• Art Jahnke

    Senior Contributing Editor

    Art Janke

    Art Jahnke began his career at the Real Paper, a Boston area alternative weekly. He has worked as a writer and editor at Boston Magazine, web editorial director at CXO Media, and executive editor in Marketing & Communications at Boston University, where his work was honored with many awards. Profile

Comments & Discussion

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There are 21 comments on Second Armed Robbery Adds Police to Streets

    1. As someone who knew one of the students robbed on Saturday night, the iphone had find my iphone but the phone was off and couldn’t be located. So this does not always work.

      1. Also from someone whose friend had their iPhone stolen last year (at Giga’s), the BUPD couldn’t go into the apartment building where the iPhone was located… so the phone could not be retrieved even when it was located.

  1. This is a horribly written article and an equally horrible excuse on behalf of both BU and BUPD. First off, let’s start with BUPD Chief Thomas Robbins advice to text anything suspicious to the anonymous tip line. FALSE, you should NOT pull out your smartphone in a suspicious situation and send an anonymous text message to the police! Rather, you should attempt to remove yourself from the situation/area and give the police a call!

    Next, let’s adress the robbery on Saturday night/early Sunday morning. The robbery on Thordike St is right off of Harvard Ave – what most people consider Allston. In fact, that area is known to be rather seedy by students. The confusing partitioning of Counties in Boston can be misleading without the proper background information.

    In regards to today’s robbery, I’m beyond upset. I’ve been a resident on Egmont St. for two years now. Today, I was sincerely scared to go home and even more concerned about the times my girlfriend comes home from practice at night. Although classified as “Brookline”, Egmont St. is just two blocks, approx 500 feet from Commonwealth Ave. For those who don’t know, you follow St. Paul St., in between Landry’s Bikes and the CVS across from FitRec for two blocks then take a right. This robbery practically occurred on campus in the middle of the day. Obviously criminals don’t feel the slightest bit intimated by the authorities for them to pull off such a bold attack.

    Lastly, the section referring to the popularity of Northface apparel is trivial and unwarranted.

    BU, please make me feel safe. I understand and respect your campaign for safe drinking; however, please better distribute your resources and put a PRIMARY emphasis on keeping students safe from criminal activity and violence. Your campaign against the activities occurring weekly on Frat Row is nobile and necessary; however, let’s get our priorities in check. It’s early in the year. Please get this under control ASAP.

    -Thank you (I mean that sincerely)

  2. I have a lot of respect for the BUPD, but clearly they can’t be everywhere at once and, in spite of their effrorts, BU students are not safe in their own community.
    I wonder how many more students have to be victimized, harmed, or killed before the University realizes this and pursues different avenues to try and stifle this criminal epidemic.
    The City of Boston allows students to apply for Restricted Firearms Permits, which allow them to legally carry non-lethal defensive weapons, such as mace, but the University’s rules deny students this right by banning these students from carrying these products under threat of suspension (or even expulsion).
    I think its safe to say that BU is unable to guarantee the safety of its students, and undoubtedly students care more about their lives than the rules.
    It’s time for BU to abandon policies which curtail students rights and leave them vulnerable to violent criminals! If Rao had been able to mace his attacker last spring, he could very well still be alive today.

      1. The current system means that you will always be a victim in this situation. Changing the system would mean that you could choose to be a victim or choose not to be a victim. I don’t know about you, but I choose not to be a victim.

    1. This is very true. If you disarm citizens criminal scum knows they are easy targets. Walk around in a tshirt that says “I concealed carry – feeling lucky?” and see how many people harass you.

  3. While everyone is upset because the victims of crimes have been BU students lately, I think the problem with the crime is being missed completely.

    Including my time as an undergrad, I’ve lived in this area for 9 years now. 5 pm is a “safe” time of day, even in Allston-Brighton-Brookline. It’s the beginning of rush hour. Workers are coming home from work, children returning home from afterschool programs, people of all ages are running errands, walking their dogs, going to the gym, taking their toddlers to the park.

    These crimes are a serious problem to the community that need to be solved by caution and vigilant police reporting and patrols. But hiding inside scared after 5 pm is not a solution nor an option, not for BU students and especially not for the permanent members of the Boston/Brookline communities.

  4. I’m glad that BU is finally deploying police to make us feel safe rather then the other way around.

    BU should take some time to read the work done by Bridgespan in Tennessee. By bringing police and residents together everyone can become more comfortable and safer. Cops can become a valued part of the community again rather then feared.

    Is underage drinking really a problem? No. Bindge drinking is. But no one is going to call or alert the police knowing the hammer that will be dropped on them and everyone around them. On the other hand I love seeing police around Brookline knowing that they are there to keep us safe rather then make our lives miserable.

    1. Because to some the answer to this problem is for BU and BPD to stop busting up student drinking parties and concentrate on real crime. They fail to realize that there are likeky no parties going on at 5 PM. Posters ae grinding their personal axes.

      1. Not true. I have worked in emergency services. If there is a priority, as is there with the BUPD and BPD, then patrol schedules move around that objective. The BPD creates excellent patrol patterns on weekends to disrupt BU parties. They are good at it. Even very well organized and hidden parties now get caught. On the other hand this is where 80% of their effort goes. Patrol patterns are not created for crime suppression.

        One final things that bothers me is the animosity it creates between police and students. Consider this: I am 20, from a country where I can legally drink and moving into employment in the financial field. You can tell me not to drink all you want, but considering the above facts (not to mention I can own a firearm in this country) I considering it ridiculous and feel free to treat myself to a beer occasionally.
        Now I avoid police despite being an otherwise law abiding citizen. If drinking on the weekend I will go to great lengths to avoid them. The price of an encounter is just too high. But this nearly 100% negates the effect of having them on the street. Rather then banging their heads against their wall telling me (collectively the BU population) that I can’t drink is counter productive (I promise you the cops were drinking at 16 when the age was 18). Instead they should be there when I need them. I should have no fear of telling them if a situation is turning ugly or a student drank too much without worrying about reprisal. Make us safer, don’t try and scare us.

  5. I disagree with “Really?” that the details in the story on NorthFace apparel are irrelevant. If I had a NF backpack or jacket, I’d leave it home until these perps are caught!!

  6. Students should be allowed to carry concealed weapons and mace. University of Utah allows students to carry concealed on campus. Why is it that cities with the most restrictive gun laws have the highest rates of violent crime?

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