New Haven Independent

Posted by: bill | September 17, 2009 2:43 PM

This country does a poor job of protecting those that are defenseless. Too man women are victims of violence and rape, too many children are the victims of pedophiles, and too many unborn babies are killed.

Posted by: C.C. | September 17, 2009 3:02 PM

You might want to start reconsidering the kinds of workplace culture that is tolerated in academic Ivy League research labs.

If students want to do animal research, for example, they should be required to take care of their animals themselves - and that means not hiring high school grads with no college to run the animal labs.

It's also pretty ironic that while "high security" protocols were intended to ensure researcher safety from "radical animal rights activists," the actual violence came out of the lab itself.

It's also obvious that the Yale President speech was intended to deny responsibility as much as it was intended to express grief at the murder of a graduate student.

The Poison Ivy League, is it?

Posted by: Josiah Brown | September 17, 2009 7:06 PM

Amid this horrific case, recognition of the broader problem of violence against women is indeed warranted, along with special consideration of Annie Le's memory and loved ones. Peace and comfort to them.

One issue is domestic abuse, about which the following new blog has been aiming to inform the public:
http://blogs.courant.com/overcoming_battered_lives

Soon it will be October, which is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Wednesday, October 7 is the annual "Sound of Hope" event at which Domestic Violence Services of Greater New Haven remembers lives lost to abuse and renews the call to prevent such violence.

An account of last year's event appears here:
http://newhavenindependent.org/archives/2008/10/sound_of_hope_e.php

For information on this year's event, see:
http://www.bghealth.org/images/dvs%20sound%20of%20hope%20flyer%2009.pdf

Posted by: City Hall Watch | September 17, 2009 8:26 PM

The problem is violence, not violence against women. Would the crime have been any less heinous if the victim was average looking and male? Is a mugging particularly atrocious if it happens to a woman vs some high school male? I think not and it's really a shame that at a time like this, Smith chooses to play this gender card.

Posted by: Will | September 17, 2009 9:13 PM

Wow. Does every scientist at Yale also come to conclusions by making assumptions? Is Laura Smith an employee of Yale, or the full-time paid president of "UNITE HERE Local 34"? If she is, I am sure the university would consider her remarks helpful in the ongoing effort to bring abuse and violence against women to the fore. If it turns out that the suspect's fiancee actually put him up to the crime - a possibility I am sure legal experts will consider as she had both access to the crime scene as well as the oldest motive for murder in human history - Ms. Smith's argument would still remain happily valid although her assumption, in this case, would be totally wrong. Facts of specific cases, such as this one, matter not a whit to the true mission of Yale: The promulgation of bureaucratic demagoguery over reality, which is never as simple.
So, in the interests of being helpful, when future young minds ponder the true definition of what a liberal arts education is worth, perhaps this press conference with Dr. Levin and Ms. Smith, along with the penultimate resolution of this criminal matter, might be helpful included with materials usually proffered to prospective students and their families. (OK, so I'm being snide and not helpful. But I am being helpful in that...)

Posted by: John Thompson | September 20, 2009 9:45 AM

Since the Iraqi war began Coalition Forces have suffered over 5000 males deaths in combat in Iraq and over 150 female deaths. It is hard to find accurate numbers but the disparity is profound. It is significantly more dangerous to be male in this world than to be female. The deaths of young men are treated as if they are unworthy of mention.

Laura Smith chose a poor opportunity to fulminate on violence against women. Except that this incident involved a larger male overpowering a smaller female there are no other broad gender implications. Men overpower less-powerful men everyday; women overpower their children. There is no lesson here. It is an aberration.

Posted by: Helen Li | September 28, 2009 11:19 AM

President Levin should stop muttering about "the dark side of the human soul" but to investigate why Clark and his entire family plus his girl friend, all of them high school graduates in theri 20s, are employed in the same laboratory. That could be partially the reason why Clark has settled into a territorial, bullying role in a confined work place. Levin should also address why seething resentment against Clark had not be reported by the research students to the authorities and the need to create some sort of grievance panel to let both sides have their complaints heard in the open, not one to one, as it seemed to be in Annie's case. To label this a work place violence at this particular moment is prejudicial to the accused (Clark was already caught,) and it is not a time to bang the drums of "need for action against work place violence against women" for another reason: it is disrespectful to the dead, robbing Annie of her individual tragedy. The Union lady Laura Smith and Dr. Levin must be totally insensitive and stupid to neglect the importance of the judicial process and the danger of pre-trial publicity and prejudice against the accused; and to "campaign" on the steps of Yale when Annie had not even been laid to rest. Some have pointed out that Levin is eager to protect the Yale image; he needs to look to his own failings to protect his students by Yale's employment policy. And the Union lady needs to look at how hard it is to sack somebody like Clark who is a union member and why Clark got the job in the first place (nepotism?) Lets hope they learn from their mistakes and overhaul personell policies in research labs where high powered intellect could clash with mediocre jobsworths.