Opinion editor Aidan Cahill talks about his experiences dealing with a random attack while walking down the street.
Content warning: Assault, violence
On Sept. 20, a Loyola student was punched in the face while walking to Target. The incident occurred on North Sheridan Avenue around 9:53 pm. There is no suspect at this time. The victim was transported to the hospital for evaluation but was discharged that night.
Believe it or not, this isn’t a news story.
It falls in opinion because the poor schmuck who got punched is me. Opinion Editor Aidan Cahill.
Yeah, this sucks.
Physically, I’ll be okay. The swelling has gone down, my nose will stop feeling weird — I hope — and the head and jaw aches will go away with time. Emotionally, it’s a different story.
Part of me blames myself for what happened. I was zoned out listening to music on my earbuds and had just slowed down because I was trying to figure out what I wanted to eat for dinner. All of a sudden, the guy in front of me turned around, said something I couldn’t hear then punched me.
The only thing I can think of which may have provoked the attack was me slowing down to collect my thoughts and accidentally getting too close to this guy. Looking back, I realize having earbuds in and zoning out was really dumb on my part.
I don’t know whether to be more embarrassed for my lapse in situational awareness or that I didn’t fight back as some people say I should have. When the incident occurred, I put my head down and ran. I was bleeding and didn’t want to wait to see if the guy who punched me wanted any of my things or a second strike.
While I may have screwed up, others didn’t. Two students saw me stumbling up Sheridan looking for the Campus Safety office and intervened. They called Campus Safety, brought me to Fordham Hall and made sure I got help. Without them, I probably would’ve only made my situation worse.
They aren’t the only ones deserving of praise. Right after I got punched, I called our photo editor Holden Green. I can’t point to an exact reason why I called him, but I’m glad I did. Holden, along with news editor Isabella Grosso, sports editor Griffin Krueger and deputy news editor Hunter Minné, picked me up from the hospital, got me dinner, helped look for my glasses and made sure I got home safely.
I can’t properly express in words how much what they did meant to me. Coming from out-of-state means when things go wrong, you have to rely on the friends and community you’ve built in your short time at Loyola. This was the first major incident where I needed help and when I called, that group answered. If there is a silver lining to this whole thing, it was realizing my fellow editors had my back.
Outside of my own experience, there is another story at play — crime on urban campuses. Every year, the Clery report comes out which details all the crimes that occur on campus. The keywords are “on campus.”
Since my incident happened off-campus and not on a sidewalk that directly connects to a Loyola-owned building, there’s a good chance it won’t be included in next year’s report. This is despite being across the street from Fordham Hall in an area Campus Safety frequently patrols. While Clery may show low-reported crimes on campus, it won’t reflect the larger picture because 58% of students live off campus.
It’s impossible to know without more research how many students are victimized every year. While we have the Police Logs, those have a limited timeframe and don’t show total reported crimes — just the one’s Campus Safety responded to.
While there were other reported incidents of battery around Loyola’s campus in the days before and after my attack, the larger picture is missing. I don’t know if what happened to me is part of a larger trend or a freak act of violence.
I’m not blaming Campus Safety or Loyola for not having this data. There’s a more nuanced discussion to be had about the Clery Act and how it falls short on urban campuses, but that can wait at least a week or two.
For now, all I can do is count my blessings that I only got punched and take care of myself moving forward. After all, if this is the worst thing that happens to me this year, then it was a pretty damn good year.
Feature Image by Holden Green / The Phoenix
