The recent assaults and thefts involving football players Rob Beard and Mike Bowlin have caused quite a stir: I’ve seen people begin to worry about their safety, traveling with friends more often and discussing how violent Eugene has become. However, despite the recent speculation, violence in Eugene is no new epidemic.
It’s more like a rapidly growing tumor lodged under the skin of the campus area.
Last year, a couple friends and I were strolling around looking for something to do. Eventually, after several trials and tribulations (you know how it goes, you never seem to stay in one place), we ran into a massive festival of booze and college students. The doors were over-flooded with sweaty bodies, pissy drunk women, grumpy rejects and sketchy looking strangers. The only thing these partygoers had in common was an outstandingly high level of intoxication.
Most normal people would find this sight repulsive, offensive or flat-out wrong — but to three college kids, seeing a huge party like this is like a desert-dweller seeing an oasis.
We battled our way through the crowded entry way and into the party, but only to be sent through a rushing current of spilled drinks, sloppy make-out sessions and chest-to-back dancers. You couldn’t move without being bumped around by husky, pitbull-looking men; so after about 20 minutes, we headed back outside to get a breather and cool off.
That’s where things went from moderately unsafe to life-threatening.
Standing around in a semi-circle with a few familiar faces, my attention is drawn to a verbal dispute in front of the doorway. I’m not sure what’s going on, or what’s being said, but I know they are shouting. A punch is soon thrown, and everyone who is surrounding the dispute begins to join in.
Before I know it, I’m surrounded by a war. Fists are flying in every direction, people are being assaulted for no reason and bystanders are being dragged into the fight — it’s a miracle that I was able to keep myself at a safe distance. According to the Emerald’s report of the incident, more than 50 people were involved in the altercation.
I see a kid battered against a fence while onlookers watch and laugh, men boasting and bragging about the sucker punch they just delivered, and women are crying and screaming for their boyfriends; but the most vivid and painful memory I have from that night is 22-year-old Jacob Wiles trying to break up a fight, only to be knocked out by a blind-sided punch, and stomped out by an angry mob of strangers.
The brawl went on for at least 10 minutes before I heard sirens. Ten minutes doesn’t sound like a lot, but when your skull is being crushed, your face is being restructured, or your rib cage is being kicked in, 10 minutes can feel like a lifetime.
Beaten and bloodied, Wiles had to be sent to a hospital by ambulance and had an operation on his nose. There was no prosecution or police investigation for the crimes that night — just a $500 fine issued to Wiles for having a loud party at his house.
In just one week of fieldwork, I’ve been told about six similar jumpings, and none of them involved any type of police investigation. It’s almost like they didn’t matter — just college kids being stupid.
But when Maurice Peterson, Kirby Hawkins, and several others jump two Oregon football players, frenzy ensues and the EPD is forced to react. Hawkins and Peterson are both charged with second-degree assault.
Had they jumped me, or any other non-athlete, college male, Hawkins and Peterson most likely would’ve never spent a second in jail. They probably wouldn’t have even been pursued.
Beard and Bowlin endured a terrible beating, and I was saddened when I heard of their condition. But aside from their big names, they are not exceptional cases here in Eugene. Unfortunately, they are just another pair of victims to a violent crime streak that has gone on for far too long.
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