GC&SU threatened by slashing

According to Public Safety, the tires of 10 cars belonging to Bell Hall residents were found slashed Saturday morning, Sept. 14, amounting to over $500 in criminal damage.

These cars consisted of a 2000 silver Ford Focus, a 1994 green Ford Escort, a 1997 white Pontiac Sunfire, a 1998 blue Ford Taurus, a 1999 white Toyota Corolla, a black Saturn Twin Cam, a silver Honda Civic, a silver Nissan Maxima, a 2002 blue Chevrolet Camaro and a 1998 red Ford Mustang. These cars were parked in the Bell/Terrell and old courthouse parking lots.

“It appears to be, and hopefully is, an arbitrary act of vandalism, because we haven’t had anything happen like this before,” said Richard G. Goodson, deputy director of Public Safety. “I’ve been here five years and nothing has happened, so I think it’s arbitrary. It’s a big aggravation. Now, we will be more alert to someone out there wanting to do this.”
Jenny Weiss, junior mass communication major, was informed around 11:30 a.m. Saturday that her back right tire had been slashed.

“I was just frustrated that I was going to have to pay money out of my own pocket, money I didn’t have, because of someone’s
thoughtlessness,” she said.

Public Safety will continue to look for suspects. The City of Milledgeville is also searching for similar activity, but none has occurred so far. The suspects would be charged with criminal trespassing, a felony, due to the large amount of damage.

“We take it personal when somebody does something on campus,” Goodson said. “It’s an a front to the job we are trying to do. If we catch them, they will be prosecuted.”

According to Goodson, the Bell/Terrell and old courthouse lots hold several cars, it’s “an ideal situation” for someone wanting to vandalize.

According to the report, the vandalism occurred between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. Saturday. At 8 a.m., one of the officers patrolled these parking lots and found no signs of vandalism.

According to Goodson, Public Safety plans to “increase our patrol service.”

“We are continuously finding ways to make the college safer. We added call boxes last year. I know that one of the things that the university is looking forward to putting up is cameras to monitor high traffic areas and some of the parking lots, but I don’t know where we are at on that priority list. The new residence halls will have panic buttons in all the rooms,” Goodson said. “We are also picking up more police officers, a total of four officers before the year is over, which means one more officer per shift. For the most part almost always having two officers on shift once we get up to full staff.”

Goodson said Public Safety also wants “to get the students involve and be more aware of what’s going on around the college.”

“You guys are our eyes and ears. We can’t be everywhere,” he said. “We are dependent on students being observant.”

The students are pursing compensation for the damage. However, according to Public Safety, Georgia College & State University “is not liable” for the vandalism.

“Because we were concerned about the safety in the parking lots, they (Public Safety) suggested a self-defense class or a hall meeting with Officer Goodson,” Weiss said. “My main concerns were being compensated for the money and being safe in the parking lots. The main thing is getting cameras up so that this doesn’t happen again.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 27 2002. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry