Let me preface this by saying that I respect what the article about the MUPD Clery releases is trying to do, I get it… Now let me say this: the comment that none of the Clery releases sent out previously this year had “quotes from the victims” is partially incorrect.

When police departments send out releases like this, they take information directly from the police report, which includes a victim’s statement. The fact that the victim used the term “bear hug” was noted in said statement, and in the police report. Whoever was in charge of writing the release is responsible for sending out only the information presented in the report.

By no means am I disagreeing with the fact that victim blaming is wrong, and that there is an issue when students start trivializing things such as this… I’m simply saying that the information presented to the student body is the information that was presented to the MUPD, and that’s what they had to work with.

The fact of the matter remains that the responsibility does not lie with the MUPD to change the wording of the statement and police report to make the Clery release look “better,” or more severe, so that the people reading it do not take it seriously, but with the students when they read it, to understand that someone felt threatened enough to call the police, and that whatever happened to them is a serious issue.

The problem is lack of maturity in college students, and lack of respect for their peers.

Bill Dew
dartharachnis@yahoo.com