> > I remember at UNH I once saw a 'march' for
>>women's rights or something like that (Actually,
>>it was probably about 'taking back the night'
>>and 'making the campus safe for women to walk
>>around at night' . . .) that consisted of maybe
>>a dozen screaming coeds carrying signs marching
>>about a tenth of a mile down main street then
>>quitting and going home.
>
> I saw these marches several times -- it was a
>regular thing. "Take back the night" was exactly
>what they chanted. There were usually
>significantly more a dozen, 99% were women, and
>they marched around downtown for I'm not sure how
>long. They had a good enough cause -- I
>certainly can't argue with someone who would like
>to stop what makes many women feel uncomfortable
>walking across campus alone at night.

Then I must have seen the really stupid portion of this protest group. These people weren't even bright enough to demonstrate at *night* about taking back the night--it was right smack in the middle of the friggin day. And there were definitely no more than a dozen, and the walked from Campus Convenience to approximately the travel agency then stopped. I'm not even sure that *is* a tenth of a mile.

>
> But yeah, I had the same reaction. *What* were
>they trying to do? Are would-be assailants going
>to hear this rallying cry and immediately mend
>their ways? Are persons of authority going to
>hear this rallying cry and magically stop all
>manner of abuse and harassment? Who is the
>audience of this protest? Maybe other people who
>are also frightened to walk across campus alone?
>Will they hear these chants, become inspired to
>persevere by then, and fight crime by...by...by
>doing WHAT? Joining the march! Yeah!
>
> Actually, I take all I just said back. If we
>could gather *enough* people to march in these
>protests so that a throng of candle-holding
>chanters were marching through every part of
>campus at every hour of the night, I bet it
>really *would* cut down on the nighttime attacks.

What, are you kidding? I'd be out there beating the crap out of them just on general principle at that point. "Take back the night! Make it unsafe for people who want to sleep!" Right. Nobody interrupts my sleep and gets away with it.

>
> The alternative, of course, is to send these
>people to Boston or New York City for a while, so
>that when they come back, they will realize that
>although UNH is part of an imperfect world in
>which bad things do happen to people who do not
>take common sense precautions that, true, often
>sadden those who have to make them, it's far from
>the crime capital of the world.

That was always my thought. Why are you protesting HERE? I can't recall a single incident that happened at UNH during my time there that had anything to do with people walking across campus at night. If you're going to protest, at *least* go somewhere where your chosen subject is actually an *issue* and protest *there*.

But it could be worse. There could be more of those 'riots' that UNH had a few years back. The ones that basically consisted of a bunch of frat boys standing out in the middle of the street drinking and refusing to leave, and then attracting all sorts of other drunken people (there being no other kind of person walking the streets of Durham at night anyway). They thought they had a right to stand in the middle of the street and drink because they paid tuition. Gah. If I'd been a Durham cop or a campus police officer I would have just driven my car right through the middle of that throng at high speed--anybody bright enough and quick enough to get out of the way might actually deserve to live, the rest we're better off without.

-- Dave