DECEMBER 2003

On Dec. 2, 2003, a female undergraduate was assaulted while cutting through the dimly lit parking lot of St. Paul’s Church on her way to Dunster House.

The assailant, who was never identified, struck the victim from behind with a blunt object and attempted to rape her, according to the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD). This was the most serious incident in a spate of more than a dozen indecent assaults against Harvard students reported near the Square between fall 2003 and fall 2004.

Geremias Cruz Ramos, a Harvard custodial worker arrested in January 2004, admitted to groping about 100 women over several months—many of the gropings remained unreported. But even after Ramos’ arrest, the assaults—particularly by bicycle-riding assailants—continued.

The attacks resurrected the old Safetywalk program under the revamped name Harvard University Campus Escort Program (HUCEP), and discouraged undergrads from walking alone late at night.

‘RATHER GO NAKED [AND GET ARRESTED] THAN WEAR FUR’

MARCH 2004

Kristin M. Waller ’05 was arrested on March 1, 2004, along with five representatives from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), for shedding her clothes in support of animal rights. Practically naked except for some strategically placed tape, the six activists staged a protest in the Square as part of PETA’s “Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur” campaign. In August 2004, a judge dismissed charges of indecent exposure against all six participants.

Protest leader and PETA Vice President Dan Mathews was fined $300 for disturbing the peace. Mathews was scheduled to speak that day in the popular class Religion 1529, “Personal Choice and Global Transformation,” but could not guest lecture due to his arrest.

LOUIE, LOUIE

FEBRUARY 2004

Just a month after everyone’s favorite booze salesman was held up at gunpoint, Cheng-San Chen—the owner of Louie’s Superette near Mather House—fell victim to the heightened security around his store. An undercover Cambridge Police Department officer, suspicious about four people who exited the store carrying alcohol, discovered that the students were underage. Chen avoided jail time and had his liquor license suspended for 12 days at the end of June 2004. Only a week after that Cambridge Licensing Commission decision, Chen was again robbed at gunpoint. Chen announced in March 2005 that, after 18 years behind the counter, he sold the superette.

‘H’ IS FOR HOOLIGAN

NOVEMBER 2004

The rowdy behavior of some 10,000 partiers at this year’s Game soured Boston Police Captain William Evans on the idea of the Harvard-Yale tailgate. This year’s celebration of Harvard’s fourth consecutive Game victory landed at least four Harvard affiliates a date in Brighton District Court. Boston police officers booted 29 students for underage drinking and confiscated 97 IDs.