Police Presence Is Sorely Lacking

I write with reference to your lead article of October 31 ("HUPD Issues Safety Advisory to Community," news story). I live on Memorial Drive, in a cooperative apartment complex full of Harvard professors and retirees. On the night of September 29-30, I was attacked and beaten in Kennedy Park--100 yards from my home--by a gang of six young black males. They hid in the bushes behind the Kennedy School and ran after us in a V-formation, all very professional. I was with a friend from out of town who managed to divert them for a second, and we ran. They did not say they wanted money. They said they wanted to kill us and, had our stratagem failed, they would have done so. I reported the assault to the Cambridge, Harvard and State Police and to the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, suggesting a pro-active policy against suspicious-looking groups of young men.

My letter was referred to the General Counsel, and I have never received any response. The Harvard Police took my testimony but have evidently buried it, since they neglected to report the incident to The Crimson along with the others. In the meantime, I've seen several such gangs in the vicinity, but never once a police car or foot patrol--except of course for Yasser Arafat's visit. It is ironic that the one evening I've felt safe since the murder attempt was when Harvard rolled out the red carpet to entertain mass- murderer. Now we learn there was a rape, in early September, in mid-morning. But it was buried, too, as long as possible. Police Chief Johnson insists this is all "nothing to get alarmed about." Maybe if I'd been informed, and alarmed, I'd have been more careful myself and avoided a hideous assault and its physical and emotional scarring.

I have not noticed increased security of any kind in my area, and the streets are still very dark. (Bright streetlights are a deterrent to crime.) The advice of the Harvard Police in your article, "not to walk or jog along Memorial Drive or Storrow Drive alone," comes as cold comfort to people who live there. And besides, I live alone--my partner of 15 years has been unable, after three years of looking, to find employment in this state. Nor can I afford a bodyguard to accompany me daily between here and my office at the Semitic Museum on the many occasions when I return home after sunset. Ought I to acquire an Uzi? --James R. Russell   Mashtots Professor of Armernian   Studies