crime on Rice campus

[mdek]

There's been lots of attention for the idea of concealed carry on campus, but little headway in actually changing anything.

As a student at rice, I often find myself feeling very unsafe having to walk from my car to my destination. Unfortunately, our school has a no weapons policy in the handbook (without proper 30.06 wording, btw -- not that it matters as I don't want to be expelled).

This is the latest incident on our "feel safe" campus, with it's own police force and everything:



Keep in mind that Lovett Hall is the "main" building of the academic quad, so this incident didn't happen in a tucked away corner of campus. We've had another student assaulted with a shotgun while walking in the neighborhood a few blocks from campus. Some guys tried mugging my friend when he was walking home from campus a couple of years ago. Combined with other incidents, for such a small student body, this seems like a high rate of incidents. And we even have had reports of coyotes just across Main Street, in Hermann Park.

As far as activism, I can point to this small blurb I published in our very own independent-from-the-adminstration publication: http://www.ricestandard.org/articles/news-in-brief (check the 2nd paragraph). Maybe it got a few people to start thinking...

[Stupid]

What do you mean "shotgun?" Isn't Rice a gun free zone? You must have been mistaken.

We've had another student assaulted with a shotgun while walking in the neighborhood a few blocks from campus. Some guys tried mugging my friend when he was walking home from campus a couple of years ago. Combined with other incidents, for such a small student body, this seems like a high rate of incidents. And we even have had reports of coyotes just across Main Street, in Hermann Park.

As far as activism, I can point to this small blurb I published in our very own independent-from-the-adminstration publication: http://www.ricestandard.org/articles/news-in-brief (check the 2nd paragraph). Maybe it got a few people to start thinking...

[lrb111]

Your new in Brief page was pretty funny.

[Liberty]

Your new in Brief page was pretty funny.

Heh Heh, He makes a good point and is entertaining along the way,

[Glock 23]

at my university, they have posting everywhere about crimes and attempted crimes.
some are robberies, alot of them are attempted kidnappings of girls/women (which we know what crimes come after that).

BUT, the college police cant do anything to catch BG's, they are too busy writing students parking tickets for every little infraction they can. I guess tuition alone doesnt pay their bills anymore.

[medicff0879]

at my university, they have posting everywhere about crimes and attempted crimes.
some are robberies, alot of them are attempted kidnappings of girls/women (which we know what crimes come after that).

BUT, the college police cant do anything to catch BG's, they are too busy writing students parking tickets for every little infraction they can. I guess tuition alone doesnt pay their bills anymore.

No freakin kidding, hire a bunch of parkin lot bullies to write tickets NOT protect the student body!! A pattern seen in campuses across Texas, and the United States.

[austin-tatious]

As a freshman at Rice in 1963, I kept my 222 varmit rifle to the dorm (Baker) so I could go shooting on my uncle's land near Huntsville on weekends. Needless to say, when Kennedy was assassinated, my parents insisted I promptly get it back home to Dallas. I never checked or even thought to check if university policy allowed weapons like that on campus.

[Will938]

Thank god I live off campus. I'm running a storage business for on campus students with firearms. If I charged any money I'd be rich.

[stevie_d_64]

http://maps.live.com/#JnE9eXAuNjY1NStCU ... E0MDYyNQ==

See that big dark-ish truck in the driveway there??? I guess you'll have to zoom in and click on the "aerial" and then the "bird's eye" view from the south I believe...

That is the registered address of the truck (per the LP) used in the crime...

There are 17 vehicles registered there, 11 by the same owner of the truck, 3 by the spouse, an 3 others by two other people at that address...

It could be that the truck used was stolen though...

But it is amazing how quickly you can localize this kinda stuff...

[dihappy]

OC Spray??

[mdek]

OC Spray??

I have in fact started carrying a small bottle of the Fox Labs stuff. Unfortunately I don't think it would be enough in a situation such as what happened. It's scary to think of the hundreds of times I've walked by exactly where this happened, late at night.

Good to know the police department is watching out for us as well as they possibly can: http://the.ricethresher.org/opinion/200 ... eter_maids

[dukalmighty]

Too bad you could not file a lawsuit against the college for presenting an environment in which you are unable to defend yourself and the bad guys know it and are taking advantage of it,my thoughts on pepper spray and 4 bad guys ya spray and situation escalates if they have a gun or guns you just brought a can of pepper spray to a gunfight

[Reloader]

several years ago, at San Antonio College, there were rapes and assaults. Turns out some of the security staff were the perps. This happened especially at night. many of us were prepared to "sove" the problem by escorting the ladies. My professor knew and told one lady that I was ok, since "nothing smaller than an APC would want to tangle with me." Yes, I was a CHL then, too. I was willing to sacrifice myself at that time.

[ELB]

Too bad you could not file a lawsuit against the college for presenting an environment in which you are unable to defend yourself and the bad guys know it and are taking advantage of it,...

Universities in particular, and schools in general, should not be allowed to restrict CHL carry. And, I have little regard for the "property rights" or "OSHA/employee safety" arguments that companies put up to prevent employees from carrying, or even to have a gun in their car in the parking lot. Were I king, CHL carry would be everywhere.

But I've often thought that the "compromise" for these business and universities would be to legislate that if they ban CHL carry on their properties, they assume strict liability for the prevention of criminal acts against anyone on their properties. In other words, you get assaulted on company/university property, the company/university is automatically liable for compensation and damages. The only question in court would be "How much $?"

None of them would be willing to stand between a plaintiff's attorney and his contingency fee. Those 30.06 signs and employee handbook policies would disappear overnight.

elb

[ELB]

Guess I am feeling ornery tonight....

I notice that the Rice university police kindly say you "may request" an escort. T'would be interesting if, say for a week or two, every student CHL holder, or some such subset of at least 50 people, called the university police and asked for an escort every night, every time he/she went some place. And of course such a group would have lot of places to go! Might illustrate the limits of police protection in a hurry. Would make an interesting article in the paper about how many requests were made versus those fulfilled, those denied, those who spent an hour waiting on the officer to show up, etc. Such an exercise should probably be coordinated with a larger campaign...

Just thinkin' out loud...

elb