Out of the darkness

After a night on the town, Chico State junior Erik Taylor awoke on the morning of Sunday, April 29, with a broken, swelling nose, two black eyes and a missing wallet. Taylor concluded he had been beaten and mugged on his walk home, but had no recollection of the attack.

The night before, Taylor had been out with visiting friends. He drank, but not in excess, he said. He left The Banshee on Second Street alone around 2 a.m. Sunday. At some point during his walk home in the south-campus neighborhood, he was knocked unconscious.

Taylor is the Associated Students’ director of legislative affairs and president of the Democratic Club on campus, and he was expected to attend two events that afternoon. Upon discovering two deep lacerations on the back of his head, however, he opted for a hospital visit instead.

“One of the lacerations is really jagged,” Taylor said during a recent interview in downtown Chico. “My doctor thinks I was hit over the head with a bottle. He also thinks my head hit the concrete pretty hard, which probably led to my concussion.”

The attack has prompted Taylor to take action. He plans to go before the City Council next fall and outline a proposal for more street lighting in the south-campus neighborhood. He’s organized a Facebook page, “More Lights Safer Nights,” dedicated to the cause.

He said he is alarmed by the violent activity police have reported after the last several weekends, and he thinks many Chico State students share his concerns.

“I started this because of what happened to me, but it’s not about me,” he said. “Most of the people I talk to on campus think there’s a problem.”

Whether adding street lights to crime-ridden neighborhoods actually reduces crime is a matter of debate. A UK study titled “The Influence of Street Lighting on Crime and Fear of Crime,” released by the Crime Prevention Unit in 1991, focused on crime rates in the London Borough of Wandsworth before and after new street lights were installed.

“No evidence could be found to support the hypothesis that improved street lighting reduces street crime,” the study’s authors concluded.

The researchers did note that fear of crime was eased by street lighting. “Here there was clear evidence that perceived safety of women when walking alone after dark had been improved in the treated area,” they wrote.

Lt. Linda Dye of the Chico Police Department said there is no easy answer as to whether more extensive street lighting would suppress crime in the student neighborhood.

“We’ve had some high-profile crimes the last couple weeks in well-lit areas,” she said. “It’s only part of the personal-safety equation. The other parts are being aware of your surroundings, how you’re presenting yourself and how intoxicated you are. We tell people to walk in well-lit areas, walk in groups, and make sure someone in the group stays sober.”

For Taylor, the two weekends following his attack have served to strengthen his cause. A violent Cinco de Mayo weekend (see “Weekend Warriors,” Newslines, May 10) was followed by two more incidents during the early morning of Saturday, May 12. At 1 a.m., police attended to a 21-year-old female Chico State student who was severely beaten in her home on Mechoopda Street by an unknown male intruder. The assault has prompted an ongoing investigation.

At 2 a.m., officers encountered two stabbing victims at the corner of Citrus and West Sacramento avenues. Two men in their early 20s were stabbed multiple times by two suspects, a man and woman, following an argument. Both victims were last reported in stable condition.

“We’ll often see an increase in crime as the weather warms up, but these things have been somewhat random,” Dye said. “Alcohol has been involved in some cases, in others it hasn’t. In the case at Mechoopda Street, it was just a bad guy victimizing that young lady.”

Despite what police say, Taylor maintains violence in the south-campus neighborhood is a growing problem.

“It seems like crime is higher,” Taylor said. “People getting shot on Cinco de Mayo, people were jumped and stabbed this past weekend. It seems like every weekend there are a couple more students getting attacked.”

When he goes before the council in the fall, Taylor hopes to convey that a violent reputation ultimately will hurt the university and Chico as a whole.

“If this becomes a big deal and families across California start hearing about violence in the student neighborhood—where they assume their kid would live after their freshman year—they might not let them come here,” he said. “For the safety of students here now and students who will be here in the future, we need to protect our neighborhood.”