safety alert

[pearlythebunny.livejournal.com]

To: The Tufts Community

From: Tufts Police

Date: July 6, 2008

Tufts Police received an initial report on July 6, 2008 regarding a
sexual assault. The incident occurred at approximately 6:00 a.m. on
Dearborn Road in Somerville, MA. The assailant approached the victim on
Dearborn Road and forcefully took the victim under a house porch.

The description of the assailant, given by the victim is as follows:
white male, brown wavy hair, light colored eyes, wearing a black T-shirt
and has a tongue ring.

An area search was conducted by Tufts Police and Somerville Police,
which proved negative. At this time, no suspects have been identified.

Comments

Re: Any Connection?

[http://users.livejournal.com/_mattt/]

You would be surprised at not only what can be missed, but what can be recorded incorrectly by the mind under extreme circumstances.

I was involved in an armed robbery. I was looking right at the perpetrator and he had the gun right to my head, yet I could not positively identify the perpetrator or the gun.

Many times people berate victims for not being able to identify their attackers, or presume that an incorrect or inadequate description means that the victim is lying/exaggerating. But one simply cannot udnerstand unless you've been in the situation.

Perhaps I missed it, but I did not see any mention that the second attacker was svelte or well-eyed. In fact, weight and eye alignment were omitted from the description. I don't think it is fair to assume that because any descriptor was omitted the implication is that nothing was out of the ordinary (I do question how accurate 280-300 pounds is -- weight is hard to judge)

I'm not saying that these are the same perpetrators. I'm sure the Somerville PD is on top of this and looking for any connections (or lack thereof) as well.

I just found it odd that two assaults occurred in the early AM hours less than half a mile apart and in the same general neighborhood less than one week apart.

Re: Any Connection?

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

I don't think that someone could be assaulted by someone who is extremely obese and not remember that, but yet remember the particulars of his piercings. Similarly, the police would be vanishingly unlikely to put something as fine in granularity as "tongue ring" in a description and omit something as broadly identifying as "extremely obese" from it.

And, yes, I've been assaulted, and I know that memory can be really, really tricky in that instance, but I highly doubt that these two cases involve the same offender.

Re: Any Connection?

[zmgmeister.livejournal.com]

It's very possible for someone to only remember a partial description after an incident like that. It doesn't mean they have an unreliable memory or aren't telling the whole truth. It's just that the mind does not work like a camera.

Perhaps a better analogy would be trying to download a very large progressive JPEG over a slow connection. Some parts of the image would be clear, some would be very blocky and general. This is because most of the mental effore is being used for a more important task, that of staying alive.

Both victims were grabbed out of the blue, and probably only saw through the corner of their eye. The first incident happened over an hour before sunrise. It's likely neither of them got a good enough look at their assailant to gauge body weight or give him an ophthalmological workup.