Welcome to Pleasantville?

My hometown paper, The Palo Alto Daily, publishes the local police reports. Typical offenses include, "Incorrect garage sale signs posted on the 300 block of Bryant St.; confused shoppers loitered until police removed the signs," or "Stray dog spotted on City Hall Plaza; it was later confirmed that the dog was not stray and, in fact, does have an owner." The occasional violent crime tarnishes the idyllic reports, but that can only be expected for a community in the San Francisco Bay Area. Overall, the crime reports could easily be mistaken for the police blotter in Beaver Cleaver's Mayfield.

When I came to Cornell three years ago, I didn't sense a difference in safety between Cornell and home. The only time I saw police in action was when they disciplined the drunkards of Collegetown. The Ithaca police force seemed to be a glorified drunk patrol, at least up on the Hill.

My only other police encounters were seeing them when they provided support services to students, like distributing numbered key tags to prevent the loss of dorm keys or registering laptop computers to prevent theft. In short, I saw the police role to be more preventative than reactive -- I never heard of a serious crime that needed a reaction.

But lately it feels like crime is on the rise in our little Pleasantville. In recent weeks I've heard quite a few stories about purse theft, credit-card fraud, vandalism and sexual harassment.

This apparent rise in crime is just my observation; it's not statistically proven or even necessarily true. So, after my friend's purse was stolen last week, I decided to do some solid research.

I started by subscribing to the Cornell Police "Morning Report" listserv, landing the Cornell Police reports in my Inbox every morning. I learned of the reports through a friend who uses them for comic purposes, adding his commentary and forwarding them to a close group of friends -- "Student found indecently exposing himself behind Barton Hall.... Uhh, uh oh, I didn't know they saw that." Unlike him, I planned to take a more serious, bite-out-of-crime approach to these useful reports.

Assorted crimes on the Cornell campus last week included three incidents of underage possession of alcohol and approximately ten cases of petit larceny. Petit larceny is when an individual steals an object of relatively little value. For example, last Friday a student reported that an unknown individual stole a cymbal from a secured room. As in the metal musical instrument. That's petit larceny. And, while the cymbal-less musician probably feels very wronged, the crime is definitely petit.

Grand larceny was rare last week. As a matter of fact, the Kennedy mailroom was among the few victims of grand larceny. It got a Toshiba monitor pinched.

Trespassing was more common, though trespassing may be a harsh word to describe the infractions. Last Saturday a staff member reported that two juveniles were turned over to their parent after warned not to inline skate in the Ives Hall area. The same day a staff member reported that a non-affiliated individual had been sleeping on the second floor of Rand Hall. I wouldn't hesitate to deem that a case of mistaken identity; those scrappy, sleep-deprived architecture students can easily be mistaken for homeless people.

A crime fittingly called "Criminal Mischief" was also prevalent in the reports. Throwing eggs, bricks or any other projectile at houses or cars qualifies as "Criminal Mischief." Due to the late hour of the mischievous occurrences, drunken destructiveness seems to be the cause.

A few more serious crimes stuck out from these small-time crimes. An auto was stripped of $3500 worth of tire-rims, some pricey D.J. equipment was nabbed, and a drunk driver was caught. But that's the worst of it. No large-scale burglaries, homicides, armed robberies or rapes.

All in all, it was truly difficult to react to these reports with a serious countenance. The thought of a police unit, sirens blaring and lights flaring, responding to a call where two license plates were stolen, or a sophomore with a fake ID was caught trying to buy some Coors Light, is tickling.

It's reassuring as well. I feel more secure reverting back to the relaxed life I led before I heard of the rumors of rampant burglary and sexual harassment in the Cornell community.

Two weeks ago I never hesitated to walk home alone from the library or bars late at night. Blue light escort? Nah. I'm going to continue walking home unescorted whenever I please. My sense of safety is not irrational -- violent crimes are rare here.

But I may take a few precautions to prevent "petit larceny." In the past my housemates and I have always taken a lackadaisical approach to locking our doors. It's never been a problem. We plan to keep it that way by actively locking our doors in the future.

Cornell is a community of tens of thousands. It's a small city unto itself. Every city has to deal with crimes, whether they be stolen cymbals or drive-by shootings. We are lucky to be dealing with the former, and should work to keep it that way.

Like residents of a small city, Cornell students should exercise a certain level of caution to prevent crimes. But overall, we live in Pleasantville, and should enjoy it.

Archived article by Andrea Forker