In his 2013 State of the City address, Mayor Steve Benjamin had a lot of praise for the “famously hot” city of Columbia. Throughout his speech, he exalted the revitalization of downtown Main Street and rattled off several accomplishments the city has recently witnessed.
However, Benjamin largely ignored the amount of violence that seems to be centrally located in Five Points and its impact on USC’s student population. In this past semester alone, our community has had to deal with countless mentions of crime and violence- related activities in Five Points, located right next to the heart of USC’s campus.
The popular late-night hangout, as well as nearby places on campus where midnight strolls were once safe, like the Pickens Street Bridge, are now hotbeds of unsavory activity. From muggings to indecent exposures, it’s clear that something’s amiss and a task force needs to address this issue.
But so far, the local police force has seemed complacent in their cop cars and unwilling to evaluate why and how to stop crime from happening in these concentrated areas. Instead of coming up with new ideas or initiatives, students are largely left to their own devices when they’re out late, while the police continue to congregate at the local Exxon, if at all.
Violence in Five Points affects the student population disproportionately, and it’s something that needs to be dealt with swiftly. Benjamin did a great disservice to a large segment of Columbia’s population by ignoring this. It’s great to recognize the good in Columbia, but we also need to know the ugly truth — and what will be done to fix it.