<p>How does the "apartment’'s manager decide to assign him to live with those 3 victims who he deeply despised as “I have never seen such nerdy persons like them”? Have I missed something here.</p>
<p>(What else can you expect these 3 roommates to be? They are to be in the field of engineering and/or computer science. This kind of “personality” is very common in this field - unless they are not good at what they are doing! I know – I have been in this field in my whole years.)</p>
<p>Many news reports, and posts here, keep referring to Elliot Rodger’s “apartment.” In fact, he was not living in an ordinary apartment. He was living in a suite at the Independent Living Institute, LLC in Santa Barbara. See <a href=“https://www.facebook.com/”>https://www.facebook.com/</a>...</p>
<p>The institute’s Facebook page states:</p>
<p>The Institute serves handicapped, developmentally delayed, and under-educated individuals in the areas of independent living, academics and vocational skills. To enroll the individual must be eighteen years or older.
The Client must be motivated towards changing and improving his/her life, to gain skills that lead him/her towards independence and/or academic development.</p>
<p>No-one is excusing ER. No-one. Second, to compare a psychopathic mass murderer who spent years hating the world and plotting a violent rampage to a couple of gangbangers firing shots into the air on a Saturday night because everybody wants sex is patently ridiculous. Whatever color.</p>
<p>I think there are some lessons we should learn from this.</p>
<ol>
<li>Law enforcement should not determine whether someone is mentally ill and/or a threat to himself or others. It’s possible that the result would have been the same, but I think that social workers or shrinks or therapists of some sort ought to be responsible for wellness checks.</li>
</ol>
<p>When people are alleged to be abusing children, there’s usually some sort of children’s protective services that steps in. The people who assess the validity of the allegations aren’t police officers. I do not mean to belittle police, but they don’t have the relevant background to determine whether or not someone is a threat to himself and/or others. Yes, when someone is in a psychotic state and brandishing a gun or knife, call the cops. But I don’t think cops are the ones who should be assessing mental stability. IMO, we need something like child protective services for the allegedly mentally ill. Over half of the reports of child abuse to hotlines are phony–but we still send someone to check out each report. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>There should be an absolute ban on guns of any sort in student housing. I realize that Rodger stabbed his roommates, but still, I think there should be a ban. The potential for violence is too great, due in part to the excessive drinking that it is part of the college culture and in part to the fact that young people, especially young men, are more prone to violence. </p></li>
<li><p>If parents are paying the bills, parents should be informed when a student stops going to class. Rodger’s parents allegedly did not know that their son wasn’t going to class.According to his manifesto, he was using the $ that was supposed to go for tuition for lottery tickets. (The young woman who phoned in the bomb threat for Quinnipiac’s graduation was also lying about attending class.) I get the impression that Rodger really wasn’t doing anything other than seeing a “counselor” once a month and making and posting videos, but his parents and therapists didn’t know this. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>“If parents are paying the bills, parents should be informed when a student stops going to class. Rodger’s parents allegedly did not know that their son wasn’t going to class.According to his manifesto, he was using the $ that was supposed to go for tuition for lottery tickets. (The young woman who phoned in the bomb threat for Quinnipiac’s graduation was also lying about attending class.) I get the impression that Rodger really wasn’t doing anything other than seeing a “counselor” once a month and making and posting videos, but his parents and therapists didn’t know this.”</p>
<p>I agree with this but there have been many threads about parents wanting the simplest info about their adult students and privacy seems to win every time. </p>
<p>Does this imply that his roommates were disabled students? (I’m assuming physical disability, treatable mental illness, or ASD, since they were college students.) Well, this whole tragedy just got even more depressing for me. </p>
<p>^ If what I referred to in my previous post is correct, ER did not live in an apartment that is typical. If this is true, did the roommates and their parents know they lived in such a facility? Were they informed? Or, did they choose to live there because of the lower rental rate?</p>
<p>“He was living in a suite at the Independent Living Institute, LLC.”</p>
<p>There is NO doubt that this young man had mental illness. Plenty of documentation about it and it is not conjecture or opinion. </p>
<p>Cobrat, a “sense of entitlement” doesn’t necessarily come from social status! In fact, it is a symptom of certain mental illnesses (that cross all socio-economic boundaries)…such as narcissistic personality disorder.</p>
<p>So, I’m not sure what your problem is Niquii but I can live with that.</p>
<p>FYI - He overpowered all three using a hammer and a machete, probably one at a time. Only 2 were roommates. One was a visitor. And, according to the Sherriff, it was a “gruesome” crime scene.</p>
<p>“this expression of his worldview is very similar to what I’ve read about some aristocrats and prominent gentry in European and Asian societies who were proud enough of their aristocratic/gentry roots to write many pages about that side of the family and yet, scarcely a mention for the other lower status side of the family.”</p>
<p>There is not a topic thread in which you don’t bring it back around to “gentry” and “aristocracy” and “snobby wealthy people who need to be taken down a peg or too.” His mindset was because he was MENTALLY ILL. Mental illness strikes plenty of people. He had that entitlement NOT because he was well-to-do or from an “aristocratic” family. He had it because he was a sick individual.</p>
<p>I’m serious when I say you’re as obsessed with “gentry” and “aristocracy” and proving that “wealthy people aren’t all that” as this kid was with getting hot girls. </p>
<p>^ If what I referred to in my previous post is correct, ER did not live in an apartment that is typical. If this is true, did the roommates and their parents know they lived in such a facility? Were they informed? Or, did they choose to live there because of the lower rental rate or the only “apartment” they could find at that time?</p>
<p>“He was living in a suite at the Independent Living Institute, LLC.”</p>
<p>The living arrangement is very difficult to do in UCSB and maybe Cal as well (big state university in many cities!) I knew of a couple of students had to live in a hotel far away from the campus for 2 months and commuted to the school everyday, just because they could not find any apartment to live!</p>
<p>For the reason alone, I think that if the parents can afford it, do not send the child to a college where he or she could not find a reasonable place to live. The “research opportunity” or “prestige”, etc., or even the retention/graduation rate? They are not as critical as this!</p>
<p>It was neither a college run dorm nor a wellness integration facility from what I understand. He may have found his room through such a placement, but he and his roommates were at Capris apartments and this was, I think, the fourth set of roommates he had there, all of whom he didn’t like at the end, although the third set put up with him more and he was glad he was killing the fourth set instead. (But had planned to kill the third set before breaking his leg and putting off the day of Retribution as he called it.</p>
<p>I do think there is a likeness in the entitlement to sex causing shooting in Stockton. However, there is nothing right now showing Little Eggy or whomever had a long plan including obtaining the guns precisely to kill women in general for not providing him sex. This particular perpetrator was glaringly mentally ill, which doesn’t mean he wasn’t other things as well.</p>
<p>About not allowing guns in dorms, I come from a different place. We have one of the lowest home invasion rates in the western world because we are allowed guns at home and are allowed to use them if people break into our homes where we are vulnerable. Violent crime goes down, as I understand it, where concealed carry laws are in place. To be honest, I’m not totally comfortable with every teenager in IV buying a gun and bringing it home, tomorrow, but that is because California culture doesn’t teach kids about gun responsibility. I do think it is a shame that Virginia Tech didn’t, since there were students with concealed carry licenses, who had been locked into their dorms by the shooter, and might have been able to end the spree a lot earlier. In fact, if he wasn’t going to be able to shoot fish in a barrel, he might not have carried out the attack at all. He wanted to shoot MANY defenseless students, and be the only ‘alpha male’, he wasn’t looking for effective resistance.</p>
<p>But I’m not going to be able to say anything about gun control that hasn’t been said before in other situations. The issues remain the same, and people feel strongly both ways.</p>
<p>I doubt that the Independent Living Institute would be cheaper than other apts since they provide support services to their special needs residents not found in ordinary rentals. And these kinds of facilities aren’t exclusive for students.Its location may not be close to UCSB campus.</p>
<p>ER’s parents probably put him there because they think their son needed more supervision.Despite these safeguards, it didn’t prevent this tragedy.</p>