Dear President Nikias,

 

On July 24, 2014, Xinran Ji, a graduate student studying engineering at USC, was fatally attacked near the campus. While the shooting 2 years ago was still fresh in our memory, the Trojans community lost another member forever. Amidst our deep sadness and anguish, we want to take action to protect the safety of our fellow students who will continue studying and living around the campus.

 

To this end, we would like to raise the following questions.

 

1.        In the letter to the USC community right after this tragedy, Provost Elizabeth Garrett claimed that “this was an isolated incident and there was and is no apparent threat to the campus community.” (“A message from Provost Elizabeth Garrett” [1].) We feel this message is ungrounded and misleading.

 

2.        The risk of violent crime won’t drop as the density of people living there decreases. Is withdrawing the security ambassadors during the summer semester, a security force widely relied on by the USC students living near campus, not an unwise decision on the part of the Department of Public Safety (DPS)? If that decision had not been made, there should have been at least 2-3 security ambassadors deployed at the crime site and along the walking route the victim took after the attack. If so, would this tragedy have been prevented?

 

3.        As early as 2011, “USC campus police, security ambassadors and the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) monitor a 6-square-mile area that includes the physical campus and residential and commercial areas.” “The license plate cameras and dome cameras are monitored 24 hours a day by a team of operators in a command center located in USC’s department of public safety office.” (See “Campus Safety” magazine’s report on December 19, 2011[2].)  After the attack occurred 0.2 mile (300 meters) from the campus, the victim walked an entire block until he reached his apartment, leaving a trail of blood behind him. During this period of time how can the operators monitored the camera not detect the victim in danger? Were they on duty? The life of the victim could have been saved if they had been doing their job.

 

Therefore, we present our formal requests as follows.

 

1.        We request that Provost Garrett and John Thomas, the chief of USC DPS, apologize for their irresponsible statements. Chief Thomas stated that they have been protecting the USC community with their “our best efforts”. (“A message from the chief of the Department of Public Safety” [3].) Considering the negligence of DPS, we demand that Chief Thomas to step down immediately.

 

2.        We request the DPS to maintain the same level of the security measures to protect the safety of USC community, and to redeploy the security ambassadors immediately.

 

3.        We request the DPS to make full use of the existing video surveillance equipment, and to practice the 24-hour monitoring strictly, to ensure the immediate response to the crimes.

 

Thank you,

Xinran Ji’s friends, family and USC students

 

[1] “A message from Provost Elizabeth Garrett”：http://news.usc.edu/66425/a-letter-to-the-usc-community-3/

[2] “USC Campus Security: Taking It to the Street.” Campus Safety. December 19, 2011. http://www.campussafetymagazine.com/article/usc-campus-security-taking-it-to-the-streets

 [3] “A message from the chief of the Department of Public Safety.” http://news.usc.edu/66609/a-message-from-the-chief-of-the-department-of-public-safety/

 

 

 

尊敬的Nikias校长：

2014年7月24日，工程学院在读研究生纪欣然学习完回家，在校园附近遭遇歹徒袭击，遇害身亡。两年前的枪击事件仍在每个人的记忆中，又有一位同学永远地离开了我们。悲痛之余，我们更希望能做点什么，为了所有还活着的同窗，为了所有还将继续学习、生活在校园周边的学生。

为此，我们现在向校方提出以下几点疑问：

1.        教务长Elizabeth Garrett在致辞中认为这是“一起个别事件，对当时和现在校园安全没有构成明显威胁”（教务长致南加州大学社区函[1]），是否毫无根据，过于草率？

2.        暴力犯罪发生的概率不随人口密度降低而降低。暑假期间，公共安全部撤走了校园附近的“小黄衣”这一被广泛依赖的安保措施，是否是一个错误的决定？事发点和受害人回公寓沿路原本应当至少有2-3名“小黄衣”站岗，如果没有降低安保级别，这一悲剧还会不会发生？

3.        早在2011年，公共安全部就在校园及周边6平方英里（约等于15.5平方公里）的区域安装了摄像头，并在公共安全部办公室设立24小时专人负责的监控室。（详见《校园安全》杂志在2011年12月19日的报道[2]）事发当时监控人员有没有在岗？有没有失职？受害人在离校园仅0.2英里（300米）的地方遇袭直到回公寓，一路留着血迹走过一个街区，必然长达数分钟，如果监控人员及时发现是否能够挽救一个伤者？

我们郑重地向校方提出以下请求：

1.        校长及所有相关学校领导正视安全问题；Garrett教务长和公共安全部主任John Thomas为事发后不负责任的言论道歉；公共安全部工作存在漏洞，Thomas主任在校园周边致死案件发生后仍然认为已经“尽了最大努力”（公共安全部主任致辞[3]），我们要求他辞职；

2.        暑假期间在校园周围维持和春秋季学期同等级别的安保措施，立即恢复“小黄衣”岗位，确保仍然有足够人员巡逻；

3.        充分利用现有摄像监控设备，严格执行24小时审看制度，以保证第一时间对暴力犯罪作出响应。

谢谢。

纪欣然的朋友们、家人和南加州大学学生

2014年7月31日

 

[1] 致南加州大学社区函：http://news.usc.edu/66425/a-letter-to-the-usc-community-3/

[2] 《校园安全》关于南加州大学校园安全的报道：http://www.campussafetymagazine.com/article/usc-campus-security-taking-it-to-the-streets

[3] 公共安全部（DPS）主任致辞：http://news.usc.edu/66609/a-message-from-the-chief-of-the-department-of-public-safety/