May 6, 2008
Suspected Armed man at UR Library
Photo is from twitter.
Officials at the University of Richmond tonight say the area has been thoroughly searched and they do not believe a suspected armed man spotted in the library earlier today is on campus or in the neighborhood.
“Police feel the suspect has left the campus and the area,” said university spokesman Brian Eckert.
Authorities, however, are continuing their investigation while the school will reopen as scheduled Wednesday.
The university is asking employees, faculty and students to be vigilant and report any suspicious behavior. Also, Eckert said, there will be extra patrols overnight and tomorrow.
After first checking Boatwright Library, where the man was reported seen between 2:30 and 2:45 p.m., police inspected other buildings on the locked-down campus and the neighborhood, Richmond Police Chief Rodney Monroe said earlier tonight.
George Orwell would be so proud of the way our society has imitated his book, 1984.
The only trouble is that when you put idiots in front of video screens and tell them that they will see suspicious behavior, then they see suspicious behavior, in every citizen.
When the idiot box (TV) drums into the heads of every citizen who is still foolish enough to watch it, that we live in dangerous times and that we must expect to be terrorized, then the typical citizen will be fearful and suspicious of anyone who does not dress or act as they do.
Terrorism in our time is like the UFO phenomena of the 1950s. Just as the people then began to see flying saucers everywhere, our citizens of today have been conditioned to see dangerous, suspicious people everywhere. While such folly does take our minds off the fact that our economy is headed into a depression, I would rather the distraction be flying saucers again; at least then, people would not be as likely to be shot to death by a cop while reaching for their cell phone.
Some of our citizens, in other states, have already been shot and killed while “suspiciously” reaching into their jackets for their wallets, others have been Tasered to death, because they “suspiciously” asked why they were being arrested. We seem to read daily reports of cops flipping out and beating citizens. Some of these events have been captured on video by bystanders, but rarely are the officers punished.
When are we going to stop this hysteria? Shall we ever return to some semblance of normalcy, where we are not being watched by hidden cameras by creepy people who deem the appearance of our every move to be grounds to shoot us, or otherwise punish us without charge or trial, merely because we appeared on their video screens exhibiting what the watcher felt was “suspicious” behavior?
The State Police should investigate the University of Richmond to determine if their procedures and methods are up to professional standards, and make what recommendations such are necessary to ensure that UR does not overreact to future situations in a way that could get citizens killed.
The Tech shooting notwithstanding, most of the times when someone has a pistol, they carry it safely and for their own protection. Also, every dark object projecting from a pocket is not a weapon. In the UR case, some fellow probably went to the library, didn’t find the book he wanted and then left, never knowing that his “suspicious” behavior had caused mass hysteria among the UR staff.
Visit: http://blog.vcdl.org/ for more straight talk with regard to the college safety/security issue.
Ugh this is driving me crazy. There was no mass hysteria. Everyone is working really hard to get things ready for graduation, and everyone was like “Sigh, this is probably nothing but I guess we’ll just be better safe than sorry.” All the police did was alert us, it’s not like they brought in the SWAT team. What exactly is WRONG with being cautious? They’re responsible for the safety of over a thousand faculty and staff members (most students are not on campus at the moment), and they have the terrifying example of VT’s administration and the blunders they made hanging over their heads.
What you also don’t know is that people actually saw this guy ditch his disguise and continue his trek around campus with his gun. I’m sorry, but if there was a guy walking around YOUR work with a gun, you might alert the cops too.
Actually guys walk around my workplace with guns all of the time :-) Nobody even bats an eye. Open carry happens to be the law of the land, yet public service groups like the Virginia Citizen’s Defense League and similar groups are always fighting to preserve our right to bear arms, in the face of widespread ignorance about this fundamental, Constitutional right.
If campuses were not turned into gun-free zones, then the presence of someone with a pistol would not be a problem, because there would be plenty of other citizens with access to their own weapons, should someone like Tech’s Cho Seung-Hui try to start something.
The problem with the UR response was that they caused a widespread panic based on the appearance of some guy, who in reality came and went peacefully. His only crime, so far, appears to be wearing a cheap, fake beard in public. This in fact could be construed to be a violation since we have anti-Klan laws that prohibit covering your face, but I think that would be a stretch in the case of using a fake beard. If what Mr. Newman was carrying was indeed a pistol, he may still not have violated the law unless he was concealing the gun, without a concealed carry permit. Open carry is legal in Virginia. For details for exceptions, visit the vcdl.org website.
The additional problem with the panic response is that police who are called in to assist, could have mistakenly shot Mr. Newman or someone mistaken for him, for simply resembling the description given in the initial report and who perhaps reached for a metallic cell phone, wallet or other innocent device at an inopportune time.
hahah i love this guy, no homo, i know him hes kind of my friend but hes not bad hes a pretty good kid, and plus i know his younger brother bejamin seth who graduated college at the age of 17 pretty cool ehh. any ways yeah he meant no harm to any one he was just a silly 19 year old wanting to have some fun, being an idiot like all the rest of us
JTB - you have some valid points, but I still have trouble understanding what about this situation constitutes widespread panic on UR’s part. If you mean an over-dramatic response on the part of local news media, sure, but I resent us being portrayed as hysterical just because a couple of us called the cops to investigate and then went about our daily routine.
Is the calling the cops the widespread panic part? I’m honestly not trying to be snarky here, but is the idea of the cops apprehending the guy really more terrifying to you (or Seth) than other citizens (in this case….college students? or — even scarier — staff members like me??) with access to their own guns taking matters into their own hands? To me, that seems like a situation in which Seth’s life would have been much more in danger. It’s just hard for me to make the connection between you wanting everyone to relax so that we don’t all go after this kid with pitchforks and torches and you wanting to give everyone pitchforks and torches. It seems like on one hand you’re saying we overreacted but on the other hand you’re saying we are prevented by University policy from reacting enough?
I am certainly convinced that the local media were pretty inflammatory with their vocabulary and their tones of voice, and I could probably be convinced that the eventual charges against Seth were a little harsher than necessary, but I contend that a citizen’s right to call in trained professionals (trained NOT to panic) when he or she feels threatened by a person is entirely appropriate.