Somebody tell me when RPI students stopped growing backbones, because I think the number of robberies listed in the Incident Blotter is getting seriously out of hand. These occurrences seem so pathetic. I’m not only referring to the ones this semester, but I’m also taking into account the numerous muggings from last year. Out of all of those incidents, only one involved the perpetrator using a weapon, which happened to be a measly pocket knife.
When I read The Poly the other morning, I was in a frenzy, exclaiming how RPI students are cowards when it comes to confronting muggers. The gentleman next to me commented that I wouldn’t be so confident if I were in one of those situations, but his credibility was lost for a couple of reasons. The first is that he didn’t seem to be the type of person who could think quickly under stress, since he felt the need to play Brain Age on his Nintendo DS like his life depended on it. The second reason he had no credibility was because he didn’t know that I actually have been in a similar situation. While on a trip during senior year of high school, two males approached me. One of them held a gun closely to my face and demanded all of my belongings. Unlike most of you who would cave in front of unarmed Troy teenagers, I was not going to suffer this. I quickly dislodged the gun from the man’s hands, whereupon I grabbed his right arm and snapped it at the elbow. Reeling in pain, he backed away, and his accomplice smartly followed suit. However, I digress.
Here is my point: You don’t need to be someone who has 14 years of Okinawan Isshinryu training under his belt, but you do need to stand up for your principles. You simply can’t acquiesce to the demands of degenerate, stupid criminals just because they look threatening, especially if they are unarmed. You have an obligation to say “no,” and if they do happen to pull out a weapon after your initial response, you can still run. You might even want to consider martial arts training; I know it has saved my life multiple times.
These faceless criminals know they can get away with these robberies because they know that we are a campus of cowards. It’s time you all learned to stand up for yourselves. Your intelligence means nothing if your character is weak, and I would hate to see next year’s thesauruses have entries that synonymize “RPI Student” with “wimp.”
Stop living in fear.
Joe Fasanello
PHYS ’09
