Crime rises in Hopkins community

While crime rates this year have fallen in the city of Baltimore, they have risen in the areas immediately surrounding Homewood. Hopkins students have not been immune to this epidemic of crime; instead they increasingly seem to be its major targets.

The trend has given rise to new concerns about the safety of students and has culminated in a new effort by school administrators to bolster security on campus and in the surrounding areas.

The year began with a series of indecent exposure incidents in which a man revealed himself to people walking across from campus on N. Charles St. The first two incidents occurred within three weeks of each other. At the time, Hopkins Investigator Dennis Rosemary told the News-Letter that indecent exposure incidents were rare and often isolated.

"I couldn't give you a clue as to why this has happened now. It could be someone released from an institution. We haven't had this in a while." he said.

But the majority of serious crimes have taken place during months, further raising concerns around Charles Village.

In an unusual incident that happened in mid-February, an international student was tricked by two con artists into withdrawing a large sum of money from his bank account. The incident, called a "flim flam" or a highly professional scam, happened when the suspects claimed they would share a substantial amount of money with the student, but only after the student provided them with money. Rosemary told the News-Letter on Feb. 20 that after the student withdrew money and gave it the con artists, they disappeared. The incident raised eyebrows because such cases are rare.

"It's the first case of this nature I've seen in a long time," Rosemary told the News-Letter. "When I first heard about it, I was shocked."

On Feb. 28, a dispute over a sandwich order at Royal Farms turned into a much more serious matter when one of the store's employees stabbed a customer three times, sending the victim to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center.

The customer, a Towson University student who lives with Hopkins students, suffered serious intestinal injuries.

The suspect, Rodeny McClain, was apprehended by Baltimore City Police force. Just three weeks ago, a Hopkins junior suffered minor injuries when a would-be robber confronted him near the Allston Apartment building on N. Charles St.

The victim managed to punch his attacker, but he did suffer a cut on his arm when the attacker swung at him with a knife before fleeing the scene.

In the weeks following these incidents, Hopkins began discussions with a national security consulting firm, IXp Corporation of Princeton, NJ.

Then, in a event that received widespread attention, junior Christoper Elser was stabbed to death while he was sleeping in a house just a few blocks from campus.

In response, the administration held a town-hall meeting on Monday with students to discuss how to make the area safer. But while many say there is more that can be done, some people caution that security concerns are a part of everyday life.

"Hopkins is in an urban environment," University spokesman Dennis O'Shea said last week. "But in many ways, no matter where you are, it is an unfortunate fact of the society in which we live that we have to be cognizant of our surroundings at all times."