Oh really?

Supposedly, the Moody Learning Center, the building I was in on Tuesday, did get locked down.  From an e-mail sent to all students by the college President:

In addition, a San Antonio Police Department bicycle officer in the area assisted with the case, having been informed that a person matching the description given by the two students was walking toward the Moody Learning Center.  The MLC was put on lockdown at that time as our officers made a thorough search of the building.

Huh.  That's...interesting, being that, as I said, I was in the MLC at the time of the lockdown.  And "thorough search"...Yeah, no.  Not so much.

To be perfectly fair, that building would be a royal bitch to search.  It's seven stories, has elevators, escalators, and at least two sets of stair cases that go all the way up.  It's also undergoing remodeling at the moment.  It has classrooms, a multi-floor library, and the SLAC lab, where I was for my exam.

But I can tell you this: that lockdown didn't involve the SLAC lab door being closed, or people being prevented from going in or out at any time.  That thorough search didn't involve police officers--campus or SAPD walking around inside the SLAC lab.

The whole incident supposedly happened so fast that the all-clear was given before there was time to activate the emergency notification system.  The entire lockdown, if the media is to be believed, lasted approximately 45 minutes.  Is that enough time to do a "thorough search" of a 7-storey building?  Forgive me if I have my doubts, especially given evidence to the contrary.

There are a lot of places a criminal can hide in a building that big.  Chances are he got off-campus ASAP, and it was a different "slim black man" who was seen going into these various buildings.  (Ain't that always the way?)  BUT we had an aggressive, armed criminal on campus--the same e-mail said he hit one of his victims in the mouth with his gun, so basically the dude on the receiving end got lucky--and the message was "wait and see" and the actions taken to protect the student body were, as far as I can tell, under par.

But hey, we still don't need any means of protecting ourselves!  All we have to do is wait for the police.