Editor,
While going to UNM since 1997 I have noticed vagrants becoming an all too familiar scene.
They stand on the corner of the bookstore and outside of surrounding businesses. However, they are becoming an increasingly growing nuisance in areas where I feel they should not be. There has been an increasing presence of them hanging around the UNM campus and not just front of the book store mall area either, but also in front the various lecture halls and class buildings within the heart of the campus.
I have even seen them defecating or urinating in open public behind my old fraternity house. When the police are called they are runoff just to return the next day. Vagrants are everywhere! While going to UNM, I used to frequent the now closed Burger King that used to be across the street from the engineering annex. There were many times I would go between classes to get a bite to eat when I would be approached by one of these vagrants while inside the restaurant.
The sight and smell of them would make me so disgusted, that I would take that $4 hamburger that I just paid for and throw it in the trash, half eaten. I would leave the restaurant, sick of their pungent odor and of their disgusting sight.
Recently though, they have become a bit more than just a nuisance. They now threaten our way of life. They are becoming a public danger that needs to be dealt with. Only a few months ago a passerby was shot to death by a vagrant, right in front of a business across the street from UNM. And now a police officer was shot by one of these people at a Walgreens, just a few blocks away from the campus. While walking to the Frontier Restaurant one night, my friend and I were attacked by a vagrant who threw a Chinese throwing star at us, right in front of the UNM bookstore and Johnson Gym. The police got involved and arrested the guy, but we were assured he would probably be back on the streets within a few days. So as students of UNM we need take a stand and force our school government to realistically do something about this problem.
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As hard working students, our civil rights are being violated every time this ever-increasing problem harasses us. When will this problem be solved? Will it take another innocent bystander to die? Or will it be a student getting shot or stabbed to death while walking out of class, before we say enough is enough and do something about this problem? Our laws need to be tailored to protect the rights of paying students from being infringed by these vagrants.
Shaun Stanton
UNM Alumnus
