Attacking Morning Runners

So I live in Newark, a place that is not really too safe.So, I tend to run in the mornings because its the only time of the day that I am not busy with work or class before it gets dark outside.Once its dark out, forget it, I'm going for a run.
So this is the what I posted on the Penguin-Runners Yahoo group:
So I just got my butt back in gear and am super excited about getting in shape,
training for amarathon etc.However, the other day I got news that a guy who was out jogging on
my blockgot stopped by five or six guys asked for his wallet and beaten so bad he took
himself to thehospital thats across the street,this isn't the first time that something like
this has happened.He runs at the same time on the same basic area that I do, keeping close to my
campus anddorm.So I'm now scared to go out running and don't know what to do about it. I
finally gotre-motivated to run and now this happens.So does anyone have any ideas/tips as
to what Ican do? Thanks!

This story is sad, and it sucks.It also is the reason that I have always been wary of running in Newark, but I live here basically,except for the few weekends that I go home so I don't really have anyother choices.There are no parks by me, no safe places patrolled by police at all hours, no school tracks to run on.It sucks, its me and the city sidewalk at 6am.I have a school gym, but it doesn't open until 8am and I can't run at night because I am then up for a zillion hours afterwards.
So after I posted this I got a ton of responses, some saying to get an ID bracelet, some saying to travel somewhere to run, some saying to find a running partner. I've always got ID on me, its required to get in my building. For travel, theres nowhere to really go unless I go to NYC but that takes too much time(30 minutes each way with trains and subways and walking) for me to be able to run and make it to class. I'm not yet at the running point where I feel I could really have a running partner, I only run like a half mile as of right now and even thats stretching it.I could get some pepper spray and I could have that however. It just totally sucks because I was already to get started with running again. My classes are in the swing now and so is work(Finally!) and I ordered myself the Nike+ from Target as well, so I couldn't be more ready to get my butt in gear.I want to start running, successfully train for the marathon,lose the weight that I hate having on me, and also figure out some way to afford going to WDW to run , since the job that I has pays $Zero a year (I get free dorm room/board instead) so I need to find a source of income in the crappy economy so that all my hard work isn't for nothing. I also want to get good at running so that I can have Steve run with me, and maybe/hopefully run the marathon with me and go to WDW(he's never been) and heck, maybe I can even get a real relationship out of it too ;)