Common Protection

There is one splotch of Cambridge green where you seldom see the policeman's blue. That is Cambridge Common. Since most policemen are cruising the city in their cozy cars and the others are patroling such arcas as East Cambridge and Central Square, the Common has no watchman. Police say the prowl cars scan the streets and beat-men guard business establishments. They ask: Why patrol Grass?

If the Common's egregious record of assaults and hold ups means anything, and to the victims it certainly does, then the police are wrong. For example, only recently two brash gunmen halted and robbed a freshman. To the Radcliffe girl the Common is a short-cut between the Square and the regions beyond, but at night she wants little part of the vast expanses of darkness between the twinkle of a few overhead lights. They only other route is the Avenue--the long way.

Just one or two policemen assigned to the Common and environs during the later hours could prevent wrong doings. For the police it would involve merely transferring one or two men from comfortable patrol cars or the crowded, well lighted side walks. It would be no great change. Then the darkened Common would no longer be a Cyclops cave.