5 Armed Robberies at Georgia State University in 3 1/2 months (Atlanta, Marietta: crime, how much)

[society619]

ATLANTA -- Georgia State University students say they're on alert after a series of armed robberies on the downtown Atlanta campus.

According to records obtained from the University Police Department, the most recent robbery happened Monday night near the intersection of Coca Cola Place and Pratt Street. In a campus alert, police informed students that one of their classmates had his wallet and cell phone stolen at gunpoint.

"I don't want to feel like my safety is in jeopardy. And I don't think any other student should feel that way either," said GSU senior Samantha Caselli.

Monday's robbery was the second in as many weeks. On Feb. 26, police say a female student was robbed at gunpoint after leaving the Rialto Theater. The gunman, police say, demanded the woman's wallet.
The victims gave similar descriptions of the suspect: a black man, 6 feet tall with gold teeth.

Police have increased their visibility on campus with foot and bike patrols in hopes of finding the person responsible for the string of robberies.



Two GSU students robbed at gunpoint - 11Alive.com | WXIA | Atlanta, GA



5 Armed Robberies in the Georgia State area in just over 3 months. Now i'm actaully a GSU student so I can truly that this is just completely sad to have this much crime in a high traffic area for students especially for student travelling at night. The area that GSU is located in which is right in the middle of downtown is not a good area at all. Tons of shady characters and homeless hang around this area where students have to travel and with the campus so spread around this area, it makes this even harder to protect students that have to travel there everyday. I understand that Georgia Tech also has a serious problem with armed robberies as well. I don't know if GSU or GT has enough to stop or control this problem but it truly is becoming a alarming trend that has student reconsidering their college options.

[Caleb Longstreet]

Originally Posted by society619

ATLANTA -- Georgia State University students say they're on alert after a series of armed robberies on the downtown Atlanta campus.

According to records obtained from the University Police Department, the most recent robbery happened Monday night near the intersection of Coca Cola Place and Pratt Street. In a campus alert, police informed students that one of their classmates had his wallet and cell phone stolen at gunpoint.

"I don't want to feel like my safety is in jeopardy. And I don't think any other student should feel that way either," said GSU senior Samantha Caselli.

Monday's robbery was the second in as many weeks. On Feb. 26, police say a female student was robbed at gunpoint after leaving the Rialto Theater. The gunman, police say, demanded the woman's wallet.
The victims gave similar descriptions of the suspect: a black man, 6 feet tall with gold teeth.

Police have increased their visibility on campus with foot and bike patrols in hopes of finding the person responsible for the string of robberies.



Two GSU students robbed at gunpoint - 11Alive.com | WXIA | Atlanta, GA



5 Armed Robberies in the Georgia State area in just over 3 months. Now i'm actaully a GSU student so I can truly that this is just completely sad to have this much crime in a high traffic area for students especially for student travelling at night. The area that GSU is located in which is right in the middle of downtown is not a good area at all. Tons of shady characters and homeless hang around this area where students have to travel and with the campus so spread around this area, it makes this even harder to protect students that have to travel there everyday. I understand that Georgia Tech also has a serious problem with armed robberies as well. I don't know if GSU or GT has enough to stop or control this problem but it truly is becoming a alarming trend that has student reconsidering their college options.

An armed robbery in downtown Atlanta near GSU....what a news flash....the only miracle is that there is not a non-stop string of them. That part of town is always on the edge. And people wonder why Underground Atlanta is always a failure (what are we at, 6-7 "grand re-openings" in 20-30 years?). This is the stuff of Dave Chappelle fame.....it's the Elephant in the room that noooooooo one likes to talk about. There's not way I would ever send a kid to go to school down there. Basically, a bunch of worn out office buildings serving as 3/4 of the "campus" in a high-crime area.....why bother?

I know their business school is excellent and they have continued to put more quality into the curriculum but, probably not worth getting shot before you get out of school to leverage your education? I have to believe a student's "survival" rate goes exponentially up at other schools. As far as putting a lid on it??? Good luck with that. Short of dropping a bulldozer blade on all things South of Marietta Street, not much chance of improvement anytime soon. Students can arm themselves but, popping guns off in highly crowded areas is probably going to open up a few lawsuits. Just a guess here.

Pepper Spray =$15
Whistle = $5
.380 auto = $279
Finding another school to go to = priceless

[FlyiMetro]

Originally Posted by society619

ATLANTA -- Georgia State University students say they're on alert after a series of armed robberies on the downtown Atlanta campus.

According to records obtained from the University Police Department, the most recent robbery happened Monday night near the intersection of Coca Cola Place and Pratt Street. In a campus alert, police informed students that one of their classmates had his wallet and cell phone stolen at gunpoint.

"I don't want to feel like my safety is in jeopardy. And I don't think any other student should feel that way either," said GSU senior Samantha Caselli.

Monday's robbery was the second in as many weeks. On Feb. 26, police say a female student was robbed at gunpoint after leaving the Rialto Theater. The gunman, police say, demanded the woman's wallet.
The victims gave similar descriptions of the suspect: a black man, 6 feet tall with gold teeth.

Police have increased their visibility on campus with foot and bike patrols in hopes of finding the person responsible for the string of robberies.



Two GSU students robbed at gunpoint - 11Alive.com | WXIA | Atlanta, GA



5 Armed Robberies in the Georgia State area in just over 3 months. Now i'm actaully a GSU student so I can truly that this is just completely sad to have this much crime in a high traffic area for students especially for student travelling at night. The area that GSU is located in which is right in the middle of downtown is not a good area at all. Tons of shady characters and homeless hang around this area where students have to travel and with the campus so spread around this area, it makes this even harder to protect students that have to travel there everyday. I understand that Georgia Tech also has a serious problem with armed robberies as well. I don't know if GSU or GT has enough to stop or control this problem but it truly is becoming a alarming trend that has student reconsidering their college options.

A 6 foot talk black man with gold teeth?? Oh he will be easy to find.

[FlyiMetro]

Originally Posted by Caleb Longstreet

An armed robbery in downtown Atlanta near GSU....what a news flash....the only miracle is that there is not a non-stop string of them. That part of town is always on the edge. And people wonder why Underground Atlanta is always a failure (what are we at, 6-7 "grand re-openings" in 20-30 years?). This is the stuff of Dave Chappelle fame.....it's the Elephant in the room that noooooooo one likes to talk about. There's not way I would ever send a kid to go to school down there. Basically, a bunch of worn out office buildings serving as 3/4 of the "campus" in a high-crime area.....why bother?

I know their business school is excellent and they have continued to put more quality into the curriculum but, probably not worth getting shot before you get out of school to leverage your education? I have to believe a student's "survival" rate goes exponentially up at other schools. As far as putting a lid on it??? Good luck with that. Short of dropping a bulldozer blade on all things South of Marietta Street, not much chance of improvement anytime soon. Students can arm themselves but, popping guns off in highly crowded areas is probably going to open up a few lawsuits. Just a guess here.

Pepper Spray =$15
Whistle = $5
.380 auto = $279
Finding another school to go to = priceless

In Atlanta it is very easy for criminals to blend in. Then you have Woodruff Park which also has normal homeless people, but also has those people who are not homeless but blend in with the homeless very well.

Its the Mecca. Plus Atlanta has the greatest airport in the galaxy so, crime is allowed. It will only get worse. Dont feed them after dark & dont let them get wet.

[ecuresident]

Unfortunately this is quite common. For some reason a lot of the great schools are surrounded by bad neighborhoods. University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania, and Harvard are some that come to mind. When I went to Penn, we would have around 20 robberies the first month alone when school got back in session and in 1 year I was witness to 3 of them just walking down the street. Penn has one of the fastest responding Police forces in the nation (they would respond within 4 mins no matter where you were on campus) and multiple video cameras on each street corner, but this stuff still happened. Unfortunately it only takes 30 secs to rob someone, so even if you had a cop come by every few mins (like we had at Penn) the criminals are smart enough to know exactly how much time they have and when the next cop should be coming by. They would change their tactics daily so it is very hard to stop them unless you had cops on almost every street corner all the time. The last robbery I saw was sunday morning at 9 am. How many people walking down the street would be suspicious of their surroundings at that time? So basically the only way to cut this out is fencing most of the campus in so there are only so many entrance and exit points or like the prior poster said totally knocking down the slums around the school, which is happening slowly as GT and GSU are buying them out and building new buildings, but it is going to take years.

[brettk]

Maybe the law abiding students should be allowed to carry their own weapons, rather than the current policies which only allows the criminals.

[mike7586]

Where are APD and GSU security? Downtown should be flooded with school security and police officers on a regular basis at all hours of the day.

[JPD]

Originally Posted by mike7586

Where are APD and GSU security? Downtown should be flooded with school security and police officers on a regular basis at all hours of the day.

Agreed, and there's the downtown ambassador force, which isn't as much of a deterrent as a cop, but at least they should be providing a watchful eye.

The main problem with downtown is that very few places around GSU's campus are open after 5 pm. A lot of the streets downtown near GSU campus and dorms basically turn into dark alleys at night. Perfect scenario for a mugging, or worse.

[kirkwoodhipster]

Where is Atlanta Police Department? GSU can't handle the whole area by itself. The APD needs to step it up! This is unacceptable. That area should be crawling with police. Up at UGA, you can't go 5 minutes without seeing a UGA or Athens police car. Perhaps more bike police would be a good solution. And could the idea of arming the Ambassadors be explored?

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by kirkwoodhipster

Where is Atlanta Police Department? GSU can't handle the whole area by itself. The APD needs to step it up! This is unacceptable. That area should be crawling with police. Up at UGA, you can't go 5 minutes without seeing a UGA or Athens police car. Perhaps more bike police would be a good solution. And could the idea of arming the Ambassadors be explored?

Where's the city supposed to get money for more police officers? We're spending 25% of our (shrinking) tax revenues on employees who have already retired.