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dEHmom 09:18 AM 05-22-2012
I don't know if any of you would recognize the name "Vince Li". 4 yrs ago he beheaded a guy on a bus and it was because he was off his meds. He's been in the mental hospital, literally a 5 min walk from my house, since. They granted him supervised walks around the town now! They said he is doing really well etc. My opinion is if he's well enough now to walk around, he is well enough to go to jail, but that is neither here nor there.

A lot of people are upset over this, as he is going to be walked with 1 security officer and 1 nurse. If he can decapitate a young man on a bus that was full of people, I don't see how 2 people watching him walk through town is going to be safe.

Anyway, my parents have expressed concern that their children may be outside while the walks are happening. I'm concerned about my income, not so much the supervised walks. Whenever the alarm goes off, someone has escaped, we have to head indoors, lock the doors/windows and do "shelter in place". We have to wait there for xx mins and then phone the police to see if they've found the person yet. We are a straight path from the hospital to the bus stop at the end of my street, which is generally where they catch the people that did escape. 95% of escapees are harmless, mostly talking to themselves type of people, but there are a few people who have escaped that could be dangerous. For the most part they don't walk directly past my house, but walk down one of the streets near us.

I've left a message at the hospital for the CEO to contact me, maybe give me an idea of the times he will be walking, so we can stay indoors. Or request some sort of schedule, or phone call to alert us. I feel horrible having to do this, but I need to be able to offer my families some comfort.

Anyone have any experience with being close to a hospital or jail? How do your families take it? Do they get used to it? Pull out?
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beachgrl 09:29 AM 05-22-2012
Wow, that is a bit challenging, I would be concerned too as a parent and as a person living near the hospital with having to take such steps. that being said, it should be reasonable that they be able to tell you times so you can accomodate it and make your parents feel more at ease about the situation but they may not even do that due to confidentiality, who knows. It is worth talking to them and seeing if there is a solution that will ease your parents minds.

Because I live in the less "ritzy" part of town and am in a rural area with several trailer parks out in the country, people tend to think of it as the less appealing part of town or whatever...bad things happen and people do drugs in the ritzy parts of town too, they just are better at hiding it but I have encounterd some people who didn't like my daycare as much as others due to the location
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dEHmom 09:34 AM 05-22-2012
yeah we live on north end of town, but town isn't that big, so not like there is much of a line drawn between here or there lol. starting one street up from us, is where there is almost an entire area dedicated to "low income housing", but it's very quiet over here usually, well groomed yards, etc. So I haven't had much issues, other than we are located too far from the schools for school aged kids and there is no bus transport right here.
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Ariana 09:58 AM 05-22-2012
Yikes! When I heard he'd be getting supervised walks I was a little bit stunned too. I just don't understand why a murderer would be allowed such priviedges, mentally sane or not.

I really have no experience or advice but wanted to say that I'm sorry you're having to deal with this right now
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sharlan 10:00 AM 05-22-2012
I hope that they can give you an estimate of when he will be out on walks. As a provider, I would be very concerned.

I live in a town with 4 facilities/prisons (men's, women's, and 2 youth). I've never been concerned, even though we had notorious murder about a mile away that was blamed on a prison escapee.
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dEHmom 10:07 AM 05-22-2012
thanks ladies.

It just seems to me that he should be sent to jail if he is doing better. I don't care if you were off your meds and weren't mentally sane at the time. I don't care if you were on your meds and were mentally sane at the time. Murder is murder, and the nature of this crime was not just an average "self defense" style case.

Stabbing, decaptitating and then cannibalizing that poor guy, especially in a bus full of people (men/women/children), is worth life in prison, regardless of the mental state of the person who did the crime.
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Childminder 10:13 AM 05-22-2012
Oh my, I would be nervous too!

I used to live less than a mile from a medium duty prison for women AND a prison camp for men. Not good planning on the State, the inmates at the camp were always trying to get them some from the prisoners at the prison and we more than once had then in our fields and even knockin on our door. The only good thing was with a phone call the entire police dept and sheriff's dept and State police would be at my house in less than five minutes and we lived in the country.

After a year they decided it was pretty stupid and closed the prison camp.
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EntropyControlSpecialist 10:21 AM 05-22-2012
I've got to be honest with you. If I was a parent looking at your daycare, and I knew what you just told all of us I would pass. That crazy of a person walking the streets close by??? That sends my anxiety through the roof simply thinking about it. I've been around/seen all types of crazy, however I try to keep my own children far away from it. Then again, my own children lived in abusive families prior to coming to our family so I tend to be very protective.

I live no where near a prison/mental health hospital. In fact, I live in a community that no one comes to unless they live here/are visiting.
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dEHmom 10:25 AM 05-22-2012
just want to mention, that the city i live in you could walk to the other end in 20 mins. it's not that large of a city. the police department is right by the hospital, and everyone here is just "used" to having the mental nearby. But it is a bit concerning to me, just given the details of the crime itself.

We normally don't worry for our safety much around here. It's usually an open door policy, it's when someone actually knocks on the door our heart starts to pump faster. Of course we do lock our doors, but for the first 4 yrs we lived here, we never did. not even to go to the store. We feel very SAFE here. But Vince Li is another story.
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EntropyControlSpecialist 10:29 AM 05-22-2012
Originally Posted by dEHmom:
just want to mention, that the city i live in you could walk to the other end in 20 mins. it's not that large of a city. the police department is right by the hospital, and everyone here is just "used" to having the mental nearby. But it is a bit concerning to me, just given the details of the crime itself.

We normally don't worry for our safety much around here. It's usually an open door policy, it's when someone actually knocks on the door our heart starts to pump faster. Of course we do lock our doors, but for the first 4 yrs we lived here, we never did. not even to go to the store. We feel very SAFE here. But Vince Li is another story.
I totally understand that normal for your city is not necessarily normal for mine. I am just "anxious mom" when it comes to the thought of more people harming my kids. I don't think I'd be able to live there due to the way I feel.

I really don't understand why he needs walks? He isn't a puppy. We don't walk other inmates ...
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EntropyControlSpecialist 10:32 AM 05-22-2012
I just read this.
http://winnipeg.ctv.ca/servlet/an/lo...b=WinnipegHome

""I would be glad to be under a treatment order because medication helps me. It is very important. I don't want to do what I did ever again," says Li."

His lack of control is scary. He doesn't WANT to do it again ... but who is to say that his medication amount will always be exactly where it should be? What if he feels like he "MUST" do it again.
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dEHmom 10:41 AM 05-22-2012
Originally Posted by LCLC:
I just read this.
http://winnipeg.ctv.ca/servlet/an/lo...b=WinnipegHome

""I would be glad to be under a treatment order because medication helps me. It is very important. I don't want to do what I did ever again," says Li."

His lack of control is scary. He doesn't WANT to do it again ... but who is to say that his medication amount will always be exactly where it should be? What if he feels like he "MUST" do it again.
exactly! if you read the wiki one, it gives a lot more detail on what the crime was.

one of my daycare kids' dad's is in jail. Stole a car, left it on a street and they found a body of an old lady in the trunk. DNA says he committed the crime, he says he found it and got sick, and that's the dna they used to pin it on him. Either way he deserves the jail time. He is in for minimum 25 yrs. Normally his only crime was stealing cars. The murder is a little beyond him, but who knows for sure. I know a few police officers and they said there is no doubt that he did it. I never met the dad, but the grandma (dad's mom) is a really good friend of my dh's and they work together as well, and my dh also went to school with the dad.

But a man who wasn't responsible enough to take his meds, or seek help, gets to chill out in a mental health hospital, and gets to window shop around town after he brutally murders someone in bus full of witnesses???? doesn't make sense to me.
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littlemissmuffet 11:16 AM 05-22-2012
Originally Posted by dEHmom:
I don't know if any of you would recognize the name "Vince Li". 4 yrs ago he beheaded a guy on a bus and it was because he was off his meds. He's been in the mental hospital, literally a 5 min walk from my house, since. They granted him supervised walks around the town now! They said he is doing really well etc. My opinion is if he's well enough now to walk around, he is well enough to go to jail, but that is neither here nor there.

A lot of people are upset over this, as he is going to be walked with 1 security officer and 1 nurse. If he can decapitate a young man on a bus that was full of people, I don't see how 2 people watching him walk through town is going to be safe.

Anyway, my parents have expressed concern that their children may be outside while the walks are happening. I'm concerned about my income, not so much the supervised walks. Whenever the alarm goes off, someone has escaped, we have to head indoors, lock the doors/windows and do "shelter in place". We have to wait there for xx mins and then phone the police to see if they've found the person yet. We are a straight path from the hospital to the bus stop at the end of my street, which is generally where they catch the people that did escape. 95% of escapees are harmless, mostly talking to themselves type of people, but there are a few people who have escaped that could be dangerous. For the most part they don't walk directly past my house, but walk down one of the streets near us.

I've left a message at the hospital for the CEO to contact me, maybe give me an idea of the times he will be walking, so we can stay indoors. Or request some sort of schedule, or phone call to alert us. I feel horrible having to do this, but I need to be able to offer my families some comfort.

Anyone have any experience with being close to a hospital or jail? How do your families take it? Do they get used to it? Pull out?

Li was actually granted outdoor walks around the perimeter of Mental Health Centre in June 2010. It's extremely easy to escape the compound - as a matter of fact, he was patient there in 2006 and escaped and made his way to BC! So really, those who are suddenly concerned they are in danger should have been concerned long before now. The reality with people like Li is if they want to escape, they will find a way... walking around the compound or in town - and letting something like that control your life is completely unrealistic.

The liklihood of Li getting out and hurting one of your daycare kids is pretty unlikely. It's more likely that you or one of your DCPs is living in close proximity to a much more dangerous kind of person.... a pedophile!

I doubt the hospital will let you know when he's out for walks... the security guard with Li is more for his protection than the public's. They wouldn't tip someone off when and where to find him... they're well aware that the public isn't handling this issue very well.

Best of luck.
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meganlavonnesmommy 12:15 PM 05-22-2012
Is there anyway they can let the public know when he will be out walking? Like every Tuesday from 10-11, or every Tuesday morning. Then you can avoid the area during that time?
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dEHmom 12:27 PM 05-22-2012
Originally Posted by meganlavonnesmommy:
Is there anyway they can let the public know when he will be out walking? Like every Tuesday from 10-11, or every Tuesday morning. Then you can avoid the area during that time?
No i spoke with the CEO at the hospital, she cannot even HINT at a timeframe he will be out, because it's patient confidentiality. The only thing she could offer was a free course they do helping people understand mental illness.
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Unregistered 12:38 PM 05-22-2012
Having suffered from mental illness I have a lot of empathy for people facing this challenge. However, when their behaviour takes basic human rights away from others that is where I loose patience with the Canadian Goverment. Situations like this, which I remember very clearly as my husband thankfully missed that bus, make me so so angry! Why in the world is this monster being given another chance to misuse his meds and potentially murder again?!

How condescending of the hospital staff to attempt to passify your concern by offering your compassion classes. Ugh! As if some how his actions would be justified if only you "understood".

(giant hug)

Hopefully once the media blitz dies down parents will feel a bit safer.
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dEHmom 01:40 PM 05-22-2012
I do realize a lot of the story is just media buzz. I also know for a fact that they have to do DAILY blood testing to make sure medication is at the full dosage amount.

This does help calm my nerves much, and hopefully will be enough to please the parents.

I understand why they cannot give any ideas on the times that he may be out on a walk, as there are a lot of people who have shared their opinion on what they would do if they seen him out.


I hope he doesn't get more and more freedom though. Still personally think he should be sent off to jail. He can walk around the yard there where people are armed with guns if anyone tries anything.
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countrymom 04:21 PM 05-22-2012
I remember that story. I would call the paper and tell him who you are and that you are concerned, is there a school nearby, get the school involved. I just don't understand how people can commit murder and are released but grow some dope and you go to prison
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