Friday, September 18, 2009

Crazy People

Earlier this week, I heard about Yale grad student Annie Le being murdered by lab technician Raymond Clark III. It was all over the news, and I am sure you have heard something about it.

After a few days, the police mentioned workplace violence as being the motivation for murder. A letter penned by university President Richard Levin stated: "Mr. Clark has been a lab technician at Yale since December 2004. His supervisor reports that nothing in the history of his employment at the University gave an indication that his involvement in such a crime might be possible…."

A big case of CYA.

Can you imagine an employer say publicly "We have employed this person for five years, and we knew he was a crazy guy. Please sue the university for its lack of judgment."

Now I am not saying Yale did anything wrong – just making a bit of a joke.

Years and years ago, I worked for a university system. And I remember some scary guy working in the same building. I got a bad vibe from him, and I avoided him. I did not get on an elevator when he was already on the elevator; that sort of thing.

Women need to trust their instincts. Instincts, I believe, are part of human evolution. Primates are scared of snakes – that instinct, while it does not matter for most snakes, keeps one alive when running away from the poisonous ones.

I am not blaming Annie Le for getting herself murdered. Not at all. I imagine, though, she felt threatened in some way and did not act on those feelings. Perhaps not trusting everyone is the wrong way to go as well. It is difficult to know who to trust and who to avoid in elevators.


By the way, I lost two images recently:

4 comments:

Kim said...

It is such a sad story - all the way around. People do crazy things that have such permanent consequences.

btsea said...

I used to work with a guy that looked kind of scary--long zz-top beard, jewelry, and a wild look in his eyes. I got talking with him once, and it turned out he was the step-son of a hollywood star, owned a lot of property in a midwest state, and was pretty well off--but he liked to party and was kind of wild as well. He worked in the warehouse, and he said for him it was like being in an exercise club, but getting paid.

So in summary, I think ones instinct might have been half right on this guy, but he had a background that one never would have guessed.

Deb said...

There was certainly a conflict of interest with both of their jobs, since they were the polar opposites. He had to make sure the animals were well kept and cared for, while Annie Le was the one performing lab duties on them. So, all in all, if you get someone who cares about animals more than human life (like those PETA folks), you get people who will kill for the lack of "care" for animals. I just think this guy was wayyyyy too passionate for the animals and disagreed with every aspect of what the lab was initially doing. Nonetheless, HORRIBLE, but it does happen. Just think what it would be like if the PETA folks weren't supervised by the police.

Just my opinion on it...

Anonymous said...

Wisdom in your comments, Leesa, but ultimately how can we really know about anybody?