A nasty crime went down at the end of January at Occidental College when two Marines visiting a buddy on campus allegedly beat the holy living carne asada out of some poor student who was just minding his own. In the school’s paper, The Oxy Weekly, the incident is described during a review of the relatively low numbers of criminal acts committed on campus each year. But while discussing crime on campus, somehow L.A.’s beloved tacos get dragged into the whole affair. How has our favorite food been scapegoated this time?
Holly Nieto, Director of Campus Safety, stresses the need for students to be careful when leaving the warm embrace of the college safety net, especially when seeking affordable sustenance in big bad surrounding neighborhoods where residents might want to kick your smarmy little butt for pursuing your $50,000 degree in music therapy.
The story reports:
At night, Nieto stressed the importance of not walking alone outside the campus and cited some areas she doesn’t want students to be in, no matter how large the group. These areas include the Figueroa Corridor and South Eagle Rock Boulevard. While Nieto understands that the taco trucks are popular, she recommends driving and going earlier because this makes the trips safer. She has also observed that neighbors on the routes don’t tend to be the most sympathetic to drunken students’ late night munchies.
How fair is that? Some Marines batter a student on campus and La Abeja and its neighbors take the blame? Tacos, long one of the city’s greatest unifying forces—to paraphrase Save Our Taco Trucks
