25 CommentsIn an alert titled “Security Alert – Sexual Abuse – Forcible Touching,” Public Safety reports that several females were accosted in the late afternoon on December 13th in separate incidents near campus. The victims were “grabbed” by male assailants, who then fled on foot. Full Public Safety alert after the jump, including fuzzy photos of the assailants.
Columbia University
Department of Public Safety
SECURITY ALERT
SEXUAL ABUSE
FORCIBLE TOUCHING
On December 13, 2009, at about 4:20 p.m. the males shown in the photos below, accosted two females in separate incidents near the Morningside campus. The males approached the victims and grabbed them. They would then flee on foot from the area. If you have any information about this crime, or were victimized by these males, contact the undersigned.
Ken Finnegan
Director, Investigations and Technology Projects
December 16, 2009
212-854-4790
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25 Comments
@carrying weapons will only make it worse and make you more likely to get seriously hurt in a mugging. so far, all they have wanted has been stuff, but they have had guns a bunch of times. if somebody pulls a gat on me when i’m walking with my white girlfriend, i’m gonna tell my girl not to use her mace or knife because that is just so stupid.
muggings happen. give the mugger your shit. he will leave. cancel your credit cards and go about your day. don’t be a hipster hero with a pocket knife.
@... pussy.
@anonym As others have said, I think some people may feel they have no choice but to start carrying weapons, seeing as public safety can’t seem to do their job– a situation which itself may make us collectively less safe.
@I agree... …with self-defense instead of stupid swim-what-if-manhattan-drowns-test. As someone who was mugged this semester, I wish public safety would take a more active role in preventing these crimes around campus and patrol a wider area around campus to deter these incidents.
I was pretty shaken up, and am overly paranoid when walking around after dark even on campus.
@What about... Karate instead of a swim test?
@Curious Does anyone else carry mace? (I do)
@well I carry a pocket knife. Although admittedly more for ensuring I’m never without a corkscrew.
@with you on the pocket knife – useful tool for fixing/opening anything, and even if it’s a meager weapon that I have hard time imagining using on an attacker, I take solace in having something to defend myself with.
@I don't understand why... there are so many more incidents around campus.
It seemed to start this summer with all the increased crime on Riverside. I don’t get it, why the increase?
I am tired of blaming the recession and swine o’ nine. so last spring.
@Columbia woman I just called the number in the alert and left a message, but here’s what happened to me –
I was walking on 114th street toward Broadway on December 12th at like 2 in the afternoon when I passed 3 kids who looked like the ones in these pictures. A few seconds later I heard running footsteps behind me and then felt someone slap my ass pretty hard. I turned around and one of the kids was sprinting back to his friends. It wasn’t pleasant but I’d by no means call it sexual assault – it seemed more like a stupid dare. They didn’t take anything, and while I was certainly surprised, I didn’t feel threatened. I have no idea what happened to these other women though – the stuff they reported happened the next day, so maybe the kids got more daring? They were definitely kids, though – I’d guess nine or ten.
@Surfin' UWS WTF! No one grabbed them while they were running away?
@Columbia woman No. There weren’t that many people around, and I don’t know if anyone registered what had happened – it took me a second and by that time the kid was already out of my reach. If they had taken something or really hurt me, I would have yelled, but I was fine (if a little bemused).
@how did passersby let these pre-teens assault 2 columbia women at 4 in the fucking afternoon? I just don’t get it
@still me also, when do we get this supposed email alert from public safety – seems weird that bwog keeps me soo much better informed (maybe safer?) than they do given that it’s their fucking job
@Mine went to my gmail spam folder. Maybe something similar happened to you?…
@Well... This passerby caught hold of two of the little brats when they assaulted a student and snatched some of her stuff. One turned into a wibbling broken record of “I didn’t do anything!” but the other was a proud little thing, cocky as Hell. “Excuse you, bitch, but you’d better get your hands off, or else.” From a kid who was probably twelve or thirteen.
He’ll go far, I’m sure.
Sad.
@Anonymous Does anyone else have zero respect for Public Safety? Maybe if they spent a little less time busting kids for smoking pot and a little more stopping muggings and assaults, we’d be a little bit safer…
@Well Public Safety doesn’t even carry nightsticks, so there’s not much they can do except observe and report.
@Theater Kid Damn, I was going to name my one man play “Forcible Touching.”
@huh? Those are fucking children, what the fuck?
@2010 where’d it happen? man this is quite scary.
@2011 seriously, WHERE did it happen?
@2011 at least one incident was on 114th and broadway, wasn’t it? (at 4 pm DDD:)
@Surfin' UWS Goddammit whyd they have to be black?
But yeah I agree; they look downright prepubescent. Why didn’t the women just slap the little wannathugs into tears?
@Those "assailants"... …look like children. How creepy.