Apparently, the Amy Bishop meltdown and rampage still has its hooks in public sensibilities. Slate‘s Emily Bazelon recently ran “Did Amy Bishop Kill Because Women Are Screwed in the Workplace?” equating Bishop’s loony parade to the question of workplace inequality, at the University of Alabama-Huntsville. The article received some well-thought feedback and discussion.
Where to begin?
1. Bishop had recently been denied tenure before she shot and killed co-workers, including co-workers who had originally supported her position for tenure.
2. A question of prior incidence for Bishop’s homicidal behavior is not out of logical consideration, but prior incidence, in no way, justifies or explains Bishop’s behavior. At the same time, Bishop’s behaviors would likely be best understood in the full scope of the prior, during and after periods related to the murders. So to completely ignore the issue of whether or not she received tenure would ignore possible aggitations to her condition. To better understand the behaviors, one must take into full consideration before, during and after incidents.
3. The woman gunned down co-workers. That’s all that needs to be said. I don’t care if she was (a) a potential victim of gender bias in the workplace (b) treated like the queen of campus or (c) freshly shipped in from Mars. She…killed…people, period. Women—and men, yes—have suffered far worse gender “bias” than losing tenure and without gunning people down. Geesh.
Murder. Really, must it be any more complicated than that? Lock her up, tightly.
sending...
I say ol’ girl’s been a threat since the 1986 shooting death of her brother.
Although it was ruled an accident, an inquest has been ordered. Plus, there’s an odd connection to the deaths of Patrick Duffy’s parents (a blown-up crime scene photo revealed a newspaper article on the floor of her bedroom re: that other shooting). The parallels are startling.
But I digress. Psycho or psycho, it’s hard for me to buy into her not knowing what she was doing or what kind of condition she has/d.
After all, she and her husband went to a shooting range and shipped off their kids to stay with family before the incident. Not buying, either, that the husband doesn’t have a clue where or when his wife got the gun.
Circumstantiality or premeditation? All I can add is: Her attorney better bring one heckuva A game to the defense table.
Something’s very, very rotten in Denmark.
And though a spouse can’t be compelled to testify, I’m beginning to wonder just how close to his chest Mr. Bishop is holding his cards. His story is one journalists aren’t quite focusing on yet. Just sayin’. And thinking out loud. And rambling.
Yes, I’m not buying it either. I can only think her attorney is hoping for publicity with this one. There’s no logical way she’ll get off easy, unless some magical loophole destroys key testimony that would speak to her premeditated actions. You never know, crazy things can happen in the courtoom.
Those magical loopholes can be bugbears, to be sure.
Too much evidence is stacking against her already, and my Spidey-sense tingles re: her parents being complicit through their silence on the subject of the brother’s death (although what parents wouldn’t after such a loss?) and the husband’s as well.
Not to mention (but I did!) the 1993 pipe bomb incident for which she and hubby-love were questioned and cleared. Now it’s come out that Mr. Anderson allegedly wanted revenge of a stabbing/strangling/bombing/shooting sort against the colleague who gave her a poor job review.
These folks have hidden in plain sight. I can see the U of AL doing a massive overhaul to hiring practices re: background checks post-haste.
ETA: In my initial comments, I referred to Mr. Anderson as Mr. Bishop. My privileged paternal side got the better of me . . .
Oh hell yes. Pipe bombs and fratricide. These two, likely both, are asking to be put down.
Spidey sense? I didn’t know you had Spidey-sensories. He’s my fave super hero outside Wonder Woman. I’ve always wanted a pair of Wonder Woman Underoos.
Pipe bombs and fratricide sounds so much like an 80s-era heavy metal album song title.
Spidey-sense–heck yes. When you counteract your dork programming as a youngster with martial arts training, which helps you come in under the radar of the bullies, these things come almost naturally. Fortunately, no radiation was involved.
I still think Linda Carter, on whom I had a lil boy crush, is a lovely older woman.
Hulk Underoos. Age 5.
Sorry for the topic drift, by the way.
My mentor and friend who inspired me to teach has oft opined, “Isn’t murder insane in and of itself? Why an insanity plea in the first place?”
I just bought my first pair of Wonder Woman Under Roos on Amazon! Oh, I’m so special!
The Hulk…purple stretchy pants and everything…whew boy!
You know, I’m not sure that even if she were diagnosed psychopathic that it would necessarily qualify her as legally insane. I think they group psychopaths and sociopaths separately. Have to further prove the insanity to use the defense with any success, or something like that. As with everything, though, anything can happen.
You best watch out–those Underoos might be a gateway comic-book-related item. Before you know it, you’ll have 2k comics and action figures you *never* take out of the box. Not that I’d know anyting about that . . .
Definitely going to watch this case closely as it’s unprecedented on several levels: prior violent incident, questionable potentiality of the pipe bomb case, post-secondary ed. shooting by a prof, and female. Her gender falls so squarely on the outlier of such workplace shootings as well as the workplace itself that it has so much of the “Wha?” factor for me.
Oh yes, definitely a watcher. You have to wonder if doctors will be lining up to keep her out of the electric chair, off the board, whatever, long enough to study her. She’s a doctoral thesis, book and film in the making. Sad, but true.
I work in a deans office, surrounded by folks with PhDs, EDD’s, etc. Most of them are good people, but there are a few that are absolute lunatics. I have an exit strategy in place, just for this sort of thing. Especially around evaluations for tenure. They get that horse in a barnfire look, and mixing already mentally unstable with high pressure equals napalm, pure and simple. We had one guy that would bring animals in to his office, just to starve them to death when he got bored of them. How he got tenure is anyone’s guess.
Btw. Batman Underoos, age 4. According to a FB post from a cousin recently, I had a fondness for showing them off in public. I was that proud. Unfortunately, that’s what family is there for, to remember these things when we have blocked them out.
Heya, Clint! Sorry on the lag, been head deep. Batman, huh? Yes, he’s a cool character. The Dark Knight is in my top five superhero movies of all time. Did I ever tell you about the time I got a gig playing Cat Woman on an original Batmobile tour of shopping malls? Yep, I kid thee not.
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