Conference turris::womannotes-v3

            Elizabeth Spahn, a friend and colleague of Frug's at New
            England School of Law, said yesterday that police interviewed
            her Friday and asked her whether Frug had any enemies.

            "She was a prominent public speaker and an ardent feminist.
            She was very prominent and very public on behalf o women's
            issues and women's rights, but she never had any threats or
            letters," said Spahn.

            Spahn said Frug was also "politically and intellectually
            incisive, but was a warm, wonderful, caring, charismatic
            person that people who disagreed with her still loved her."

            She said that teachers sometime worry about students being
            angered over bad grades or developing crushes.  But Frug
            never complained to Spahn or other colleagues about smitten
            students or those who received poor marks.

            "Every woman professor I know has had a student develop a
            crush, but usually the students get over it.  But if she had
            a student who was obsessed with her, she would have said
            something about it."

            According to police, Frug, 49, was stabbed at least 5 times
            in the chest and leg at the corner of Sparks and Brewster
            Streets.  Frug, who lived on Sparks Street with her husband
            and 2 children, died at Mount Auburn Hospital.

            Her husband, Gerald Frug, a Harvard Law School professor, and
            her daughter, Emily, 16, were at home during the murder,
            which occurred shortly before 9pm, police said.

            "She had a wonderful relationship with Gerry and the kids,"
            said Spahn.  "She was a superwoman; she did it all."

            Investigators said Frug was stabbed in front of Holy Trinity
            Armenian Church.  A passing motorist saw the woman as she
            collapsed in the church's driveway.  The driver stopped his
            vehicle and went inside the church to summon help. {there was
            choir practice going on inside with 50-60 people there... nb}

            Reilly said Frug's purse, which was found near the scene of
            the stabbing, was not opened and did not appear to have any
            items removed. [...]Reilly also said State Police
            investigators are analyzing a 7-inch military knife found on
            a nearby lawn on Appleton Street.

            Yesterday, several friends of the victim arrived at the
            family's home to console the family.

            Frug, a Bunting Fellow at Radcliffe College's Bunting
            Institute, was well-liked by her colleagues and earned an
            impressive reputation as a legal scholar renowned for her
            work on feminist issues.  She published books and papers that
            analyzed discrimination toward women and the means by which
            law school textbooks perpetuate sexist images, according to
            friends.

            "She had many admirers, in the United States, Canada and
            Europe.. There's no question this loss goes beyond the
            borders of Boston and Cambridge," said Martha Minow, a
            Harvard Law School professor who started a feminist legal
            studies group with Frug five years ago.

            "I have been on the phone with people who have known her all
            day,"  Minow continued.  "She touched a lot of people.  She
            was a catalyst for a very creative way of looking at the
            law."

            Frug frequently patronized several of the businesses near the
            corner of Concord and Huron avenues.  Merchants said she was
            a polite, unassuming customer.

            Andy Padellaro, 28, who works as an assistant manager at Sage
            Jr., Frug's destination the night of the murder, said, "She
            came her several times a week.  She was a regular customer."

            Padellaro said Frug's last visit to the store was Wednesday
            afternoon, when she came in to retrieve a health spa
            membership card she had left there a day earlier.  "She
            always had a nice word to say,"  Padellaro said.  "Some
            people ar not that friendly, but she stood out because she
            was one of our more pleasant customers."

            Brian Corkery, owner of Mannix Wines and Spirits, described
            Frug in a similar manner.

            "She did a lot of her shopping locally so we saw her often,"
            Corkery said.  "She was pretty unassuming.  She had no airs
            about her.  She was so unassuming you wouldn't have known she
            was a distinguished law professor.  She acted like everyone
            else."

            A memorial service will be held at 2pm tomorrow at the
            Memorial Church in Harvard Yard.

Has the media taken any flack for covering this story differently
than they cover the murders of poor people or black people?

As awful as this crime was, I immediately wondered if the story
sounded different to me because, to a certain degree, I identify
with this woman. Or if the press was indeed covering this murder
as though this victim was "worth more" than other victims in the
greater Boston area.

???

Kathy

    Kathy,
    
    I think two factors are influencing media coverage.  One is the victim
    and the other is the locale of the crime.  The victim, although not a
    household name, is apparently well known in her field.  The media 
    generally pays more attention to the deaths of well known persons
    regardless of race, wealth or other factors.  I don't know if that
    implies anything about the person's "worth" as you suggest.
    
    I am quite familiar with the locale of the murder because it is my
    neighborhood.  (Harvey Simon, quoted in the article in .0, is a tenant
    in my building.)  It is *very* unusual for a crime of this nature to
    occur in this neighborhood.  And I think there must be more media hype
    than if the crime had occurred in a poor neighborhood.
    
    As far as I know the press has not been criticised for the coverage.
    
    Mary

	re: .2 (Kathy Maxham)  

> Has the media taken any flack for covering this story differently
> than they cover the murders of poor people or black people?

	I haven't seen any yet.  

	There is a book written by a judge about crime and
	punishment and crime-avoidance.  It's premise was that
	the main reason why people like you (Kathy) and I 
	experience a lower rate of crime than (for example)
	people of Area B (Roxbury, Dorchester, and part of 
	Mattapan, I believe), is not that our police dept's
	in our suburban towns are much better, it's that:

	We can *afford* to live in places that seclude us from 	
	impoverished areas which have higher crime rates.

	This sounds very basic and "of course" to me, but too
	often I hear my local police chief taking credit for the
	low crime rate in my town, etc.

	To return to your question, the 2 violent attacks against
	women last week (the murder of Mary Joe Frug and the rape of
	a Linean street resident in her home) happened in places
	where such violence isn't "supposed" to occur.  If money
	can't solve all your problems, in the least, it should be able
	to bring you a reasonable degree of safety of person and
	home, right?   That rule was violated twice last week 
	(and 5 times in the last month) in Cambridge.
	
						nancy b.

    
    
    	Or, as Linda Saisi put it, this proved that 
    
    		"crime has feet"
    
    						nancy b.
    

    It is just a quick jaunt from crime locale to crime local.
    Both are walkable or bikable from my home.
    
    I had informed my husband that it was not safe to walk
    alone at night.  
    
    He had told me "This is Harvard Cambridge not Columbia NYC
    you do not have to think about it."  Subsequent to this, there
    was one incident, and then the next. He then changed his mind. 
    
    I was aware that NO area was immune to crime.  I am saddened
    that it takes activities of this nature to snap people back
    to this truth.
    
    Violence is not strickly the bailiwick of the less educated or
    less wealthy.  Mark it well.
    
    Cindi
    

    .6 You are exactly right.   
    
       I still hear of women jogging alone through wooded paths in
    secluded areas, (Anytown, in New Eng) unarmed.

Fayerweather?  Sparks St?  Appleton?  Arg, this is giving me major nightmares.
My best friend grew up on Appleton street (blocks from where this happened.)
I can't *begin* to count the number of times she, I or both of us walked alone 
around that neighborhood at all hours of day or night.  MANY times.  And we 
felt utterly safe.  It is a *nice* neighbohood - yes, it makes us feel so
removed from the violence going on elsewhere, immune.

This sort of thing reminds me of AIDS.  Gay men realize that they are in
danger - their friends and aquaintances are dying left and right.  Just like
people who live in Roxbury and Dorchester are aware of the danger.  But
those of us more removed from it, straight men and women and Lesbians,
feel so isolated we don't take the threat seriously.  Until someone we know
dies of AIDS.  Or someone gets killed on the same street we grew up on.

D!

    re.4 attacks occurring where they 'shouldn't' - consider this: 
    armed robbery and muggings may well be more prevalent in 'poor'
    neighborhoods, but what in blazes would a sex offender be doing 
    in such a neighborhood? Darned sure not the best place to seek 
    victims. I mean, the sex offender is _not_ desperately looking for 
    drug money, or rent money. Why should he take _his_ chances in a
    low-income high-crime area? (And besides, the women in that area 
    are more likely to be tough and street-smart than the suburban
    whitebread types,no?)

re: .9  Nice theory, but why, by the same token, don't the robbers and muggers
forego the low-income high-crime areas for ones where the clientele is more
affluent and less street-smart?

    Sharon

    
    Let's not forget that a woman is still much more likely to be assaulted
    by someone she knows and in her own home (!) than on any street.
    
    Justine

    Channel 5's 11 o'clock news last nite carried a warning from Boston
    Police that women in Cambridge should be careful, especially if they
    are alone at night. Police believe the stabbing of the law professor
    was a random attack. Police have conducted more than 200 iterviews so
    far. Since the professor was stabbed in the groin area numerous times,
    police also believe the attacker was targeting women in particular.
    
    caroline

    
    Sounds like it's time to organize a huge take-back-the-night March in
    Cambridge.  It could start at the area around the Alewife T-stop and
    end up near the place where Mary Joe Frug was attacked.  Imagine
    shutting down Fresh Pond Circle for a March for Women's Lives.
    
    Has anyone heard if something like that is in the works?  What I'm
    proposing would be very safe and very visible.  There would be tons of
    police and thousands and thousands of women and men who love them.
    We'd have to be sure that there would be high security before and after
    the march as well, but I'm assuming that that has been taken care of
    in previous take-back-the-night marches.
    
    Of course, as Kathy Maxham pointed out a while back, we need to
    remember that women in every neighborhood and from all walks of life
    are assaulted everyday.  And while the murder of Professor Frug might
    be a catalyst for some action around women's safety (I mean, it could
    have been the Governor's wife, who was walking to the store that
    night), I need to work to resist the temptation to give this murder
    more weight simply because she was someone more like me, living in
    a neighborhood like mine (sort of).
    
    Justine
         

          re: .11 (Justine)

          > Let's not forget that a woman is still much more likely to be
          > assaulted by someone she knows and in her own home (!) than on
          > any street.

          The statistics of people being assaulted by "someone you know"
          are very misleading.  "Someone you know" includes *anyone* you
          have ever been introduced to, *anyone* you have ever bought
          something from in a store, etc...  I know this because I've read
          the questionnaire the Dept. of Justice questionnaire they give to
          victims.

          What is the follow-on to -- "but it's someone you know"   ?

          Does that mean that learning various levels of self-defense is
          not necessary or will do no good?  What about those of us who are
          as secure as we can be that we have partners that would not
          batter us?

                                                  nancy b.

          re: 762.13  (Justine)

          > Sounds like it's time to organize a huge take-back-the-night
          > March in Cambridge.

          Good idea!  Maybe a phone call to Cambridge NOW would get things
          started...

          > I need to work to resist the temptation to give this murder
          > more weight simply because she was someone more like me, living
          > in  a neighborhood like mine (sort of).

          Why !?!

          Justine, the fact that this murder happened to someone like you
          in a neighborhood like yours **definitely** means it deserves
          more of your thought and consideration !!

          Why?  Because this means that _you_ and people like _you_ are at
          higher risk for crime happening to _you_.

          Therefore, your personal protection strategies deserve more
          thought and consideration than if crimes *never* happened to
          people like you in places where people like you travel and live.

          This is **not** the same as saying that Mary Joe Krug's life was
          fundamentally worth more than the life of a person that is killed
          in drug-related violence any given day on the streets of area B.

                                                  nancy b.

    At Columbia, many "Take Back the Night" walks were held.
    
    Women were still taken in the parks.
    
    Young girls were still tied down in Frat Houses in "slut huts"
    and gang raped.
    
    For that night, the women may have felt empowered.
    But there were 364 more in the year.
    
    Cindi

    Re -1-
    Something else is needed.

    
    Nancy,
    
    I think all women should learn to defend themselves even (perhaps
    especially) if their attacker is someone they know.  A woman is more
    likely to let down her guard with someone she knows (even if she only
    knows him slightly), so her ability to act quickly to defend herself
    seems even more important in a situation like that, where she doesn't
    realize she is in danger until he makes a violent move.  The point I
    was trying to make was that we're all taught to worry about "the man in
    the bushes" and to stay out of "certain neighborhoods," but no woman is
    really safe anywhere -- the best defense (I think) is to be able to
    fight back, since prevention seems impossible.
     
    The reason I found myself concerned about what it means that I seem
    (and lots of folks seem) more troubled by this murder of a white,
    affluent woman (in her white, affluent neighborhood) than I (and many of
    us) have seemed by murders of women of color and of poor women or by
    murders and violent assaults against women by their husbands/male
    partners/former partners is that it worried me that I, too, was placing
    a greater value on this woman because she was white and wealthy.  That
    I didn't expect bad things to happen in a "nice" neighborhood like
    that.  If it reminds us all that we are all at risk, and that's why
    it's more troubling, then that feels ok; but I haven't been able to
    sort out that that was all I was feeling....  Perhaps on one level I
    have known that I, too, am at risk, but hearing about Professor Frug
    made me feel like now I REALLY know it, and it's scary and makes me
    mad.
    
    A Take-back-the-Night march won't end the violence, but it will give
    women a sense of their own power - even if just for one night, and
    that would be valuable to me - and to the other women who choose to do
    it, I think.  It would also keep the public spotlight on the problem of
    violence against women.
    
    Justine         

> I seem (and lots of folks seem) more troubled by this murder 
> of a white, affluent woman (in her white, affluent neighborhood) 
> than I (and many of us) have seemed by murders of women of color 
> and of poor women or by
    
        The women I met in Cambridge who were very frightened
        by what happened (as well as women here in =wn= who live
        or travel in those areas) are concerned because it meant 
        that a crime like the stabbing death of Mary Joe Frug 
        could have happened to them.   

        I believe many of us are *just as saddened* when we heard
        of Kimberly Rae Harbour's murder last Halloween but we 
        didn't change our daily life activities because of it.

        I am seeing a strong correlation in media coverage based
        on the randomness and viciousness of the attack, rather
        than if the victim was black or white or affluent or poor.
        So far the Harbour murder last Halloween has garnered much
        more media attention than the Frug murder.
    
>    it worried me that I, too, was placing
>    a greater value on this woman because she was white and wealthy.  

        Justine, someone as caring and loving as yourself is very
        likely to pose this question to themselves.  I would bet
        a week's paycheck that you felt as much anguish over the
        Harbour murder.  

        The high level of attention we (you and I) pay to the 
        sort of criminal activity which happened to Mary Joe Frug is 
        *necessary* because  we spend some of our time in those
        areas.   We can not deny that and should not be blind to it.

 >   It would also keep the public spotlight on the problem of
 >   violence against women.

        I doubt that having the 'public spotlight' on the problem
        of violence against women have any _direct_ effect on the
        problem, unless more women decide to develop effective self-
        protection strategies as a result.
                                                nancy b.

    
    re -1 (Nancy)
>>        I doubt that having the 'public spotlight' on the problem
>>        of violence against women have any _direct_ effect on the
>>        problem, unless more women decide to develop effective self-
>>        protection strategies as a result.
  
    I think that would be an excellent outcome.  I think we all need to
    learn to protect ourselves.  Nancy, will you be at the "March for
    Women's Lives" in Concord on the 28th?  -- might be a good place to
    set up a table for AWARE.  I will never carry a gun, and I hope that
    even the women who do decide to carry guns will learn alternate
    methods of self-defense as well (what if he grabs you from behind and
    you don't have/can't get to your gun*), but I'm all for getting the 
    information out there, so women can make the choice.
    
    Justine
    
    *ps if you want to answer this What-if question, let's take it to the
    self-defense note.  I don't want to sidetrack this note about Professor
    Frug's murder.

    re: Justine
>>        I doubt that having the 'public spotlight' on the problem
>>        of violence against women have any _direct_ effect on the
>>        problem, unless more women decide to develop effective self-
>>        protection strategies as a result.
  
> Nancy, will you be at the "March for Women's Lives" in Concord 
> on the 28th?  -- might be a good place to set up a table for AWARE.  

	Yes, to hear you! Who would I contact about that?

						nancy b.

    
    
    	Justine, I heard there was a "Take Back the Night" march 
    	last weekend (Fri or Sat).  Guess it wasn't publicized
    	that well  (or did someone post info about it here and I
    	missed it?).
    						nancy b.

    
    Glad to hear something happened.  Sorry I/we missed it.
    
    J

Why isn't this community demanding that events such as that be covered
as public service announcements? get on the back of the media and
write to them, remind them that there was more to the murder than
the headlines they made money on. 
Amos

    
    
    	Amos, it seems that what I heard of was not publicized,
    	not "officially" sanctioned, etc...
    
    	So an official "Take Back the Night" march did not happen...
    
    						nancy b.