RSS Feed

Walking Home

Posted on February 23, 2014, 2:19 pm, F spotting F (Around Campus). 37 comments. MIT

I saw you... Asian grad-student looking girl trying to walk home, even though you were too drunk to stand. You didn't really look like you wanted to go with the guy who was trying to get you wherever you were going. After the 5th time I saw you fall into the snow trying to cross Kresge, I finally called EMS. Hopefully you're ok...

  1. MIT Police will accommodate requests for after-hour safety rides until daylight.

  2. Except they won't. Sometimes they will call you a cab, and that cab will proceed to not show up because if cabs were stopping we wouldn't have called to begin with. And then you will have to walk home from Boston in the middle of the night, drunk, in like December, unless some cab finally takes you.

  3. This sounds like a serious problem that needs to be addressed to the MIT Chief of Police.

  4. @2 I believe there is a problem with the system of having the MIT police calling a cab, but I don't think you've expressed the problem very well. A cab called to pick someone up is going to go to the address that they are called to, unless they decide to ignore or disregard the call (which they're not supposed to do). The random cabs you try and flag down that "don't stop" are not stopping because they are either picking someone up at an address, are transporting a customer, or are going to a common pickup spot.

  5. How about one being more responsible and not drinking oneself to stupor? Appears more reasonable to me than having to hope for the police to call a cab in addition to the super important things they have to take care of.

    Police != baby-sitters.

    drink responsibly!

  6. @5 A person does not need to be drunk in order to merit an escort home if he or she feels unsafe getting there alone.

  7. Also @5, its better for everyone to have a safety net like a guaranteed ride home. People aren't born responsible, and even folks who are 'responsible' will find themselves in a bad situation once or twice in the course of 4 years here. No one is saying that folks should regularly use MIT police to get a ride home after drinking themselves into a stupor.

  8. @4: The cabs were extremely busy, which is why they were not stopping for us and also why they did not come pick us up when we called and also why they did not come pick us up when the police called. There were many groups of people trying to get cabs and the cabs just drove past all of them, including us.

    @5: We did not drink ourselves to a stupor. We needed a cab because it was late enough that the T wasn't running and it was very, very cold.

    -2

  9. If we had been able to get a cab, either by waving one down or by calling any of the cab companies directly, we wouldn't have called campus police. No one wanted to do it; we were desperate.

    I remember when I was a freshman some upperclassman girl telling everyone about how if you're stuck in Boston or don't feel safe you can call campus police for a ride. I'm just pointing out that I have been in this situation and it is not true, or at least not always. So that others can know that it is not true and not rely on it when they need it.

    -2

  10. And we didn't do a single irresponsible thing. All of us were over 21. We went out drinking, which we do, like, once or twice a semester. We usually stay in Cambridge but this time we decided to go to Boston. We stayed out after the T stopped running because we thought we'd be able to get a cab.

    -2

  11. @5 Thanks for saying what I wanted to say. They want to get drunk and then the police is responsible to take them home.

  12. @11 folks who say stuff like that are idiots who prefer to say whatever they think gives them the moral high-ground instead of what's best for a community.

    A community full of responsible people is going to occasionally have a few folks who are in need of some help. That doesn't make them inherently irresponsible people and it doesn't make them unworthy of help. Its unreasonable to label someone an irresponsible drunkard for getting into a bad situation and needing a lift home once or twice in four years.

  13. I was working late one night and asked for a ride home. I waited for two hours (until 6am) and walked home, in the middle of a large snowstorm. It sucked.

  14. lol this thread, man. Whingeing overload

    @12 Telling people to not be complete idiots is not a moral highground. Its an intellectual one. You, however, are clearly being a moral whiteknight like its your job.

  15. @14 the problem is not people being complete idiots. That was my point. You can't tell people "don't make mistakes" and think that that they're not going to make mistakes. With that reality, you're left with a decision: help people when they inevitably make mistakes, or say 'screw em' and not offer assistance. I don't think you can call yourself a member of the MIT community if you opt for the latter response.

  16. The thing is, I think MIT shouldn't babysit students. Once you leave MIT and find yourself stuck a couple of miles from your apartment on a cold night, what are you going to do? Call the police? Or just suck it up and walk home? There's a difference between being overly protective of students and providing a reasonable safety net.

  17. this comment thread is hilariously fucking dumb. it's a poster child for #firstworldproblems.

    1. don't get too drunk
    2. dress for the weather
    3. always be prepared with a plan to get back home

    if you can't be a responsible adult and follow any of this basic human reasoning, please stay the fuck home and don't have children (lest you raise them to be like you).

    nobody has an obligation to come to your aid.

    it's nice when you're able to hail a cab at 3AM in the morning who'll take your drunk ass home, but they don't want vomit in the backseat, and it's totally reasonable if they drive right by you.

    it's nice that police might sometimes give your drunk ass a ride home, but that's NOT their job. police = protectors, NOT babysitters.

    and let's get one thing clear. if i saw a girl stumbling around in the middle of the night, i would help her home. same with dudes. that's out of the kindness of my own fucking heart, and NOT because i have to. i'm not legally obligated to baby some dumbass who doesn't know how to take care of him/herself drunk, and neither are cabbies, police, or anyone else.

  18. Anyone have experience using Uber or Lyft on nights like that? The taxi industry around here is screwed up, and they'll give it the kick in the pants that it needs.

  19. "and let's get one thing clear. if i saw a girl stumbling around in the middle of the night, i would help her home. same with dudes. that's out of the kindness of my own fucking heart, and NOT because i have to. i'm not legally obligated to baby some dumbass who doesn't know how to take care of him/herself drunk, and neither are cabbies, police, or anyone else."

    Right. No one is saying there is a legal obligation to help people get home! Just like you would help someone who needed a ride home, the MIT community (which is a group of people with presumably similar inclinations) helps people who need a ride home. The MIT community feels the inclination to offer this aid for the same reasons you do as an individual.

  20. I usually use UberX to get around Boston/Cambridge, especially late at night. It's awesome (and reliable), though sometimes surge pricing will kick in late at night, making it expensive.

  21. Comment removed by moderator

  22. God you guys are such dicks.

    The problem isn't that anyone thinks the MIT campus police should be taking people home at night. The problem is that the MIT campus police are advertised as doing so when they don't.

  23. Thank you, 24

  24. Your welcome, 23

  25. *You're

  26. @19 that sounds right, but dumb people start to expect these services to be offered to them, and get pissed when they aren't.

    and i'd like to see where MIT police advertises this service. sounds like word of mouth and echo chamber effect to me.

  27. > and i'd like to see where MIT police advertises this service.

    http://web.mit.edu/facilities/transportation/shuttles/safe_ride.html

    > [T]he MIT Police will accommodate requests for after-hour safety rides until daylight.

    @1 was a direct quote.

  28. aha @27: @1 is plagiarism

  29. @27 welp, i stand corrected.

    but i still think kids shouldn't get so wasted. tut tut tut.

  30. What if someone spiked their drink? What if someone sober felt unsafe walking home so late at night and was being harassed? Sometimes people get put into a difficult situation and need a ride home. MIT Police shouldn't advertise a service they can't provide, and people shouldn't chastise those who use a service offered to them, especially if they feel they need it. It seems nobody is trying to abuse the service.

  31. Comment removed by moderator

  32. Comment removed by moderator

  33. Yea this was me being a decent friend and making sure the lady made it home in one piece. She's fine, and thank you for being a good person and calling EMT at suspected sketchiness.

  34. Comment removed by moderator

  35. Comment removed by moderator

  36. Comment removed by moderator

  37. Comment removed by moderator