Andrew Norris was knocked to the ground, pistol-whipped and beaten this past October.

Was he in the middle of a drug deal gone bad? Was he stumbling wasted down an unlit path? Nope. He was outside his house, two doors down from Salty Nut Café.

In an article published last semester by The Daily Gamecock, Andrew, a fourth-year advertising student, told the newspaper: “I don’t remember getting hit. I just remember I was walking and then suddenly I was on the ground.”

It only happens in movies, right?

“The average college student normally wouldn’t and probably shouldn’t find Five Points to be unsafe. I wasn’t in a back alley or a secluded part of town; I was in my own front yard,” Andrew says. “People walking back from Five Points walk past this spot all the time.”

The Five Points downtown district, or as USC students call it, “DT,” can seal the deal for prospective students visiting Carolina. The plethora of neon-lit drinking and eating establishments gives off a welcoming vibe for those who want an area to go out with their friends within walking distance of campus. However, controversies regarding crime and new regulations in Five Points have been in the news this school year. Students and the city both recognize the rise in violence downtown and are trying to pinpoint the possible causes, but not all students are aware of, or on board with, the city’s proposals for safety measures.

According to the USC Division of Law Enforcement and Safety’s crime alerts, around midnight on Jan. 20, a kidnapping occurred near Blossom and Assembly Streets. Three men in a car approached a woman and “asked if she needed help carrying her bags.” One suspect drew a pistol and demanded she get in the car, where she was subsequently sexually assaulted.

The crime alert reports more occasions of violence close to Five Points, including a Jan. 14 assault on Senate Street and a fatal Oct. 18 shooting on Walnut Street.

Last summer, The State newspaper reported multiple instances of violent crimes including three shootings and a surge of car break-ins that occurred in and around Five Points.

University students are searching for answers as to why they have seen more police officers and an increase in violence in Five Points since last year. Some suggest the crimes correlate to the closure of popular clubs and bars in locales such as Two Notch; others postulate that the crime is affiliated with local gangs.

“Once all the students leave Five Points, the cops go with them. As a result, criminals and thugs start heading downtown. The cops didn’t come back till the shootings happened,” says Alex Ruggiero, a fourth-year marketing student and bouncer at The House.

Columbia City Council members have their own theories as to why population density and crime downtown have increased so suddenly.

Tameika Isaac Devine, a city councilwoman of eight years, believes it is because of the unstable state of the economy.

Councilman Daniel Rickenmann says,“Crime seems to migrate to areas where it sees opportunities.”

Existing city safety plans prominently feature the Hospitality Zone Task Force created by Mayor Steve Benjamin and other city councilmen. The hospitality zones consist of Five Points, Main Street, the Vista, Two Notch Road and Harbison Boulevard. The force is working to nullify city violence and combat crowds. It is comprised of local bar and business owners, law enforcement staff and other figures in the Columbia community.

One of the first proposals that has been passed (and noticeably so) is the allowance of bars and other establishments to hire off-duty police officers as security.

“Having a police officer who is off-duty but wearing a law enforcement uniform definitely helps add to the police presence in the area,” Devine says. The officers are also a service to breaking up large crowds on the streets and sidewalks.

James Jacobs, a third-year criminal justice student, has noticed that Five Points seems more crowded on weekends than in the past.

“Most of the problems come from people loitering on the streets and just standing around looking for trouble all night,” he says. “If people aren’t down in Five Points to go to bars or restaurants with friends, they shouldn’t be allowed to stand around and hassle people who are trying to enjoy themselves.”

Two hotly debated regulations petitioned by the task force are the curfew and early bar closings aimed at the hospitality zones of Columbia (though legalities require the curfew to extend citywide). While the 11 p.m. curfew for minors has already passed a first vote by the city, the 2 a.m. general bar closing restriction has yet to pass.

Devine believes that businesses should take preventative measures for the safety of their patrons and the council should reconsider the need for a 2 a.m. curfew. Without staggered bar closings, she says, there will be a mass exodus of people on the streets at the same time every night.    

“I think it penalizes clubs and bars that are doing the right thing and leaves people to find other things after 2 a.m. like parties in homes and neighborhoods until 3 and 4 a.m., which would be a whole other problem if we don’t think through this clearly,” she says.

Rickenmann, who worked in Five Points all through college, asserts that the previous acts of violence do not reflect bars being open past 2 a.m. but are due to the crowds lingering in the streets and are possibly a result of the recently passed smoking ban.

As for the 11 p.m. curfew for minors, USC students aren’t sure what this has to do with curtailing violence.

“[Minors] are not the ones who are probably starting the trouble,” says Paul Critzman, first-year broadcast journalism student.

But in an article in The State, reporter Adam Beam points out that one of the shootings in Five Points was possibly carried out by a 15-year-old.

Another proposal put forth by the task force is to change Columbia’s open-container law. Currently, if an officer spots someone in public with an open drink, he can write a ticket if the beverage tests as having at least 1% alcohol. Under the new plan, officers could write tickets without testing open beverages for alcohol content. This places a burden on the individual to prove that his drink is non-alcoholic.

Of all the recommended changes, the open-container proposition has caused the most unrest amount USC’s student body. Katie Guenther, a second-year public relations student, feels that the proposal is ridiculous.

“Simply smelling the drink is not substantial because it provides no factual proof. Testing drinks is the only fair way,” she says.

City representatives argue that the current ordinance needs change because the necessity of testing the beverage makes the law virtually unenforceable. Yet, in theory, under the new law, a person could be ticketed for carrying a bottle of apple juice.

While all of the task force’s ideas look great on paper, the question is really whether or not these proposals will be able to effectively serve their purpose to prevent future incidences such as those Five Points saw over this school year.

Merritt McHaffie, director of the Five Points Association and a task force member, thinks that the city of Columbia has already made substantial improvements.

“Law enforcement officers along with bar owners have been working tirelessly and taking safety measures, such as installing cameras and hiring off-duty police officers, to prevent these issues from reoccurring,” he says.

Officer Eric Grabski, Captain of the USC Division of Law Enforcement and Safety provides students with advice: “Just because you’re a male out by yourself at night, it doesn’t mean you automatically have immunity. All situations are different, and there really isn’t a ‘cookie-cutter’ approach you can apply to everything.”

He places a strong emphasis on using common sense. You know what that entails; don’t get black-out and belligerent, abandon your cup or accept drinks from unsavory characters.

But what your safety comes down to in the end is simple: Five Points, as with any other downtown area, can be a dangerous place. An analysis released by the city’s public safety officials of Columbia’s hospitality zones’ safety statistics found that of the total 1,148 arrests made between Sept. 2009 and Sept. 2010, 677 were carried out in the Five Points area. While it should be noted that many of these are non-violent, alcohol-related offenses, stay aware by checking the crime alerts on the USC website.

If you don’t keep your head on straight, a normal night out can turn Dirty South in the blink of an eye.