Dear Editor,

Driving on a cool fall evening, my roommate Hunter and I nearly ran over an elderly woman pushing a cart down the middle of Calhoun Street. It was fully dark, and the woman’s cart, laden with what appeared to be bags, clattered and clanged over the many bumps in the road.

Hunter dialed campus security, telling them there was an old woman walking in the middle of Calhoun Street. Dispatch said an officer was en route. We began dissuading her from walking in the street. We asked in our sweetest Southern boy voices if she might please use the sidewalk as cars madly braked when headlights flashed in her large square glasses, but she didn’t hear or acknowledge us. Then I stood in her path, at which she stopped, looking quickly between us. With flourish she unsheathed a dark wooden cane.

Hunter ran to campus security, and the student marshals there laughed at his request for help. He came back, and we walked in front of her, patting the air in the universal “slow-down” signal as cars bounced and swerved over Calhoun Street’s frequent potholes.

When we arrived at the intersection, I called  campus security. I began with “Hi, there is an old lady…” at which point dispatch finished my sentence for me and, chuckling, told me there was an officer en route.

We then called Tulane’s campus police, after leading our lady up Calhoun Street until we saw Claiborne Avenue. A Tulane officer arrived, informing us that she was a “regular” and that our calls, while kind, were unnecessary. The officer drove towards the woman, and while our backs were turned, disappeared into the cool night. I mean it. One minute the Tulane University Police Department’s Excursion was there, next to the woman, then poof, both gone.

Something’s not right. I see the weekly BOLOs in my box, I wave when University Police officers drive or pedal or zoom past on their electric vehicles. I respect them for what they do. But now I’m curious. If University Police can fill out paperwork, boot cars, patrol campus and respond to a myriad of 911 calls, you’d think they could take the time to help an old lady cross the street.

Sincerely,
Benjamin Sines
English writing senior