By Jessica Berget, Editor-in-Chief
Recently, an acquaintance of mine had an unfortunate experience with a creep. A man approached the bench she was sitting on, put his arm around her, picked her up, and tried to walk away with her while insinuating they were now going to have sex. She got away and tried to draw attention to herself, but the guy kept following her until she called her parents to pick her up. She contemplated calling the police but figured they would never find the guy, so there was no point. She asked a friend for a second opinion who said that calling the police could put more patrol in the area, which convinced her to report the incident.
Since then, she says she noticed more cop cars patrolling her area, which makes both of us feel safer. This feeling is mirrored by students in a study by Carleton University from 2014 to 2017. Nearly 1,300 surveys were taken by students in Grade 9 in schools with diverse populations. Business Professor Linda Duxbury stated this of the study: āOne dominant finding is every single group of students benefited and felt safer over time.ā
On another anecdotal note, I have also had to call the police when I was mugged a couple years ago. I was peevish about calling the cops because I didnāt have much experience dealing with the police, but they ended up catching the perpetrator and I got my wallet back. I understand peopleās contentions with calling the police, but Natasha Aruliah, an equity, diversity, and inclusion consultant stated for the CBC that calling the police can help end racist attackers in the case of a hate crime. Of course, there is still a lot of debate to be had about how to deal with the deaths and injustices suffered by those at the hands of horrible police officers, but we cannot discount the benefits police protection entirely.
This brings up a good point about why calling the cops is the best thing to do in the event of an emergency. In the case of a burglary, mugging, or other crimes, you should absolutely call the cops so the police can bring more patrol in the area so itās less likely others will be hurt again. Furthermore, if they do catch the person, it will go on their personal record and if they do it again there will be harsher consequences. Getting a record of these incidents is a good resource for police to use in court if the criminal does it again or commits a more violent offense.
