All-night study sessions and Tinder hook-ups were interrupted in the wee hours of Wednesday by a disturbing warning sent to University of Florida students through the school’s alert system.
The University Athletic Association alerted the UF Police Department to semi-anonymous threats made via Twitter at around 8 p.m. on Tuesday, according to UFPD Captain Jeff Holcomb.
The threat was simple and hit somewhat close to home, about 150 miles away, for Gators – “Im gonna shoot up the school tomorrow.” Missing apostrophe and all.
Via: News 4 Jax
“We’re working with the local FBI office to try to, if we can, isolate the sender and determine who sent it and also see if we need to increase our level of threat related to this incident,” Holcomb said. “At this point we consider it very low because of the other incident at the other university as well as American Airlines had similar type of threats received via Twitter.”
Holcomb was likely alluding to the threat made a few days at the University of Louisville in Kentucky where, allegedly, a student’s Twitter was hacked and a single tweet threatening to shoot up the school, along with a photo of a masked man holding a gun, was made.
“In looking at it, there were 15 tweets that came in from 15 different accounts – the same exact message from 15 different places in the US all at the same time,” the captain said, “so, when we put all of those things together, that’s when they determined that it’s most likely a hoax.”
Despite being deemed a hoax, UFPD is committed to student safety, which is why the timely warning was issued.
At any given time, there is an average of 10 patrolling officers on shift at the campus, as well as two sergeants and a commander. Given the situation, however, police presence on campus was increased to an unspecified number.
Via: NCJFCJ
“Today was the day the threat was made … so, as far as I know, we will rotate back to our normal staffing tomorrow,” Holcomb said. “But, again, if our investigation shows any need to increase that, we will do so.”
The threat, however, brings to light some interesting concerns.
Last night I was lying in bed with my boyfriend watching “The X-Files” on Netflix and eating popcorn when our phones started chirping, chiming and flashing from the alerts. I stood up, read it out loud and just kind of shrugged. It was in that moment that I realized how desensitized I had become to threats, even to my own life.
Shootings have almost become commonplace. Wikipedia lists, as of this very moment, 40 gun-related incidents happening in schools across the country in 2014.
We all remember where we were on 9/11, the day the world stood still, despite most of us likely not even having any understanding of the tragedy at the time, but do you remember where you were when you heard about the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre? The Aurora movie theater shooting? Probably not.
Via: Ryot
Gun violence has become a Twitter trend.
I remember being scared and little worried after having heard about the shooting at Florida State University just a few weeks ago. I texted my friends who go there to make sure they were alright and I contemplated not going to class, but that fear subsided quickly and I resumed my life as if nothing happened. The poisonous notion that “it won’t happen to me” has infected all of our minds.
It’ll never happen to us until it happens, and on Wednesday, it was close to happening.
Feature photo courtesy of: AJC
