Sad Death at "Occupy" Camp in Denton

There are a number of sad details in a story about a death on December 3, 2011 at the “Occupy Denton” camp.

First of all, it was sad for police to discover that a 23 year old man named Darwin Cox died around 4:30 p.m. in a tent at the protest campsite at the University of North Texas (UNT.) Someone called the police between 5 and 5:30 p.m. that day and both university and city police responded. The coroner took away his body at 8:30 p.m. that day.

The toxicology report had not been released, so the cause of death cannot fully be substantiated. However, police believe that there was no foul play, and the spokesman for the Occupy Denton group, Garrett Graham, said that Cox had been spoken to on several occasions regarding his drug activity, and told to stop. The members of the group did not report him to the police or to the UNT who has firmly stated that there is a zero tolerance rule about drugs anywhere on the campus. There was also a rule that only students from UNT were supposed to be involved in the Occupy camp, and administrators were surprised to hear that Cox was allowed to stay there although he was not a student.

Graham stated that Cox was homeless and since one of the travesties of American life that the Occupy movement is fighting against is homelessness, Cox was welcomed to stay at the camp. An Occupy Denton press release described Cox as being "a fellow occupier, a kind and idealistic young man and a friend" whose "lifelong struggle with drug addiction" was suspected to be a factor in his death.

This is another sad detail. To think that a person who is only 23 years old can be described as a person with a “lifelong struggle with drug addiction” is indeed sad. He hasn’t even had a long life yet.

The Occupy camp was already packing up prior to this happening, and after the death of Cox, the encampment part of the movement ended. A vigil was held for Cox on Monday December 5 to mourn his loss and commemorate his short life.