The University of Texas at Austin has become a breeding ground for vagrants who get off on masturbating in front of women, and the victims are getting no help from the DA.
In September, a repeated offender named Patrick Sweeney ran across campus naked, chased female joggers, and masturbated in a parking lot beside the LBJ Library before hiding from police in a port-a-potty.
This week, Octavius Brown -- a registered sex offender with multiple prior indecent exposure convictions -- broke into three West Campus apartments in one morning, masturbated in front of residents, and strangled a woman who woke to find him in her room until she gouged his eye and beat him off with a fan.
Brown was out on a five-year probation deal for felony indecent exposure in the same neighborhood.
Both men were caught again and again, and released again and again by DA José Garza's office.
At UT-Austin, running from and fighting off mentally ill public masturbators has become a basic survival skill.