On Thursday, Oct. 24, David Hookstead, the self-proclaimed and self-promoting “creator” of UW Confessions, authored a letter to the editor containing his list of safety suggestions for our campus. Unfortunately, Hookstead took a potentially good discussion and turned it into sensationalist rant, with a dash of his typical chauvinism to boot.
Hookstead’s claims that the campus is experiencing an “unprecedented crime wave” in the wake of campus’s recent gun-free policy is patently false, as this year’s crime statistics are not outside the norm of previous years. We are just hearing about them more due to legislation passed over the summer mandating better reporting of campus crime.
I, too, have had private meetings with campus, city and police leaders (as have many student leaders) and they all agree that this recent “crime wave” is neither unusual nor unprecedented. It is likely coming from outside the city due to a large influx of seasonal drug dealers, and should subside as the weather cools down. In fact, prominent officials have told me they are more concerned by the perpetual sensationalism and misleading reporting of campus events from the social media accounts of people like Hookstead.
Additionally, I think it deserves mention that thus far no one has actually been shot; someone has instead been pointing a gun at students and robbing them, and there is a big difference there. That said, probably the best way for these incidents to escalate from robberies into homicides would be an introduction of more guns. The point of showing the gun in an armed robbery is to scare the victim into quickly surrendering their valuables, not to shoot them. Shooting the victim makes almost no sense from the criminal’s perspective. They want your laptop, not your life (they can’t sell that). Triggers get pulled when the assailant feels threatened or panics. That’s why both the Madison Police Department and common sense suggest that the best thing to do if robbed at gunpoint is to surrender your belongings and report the incident to the police. MPD specifically asks students not to fight back because it ultimately puts everyone involved in greater danger. Your iPhone isn’t worth jeopardizing your own or someone else’s life by pulling a gun.
The letter also claims that the violence thus far has not been student-on-student. That claim needs serious clarification. The armed robberies have not been student-on-student thus far. That doesn’t apply at all for the lower-profile crimes on campus; those are still almost entirely committed by students, against students. Moreover, I would like to draw attention to the fact that no student has pulled a gun on another student this year. Could that possibly be because of the gun-free policies Hookstead wants done away with? Students aren’t robbing other students at gunpoint because they aren’t carrying guns, and we are all safer because of it.
Hookstead’s last suggestion at face value is completely legitimate. Where he goes wrong is when he encourages women to “try to always have a least one male with you if you’re in a group of women.” Right there this went from good safety advice to yet another example of “the creator’s” misogynistic beliefs. No, David, women do not need a man with them at all times to be safe. Sure, women walking alone have been attacked. Guess what? Men walking alone have been attacked, too. For God’s sake, 6-foot-5 Badger football player Tanner McEvoy was mugged over the summer. The perpetrators in these armed robberies are clearly not out looking for women to rob — they are looking for people walking alone. If you want to stay safe at night, it really doesn’t matter who you walk with, just as long as you’re not walking by yourself.
Stay in groups, stay in well-lit areas and stay safe.
Zach Wood ([email protected]) is the state vice chair of College Democrats of Wisconsin.