Editorial: Unintentional Ignorance

September 13, 2006

After hearing about recent incidences of crime that have hit here at home or very close to our campus, we feel that we as students should be notified first about such matters before the rest of the public knows. Is it a La Salle policy to only inform students on certain matters? What makes a crime worthy of notification to students and faculty? When or, indeed, should we be made aware of these violent crimes?

There were two events that recently occurred over the summer right outside of La Salle’s campus, and both involved murderous circumstances. In one incident, the man who allegedly murdered Officer Gary Skerski of the 15th district was apprehended around the Manor Apartments on Olney Avenue. The defendant fled, there was a chase and gunfire was exchanged, all a stone’s throw away from the Administration Building. Although La Salle is no longer affiliated with the Manor, and the incident occured over the summer, some La Salle students still choose to live there. Many walk by it to use the subway.

The second incident the double homicide that occurred on Aug. 31, 2006 at 10th and Olney Avenue. A well-known and beloved former employee of La Salle’s Food Services, Anthony Burno was shot that night with a .45 caliber semi-automatic hand gun while trying to save a woman who was being raped just 10 blocks from our campus. He died, along with his girlfriend who had been accompanying him at the time. No security report or bulletin was issued about any of these incidents, and as a school and a community, we want to know why we weren’t informed about these occurrences.

After speaking to Art Grover, Director of Security and Safety, the Collegian learned that La Salle’s security is required by law to make notifications under only certain circumstances regarding our community. La Salle’s security is required to use its judgment about what instances and in which parameters to report.

“In my judgment, this instance should not have been included as a notification circumstance,” Grover said in response to last week’s double homicide.

Grover gave two reasons for his assertion. He explained that this incident did not constitute a threat to the La Salle community. If it had been a threat, security would have been on the case with alerts, bulletins and guards. The incident, though, was resolved shortly after it occurred. According to the Sept. 1 issue of the Philadelphia Daily News, the alleged perpetrator only got a block away before police heard a radio call, and he was immediately caught during a routine patrol.

Grover’s second reason is that, although the occurrence was local, it wasn’t on La Salle’s campus. The event occurred nearly a mile away. Although La Salle has a dedicated security team of 60 employees, broken up into groups who patrol seven days a week at all hours, it is impossible for them to patrol that far outside campus boundaries as well. According to Grover, there is no exact proximity La Salle security covers; it comes down to security’s judgment whether the crime was close enough to La Salle or not.

Grover said the frustration of a flawed justice system is common amongst him and other former and present police officers. He said that he does take the incidents that happen outside of campus very seriously and is sensitive to them. In his opinion, La Salle’s campus alone is where his actions can have the most pronounced effect, and he believes he and his staff are doing the best they can to make it safe.

“Although La Salle is within a high crime area, La Salle’s actual campus is one of the most crime-free sectors in the 35th district,” Grover said, asserting that La Salle is one of Olney’s safest locales.

La Salle security is doing a number of things to make the community as safe as it can be. Security follows trends, attends meetings, has hired additional officers, upgrades lighting on campus and replaces security cameras regularly. Both Grover and his associate director express the need for a partnership between La Salle students and security, though. They encourage students to use their cell phones and the blue light poles on campus, to travel in numbers and to use the shuttles more often.

The question still remains, though, whether or not it would benefit students to be over-informed rather than under-informed. Have we really been informed enough? It is the opinion of the Collegian editorial board that while University Security has done an admirable job in protecting Lasallians from multifarious dangers, the University community has an intrinsic right to know when deadly crimes are committed in the extended vicinity of the campus. We have a right to know how safe, or unsafe, the surrounding neighborhood is because we are members of the Philadelphia community at large. We should become a better-informed group about the goings-on of our surrounding environs.