I don’t understand the point of these University of Minnesota crime alerts. The theme seems to be: “Young-ish black men wearing dark clothes mugged someone. Watchout.”
I’m sure the police are frustrated when the only description they get is “I dunno. It was a black dude. Youngish… dark clothes.” – but passing that unhelpful description on to the student body probably sends one message: “If you see a young black male: be very afraid!”
This is why I rock pink.
Here’s today’s crime alert:
On Thursday, November 19 at approximately 6:30 p.m., a 21-year-old University of Minnesota student was the victim of an armed robbery near Marcy Park, off campus in the Dinkytown neighborhood.
The victim was at the intersection of 7th Street SE and 11th Avenue SE when he was approached by two males. One of the suspects pointed a silver handgun at the victim and ordered him to the ground. While the victim was on the ground, the suspects took his backpack and ran south-bound from 7th Avenue SE in between 10th and 11th Avenue SE. The victim was not injured.
The first suspect is described as a black male between 20 and 30 years of age, approximately six feet, two inches tall with a medium build. The suspect was wearing a baggy black hooded sweatshirt with the hood pulled up and black baggy jeans. The suspect held the sliver handgun in his left hand.
The second suspect is described as a black male between 20 and 30 years of age, approximately five feet, eight inches tall with a medium build. The suspect wore glasses and had short black curly hair, and was wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt and dark pants.
Here are the most recent crime alerts this semester:
11/11 ROBBERY – 10th Avenue Bridge
On Sunday, November 8 at approximately 7:30 p.m., an 21-year-old University of Minnesota student was the victim of a robbery while crossing the 10th Avenue Bridge.
The victim was walking northbound on east side the bridge coming from the Seven Corners area toward University Avenue SE. As the victim passed, the suspect asked the victim for money. The victim initially ignored the suspect and continued walking, but the suspect came from behind, grabbed the victim by the left shoulder and told the victim to empty his pockets. The suspect took a small amount of cash and fled south towards the Seven Corners area.
The suspect did not display or say he had a weapon, and the victim was not injured.
The suspect is described as a black male in his early 30s, approximately five feet, ten inches tall with a medium build. He had a scruffy beard and was wearing a dark blue, puffy jacket and black pants.
October: ROBBERIES – OFF-CAMPUS MARCY-HOLMES NEIGHBORHOOD
On Thursday, October 22 and Friday, October 23, University of Minnesota students were victims of robbery in four separate incidents in the in the off-campus Marcy-Holmes neighborhood. The robberies occurred between 10:00 p.m. and 2:00 a.m. as the student victims were walking through the neighborhood. In each of the cases, the suspects punched and physically assaulted the victims. Victims have lost wallets, credit cards, cash and cell phones.
The two suspects in the robberies are described as black males in their late teens to early twenties. Both are approximately five feet, eight inches to six feet tall with thin to medium builds. They were both wearing jeans and dark colored jackets with a “hoodie.”
11/4: ARMED ROBBERY AND ASSAULT – LEANING TOWER OF PIZZA 2501 University Avenue SE
On Wednesday, November 4 at approximately 7:30 p.m., an 18-year-old University of Minnesota student was the victim of an armed robbery and assault at the Leaning Tower of Pizza restaurant at 2501 University Avenue SE. The restaurant is part of the University Village complex.
The victim had listed a phone for sale on-line and had arranged to meet a potential buyer at the Leaning Tower of Pizza. While the potential buyer/suspect was inspecting the phone, a second suspect shot the victim in the face with a pellet gun – apparently without warning. The suspects then fled on foot westbound on University Avenue.
While the victim was not seriously injured, he was taken to UMMC, Fairview where he was treated for his injuries.
The first suspect is described as a black male, between 18 and 24 years old, with a heavy build and approximately five feet six inches to five feet eight inches tall. The suspect is bald and was wearing a large black jacket, and blue or black jeans.
The second suspect is described as a white male, between 18 and 24 years old and approximately six feet one inch to six feet three inches tall. He has sandy colored hair and beard, and was wearing a dark stocking cap, a white jacket and jeans.
The most recent helpful descriptions came out of the TCF stadium robbery:
On Sunday, September 27, a University of Minnesota student was the victim of a robbery and was held against his will by two men who threatened to kill him if he didn’t comply with their demands.
The victim was waiting for a cab near TCF Bank Stadium at approximately 4:00 a.m. on Sunday when he was approached by two suspects in a vehicle. The suspects threatened the victim and ordered him into the vehicle. One of the suspects implied that he had a gun, but the victim never saw a weapon.
The suspects robbed the victim of his personal belongings and drove him to a bank on Cedar and Riverside Avenues where they forced him to withdraw money from an automatic teller machine. As the three made their way back to the vehicle, the victim ran toward a group of people standing near a bus stop while calling for help. The suspects then fled northbound on 19th Avenue South.
Both suspects are described as black males with dark complexions, approximately 23 to 25 years old and both spoke with an African accent. The suspect driving the vehicle had neck-long, braided black hair and was wearing a light colored football jersey with baby-blue lettering and a double digit number. The passenger in the vehicle was wearing a green t-shirt and a green baseball cap turned backward on his head. The vehicle is described as a four door, red or maroon Cadillac CTS. No license plate information is available.
Part of the issue with these terrible descriptions is that criminals intentionally dress in a manner that is hard to identify. When I got robbed, (full disclosure: all three men were black; don’t know if it matters, I just threw it out there in case it does) it was hard to in the split second I had to find identifying features about the men. One had a gold fur trim on his coat and the other had a doorag with a Yankee logo on it. I never got a good look at the other guy. I was fortunate that they didn’t take my cell phone and after calling 911, the cops miraculously caught them.
From the community standpoint, these terrible descriptions are counterproductive measures ways for preventing racial profiling. As a victim though, I would have been pissed if the cops didn’t do everything they could to catch the guys. From my perspective, it would have been “oh just another college kid crime; we have better things to spend our resources on.” So the e-mail provides satisfactions for the victim that the cops did everything they could.
So which interest should prevail: the victim’s interest for justice or the community’s interest not to encourage racial profiling? I side the victim’s interest. Sure the cops have in most cases stumbled across a stone-cold who-done-it. But that e-mail does provide a chance, however minuscule it is, that someone knows some info and will come forward. Plus, I think the racial profiling issue can be thwarted other ways through public education about crime and racial profiling. The negative costs (racial profiling) of these alerts are only negative if people make the illogical jump that this sample of alerts represents all black people. Get people to stop making the logical leap and the problem these alerts pose are alleviated.
Well the unique problem at UMinnesota is that there is a large Somali community near campus and the suspects tend to have “African accents” (which in this city is PC for Somali) so while I’d like to think most people can not make the assumption that the alerts don’t represent blacks generically, it’s easier to make that assumption when it’s about an easily identifiable immigrant group.
I’m just curious as to what these alerts are supposed to accomplish. We get these alerts, making everyone jittery (especially around young black males because of the alerts…not good), but we NEVER hear if anyone was caught in association to these crimes. I know at least two folks who have been mugged and, right now, the folks that mugged them have not been caught. Plus, with the previous homeless issue you talked about, there seems to be no police presence around the school that I have been able to determine (and don’t get me started on the security guys). The law school is located in an odd area (right next to downtown), though most of these crimes seem to be central to Dinkytown. But I can’t see that anything (and really don’t know what should be done) is done to prevent the crimes to begin with. I hate the way I feel after getting these things. I also tend to wonder if they have a better description (surely, CSI is not completely misleading, what with the talented sketch-artists), but they choose to give general information that is completely useless.
These alerts are the UMN equivalent of the terrorism colors. ORANGE – be afraid!
Actually, last year we had a series of robberies and assaults on the West Bank. One victim was left partially blind. Of course the suspects had “African Accents.”
And there was that homicide by stadium village…
The only time I remember hearing about someone getting caught was the bike groper who terrorized campus last year: http://www.no634.com/pop-law/bike-groper-caught/