<p>It would be nice if “being aware of surroundings” made a bit of difference. This student was well inside the DPS patrol zone (officers on bikes, cameras, most of the ideas that have been suggested on this thread), and the available information indicates he was attacked by several people who got out of a car. Being aware that there are cars on the street, or even being aware that some guys are getting out and you have maybe 2 seconds to get to your phone, isn’t much help. </p>
<p>I am frustrated. My child is a student at USC, and most people who have never been there have a distorted view of the area it is in. That said, while muggings happen all over, especially around urban campuses, the unnecessary use of extreme force, such as in this terrible case, seems to be on the rise. I don’t think USC administration is fluffing it off. This kind of thing is bad for business. But they could put DPS officers on every corner in the zone and maybe they should.</p>
<p>Love some of SeattleTW’s ideas!! Hope Nikias etc are listening.</p>
<p>It isn’t so much the idea that our kids need to “be aware” as much as I would like outsiders to be very very aware that if they come into that area they will be caught and prosecuted!! I want THEM to be afraid!<br>
Right now they have no fears.</p>
<p>^^^Agree, I was most disturbed by the store owner in the area of the attack saying “gangs know students in this area are easy targets.” So that is the word on the streets…obviously what has been done, hasn’t been effective. There hasn’t been a presence to deter them and there has to be. I posted about this a year ago after they said patrols were increased, yet after spending time there (at student’s apartment) a few weekends I didn’t see a “presence.” And that has only decreased since then. It wouldn’t take that much to make the area more secure, this isn’t a huge area we are talking about. But you can’t have one DPS officer patrolling 4 long blocks and call it coverage. What is scary is this is the incident everyone hears about, there have been many robberies and muggings that don’t get the press that I have heard about from student’s in the area, including mine. It would be easy for any of these situations to go a more violent one. My student doesn’t need a car, but we are seriously considering it now.</p>
<p>And yes, it is bad for business. I know one family that told me they just won’t apply there this fall. And seeing an article that called USC the University of Slain Chinese made me cringe. Hopefully it does more than that to the administration and motivates them to take solid action with cars, cameras, kiosks. The money is there, use it. Hire someone from Vegas, they know surveillance there.</p>
<p>Agreed, I want parents to realize this has been an ongoing problem for decades, and I recall observing a guy break into my car in broad daylight stealing my stereo while I was an undergrad.</p>
<p>All USC needs to do is post security at various places around campus to deter outsiders. Also, we don’t know all the facts yet so we should not jump to conclusions. However, we can put cameras everywhere nowadays and trail.gang members as easily as Target does shoplifters. </p>
<p>But USC needs to tear down the iron fence, which does nothing to deter crime but sends the wrong message to our neighbors.</p>
<p>And the foreign students bear some responsibility for not being vigilant. The same applies to American students studying abroad. Use frggin common sense!</p>
<p>I’m sorry Seattle, I completely disagree with you here. This student was inside the patrol zone at a relatively early hour - 12:45 am. I don’t think the expectation should be that students are not congregating at midnight or it’s their fault what happens to them. That is blaming the victim. He had walked someone home from a study session, it was not late (by student standards), and he was in the DPS zone. There is no way I can blame this student for what happened to him.</p>
<p>P.S. The fact that he is foreign has nothing to do with vigilance.</p>
<p>I don’t think anyone can be vigilant when someone has the intent to attack you. They don’t approach you from two blocks down the sidewalk giving you time to run (and they probably run faster anyway they are use to fleeing), they are jumping out of a car, from between cars, or behind trees, or on the side of buildings, etc. The only way to be vigilant is to not be there, and certainly not alone.</p>
<p>The sad reality is you probably shouldn’t go to study groups or be on campus late at night if you have to walk home and no way if you are walking home alone. The phone you have in hand to keep you safe is what they will see and want to assault you for. Not the college experience I had. :(</p>
<p>When my aunt was a student at UCLA in the 1980’s they had campus escorts. She told me all about it as she was sure that we would have this at USC. Any time any UCLA student needed to walk anywhere near or on campus they called an escort who had a radio and that person walked them where ever they needed to go. The escorts would walk groups into Westwood, people from sorority row to fraternity row (both off campus) and anywhere on campus. She said all her friends used the escort service and never went anywhere at night without them. She was shocked when I talked to her after getting to campus and told her USC had no such thing. I have no idea if UCLA still has this but it certainly a plan that USC could implement. It would actually be a wise investment.</p>
<p>During the Rodney King riots, gang members reportedly drove down 28th Street looking for victims and were met my Desert Storm vet fraternity brothers armed with firearms guarding the houses. Wisely, the cowards left and avoided that street. USC admins can take a lesson from our brave young USC men. </p>
<p>I find it inconsistent to say the fence around USC needs to come down because it sends the wrong message, and then give an example of why areas off campus need armed protection. I’d bet if you allowed people associated with USC to vote on whether the fence should stay up or come down, about 90% would vote to keep it up.</p>
<p>I highly suggest the people posting in this thread visit the USC Department of Public Safety website. The vast majority of your suggestions are already in place. The suspects in this attack were caught in part because of USC surveillance. DPS has more cameras off campus than they do on because that is where students live. </p>
<p>They do have a program where private security officers are stationed around campus. However, DPS did acknowledge that they scale these back during the summer as the student population is drastically lower than during the academic year. My guess is, that in the future this will not be the case.</p>
<p>Lastly, from LAPD’s report, the suspects were not gang affiliated. It sickens me that such young people can have such a callous disregard for life, and I hope the DA throws the book at them.</p>
<p>I just don’t think telling this student’s parents to visit the USC Safety website will offer much peace of mind, nor does it to me. We know these ideas aren’t new and they have some things in place, but we also know they haven’t been effective or done enough. Catching them is great, preventing them is the goal. If you are in that neighborhood (2 blocks from campus up to Adams) even during the school year, you have to look to find the DPS folks in the colorful vests. Cameras are currently helpful post crime, it is when the crime doesn’t occur because of the cameras, that they are being used effectively. Patrolling presence (walking, bikes, cars) can be the most solid tool in preventing crime but that has to be done in connection with a successful marketing campaign of that presence. Prosecuting them doesn’t seem to deter the next ones.</p>
<p>Sorry to keep posting relentlessly on this subject, but this one really dug deep in the emotions.</p>
<p>I wonder why so much emphasis on USC security and so little on the horrible state of affairs going on within the LAPD? Where is the enhance security and patrols given how much economic uplift comes from having USC students in the city? Where is the thought that a safer city and swift identification of culprits and justice might make the entire area more attractive.</p>
<p>But yes - I’m scratching my head over the human animals being allowed to run amuck and attack students making a contribution to society. The story I would share is that when teaching a workshop at a high poverty high school I found the 9th grade girls to be incorrigible, rude and hard to work with. I asked the principal why they were so hostile and she said “They don’t expect to live past 21, so they have nothing to look forward to and nothing to lose.”</p>
<p>Perhaps if L.A. (and other urban cities) would start looking at things from that perspective, solutions would emerge.</p>
<p>In the meantime, we’re going to have to train our kids on urban survival skills.</p>
<p>This entire event is a tragedy. For the victim and his family first and foremost. There is no reason to beat someone to death for his belongings. The perpetrators were young and it appears that a 14-year-old girl may have been used in commission of the murder. A freshman in high school whose life is as good as over. </p>
<p>The LA Times says these kids were caught in connection with crimes elsewhere that night and then tied to the murder. </p>
<p>And as for the fence around USC, USC survived for over a century without one, including the Watts and Rodney King riots. It’s an ineffective tool that does nothing to deter crime, but makes it inconvenient for students. Crime in the USC neighborhood has been an issue for decades and continues despite the fence, so yes, it should come down. USC could have installed dozens of cameras and monitors, or implemented other security measures for the costs of erecting and maintaining the fence. </p>
<p>The fence is great for those living on campus. The problem is that only freshman live on campus. The majority of students…sophomores, juniors, seniors, graduates students all have to live off campus. It is like the fence have walled them out to fend for themselves. </p>
<p>The security on campus is fabulous. I always feel safe on campus, but that is not where most students live. My D had two Cinema classes that went until 11pm last semester. I always worried about her getting back to her apartment that late at night. If both my kids could have lived on campus all four years, they would have.</p>
<p>Precisely. Most students live off campus and if any should find themselves in a dangerous situation where they are running toward campus to find safety, they’ll be lucky if they can reach one of the entrances or scale the fence. </p>
<p>I can’t believe USC cut back security resources in the summer, when most mischief occurs.</p>