Sunday’s the day for recovery and rest. With the passing of Halloween weekend I’m sure many of you used this past Sunday to relax, reflecting on the (likely many) mistakes made within the past 48 hours. Well, unlike many of you, I was doing something entirely different. I was at the dentist getting my teeth reshaped and refilled. You see, three of my teeth had stress fractures from when they smashed against each other Friday night — what the dentist described as the force from the trauma of being hit repeatedly in the face. Ah yes, that’s right! I forget to mention I was repeatedly hit in the face while walking my date home from State Street. That’s why I had to get my teeth fixed.

I had never been jumped before, although I have seen my healthy share of rap music videos. I’m familiar with the notion — that getting rowdy in some circles can lead to attacking innocent people for the hell of it, but I assumed most people didn’t actually do this. So naive I was, walking back from the bars on Friday night under my usual aura of unsuspecting cheer. Perhaps it was the smell of the warm October air, or the intoxicating perfume of the beautiful girl on my right. Regardless, the last thing I had on my mind as we neared the Red Shed was violence.

When suddenly, it hit me. Rather, they hit me ?– punched me in the face to be exact. How quickly I went from attempting to entertain my lovely companion to experiencing a fury of blows to the face and head! No words were exchanged, and the assailant quickly fled the scene. I stood in silence as blood began to flow from my bottom lip, splashing onto the ground below.

There has been a lot of talk around campus questioning the priorities of the Madison Police Department, where at times it appears on-duty police are more likely to harass student partiers than prevent and solve “real” violent crime. I’ve never been a fan of authority (blame my dad), but I can honestly say the police do not deserve that sort of negative rep. The truth, whether we choose to accept it or not, is that Madison is a dangerous place. That’s right. Beautiful, scenic, liberal, historic Madison is not the safe haven its aesthetics might first suggest. There are a lot of people in this city who have little to lose and sometimes lots to prove. These people have no problem singling out those they feel to be sheltered, moderately affluent and otherwise harmless college students and exploiting them, whether it be motivated by need, intoxication or simply spite. The city of Madison is not a bubble — the university is. The school milieu provides students with a false sense of security that simply is not supported by reality. The city of Madison does not belong to the students; rather, it belongs to the very non-university affiliated “townies” that students often complain about at bars. While I’m fairly sure now that it was one of these very “townies” who decided to try and knock me to the ground, I cannot say for sure.

Either way, we need to start cutting the police a break. They have the very difficult task of somehow acting as a buffer zone between the select few who seek to terrorize the majority and the 40,000 kids who, on a weekly basis, get incapacitated to the point where they become fish in the proverbial barrel of crime.

When I repeated the story of my Friday night to my peers, a question that often came up was. “Did you do anything to deserve it?” I think the answer isn’t as black and white as yes and no. While I’m sure my appearance did not help my cause (the disco outfit, the sleazy slicked-back hair and the ostentatious jewelry) at the same time I don’t think the assailant(s) really cared who I was. I looked wealthy enough, and perhaps I represented some oppressing establishment this man had a quarrel with. In instances like these, I chalk the situation up to life. Life, like I often argue, pushes people to unfortunate ends. Perhaps I do so with a certain hopeful naivete, but I refuse to believe there are people on this planet who ever deserve to be cast aside by society. I refuse to believe people do things for purely evil reasons. While that doesn’t mean they are particularly good, decent people, I still don’t think it warrants ostracism or unjustified scapegoating. Race and ethnicity had nothing to do with this attack, nor did social standing. I call a spade a spade, as I think everyone should. We all know that by going out in a town that is known for its belligerence, we expect the unexpected. Shit happens. We accept that risk the second we head out to any given party or bar. Neither the police nor the school can eliminate this, and unfortunately, neither can you. The only thing that you can do is acknowledge the risk and move on because the second you start to try and make sense of it all, you develop the same kind of judgments that lead to more crappy laws and restrictions.

Alex Frecon ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in English.