It’s a glorious Saturday in the Swamp. The campus is surrounded with friends and strangers decked out in orange and blue. The energy is high and occasionally someone will yell out a friendly “Go Gators!” as you walk by. There seems to be absolutely no worries for at least a few hours of tailgating.
Not anymore.
In our drunken slumber Saturday night, we all received those annoying UF alerts telling us of yet another suspect that UFPD just can’t seem to catch. And since I’m starting my senior year here in Gaines-Vegas, I was tempted to completely ignore the alerts in general. I mean, aren’t we all becoming immune to their incessant warnings?
My attitude changed, however, after hearing numerous stories from my friends, and finally reading an article on Orlando’s WKMG Local 6. Now I’m singing a different, more afraid tune.
Apparently, Gainesville police are still looking for a man who they say attempted to rape three different women on Saturday evening as they were leaving the stadium.
They say one incident involved a woman being dragged from a sidewalk into a wooded area. From what I’ve heard secondhand, her screaming alarmed passerby’s enough to respond to her cries from help and scare the perpetrator off.
The police also confirmed that a separate young woman was punched in the face, and then had her clothes ripped off, in an attempt to rape her.
It’s scary to think that these girls were walking home with friends and/or mixed among the large sloppy crowd of Gator fans and college folk. I can imagine the last thing they expected was to be attacked.
Yes, us educated women of the University of Florida know that walking alone at night is dangerous. We know to be cautious of classic stranger danger. We know how to use those blue poles located in various spots around campus. But it’s obviously come to a point where we must be on guard 24/7, 100% of the time. No matter how drunk you are, stumbling home from midtown or the stadium after the big game, or anywhere for that matter, is definitely not an option.
We can and should invest in mace or pepper spray, keep a pocketknife in our purses and take a taxi. We can also download the Safetrek or TapShield apps to easily access emergency alerts, or plan out a DD before any events.
But there are a few things I think UFPD could consider in helping prevent these unfortunate occurrences as well.
I’m sure you’re wondering why I didn’t mention SNAP in the above paragraph. Well, a fellow GainesvilleScene writer (shout out Kriti Vedhanayagam) talked to UFPD regarding the incident, and found out that SNAP wasn’t even running. In fact, SNAP doesn’t run at all during games, and doesn’t start operating until hours after the game ends.
Furthermore, there should be a way to send out immediate alerts, maybe even by a student if the police aren’t responding soon enough. Apparently the UFPD cannot send out immediate alerts if the attack isn’t reported as directly occurring on campus, and they can only try to send out “timely warnings”…AKA when your phone starts blowing up at 3 in the morning.
Finally, pledge rides need to be brought back. Freshmen pledges shouldn’t be drinking since they are underage and pledge rides are one of the easiest ways to ensure girls get home safely and people don’t drive drunk. It leaves no room for excuses, like not having money for a taxi or losing the person that decided to be DD. With pledge rides, the driver honors to stay sober and give safe rides all night long.
Yes, yes we’ve heard it all before, but I’ll say it again: always be aware of your surroundings, always travel in groups, always be prepared for sketchy situations and run away from literally every single male you see that you don’t recognize that is heading in your general direction (Is that too much? Maybe…. Maybe not).
If we’re being honest, most of us would never even put ourselves in these types of vulnerable situations unless we’re coming home from a night out or a tailgate, so remember: drunkenness does not equal invincibility.
