Just saw this in the OC Weekly:Nick Schou's "Just a Random Female," which recounted the harrowing tale of the 1986 murder of Robbin Brandley at Saddleback College and the subsequent search for her killer, will be included in the 2008 edition of The Best American Crime Reporting anthology. This book has in the past featured articles from such publications as Esquire, The Atlantic Monthly, GQ and New York magazine.SeeIf you haven't read Nick's story yet, you should. But do yourself a favor: Make sure you're somewhere well-lit, and with lots of people around. In addition to being a heartbreaking tale of a family's loss and a page-turning police procedural, this story is absolutely terrifying.
6 comments:
Poor people. Really intense story - definitely worth the read.
Tragic testimony that underscores that college and university campuses are not and never have been idyllic sanctuaries immune from violence and crime as many advocates of more social prevention programs want you to believe.
As with most things in life, timing influences outcomes. Minutes separated the estimated time fo the attack from the entry to the parking lot by the patrolling security officer. The officer was a trained armed police officer, so consider if the timing of his arrival would have been minutes earlier - Robbin would likely not have been attacked and Urdiales may have been stopped from killing his first and perhaps all of his victims. Such is life, or as some believe, psychic visions.
Abuse, psychosis, delusion--and even psychic visions. But the clear force that aided and abetted this crime is the US military that "taught [him] to kill." And the current statistics about the striking rise of violence by and among vets returning from the middle east should have us all worried. The nightmare is just beginning for the rest of us.
You are delusional if you believe that liberal psychotic myth, 12:45
I had only been teaching at North Campus for 6 years when this murder at South Campus. At that time North Campus (IVC) had no lights in the parking lots and going to your car at night after a class that let out at 10:00pm was quite scary.
The murder of Robbin got us lights and the right to call security for an escort to our cars.
Although I do think that the military may help people like Andrew Urdiales along the road to becoming a murderer, there are plenty for whom a childhood of abuse provide the path. Apparently for Urdiales, both were present.
Most of us no longer fear attack by bears or tigers as part of our daily routine, but crazed humans are every bit as much a wild animal. Just as I do not hike alone in the hills due to fear of cougars, I do not walk alone to my car in dark parking lots. I counsel my female students not to do so either.
It used to annoy me so that women had to be more careful than men, that it was always an issue, but I have come to accept it as reality and always take extra steps to avoid becoming a victim.
The blogosphere got all over this "report" that military vets are creating a crime wave in America. It is just not supported by the facts. Homicides are far less likely to be committed by vets than by common citizens. Period.
Unfortunately, vet records are private. That is too bad for the poor taxpayer who forked over the cash to employ those folks. But, I bet if we could get a look you would find out that vets that had disciplinary issues in the military are far more likely to have them in civilian life after their EAOS. This would make for an interesting theses if one could have at the records. Society could be spared the horrors of the likes of Charles Ng if measures are taken to modify their behavior before the crushing reality of near absolute freedom in America makes them homicidal.
A side note: Strangely though, the recidivism among paroled murderers is very low, less than the population from whence they sprang. I think that it is behavior driven by testosterone. Females just don't demonstrate that behavior...murder is a male enterprise. Murder crescendos in tribal or national warfare..the combatants are nearly all men. Murder is clearly a societal disease and prison is not a cure.
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