Levin College of Law?
I lived right by the Sororities.
Apparently there was a partially retarded “home” for somewhat able adults.
One day a dude went cold turkey off his meds, charged the police and got killed.
We were outside, drinking, about 200’ away.
When you leave the campus, there’s all sorts of crazies.
Over by me was a homeless camp in the woods.
We referred to non students as ACRs. Alachua County Residents...
ACRs, hmmm. This ACR just learned a new term. ;)
Where was the homeless camp you speak of? I’m sure I was gone by then, but there was a little area near campus that used to be where the Hare Krishnas lived. Is that where you mean?
In the day, Gainesville had (and still has) a large VA Hospital, with inpatient and outpatient mental health treatment services. Then and now, the medicate, stabilize, and release policy results in lots of mentally ill veterans off their meds and wandering loose on the streets and in marginal living situations.
There are also a couple of Florida Department of Corrections facilities in Alachua County with regular releases or escapes that provide a source of new dangerous types. I dated a local girl who lived near the DOC work camp. Due to a murder by an escapee, she and her entire family went about armed at all times on the recommendation of the local sheriff.
And, just as schools of fish draw sharks, college towns stuffed full of vulnerable and naive students draw human predators.
Here's a funny story. One night, plotting political mischief, I met some friends for a late night meal, and driving one of them back to his apartment, we stopped at the post office near the campus so I could check my PO box.
A seedy looking older guy in jeans and a denim shirt was doing the same, and safely back in my old Mercury Cougar, I mentioned that I had seen that bum several times wandering on or near the campus. My friend gave me a look and said, "Don't you know who that is?" It was Harry Crews, a famous writer at the time and a visiting professor in creative writing at U. of Florida.