the masses. Fuck that, these girls should be smart enough to get themselves out of a situation like this without being banged or harmed.

It's time to shape up bitches. You're in the real world now.