SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC NEWS) –Three weeks away from the official start of fall classes leaves students at Syracuse University worrying about much more than just COVID-19. Violence is an issue that is currently damaging the city of Syracuse. The Syracuse Police Department’s annual report in 2019 showed an increase in aggravated assault from the previous year. In 2019, a couple of weeks into his freshman year, Syracuse student Louis Smith witnessed a man get stabbed off-campus.
Smith said the stabbing set the tone for the rest of his school year. He describes the incident he witnessed in 2019 as startling, which left him uneasy.
“Going back you know what the city of Syracuse is plagued with,” Smith said. “I don’t think it’s fair to label them as like a violent city I think that they have pockets of violence.”
Smith is not a native of Syracuse, but he does live there because of school.
“Campus seems to be pretty isolated from the rest of the city for better or worse, and so that is comforting to me,” Smith said. “but the threat is always there, in the back of my mind.”
Mayor Ben Walsh addressed Syracuse University graduate students about the violence last week. Walsh said, in a zoom with students that the community needs to hold each other accountable.
