A group of University Of Washington students are being called vigilantes after they armed themselves with handguns and tried to set up patrols on University Avenue and other areas around campus where students have been attacked over the past year.
Stanley Luong and Luis Garcia have armed themselves. Both are assault victims. Luong says, “Some guy just broke down the window, reached in and unlocked the door and came in and robbed us.”
Garcia says, “Four men jumped out of a car. They assaulted me and threw my girlfriend to the ground and they attempted to rob me. Two times I’ve been jumped. I said it’s not going to happen a third time.”
So both got a concealed license permit and bought handguns. Now they walk with pistols in their pockets…looking for the bad guys.
Luong says, “I don’t know if it’s illegal to walk around and be bait. I’m kind of fishing for robbers.”
Garcia says, “I believe the police they come after the fact. They aren’t there when the incident is occurring I believe this is just the fastest means of protecting oneself and those around youÂ… and so I decided to take that measure and execute my second amendment to bear arms.”
According to the UW Daily Newspaper, there have been ten assaults and robberies in the area in just the past two months. The students also created a Facebook page with more than two dozen friends.
“I was just kind of sick of it and I watched a lot of movies like taxi driver and vigilante movies and I decided, why not make a Facebook” says Luong.
It was quickly removed but by then, the group was already together and remains loosely knit.
The University of Washington Police department doesn’t think this style of vigilantism is a good idea. They would rather see the police work left to the professionals.
University Of Washington Deputy Police Chief Ray Wittmier says, “People when they are carrying weapons a lot of times they feel less vulnerable so they put themselves in bad positions sometimes increasing the likelihood that they might run into a bad situation.”
It is illegal to carry a concealed handgun on college campuses in Washington. There has long been a move to change state law to allow it but so far it has not been successful.
The City of Seattle and the University of Washington pen up the potential victims, and then offer only crime recording and body removal services.
Then they bitch, moan and complain when groups like this one get created.
These poor guys are going to get themselves in trouble. I’m in Tacoma and I can hear the drool splash as it hits the highly polished floors in the Seattle and King County Prosecutors offices.
Bad juju all the way around. Make sure you stop by Monday for “The Big Announcement” that is more than somewhat related to this topic.
If the bad guys read the newspaper, then this story might help to serve as a deterrent, but I doubt that they do. Not convinced that looking for trouble is the way to go, however.
There ya go again, Phil, “teasing” a future blog post.
This is the ugliest facet of the news biz, this “teasing” bit.
Publish, or keep it under your hat until you do.
Thank you.
Now, now, patience is a virtue….
Identifying yourself as a “vigilante” is stupid, stupid, stupid.
That said, I broke the law by carrying at UW for the last six months of my tenure there… when I got my WA state CHL.
So I could legally carry everywhere save for campus… I just carried on campus anyway and kept my mouth shut.
The most dangerous places around UW are not on campus, and if I was headed home late at night I was not going to be unarmed. I had several close calls before carrying, and several close calls after carrying, but I know it’s much worse now in the U District, thanks to the SPD’s hands-off approach to dealing with street crime and drug dealing.