Police prefer drunks to muggers

Mary Delaney Roanoke
Published: July 20, 2008

Shame on the Charlottesville Police Department for its confused priorities.

Recently, for the second time in three years, my daughter, who is a student at the University of Virginia, was mugged within yards of the Corner. And for the second time, the Charlottesville police were of little help and the university police were of no help.

Both times, she was walking alone to her off-Grounds housing after an evening of work. Don’t tell me that she shouldn’t be walking alone — that is impractical.

I travel for a living and have safely walked alone at night in cities all over the country: New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Las Vegas, to mention a few.

So where were the Charlottesville police? They are constantly patrolling the better lit streets in search of the easy-find, high-revenue underage drinkers, while hardworking students traveling home with a full pocket of tips are threatened to have their “brains blown out.”

Why aren’t the city police patrolling these darker routes among off-Grounds student housing? These are not alleys; the location of her last mugging was very close to a large, new, high-rent apartment building very close to the Corner.

And what about the university police? They are so quick to say the mugging occurred “off Grounds.”  (My daughter’s first mugging involved a get-away car parked in a parking lot next to a university-owned building.) The university police have to save their resources for football game days to patrol the parking lots for those lawbreaking tailgaters.

I’m finished telling everyone that we love Charlottesville. I’m going to start tel-ling parents of prospective students to check the mugging rates in Blacksburg, Harrisonburg and Williamsburg. Let’s hope those police forces really do “serve and protect.”