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	Vol.7, No 49, November 23, 1999
	Apathy creates crime at CSULB I disagree with Ken Hanson's opinion piece on the University Police asking for campus assistance in the recent rash of car thefts and break-ins published Nov.16, 1999. Ken Hanson Mr. Hanson criticizes the police for having to request help from the campus at large to solve a crime.  While he allows that they are not "super cops" and can't be everywhere at once, Mr. Hanson still seems to theorize that the police should be able to stop these crimes without outside help. The police are not there to stop crime; that is a common misconception people have.  Police investigate after the fact, correlate information, interview witnesses and suspects and find the guilty party.  Police do not prevent crime from happening. They can't read minds, appear magically and "scare" a thief away. True, increased police presence in the parking lot may cause a thief to hit another car farther away or even in another lot, but a half-awake security guard can do the same thing.    Police should not have to stand post in each aisle of the parking lot to insure the safety of our vehicles.  In a campus community of over 30,000 people I know they have more important things to do. The sad thing, and the aspect that Hanson perhaps should have focused on, is that the police had to ask for help in the first place.  Apathy assists crime more than police presence can ever deter it.  We rush along to class, head and eyes to the ground, not seeing or flatly ignoring someone in the parking lot moving car to car trying door handles. We hear alarms, loud voices or see people trying to wave someone's attention and we do not want to get involved.  There was a famous example of this in New York where an actress was raped and stabbed in the courtyard of her apartment complex.  Forty people heard her scream, closed their windows and waited 20 minutes before even calling the police. Their reasoning was that someone else will do it. We need to be that someone else. We should be able to take 10 seconds as we walk along, grab our cellular phone or one of the emergency phones in the parking lots and help our campus brothers and sisters out. That is what is called compassion. What if it was your car, Hanson? Wouldn't you be grateful that a fellow human being acted like one and helped you out? If we as a society cannot be bothered to call the police when we see something suspicious, do not blame the police when crimes happen in our own back yard. Mark Blackburn is the photo editor for the Daily Forty-Niner and a criminal justice  major.		Urgent signals may be blocked   Road construction near CSULB creates hassels   Legacy lecturer speaks of research   African, Cuban cultural history depicted in film   Engineering, business colleges get grant for labs Gaming debts erased   Apathy creates crime at CSULB Snoop stop Pepperdine ekes out hoops opener   LBSU dumps San Diego   Pepperdine nets 49ers   49ers upend Eastern foe Fall 99 ISSUES DAILY 49ER HOMEPAGE
Forty-Niner Publications, Department of Journalism, California State University, Long Beach ©1999 All rights reserved.