Boys will be boys and girls will be girls, but idiots don’t need to be idiots.
It’s undeniable that the amount of off-campus crime at Ohio State is out of control. Every week, new cases of robbery at gunpoint, kidnapping and shootings occur within easy reach of the university. The Columbus police have their hands full with heinous acts.
The frequent crimes of significance leave the police with little time to monitor the mass amounts of petty wrongdoing.
My roommate bought a brand new Honda SI a few weeks ago to replace the Honda Civic he owned that was on its deathbed. It took four days for the SI to be vandalized in the parking lot behind our apartment. The culprits spent the time and effort to detach his driver-side mirror, then left it on the ground next to his vehicle. No other damage was done to the car.
Was that worth the adrenaline rush to the drunk morons likely responsible?
The perpetrators gained nothing from the act of vandalism, save for whatever thrill they got out of breaking the law. The only net effect was the $150 my roommate had to fork up to pay for a new mirror and its installation.
The typical goal for someone committing a crime is that the person values the gain — the money acquired in a theft, for example — more than the potential consequence.
In this instance, though, the criminals stood to receive nothing. In the instance of most nonsensical, alcohol-driven crime, there is no point. No one benefits, and everyone stands to lose. So what’s the point?
Sure, an abundance of alcohol hampers one’s decision-making. But that serves as no excuse to commit a irrational act just to display a liquor-driven rampage. An offense such as vandalizing a car is plain childish. With a lack of widespread surveillance, Godzilla could get away with such a crime. The fact that the local police already have enough to keep busy, focusing on more serious lawbreaking, means that the likelihood of getting caught breaking into a car or slashing someone’s tires isn’t great.
That means that it’s up to the belligerent students to display a sense of maturity and responsibility. If you can’t keep yourself from committing a senseless crime when drunk, then you shouldn’t be drinking.
