Wednesday, October 24, 2007

"Meek and Mild Mannered" Woman Stabs Boyfriend

A Wellesley woman turned violent after breaking up with her boyfriend:

A 20-year-old female student at Wellesley College was charged today with breaking into a dormitory at MIT and stabbing her former boyfriend seven times as he slept, according to police and prosecutors.

Anna Tang was ordered held without bail after her arraignment this afternoon in Cambridge District Court on charges of armed assault with intent to murder and home invasion.

Suzanne Kontz, an assistant Middlesex district attorney, said in court that the victim, a 19-year-old student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, woke up to Tang stabbing him seven times. The couple had been romantically involved for eight months but broke up three weeks ago and the relationship took a violent turn, Kontz said.

Kontz said that Tang sent the victim threatening e-mails and then broke into his dorm room today at about 6:30 a.m. Tang was arrested by Cambridge police inside the dormitory on Memorial Drive. The name and condition of the victim were not released.

John Valerio, an attorney who represented Tang, described his client as a “meek and mild mannered” young woman who had been taking classes at MIT. Valerio said he will investigate the accusations.


I wonder if this woman will see any real jail time or whether she will just get the Mary Winkler treatment?

59 Comments:

Blogger campy said...

But Helen, she had no choice but to break into his dorm and stab him while he slept. She didn't know any other way to be sure she was safe from him.

1:43 PM, October 24, 2007  
Blogger mike savell said...

wow,she woke him up,hope she didn't contravene his human rights,there will be trouble.

1:51 PM, October 24, 2007  
Blogger Serket said...

mike, it says stabbing her former boyfriend seven times as he slept.

2:11 PM, October 24, 2007  
Blogger Tim Murray said...

I am sure that if this matter goes to trial, we'll all learn what a bastard this disgusting sleeping teenage male was, and how he damaged her fragile psyche with his oppressive, sex-craved patriarchal mind-games, and so on and so forth. I know this is the case because since he is male, he is evil.

She should get 40 years (certainly more time than a rape because she tried to kill him), and then when she gets out, she should have to register as a lunatic offender.

3:01 PM, October 24, 2007  
Blogger Cham said...

Let's see, the last name is Tang so we see the alleged stabber is already using the 'meek and mild' Asian female defense that didn't work so well for Jeen Han, I have no idea how it will play in Massachusetts. I am sure the Asian community will band together as in the Han case and insist that Ms. Tang didn't really stab her ex-boyfriend, this is all in everyone's mind because it's a cultural thing and Americans just don't understand. The alleged stabber attends an Ivy League and probably had high grades in high school, that will come into play as well. I can see the defense attorney already, "She was a good girl, I can't believe she would do something like this."

But, remember, this isn't Tennessee but the Northeast, so the locals will be less likely to be forgiving, the alleged stabber doesn't have 3 kids nor is she a bible-thumping Christian. If the alleged stabber hails from outside the jurisdiction in which she is charged that may work very much against her, no community support.

Helen will have to watch this story on behalf of all of us to see how it turns out.

3:26 PM, October 24, 2007  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Because she, like the rest of us, have seen women getting a slap on the wrist time and again for murder, rape, etc., I'm sure that she didn't feel that she would not have to pay any consequences, or at worst a slap on the wrist. You cannot tell me that highly publisized cases of women murdering their spouses or boyfrineds does not effect the mind state of females.

Eventually, society is going to have to start holding females accountable for their actions. We cannot have half the population free to play God- deciding who lives or dies without consequence. This is CRAZY.

3:40 PM, October 24, 2007  
Blogger Cham said...

Upon doing some Internet searches it turns out that Massachusetts has something called a "dangerousness hearing" which will occur on October 30 for Ms. Tang. I was unaware that dangerousness was a word but you learn something new every day.

Anyhoo, this type of hearing determines whether one who has allegedly committed a crime might be a risk to society. Ms. Tang apparently allegedly sent her ex-boyfriend some emails explaining that she was going to kill him after he dumped her. Now I would say that her alleged actions with the buck knife were premeditated and carefully planned.

Ms. Tang hails from South Bend, Indiana. Her boyfriend is from Washington State. We have yet to determine the race of the boyfriend, but you can bet your bippy that will play a big part on how the Asian community will react. Stay tuned, this might get really interesting.

Oh, and yes, regardless that Ms. Tang is meek and mild and has never caused anyone a bit of grief, um, yeah, she is a big big threat to the community, specifically to one Mr. Wolfe Stykes. May his wounds heal quickly so he can get back on track. Perhaps the defense team should give this meek and mild thing a rest, the lady brought 3 knives to the scene of the crime

4:46 PM, October 24, 2007  
Blogger DADvocate said...

I say we buy her a car and a new house. Oh, wait. She didn't actually kill him. A down payment will have to suffice.

5:10 PM, October 24, 2007  
Blogger altoids1306 said...

Perhaps I can kill two birds with one stone - I am of Asian descent, and I am an MIT student.

The news first came from a crime report sent to all MIT personnel from the MIT Police Dept. The email was very vague. Soon, students found AP news releases, which were quickly disseminated via email. The official response has been very muted.

The impact on campus has been limited for those not directly involved. It's a topic of water-cooler conversation, but not much more. Students at Next House (where it occurred), are obviously more rattled, but that's about it.

Rightly or wrongly, it seems to be somewhat of a joke, one more story to reinforce the general stereotype of Wellesley students as being crazy man-haters. The fact that she was a pre-med also adds to the general derision. A general survey of my classmates seems to be "Don't date crazies, and don't cheat on your girlfriend."

As for the "Asian" community, let me assure you that this is a non-event. Some activists might try to make hay of this incident, but they would be isolated individuals.

6:25 PM, October 24, 2007  
Blogger Helen said...

altoids1306,

Thanks for giving us more information. However, if the event is true, it is hardly just "water-cooler conversation." And if this is what is seen around your campus as a joke, your campus at MIT is full of a bunch of sick puppies. As far as "don't cheat on your girlfriend," what kind of response is that? Do people tell women who are attacked by boyfriends, stabbed in their sleep not to "mess around" for fear their boyfriend will kill them? No, they talk about hunting the SOB down. This nonchalant attitude about women coming after men is sick--it is not a joke, it is not funny, it is attempted murder and should be treated as such.

6:45 PM, October 24, 2007  
Blogger Cham said...

If the punishment for every person who cheated on their SO was a stabbing, then there would be pools of blood everywhere.

MIT is acting rather amateurish if they haven't issued an official statement. A stabbing is serious business, and perhaps the university should review the rules with its attendees of who should be able to enter the dorms. Parents are paying a hefty penny for those educations, they expect their kids to be safe.

Stabbing your cheating SO while you attend school, although I am sure could be very satisfying at the time, has some serious drawbacks. Most obvious is that once you finish the deed you are staring down 10-20 years or more with an attempted murder charge. Then there is the cost of mounting a defense that you will most likely lose, you still have to pay back the student loans and your loved ones might live very far away and won't be able to visit you while you do your time.

Even if you completed all your coursework, your university might be hesitant to grant you your degree. Perhaps it might be best to simply tell your friends and family that your ex-SO is a no-good cheater and move on with your life.

Don't do the crime unless you can work the consequences into your busy schedule.

7:17 PM, October 24, 2007  
Blogger Fred Drinkwater said...

Holy #$@@! My daughter is at Next House! Ack!

9:33 PM, October 24, 2007  
Blogger altoids1306 said...

Helen:

I should have spoken more carefully. Obviously, attempted murder is a serious business, and this has shaken the friends and family of the victim. However, in the greater MIT community, the reaction has been very mild. If the criminal were still at large, the reaction would be quite different, but since she has been caught, most students see no reason to deviate from their normal behavior.

The serious injury of a fellow student is disturbing, but I think it's well within the normal range of human behavior to find dark humor in an inherently uncontrollable, unpredictable incident. The nervous laugh if you will.

Speaking as a single male, the specter of being awoken by a murderous ex-girlfriend is terrifying. But what possible strategy could you create to defend yourself? In this case, the victim did have warning in form of threatening emails, so I think MIT men will take the possibility of female violence more seriously. Other that that, I'm not sure what more can be done.

10:51 PM, October 24, 2007  
Blogger Unknown said...

Dr. Helen: Thank You for your comment to altoids1306 re cheating. We need a LOT more of that sort of thinking.
-------------

It could well be that her being female will be counter-balanced by this being a school attack. If so, there will be a fair and reasonable trial.

To me, the more worrying part of this is seen in altoids comment on cheating on one's girlfriend. This "a male victim did something to deserve being stabbed" attitude infests almost everyone in our culture: It is a cultural blight and a serious threat to our social sanity as well as to all of our males.

4:13 AM, October 25, 2007  
Blogger Helen said...

altoids1306,

I understand nervous laughter, but it is more than that. I bet people really think it's funny. Sort of like in the old days when a housewife threw a frying pan at a man's head. However, times have changed and this sort of "pat the little lady on the head days" needs to be a thing of the past. Women are capable of violence, commit some violent acts and should be held accountable for those acts--to laugh about it is simultaneously sexist toward women in that the person who is laughing deep down thinks that women are really powerless and sexist toward the man in that he is thought to deserve it more or less, you know cheating and all, or dating that crazy woman.

I don't mean to pick on you in any way, you seem like a nice person but I do think that women who break in and stab men should be held accountable--call me crazy. And yes, something can be done. Shrugging and saying that men will just have to put up with this behavior is utter nonsense.

5:27 AM, October 25, 2007  
Blogger Cham said...

Altoid, uncontrollable and unpredictable incident? Not necessarily. One must remember those threatening emails. Let's expand on this issue of sexism. I wonder if the ex-boyfriend felt that as a man he could handle the situation alone rather than take these clearly threatening and ominous emails to campus security or the police and give them a heads up that Ms. Tang might need some oversight. The boyfriend is in the hospital and Ms. Tang is in the pokey, this might have been preventable had someone taken some action.

MIT should review the procedure when someone starts with the threats. The greater MIT community has its work cut out for them. Altoid, I wouldn't let them drop the ball.

8:07 AM, October 25, 2007  
Blogger 64 said...

Reverse the situation. Imagine a crazed MIT student had broken into the Wellsley dorm and stabbed his ex-girlfriend seven times after sending threatening emails.

9:44 AM, October 25, 2007  
Blogger altoids1306 said...

There's no question that law-and-order types (such as myself) expect Anna Tang to be prosecuted to the fullest extent allowed by Massachusetts law. Given the intensely meritocratic ethos of MIT, I think you will see nearly universal condemnation of the criminal. With the exception of a few notable professors, victimhood is given short shrift here.

Again, I think the impulse to laconic humor is defensible, particularly in a conversation between males, for the reasons stated before. There is an element of sexism and bravado, but mostly it is a way to cope with the unease that this could have befallen on any of us, as we mentally review our own checkered pasts. In the absence of concrete ways to reduce the threat, trivialization is the only way to gain mastery over this situation.

MIT is geared towards suicide prevention, and takes self-reported mental health seriously, but it is difficult to see how it could reasonably extend protection to external threats. With this event, men will take threats more seriously, but that's about it.

9:50 AM, October 25, 2007  
Blogger Cham said...

Matthew, that would have been the national news story that would have superseded those big fires on the CNN masthead.

9:51 AM, October 25, 2007  
Blogger Cham said...

Altoid, you are so very wrong:

MIT is geared towards suicide prevention, and takes self-reported mental health seriously, but it is difficult to see how it could reasonably extend protection to external threats.

Had the ex-boyfriend brought these emails to the attention of the MIT campus security or the local police their first order of business would probably alert the Wellesley College. I am sure there is a code of conduct for all students there in which Ms. Tang would have been in violation. The university could have been given the option to ask Ms. Tang to leave, as I am sure death threats are covered under those rules and regulations.

The police force of the local jurisdiction would have immediately confronted Ms. Tang, death threats are taken very seriously and are a criminal offense.

The dorm where the ex-boyfriend lived could have beefed up its security and asked the residents to be on the look-out for Ms. Tang.

There are 3 courses of action which could have helped prevent this tragic situation had someone escalated those emails.

10:48 AM, October 25, 2007  
Blogger Yamantaka said...

Hmm-- I haven't seen this case mentioned on any feminist blogs... which is odd, considering their strong interest in "dating violence" as well as the Wellesley College connection. Surely, this kind of thing would be of interest?

Hm. Must be a fluke.

12:51 PM, October 25, 2007  
Blogger DSK said...

I'm a former MIT student, and I'd just like to chime in. With perhaps a few minor differences, I would support pretty much everything altoids has said.
I'd especially stress that I don't think anyone is to blame for the stabbing other than Ms. Tang herself. I assume the gentleman involved, based on intimate knowledge, made a calculation that the threatening emails were nothing to go to the police over. Obviously a serious miscalculation was made, but I'm not going to judge it in hindsight. Absent administrative knowledge of those emails, there's not much anyone else could have done. I don't know precisely the manner in which the girl involved gained entry to Next House. I can easily imagine several reasonable routes, though, all of which would only be eliminated at the cost of a prision-like dorm environment. There's at least one nasty example of that at BU, and I wouldn't want to see MIT dorms go that route.

I'll add that I thought it was morbidly amusing, too. I guess you have to have gone there. Does that make me a sick puppy? Possibly. Oh well.

4:42 PM, October 25, 2007  
Blogger Derve Swanson said...

C'mon helen. I could write you a million funny jokes re. the Asian killer. So Hsu me. Coarse humor is in -- where have you been?

And you can't appoint yourself Queen Bee to pick and choose which issues are ok to be funny about and which aren't.

If you keep it all bottled inside, you either have an early heart attack, or end up repressing and will snap yourself one day. Laugh it off, and don't assume laughing means you don't want the killer prosecuted. That's illogical. A much greater sin than laughing at some poor guy whose girlfriend simply skipped the boiled wabbit step...

7:04 PM, October 25, 2007  
Blogger lovemelikeareptile said...

Mary-- a good example of a typical modern woman-- and of their incredible anti-male bigotry, complete mindlessness, and moral depravity.


She thinks its funny for a woman to break into a dormitory with deadly weapons and try to stab her ex-boyfriend to death. That pretty much sums up the modern American woman.

How can you find that "funny" ?-- only one way-- dehumanize men. Women enjoy doing that and that is why they enjoy all brutal crimes committed against men by women-- esp gential mutiliation. Mary wishes she had chopped off his penis so her and her insipid , anti-male , airhead gal pals could guffaw about that.


Can we have a FLOOD to rid the world of the present infestation know as "Women" ( we can save Dr. Helen and the 5 % of decent women in the world in the arc).

And this airhead thinks that everything is arbitrary, that no one can even claim trying to kill sleeping men is not funny. Welcome to the mind of the modern woman. Totally gynocentric. Everything is permitted against men. Never heard of The Golden Rule. Cannot imagine empathy for "the other"-- the source of all morality.

" Coarse humour " is in-- only when men are the object of violence, mutiliation, degradation-- by women.
Yeah-- you are right.. Most women do find it funny, stabbing and mutilating and killing men in their sleep. Anything that hurts men-- women find it funny... Women love a good testicle- kicking scene... but kick a woman in the genitals and they don't laugh at all...

If a man at MIT broke in a woman's dorm and tried to kill a coed-- would you and your little gal pals be laughing at her... No-- you think of her as human-- she has value-- why she has a p*****, just like you.
Why don't you pull your head out of yours ( I know you like "coarse humour", Mary) and read a litle ethcis-- Kant, Plato, Aristotle, Mill-- and learn what being human means.

"Coarse humour is in "-- not about violence against women , it aint. Women enjoy violence committed against men-- Mary is our witness ! She is so venial she doesn't even try to hide her perversity-- becasue its normal among women.



Women are the UBERFRAU-- everything is permitted

Lesson-- people like "coarse humour"-- when its at "the other's expense". You laugh at another's abuse and violation, you are an animal. Welcome to the moral universe of the modern woman, the product of feminism.

A sign I saw outside a local church said it all--
"You Can Tell A Lot About A Person By What He Finds Funny"


Your "coarse humour" is misandry. People who find humour in violence committed against others are morally reprehensible.
.

Thanks, Mary-- many people think my views are very extreme. Its always easy to show they aint-- when someone like you slouches in ... so representative of the modern woman

1:16 AM, October 26, 2007  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Three knives? Sounds like she was on a mission. I guess if she couldn't have him, she wanted to be sure no one could.

I suppose it is hard to tell sometimes, when threats are idle, and when someone will follow through. I agree with cham, had the written threats been taken seriously enough to show to authorities, she would at least have brought in for questioning. That may have revealed all kinds of neat things about her.
Just like a face to face conversation with mary would.

6:31 AM, October 26, 2007  
Blogger Helen said...

DSK,

"I'll add that I thought it was morbidly amusing, too. I guess you have to have gone there. Does that make me a sick puppy? Possibly. Oh well."

Great,hope you and the guys at MIT get a big morbid chuckle out of the whole thing. But just remember something, everytime you and your fellow male students laugh about a man getting injured, you are contributing to a cultural milieu that allows injustices like the Duke rape case, false accusations of rape against men, domestic violence against men without recourse, and to the family court system that says it is fair to screw men moreso than women in divorce cases. Maybe you have not seen this type of injustice happen yet, but most likely you will. So keep on morbidly laughing....but just keep in the back of your mind....it's your funeral.

8:00 AM, October 26, 2007  
Blogger Derve Swanson said...

Oh Helen.

Regulating humor.

Not a good sign... Remember your heart health!

Because believe me, people joke about hearts blowing up inside ya, like that. Nothing is off limits for humorous intent. Sorry. No turning back the clock now to protect the sensitive...

8:18 AM, October 26, 2007  
Blogger Derve Swanson said...

* People who find humour in violence committed against others are morally reprehensible.*

Guess what?

There's a big market for it too. Paying customers and all. Heh.

8:19 AM, October 26, 2007  
Blogger DSK said...

I certainly don't subscribe to your logical jump between this case and the Duke case, et. al. But if finding humor in the absurdity of this case carries a price, then so be it. That a grown, presumably smart person like Ms. Tang could do something so dumb is Absurd. We could limit ourselves to temperate chuckles at the Capitol Steps, but I'll pass. Either way the world will still be a dangerous and injust place, a fact I know all too well. The world will continue to be an absurd place, and laughing at it need not be an endorsement of injustice. Satire and justice are by no means mutually exclusive.

8:48 AM, October 26, 2007  
Blogger Cham said...

I don't think it is such a big stretch to see why a grown, presumably smart person like Ms. Tang could do something so dumb. With the current emphasis on high grades and good colleges, some children grow up with overly protective parents who encourage studying and discourage social interaction during their children's formative years. Then the parents send the kids to college far away, essentially removing the family and friend support system. Some young people may not have the social know-how to navigate the world of dating since they have no experience with it. Consequently these young people may take a romantic break-up much harder than others and they may have nowhere to turn for support and advice. I have no idea whether this is the situation with Ms. Tang, but it could be possible. No absurdity here.

9:10 AM, October 26, 2007  
Blogger Yamantaka said...

Mary's a real class-act.

If she were to suffer from some violent misfortune resulting in massive injury, I think we're allowed to enjoy a good belly-laugh at her expense.

Everything is ok since her standards are so low.

9:33 AM, October 26, 2007  
Blogger DSK said...

Something doesn't have to be a "stretch" in order to be absurd. Quite the opposite, I'd argue. Look it up.

9:56 AM, October 26, 2007  
Blogger altoids1306 said...

I think the comment thread has become long enough that I'm beginning to lose focus, so let me first start by summarizing what I have already said.

1. The MIT community wishes to see Ms. Tang prosecuted.
2. The student reaction, for the most part, has been mild, including a dark humor.
3. This dark humor, while not constructive, is certainly understandable and human.
4. Other than students becoming more willing to report threats, there should not be much change in MIT security.

In retrospect, I probably should have prefaced my comments:

I understand that there is enormous hypocrisy and injustice in the reaction to this crime. As previously suggested by another commenter, had the situation been reversed, with a MIT male infiltrating a Wellesley dorm and attempting murder, this would have become a national story. Wellesley would have had no regard for MIT's reputation, and made a media circus of it. Draconian measures would have been installed to prevent any possible threat.

However, I believe that that would have been an unreasonable reaction. The demands of the hysterical media are always unreasonable. I find MIT's reaction to be mature and reasonable. Even for the wrong reasons, the MIT response has been correct.

This does not mean that the serious problem of bias against men should be ignored - the media should draw attention to female violence towards men - but I don't assign any blame to MIT or their security policy, only to the Ms. Tang and the media.

Finally, to echo DSK, I don't believe finding humor in terrible crimes necessarily condones the criminal. We make light of terrorists all the time.

10:39 AM, October 26, 2007  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

mary pops up here every now and then - when they let her out.

12:57 PM, October 26, 2007  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

cham, it's simple. Tang's a loon.

1:15 PM, October 26, 2007  
Blogger Derve Swanson said...


Everything is ok since her standards are so low.


Lol.
Oh, not my standards, thank you. But somebody's packing those movie houses and listening to those routines and laughing their asses off... Open your eyes, and come out from behind the 'puter maybe? Welcome to the land of low standards. Now, go back to your little hideaways and pretend you can regulate humor in our weary world of victims.

Like I said, lol. Keeps the ticker ticking, with no extra help.

6:53 PM, October 26, 2007  
Blogger Derve Swanson said...

Don't be jealous br549.

Some of us actually have, you know, places to go already.

6:55 PM, October 26, 2007  
Blogger Trooper York said...

I thought Tang was the astronaut's drink

9:01 PM, October 26, 2007  
Blogger Dragon Hawk said...

Am I the only one that finds it extremely creepy the way Mary keeps talking about hearts and heart attacks?

BTW, I don't think Dr. Helen was suggesting regulating humor. I think she was expressing an opinion about finding humor in an attack on another human being.

Personally, I understand how the M.I.T. students might wish to whistle in the dark, as it were. There *are* differences between men and women, and I believe that sort of response is more typically male. However, I do also see Dr. Helen's POV, I myself being female, and having a son who will go to college in a few years. If some crazy woman attacks him, it will NOT be funny, and I will probably end up in jail myself, because I would be hard pressed not to react physically to something like that.

As a woman who loves any man, it's hard to just laugh this off, to laugh off this trend that the good Dr. has been blogging about extensively. I'm sure she thinks "What if it was Glenn?" like I think "What if it was my son?"

But again, it's just her opinion. She might even be wrong, but I swear I don't remember reading her saying anything about regulating humor. But perhaps I'm just not as good at reading her mind as Creepy Mary is.

M, which does not stand for Mary.

11:16 PM, October 26, 2007  
Blogger Derve Swanson said...

Lol m.

Go away now.
Get up, stretch, do some walking...

Yes you can!

6:50 AM, October 27, 2007  
Blogger Derve Swanson said...

but I swear I don't remember reading her saying anything about regulating humor.


So I found this bit of protesting by our hostess amusing. Everyone, everyone, stop laughing. I mean it. Heh:

However, times have changed and this sort of "pat the little lady on the head days" needs to be a thing of the past. Women are capable of violence, commit some violent acts and should be held accountable for those acts--to laugh about it is simultaneously sexist toward women in that the person who is laughing deep down thinks that women are really powerless and sexist toward the man in that he is thought to deserve it more or less, you know cheating and all, or dating that crazy woman.

Who knew a laugh meant that much? Maybe she had a class in that. :-)

6:54 AM, October 27, 2007  
Blogger Kim du Toit said...

"I wonder if this woman will see any real jail time or whether she will just get the Mary Winkler treatment?"

A rhetorical question, surely.

8:25 AM, October 27, 2007  
Blogger Kim du Toit said...

Too bad he didn't shoot the nutcase in self-defense, by the way, but then again, he couldn't because a.) he's in Massachusetts, and b.) he's a college student.

8:30 AM, October 27, 2007  
Blogger DSK said...

Yes, Kim. And I would have cheered!

As I said before, I'm of the opinion that there's not much more MIT could have done in this case without converting the dorm to a prision environment. But now imagine if the victim had a revolver under his pillow.
Granted you're already down the creek when your ex gives you a cold steel wakeup call, but at that point I'd sure rather have a firearm at my disposal rather than just my hands.

9:23 AM, October 27, 2007  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Funny. mary, who is evidently back out of her rubber room for the weekend, seems to be lurking out in the hall. Telling others not to do what she is doing. Gleep!

12:36 PM, October 27, 2007  
Blogger Derve Swanson said...

Telling others not to do what she is doing.

Such an angry little man you are.

Please amuse yourself fully with whatever type of humor floats your boat, silly. How hard can that be to understand now br549. Is it that you've forgotten how to laugh, honestly? Lol. That's more sad than heart attack funny actually...

Keep tryin' tho. Not everyone's a natural the first time out.

8:32 PM, October 27, 2007  
Blogger Clang!Honk!Tweet! said...

I think...um...you know who has been banned at Althouse and comments deleted.

Not the worst idea to think about here, considering some of the hurtful things I've seen over there before Ann zapped them.

This person goes for any personal information available that could be used to hurtfully attack someone, such as infertility, the situation of one's children, etc., etc. No need to mention the present example. I've seen this behavior repeatedly in several years of lurking on Althouse.

Ann considers this person badly deranged, but of course you're the psychologist and can make that decision yourself.

9:44 PM, October 27, 2007  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

mary can be ignored here as easily as anywhere else. I believe her index finger is tired of clicking on her own blog site over and over so it looks like it's actually getting hits. She allows no comments so no one can do to her what she gleefully loves to do on other blogs. Funny.

8:29 AM, October 28, 2007  
Blogger Derve Swanson said...

Why are you stalking my comments br549?

Go out, get some fresh air...

All that sitting on your ass in front of the computer all weekend can't be good for your heart health. Really, get over me. Heh.

3:02 PM, October 28, 2007  
Blogger Dragon Hawk said...

Mary, your reply to me was a complete non-sequitur. You should be debating issues, not people, and not issuing faintly patronizing insults.

Unless of course you don't actually have any ideas to be debating. Then, you know, keep doing what you're doing. Not that you're especially good at it. I'm a message board moderator, and honestly? I have been trolled by much better than you.

7:01 PM, October 28, 2007  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

No person not in MIT administration could POSSIBLY claim MIT is serious about handling the violence on its campus, be it suicide, attempted homicide, sexual assault, battery, or assault.

MIT has discounted violent threat after violent threat, whether brought by men or women, over decades. They have specifically and deliberately dissuaded people from going to Cambridge police when they felt threatened. They more often have never helped people to find out how off campus police could help them. They have downplayed the seriousness. they have ignored pleas to help people prosecute their attackers. They have hidden behind every law they could, and broken laws designed to help people know the truth of violence on campus.

and Helen's comment:
And if this is what is seen around your campus as a joke, your campus at MIT is full of a bunch of sick puppies

MIT is full of a bunch of sick puppies. You have no freaking idea how bad it is. But even worse, until someone sues them, and discovery is forced, no one outside will know how often MIT administration have known about these threats and ignored them.

I was there as an undergrad. Start by reading that awful WSJ story a few weeks ago about a mother trying to find out what happened to her son. Then go back to the girl who set herself on fire after no one would help her stop being stalked. Then go back to the suicides, drug induced suicides, and the rapes. Keep going. It goes on and on and on.

11:18 PM, October 28, 2007  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

---... had the situation been reversed, with a MIT male infiltrating a Wellesley dorm and attempting murder, this would have become a national story.

you have NO IDEA what you are talking about. Neither MIT nor Wellesley would permit such a thing to happen. Both have every vested interest in keeping it silent, hushing it up, doing everything they can to prevent general knowledge of such a story. Make no mistake--both schools would view this as a PR nightmare for them, and would quash it.

MIT has quashed things like this before.

11:21 PM, October 28, 2007  
Blogger Derve Swanson said...

*Mary, your reply to me was a complete non-sequitur. You should be debating issues, not people, and not issuing faintly patronizing insults.*

Hmm, why do you continue to focus on me in these comments?

It seems funny to check this thread and see you always focusing on me. Why? I'm flattered really, but it's not about me.

See my 7:04 or 8:18 for what I think about laughing off coarse humor these days. Essentially, you can't regulate the world so you better either laugh or ignore, because the jokes are here to stay. First Amendment and all that...

Now, try to stay on topic and not worry so much about me?

6:26 AM, October 29, 2007  
Blogger Cham said...

Allison:

You aren't telling us anything we can't figure out from the information provided to us through the local media sources. I poked around on the MIT website to find out more information regarding the incident. The MIT personal security website is found to be one of three sites that are listed under "security", not to be confused with computer security and computer network security. There is a police bulletin where crime that affects MIT students is logged. Please allow me to copy and paste what the MIT security had to say about this incident:


CRIME ALERT
Issued: October 23, 2007

Please be advised that at approximately 6:30 a.m. this morning, October23, 2007, MIT and Cambridge Police responded to a report of an armed assault and battery that had just occurred at 500 Memorial Drive, Next House. Officers responding to Next House discovered the victim, an MIT
student who was assaulted by a female known to him. The female suspect is not affiliated with MIT and was arrested by the Cambridge Police atthe scene.The male student was transported to a local hospital and is now in stable condition.


Suspiciously absent with this report that goes along with all the other reports on the site is a description of the suspect, and suggestions on how to avoid this situation. Perhaps MIT feels that this is all okay because the "female was known to him". Maybe to MIT when you know your assailant the crime gets downgraded. Or if the assailant is a student at another high-profile school they sweep the incident under the rug. I find being stabbed 7 times a serious issue but MIT might find that all-rewarding dark humor in the situation.

This is a link to the MIT police bulletin.

9:05 AM, October 29, 2007  
Blogger Cham said...

If MIT wants to learn about having and effective campus security program perhaps they should call these people who have learned the hard way over the years that sweeping campus crime under the rug is a bad idea. This school now practices full disclosure with both the local police force and community, a brutal security training program for all incoming students and a crime policy that is set in concrete. The students also have quite a bit of fun compartmentalizing all the different campus crimes in statistical models. Even with full crime disclosure, enrollment is at full capacity with the best and the brightest.

Now compare that site with the homepage of the MIT Security site. Big difference?

The written death threat with violent consequence on a college campus was not invented by Ms. Tang. It is something that occurred before at other universities including Hopkins who lost 2 students in the same manner 10 years ago. I assure you, "what to do with that threatening email" is a topic covered by freshman security training classes at many universities. I can only wonder if MIT touches on this topic during its incoming student safety-awareness training, or if MIT has safety awareness training at all. I see nothing on the MIT site that covers, well, anything other than a link to the sex offender registry and a 'lost and found'.

9:40 AM, October 29, 2007  
Blogger altoids1306 said...

Allison:

I don't know why you have such a vehement reaction to my comments, but as a current MIT student, I would be very interested to hear more about MIT violence censorship. I know nothing about MIT's history, so any details you could give would be appreciated.

My current impression of MIT is that it is as safe as one can expect of an urban campus - the precautions taken and the resulting level of crime seem very similar to that of any American urban center.

11:58 AM, October 29, 2007  
Blogger no said...

It's really surreal to hear people talk about those you know--getting excited and debating with voices of authority when so little information is available.

I've known Anna for going on 6 years now. She has never shown any violent tendencies in that time. Not even close. She certainly was mild-mannered, easy going, and soft-spoken. I don't know why she did what she's done, but I can tell you what I do know. I don't offer these insights as an excuse. I just can't help but feel like some humanizing is in order.

She had trouble making friends at Wellesley, and eventually took a semester off to recoup. When she went back to school, her boyfriend was pretty much the only person he knew. However, her boyfriend was very rich and Anna was just average, which made his parents strongly suspicious of her motives for dating him. When he took her out to dinner, his parents would say that she was stealing money from him because he was paying for her, and that she should pay him back. They would say these kinds of things all the time--say that she was a no good, shallow, gold-digger type of girl. Soon he began to believe these things, and also parrot these things back to Anna. This went on for a very long time. She still stayed with him, but had no support network she could call on. Anna had very few, if any, friends anywhere in the area. Even though she is originally from Indiana, her family lives in Shanghai. Her closest friends were all made at an international school and they scattered all over the world. All support was distant from her (remember, it's hard to contact people when they're in a completely opposite time zone).

Personally, I don't even understand what happened. I would say that Anna always seemed to me to have a weaker constitution for life... more prone to depression and negative thinking. But, I would never in a thousand years have forseen these actions. I can only imagine that they were the actions of a desperate person.

I'm not saying that she shouldn't be held accountable for her actions. I'm not saying that anybody in her situation would have done it, or that it isn't her fault. What I'd like to call attention to is the duality of how her actions are viewed:

Some have judged that her violent actions originated from stable, internal personality traits that Anna has probably displayed all her life; i.e. she took these actions because she is an evil, vindictive, dangerous and violent woman.

Others look at her actions as outright insanity, because many hold the unspoken view that women can never be mentally sane if she exhibits intense anger and hatred. Deviance in women is often medicalized. However, clearly one can still be sane and commit acts of violence.

Both of these views do a disservice to the truth. Anna doesn't deserve to be locked up for 40 years as an evil, dangerous psychopath, nor does she deserve to be let off and shunted into a mental institution for a few months until she's feeling better. She deserves punishment, but she also deserves that the punishment is just. If you met Anna at a party, at the library, or in a classroom, you'd never identify her as a potential violent offender. She didn't have any violent predispositions. She was a normal person, like any one of us, who sadly over time became desperate enough to resort to violence.

I don't know what I can do for her now except try and tell the truth about her.

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