UT Campus victim identified

[NJlonghorn]

To me, its more about preventing the next one. There are no easy solutions from a government standpoint. Do you institutionalize a kid like this from a young age for life? If so, who pays for this? What liberty issues come into play?

No, there is no easy solution. But there are easy places to start. Such as increasing funding for mental-health treatment (including but not limited to drug treatment) by a factor of 10, or 20, or even 50. And such as diverting police resources used for drug intervention towards more productive areas such as neighborhood patrols and community involvement.

 

[NJlonghorn]

By the way, what is the availability of security walks on campus? It's been more than two decades since I was a student at UT, but I know most colleges offer security guards (or volunteer students) to escort women around campus at night. Does UT offer such a service? Do most students use it? Is it stigmatized? Inefficient?

 

[NJlonghorn]

Google turned up this link for Sure Walk at UT. The program sounds like a good start, but very limited in scope. It only operates M-Th from 10 PM to 2 AM. I wonder whether Haruka would have used the service if it had been available on Sunday evening.

I know my son's college offers escorted walks any time school is in session, from 6:00 PM to 6:00 AM, and outside those hours if there is a reason. Sometimes it is on foot, but often they bring a golf cart. UT should look into expanding its program.

 

[Horn6721]

There is no doubt he had a troubled past but if you saw his interview at Texarkana you would have thought maybe this kid had overcome his past and he certainly appeared reasonable intelligent.
How did he go from that to assaulting and murdering a stranger? Did he not know it was wrong? Was he so angry about his past and situation that he thought it was ok to take it out on a young girl less than half his size?
Does the term mentally ill apply to him?
Larry T asks a good question, a question that applies to all mentally ill people. Can we force them to get help and force them to take meds?

 

[accuratehorn]

From my understanding of the campus walk program, it still exists, but I don't think many felt compelled to use the service. The last murder investigation on campus, per the news, was Charles Whitman. I'm sure the walk home service will get a lot more attention now, but campus is a very safe environment overall.
And yes, no easy answers for the poorly cared-for, abused past, possible mentally ill people who commit some of these crimes. There's so many homeless and mentally ill people, and very few ever do something like this. Is it even possible to prevent? It's just a depressing situation all the way around.

 

[Joe Fan]