I don’t know if the news of what’s been going on around here has gotten out, but it is getting a little off the hook in Palo Alto. In the past week or so, there have been a string of four armed robberies from pedestrians, including two of them on Stanford’s campus. The following article has more information about the crimes and where things are with the case.
http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/show_story.php?id=2857
The thing that has bothered me about it all is the general descriptions that were used for the suspects before the police came out with the sketches in the above article. After the first on-campus robbery, Stanford’s public safety office sent out an email across campus describing the two suspects as two black men (one 5’7″ and 175 lbs and one 5’9″ and 175 lbs) with short hair and short goatees. As soon as I read it, I was like “Oh my damn! that general description could be me or any number of other black dudes on campus”. And, then when the second on-campus robbery happened, the general description given was of three suspects, one 5’7″ and 250 lbs, one 5’6″ and medium build, and one 5’9″ and medium build…yet another super general description that could have been any random black dude on campus. Thank goodness those sketches came out because I’d hate to have to worry about being wrongly identified for something like this.
http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/show_story.php?id=2857
The thing that has bothered me about it all is the general descriptions that were used for the suspects before the police came out with the sketches in the above article. After the first on-campus robbery, Stanford’s public safety office sent out an email across campus describing the two suspects as two black men (one 5’7″ and 175 lbs and one 5’9″ and 175 lbs) with short hair and short goatees. As soon as I read it, I was like “Oh my damn! that general description could be me or any number of other black dudes on campus”. And, then when the second on-campus robbery happened, the general description given was of three suspects, one 5’7″ and 250 lbs, one 5’6″ and medium build, and one 5’9″ and medium build…yet another super general description that could have been any random black dude on campus. Thank goodness those sketches came out because I’d hate to have to worry about being wrongly identified for something like this.
