I have an idea that could make a lot of money. I could hire a personal defense specialist who preferably is a retired police officer in a college town. I could call it “Seedy Side Safety Tours: The Campus Tour Not Featured on the Website.” Each tour would be personalized for that particular campus, led by the cop, a student and myself and we would walk the perimeter at NIGHT and show them what it looks like, safety measures to take and how to be on alert while on campus. I’ve yet to be on any campus that didn’t have a seedy side or at least a shady side. Hmmm…
They’ve identified the defendant as a homeless 17-year-old who followed the victim:
Yesterday I was taking a walk break during a run. A young woman runner approached me from behind and passed me. Runners in our area are friendly, so I said, “Hi!” as she passed. NO REACTION. She was not ignoring me - she had earbuds in.
This was posted elsewhere by a parent who lives in the Austin TX area:
"I’ve walked the bridge/creek area where her body is found…our college tour in January took us right through that area. It is very hidden and dark, even in daylight.
I had a talk with D about earbuds and walking out by yourself. The latest video/news release shows her walking by him while she is looking down at her phone and then the news release states he can be seen putting the kickstand down on his bike and pulling out a hard, shiny object and following her into that area.
Here is one of the comments from the Austin news article:
UT PD / DPS / UT and APD could care less. The Waller Creek area, from north of campus to Serranos (headed towards Stubbs) is a hangout for junkies, transients and winos. This is on the UT campus folks. Students walking to class basically pass tent city on their way to study hall. UT is lucky that this is the first murder on their campus. No one at UT / APD / DPS has the balls to clean up Waller Creek. Go to a concert at Stubbs / Erwin Center. Park at the state garage and walk Waller Creek at night. It has not been safe for years. Students coming in don’t know it and their parents don’t know it. The trees / shrubs at Waller Creek need to be cut back to the point that you have a clear 360 view. This goes for the Drag as well which is on campus. Walk the F thing at 9 pm at night - no thanks."
That comment really struck me, too, @SOSConcern, when I read it. It sounds like, in an effort to make the campus more attractive and shield (intentionally or not) students and visitors from a pretty rough area, they may have given the students a false sense of security. And I have no idea if Austin has a particularly bad homeless problem, but this senseless murder suggests that the city is not dealing with mental health issues particularly well either.
Bad things can happen anywhere, and it would be absolutely ridiculous to use this to say “UT isn’t safe” or any place. Random stuff happens, bad things happen, all over. I went to school in NYC in the early 80’s, and while the NYU area was pretty safe, it was still NYC. My brother went to Columbia in the late 70’s, and the morningside heights area was not great, as was much of Harlem. No area is truly safe, in a rural area a psychopath could just be waiting to kill a student or something…
I wish schools would talk more to kids about safety, they will point out statistics, they will show their security, and in a sense make it seem like “we have your back”. I wish they would talk more about also how to maintain your own safety, how to be situationally aware, how to avoid bad situations, be aware (and I am sure some schools do this). When I went to NYU, there were kids in my dorm who had never been in a big city, who had grown up in nice suburbs or whatnot, and I became a kind of de facto teacher for them (I grew up in the burbs, but spent as much time as I could in the city, and had done things like with a friend ride the whole subway system, literally every station, took us 32 hours, and this was the late 70s, when subway crime was at a peak, if service wasn’t). It is about being vigilant of what is around you, both visually and noise wise, it is about not getting distracted (in my day, didn’t have cell phones or music players, least I didn’t, the walkman was around I believe), and ‘reading’ the street, and seeing possible problems.
Obviously, this is not blaming the poor girl, rather it is saying that safety is one of those things that you can’t assume will be there:). I hope they string the person who did this up by their family jewels, I couldn’t get the article to load so I don’t know the person responsible, but whoever they are, they don’t deserve any sympathy or understanding.
I think post #20 on this thread is a very good suggestion to helping many campuses be safer - that in addition to students thinking and using personal safety suggestions.
Campus safety issues were not uniformly addressed until the Clery Act - and info, awareness, requirements to document has lead to safer campuses IMHO.
Now I think the rape situation is getting properly addressed too in more places.
Schools do get targeted by criminals for a variety of reasons.
Bad things can happen anywhere, but you especially want to prevent bad things from happening to those you love!
A few seconds or minutes can take a life or change one’s life forever. Both my DDs carry mace - it may not help them in a bad situation, but it might - and that includes thinking safety, with whom they get in a car with etc.
Please name a city that doesn’t have its share of mentally ill who have not gotten good publicly provided care. I highly doubt that Austin is in any worse shape in this regard than other cities of the same size.
I will add that I don’t live in Austin and only lived there 5 years many moons ago. So I could be totally wrong about the above.
I never said other cities were doing a better job, but Austin has an image of being a pretty sophisticated and progressive place to a lot of folks on the coasts (the victim was from Portland) and even though it’s the state capital, I think some may be naive about UT’s location. Walking alone on the edge of any campus after dark is very unwise, but if you’re going to do it, you need to have your wits about you, and know where you are and what risks are just around the corner. The accused is a seventeen-year-old homeless boy. For me, that makes the crime that much more heartbreaking. I don’t know if Austin is doing a better or worse job regarding its homeless population than other major cities, but you have to wonder how this boy ended up on the street, and what precipitated his committing such a vicious crime.
@nrdsb4:
I don’t know the situation in Austin, but one factor that may make it worse is climate. Cities with more moderate climates can tend to attract homeless people, not all of the homeless are necessarily native. SF is a classic example of that, NYC has a pretty bad homeless problem, but SF’s in some ways is much larger (and I am sure it hasn’t gotten any better with the loss of housing to gentrification, either).
Suspect was in the foster care system.
This Texas Tribune article links to a 2014 feel-good feature his HS paper did on him. Talks about his time in an unstable home and later as the victim of abuse at the hands of those whose care he’d been placed in. It’s chilling in hindsight.
https://www.texastribune.org/2016/04/08/police-suspect-custody-ut-homicide-case/
Feature can be found on p. 12.
Very, very sad. Lots of prayers for her family and friends.
@doschicos - Yes, D started carrying pepper spray when she lived off campus as an undergrad one summer. She continues to carry it today. During med school and residency, she worked odd hours. Sometimes she would leave an inner-city hospital at 1:00 AM. We used to buy it at a police supply store, but I think you can order it on amazon now.
Pepper spray may not be legal in some states, so do take note of that.
I think pepper spray is now legal in all states. Some have restrictions on age and amounts. North Carolina also restricts felons from carrying it.