Monday, May 09, 2005

Tales of Savannah Part XXII: This shit ain't funny anymore

Savannah, GA was described in a local newspaper as being a beautiful woman with a dirty face. I agree with that statement whole heartedly but I would also go further and say that Savannah is a beautiful crack whore with a dirty face. She needs a lot of rehab.
In the past two weeks some serious shit has gone down both in my life and in SCAD community. Let me begin with the SCAD community. The student body received an email not too long ago relating that a young woman who is a Freshman at SCAD was abducted at gunpoint and raped around 1 pm about 100 ft from the entrance to one of the "secure" dormitories. She was forced to drive to South Carolina where she was then raped and was told that she was going to drive to Florida where she would be killed. After being violated the girl stopped at a traffic light and faked car difficulty then ran the light and crashed into on-coming traffic. After the crash she ran from the car and escaped with her life. Her attacker ran off and as of yet has not been aprehended.
Now I don't have the whole story, the school is very hush hush about this. Also, I don't know the victim and I am not about to look into her case. I think she would want privacy at this time and being that she is probably a minor she will not appear in any of the newspapers. But word on the street is she is back at school and for the most part, ok. The word also is that her attacked is a local serial rapist who has been doing this sort of thing for a while. Now I know a friend of this girl who said that she made a positive id to the police, but where it went from there I have no idea.
Folks this city is fucked up. Now I know shit like this happens in all sorts of cities but this brutal attack happen shortly after the mayor of Savannah held a town hall meeting about the violence and crime plaguing the city. Furthermore this attacker apparently has no fear because he did this crime in the middle of the fucking day, in a rather populated place, in front of a dorm that is surrounded by security shacks. This tells me the criminal element is not afraid of the law or the police which indicates that Savannah is clearly weak on crime and innocent people are paying for it. That cannot be tolerated. With every waking second I become more and more disgusted to the point where vigilantism doesn't seem like such a bad idea.
Let me tell you what else pisses me off. This girl should not have been attacked obviously but the fact it happened so close to a drom angers me. Everyday we are forced to show our ids to get into buildings, we are required to have passes on our cars, the security guards enforce these rules pretty strictly and I have a feeling things are even more strict in the dorms. Yet the reality is, the security force at SCAD is more like prison guards than they are protectors of the student body. The people they hire are a joke, I can't tell you the number of times I have caught the guard asleep at a buidling that is a high traffic area for students but also is in one of the worst neighborhoods in the city. Not to mention, that I am pretty sure I could bust down the door of any SCAD facility and cause a serious problem and not have to worry about the security guards controlling me. These people for the most part are a joke. They are mostly women, which far be it from me to be a sexist pig, but most of the time they are doing their nails or talking on the cell phone and they sure as hell aren't going to restrain me, what about a gun toting crack head!?
Furthermore I have had a few experiences with the Savannah Metropolitain Police and I can't say I am very impressed.
Case in point this past Saturday night while at the movies my car window was smashed and I was robbed. My book bag was stolen. Now there was not much in it other than class notes but the bag itself was custom made for me. My CDS and sunglasses were in the car but they were untouched. I was parked outside my friend's house and his neighbors were all home. No one saw a thing. The police arrived about 10 minutes after I called them. Not a bad response time. The officer asks for my id and registration, then looks at my car. That was about it. He gave me a brochure with the report number so I could file my insurance claim (A WHOLE OTHER DISASTER!) and was on his way. He told me to bring my car in the next for CSI guys to try and get a print. Yeah they are gonna get a print off of 100 lbs of broken glass!
So once again I am cleaning up broken glass out of my car, and I made a window out of saran wrap and duct tape, which did nothing for the noise on the way home.
Now in the grand scheme of things what happened to me could have been a lot worse. My run in with the criminal element is in no way as serious as my fellow female classmate. But the anger and the feeling of violation is still pretty great. I can't help but feel angry and yet I have no one to be angry at. That is truly a frustrating feeling not to mention the reality of the situation making me realize that I can not just live freely in Savannah. No I have to be constantly on my guard, aware of my surroundings and who is around. I essentially have to treat every waking moment I am in that city as being in enemy territory and everyone there is out to get me. THAT SUCKS! I am frustrated and angry and completely disgusted with myself, with this city and with the son of bitch who broke into my car. But the worst thing of all is that there isn't jack shit I can do about it and that is a truly sickening feeling.

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