A safe and civil city

OK, I know it looks bad around here right now. We had a girl go missing and a homicide occur within the last couple of months.

You can’t walk a block without seeing a missing person poster taped to a light pole.

But I can wholeheartedly assure everyone this is not normal for Bloomington.

This is not Los Angeles or New York City in the 1990s.

I’ve been in Bloomington for 247 out of the 254 months I’ve been alive.

For 97 percent of my life I’ve been walking the streets of Bloomington, sometimes without shoes or a cell phone, and not once have I been robbed, stabbed or abducted.

When I was in middle school, I would walk home from the Indiana Memorial Union to my childhood home near Bryan Park, passing through areas filled with raging drunken college students dotting my way home without a single conflict.

Not even an evil eye or a cat call, which might have contributed to my poor self-confidence at the time.

Like it says in front of the Bloomington Police Department: Bloomington is a safe and
civil city. 

I’ve seen posts on Facebook about people calling their parents and pleading to them that they live on 10th and College and it’s just not safe anymore.

I can only hope these are jokes.

Living in Smallwood or in 10th and College Village is like living in a fortress compared to the shacks that a lot of us townies live in.

If you have a keycard system or cameras in front of the entrance to your apartment complex you are very fortunate.

If you have bolt locks on your doors and locks on your windows, you’re already living with twice as much peace of mind than where I live.

I don’t want to make it sound like there isn’t any crime in Bloomington. We have our fair share of criminal activity just like any place. But I want all you freshmen flooding into Bloomington this week to know that you are safe.

You are entering a community that can mobilize itself over any injustice, big or small.

You might be coming here alone, but once you join us you’ll have 40,000 students who have your back.

The students of IU are all members of a club, past and present. It is our outstanding ability to work together that keeps us safe.

Just look at the photos of the search parties.

You can see frat stars laughing with hipsters who are talking to normies surrounded by old alumni intertwined with professors and coaches.

Bloomington is fortunate to have an unmatched sense of community.

To all of the freshmen getting their first taste of Bloomington at orientation: Welcome.

Despite the current tragedy, you could not have chosen a better place to spend the next four years of your life.

­— nicjacob@indiana.edu