Saturday, July 15, 2006

Rape? In a college town?

CNN.com - Police sergeant charged with rapes in college town - Jul 14, 2006:
"BLOOMINGTON, Illinois (AP) -- A police sergeant was charged with four rapes dating back to 2002 Friday, two days after he was charged with stalking a woman who found him lurking outside her home.

In addition to the rape charges, Bloomington Sgt. Jeff Pelo, 41, faces two counts of home invasion and charges of aggravated stalking and attempted residential burglary."

3 comments:

post tot discrimina rerum said...

Well, even my dad calls them "the local gestapo."

But, to correct, Normal is where I went to school. Wesleyan, the private school in Bloomington, is, as one might expect, where the rich kids go. This story gives no info. There are plenty of non-college people living there. Bloomington and Normal together are almost as big as Lansing-East Lansing--I mean 150,000 people.

So, in other words, as your headline implies, rape is rampant on campuses, but, I don't understand why this counts as a campus rape. Or, "Rape in a college town." Bloomington is actually far from being a college town. Normal, maybe, but, Bloomington, no fucking way. That's the city that wasn't founded based on the location of the college. It's like 100,000 of the 150,000. Wesleyan, the college in Bloomington, has about 3,000 students.

Wow. I guess I know now why people watch FOX news. The lead in to this story is absolute bullshit.

post festum said...

I'll take your word for most of this, but I thought Bloomington also was home to Illinois State or some such place. I went to undergrad in a small rural town (45-50,000 in the middle of nowhere), but it was the presence of another school in the same town that really made it qualify as a 'college town' -- for example, the local rental housing market was almost entirely based in college students and immirgant farm workers, and night life in the town built itself around college student demands like coral.

Oh, and to answer your question about why this counts as a college rape? Well, the short (and long) answer is that it doesn't. Just some words I through together. Just trying to stick a pin in the eye of up-tight people like Post Tot who never seem to let art happen.

post tot discrimina rerum said...

Normal is home to Illinos State University. Bloomington has Illinois Wesleyan. So, close, but no cigar. I do appreciate your flippin of the CNN headline, which again points up its idiocy, just in a different way, and probably a funnier way.