Dispatch: Crime rate around Ohio State scares students, parents

9:33am Friday, July 25, 2003

Every chance they get, the editors at the Columbus Dispatch publish commentary opposing legal self-defense in the state of Ohio. Judging by the state of affairs in Columbus and around the OSU campus, the Dispatch prefers that only the bad guys be armed. The crime wave around campus has gotten so bad, Columbus police have even told volunteers at the Community Crime Patrol to stay out of the area.

As this Dispatch story shows, Senate delays in fixing HB12 and sending it to Gov. Taft are resulting in rendering lesser-advantaged college students (who cannot afford to move to more expensive housing) completely and totally defenseless.

Crime rate around Ohio State scares students, parents
Friday, July 25, 2003
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

The Big Apple seems a lot safer to Donna Pardo than the area near Ohio State University where her daughter Sara lives.

"Crime in Columbus in general looks like it’s out of control; I was much less concerned about her when she spent last summer in New York City," Pardo said yesterday.

Violence has plagued the campus area in recent months, including the execution-style killings of three young people in a house on E. 11 th Avenue Wednesday.

On Sunday night, a man was shot and killed in an alley not far away. And in April, five young people were killed in an arson.

That’s not to mention riots that broke out in November after OSU’s football win over Michigan, and a serial rapist who attacked 12 women last year.

Columbus police say they’ve tallied seven slayings so far this year in the precinct that covers off-campus housing for Ohio State University, compared with three all of last year and four the year before.

Click on the "Read More..." link below for more.

"There’s constant worry," said Joe Estep, 23, an OSU senior who lives on Chittenden Avenue, a block north of 11 th Avenue. "I’m not eager to tell my parents about this."

Estep has lived in the area for three years. During that time, his car’s tires have been slashed, the windshield smashed and the mirror ripped off.

Lately, when he walks the 20 steps from his car to his apartment door, he nearly runs — and quickly locks the door behind him.

That’s smart, said Ellen Moore, executive director of Community Crime Patrol, a group that pays people to watch over the area.

But even the Crime Patrol is deterred by crime.

Moore said Columbus police banned the group from patrolling south of E. 13 th Avenue about five weeks ago.

"They feel the situation is coming unglued down there and they want to make sure we’re not put in harm’s way," Moore said.

Moore said she advises students to avoid renting any houses east of N. High Street that are south of Lane Avenue — 10 blocks north of 11th Avenue.

Twins Tasha and Lisa Johnson, 24 and OSU seniors, said they can’t wait to move from their E. 11th Avenue apartment.

"It’s really scary," said Lisa, a computer-information-system major. "It’s not safe up here at all."

align="center">

She said both her car and her sister’s car were destroyed during campus riots, but they’ve been forced to stay in the area because they can’t afford to live in dorms or in a safer area.

Josh Graves, an OSU junior who lives on E. 13 th Avenue near N. High Street, knows he’d be safer living farther north. He and his roommates are moving there in September when their lease runs out. They want to escape the noise, trash, parties and crime.

"This is not a place where I’d want to live alone," said Graves as he grilled out on his front porch. He’s lived there because he could walk to classes in five minutes and the rent was cheaper than other houses, he said. Pardo, of Zanesville, said she wouldn’t allow her daughter to live in the southern area of offcampus houses. She said she can’t wait until her daughter, a senior, moves from the university area entirely. The triple slayings this week have just added to her concern. "It’s just one more thing to be worried about."

About 12,000 students live in off-campus university-area housing.

Click here to read the story in the Columbus Dispatch (subscription site - paid access only)

UPDATE: Increased patrols fail to calm fears in university area (subscription site - paid access only)

UPDATE: Man found slain in his apartment on North Side - multiple slayings spreading police force thin (subscription site - paid access only)

UPDATE: Columbus police frazzled by 10 killings in a week (subscription site - paid access only)

OSU's Lantern: Pocketing Pistols

OSU to Students: How to Protect Yourself Against the Serial Rapist