A representation of the dangers everywhere facing young women in today’s society
(Note January 9, 2010 a Google search reveals no further news articles on Morgan Harrigan since October 2009.)
(See follow-up to this entry. And here is another followup, on the distance between Virginia Tech and the arena where Morgan Harrigan went missing.)
Morgan Harrington, a 20 year old student at Virginia Tech, who was dressed in black miniskirt, black tights and black knee-high boots, vanished on October 17 after she left a concert at the John Paul Jones Arena to go to the restroom and accidentally ended up outside the Arena and was unable to re-enter. By cellphone, she told her friends inside the Arena that she would get a ride home “from friends in Charlottesville.” Witnesses subsequently traced her movements in some detail south from the Arena parking lot to a bridge a few blocks away, covering a period from 8:20 p.m. to 9:20 p.m. She hasn’t been seen since.
The detailed sightings by witnesses that follow Morgan Harrington’s movements outside the Arena, ending in her disappearance and doubtless her murder, poignantly highlight a grim reality of today’s world: young women should not be alone and unprotected anywhere. They should not walk around alone at night, and, as we discussed after the murder of Annie Le in a research lab at Yale, they should not be alone in their places of employment. There are predators everywhere. Young females need to be told that they cannot go where they want to go and do what they want to do. Society must adjust to this reality. But it won’t. Because it would mean getting rid of, or substantially modifying, the sacred notion of female empowerment and total female equality with men. Liberal society would rather let an endless series of young women, particularly white women, be raped and murdered, than put the slightest crimp on their freedom. Liberal society is a factory for the production of dead young white women. And it’s an achievement for which it never takes credit.
Police: Missing Va. Tech student last seen on bridge
Previous: $100,000 reward now offered in case of missing Va. Tech student
The Roanoke Times
October 28, 2009
Morgan Harrington vanished during an Oct. 17 Metallica concert after leaving her friends to go to a restroom and somehow ending up outside the John Paul Jones Arena. Her purse and cellphone, minus its battery, were found in a small parking area the following day.
According to Lt. Joe Rader of the Virginia State Police, witnesses have helped investigators plot Harrington’s course from the arena south to the Copeley Road bridge.
According to witnesses:
8:20-8:30 p.m. A woman matching the description of Morgan Harrington is seen outside the John Paul Jones arena at an entrance near the ticket booths. She is also possibly spotted outside the arena on its south side, closest to University Hall.
8:30-8:48 p.m. She is seen still outside the arena by people “who interacted with her, who conversed with her or who observed her.”
8:48 p.m. Her friends call her from inside the arena. When she says she can’t re-enter, they suggest alternative entrances. She says she may get a ride home “from friends in Charlottesville.”
8:48-9 p.m. She is seen still outside the arena.
9:00-9:10 p.m. She is seen walking through the University Hall parking area. She still has her black purse. “No one can confirm that she was actually with someone, but she was around various people in that vicinity who were walking in the same direction,” Rader said.
9:10-9:20 p.m. She is seen in the Lannigan Field parking area adjacent to the track. She had “limited interaction” with the people who saw her.
9:20 p.m. People who encountered her in the area leave in their cars. There is “no indication that Morgan Harrington left with any of them,” Rader said.
9:20-9:30 p.m. According to witnesses who called police after Harrington’s disappearance, a woman matching her description was seen on the Copeley Road Bridge, which runs over railroad tracks. Copeley Road runs south along the west side of the arena to Ivy Road, a well-traveled thoroughfare.
- end of initial entry -
Stephen T. writes:
This story, about the Canadian singer killed during a hike by coyotes [also linked here], seems, in some way I can’t quite express, appropriate to your post about young women going about alone. It is also one of the more bizarre incidents I have heard of in recent memory. I’ve encountered countless coyotes in the wild, even in packs. One sharp clap of the hands inevitably sent them plunging into the brush in terror—often, literally, with tails between legs and sometimes whimpering in fear. I cannot for the life of me account for what befell this girl but maybe there is some allegory contained within for lone young women exposed to the wild animals in “civilization,” too.
Here is the article:
Taylor Mitchell, Singer-Songwriter, Killed By Coyotes On Hike In Canadian Park
TORONTO—Two coyotes attacked a promising young musician as she was hiking alone in a national park in eastern Canada, and authorities said she died Wednesday of her injuries. The victim was identified as Taylor Mitchell, 19, a singer-songwriter from Toronto who was touring her new album on the East Coast.
She was hiking solo on a trail in Cape Breton Highlands National Park in Nova Scotia on Tuesday when the attack occurred. She was airlifted to a Halifax hospital in critical condition and died Wednesday morning, authorities said.
Coyotes, which also are known as prairie wolves, are found from Central America to the United States and Canada.
Wildlife biologist Bob Bancroft said coyote attacks are extremely rare because the animals are usually shy.
Bancroft, a retired biologist with Nova Scotia’s Department of Natural Resources, said it’s possible the coyotes thought Mitchell was a deer or other prey.
“It’s very unusual and is not likely to be repeated,” Bancroft said. “We shouldn’t assume that coyotes are suddenly going to become the big bad wolf.” [LA replies: message: no reason not to walk alone in wild areas where there are coyotes. Don’t change your behavior at all.]
Royal Canadian Mounted Police spokeswoman Brigdit Leger said other hikers heard Mitchell’s screams for help on Tuesday and called emergency police dispatchers.
Police who were in the area reached the scene quickly and shot one of the animals, apparently wounding it. But the wounded animal and a companion coyote managed to get away.
Paul Maynard of Emergency Health Services said Mitchell already was in critical condition when paramedics arrived on the scene and had multiple bite wounds over her entire body.
“She was losing a considerable amount of blood from the wounds,” he said.
An official with Parks Canada said they blocked the entrance to the trail where Mitchell was attacked and were trying to find the animals to determine what prompted such an unusual attack.
“There’s been some reports of aggressive animals, so it’s not unknown,” said Helene Robichaud, the park’s superintendent. “But we certainly never have had anything so dramatic and tragic.”
Mitchell was an up-and-coming folk and country musician who was nominated for a 2009 Canadian Folk Music Award in the Young Performer of the Year category.
“Words can’t begin to express the sadness and tragedy of losing such a sweet, compassionate, vibrant, and phenomenally talented young woman,” Lisa Weitz, Mitchell’s manager, said in an e-mail. “She just turned 19 two months ago, and was so excited about the future.”
[end of article on Taylor MItchell]
Laura Wood writes:
The sad fate of women like Morgan Harrington is not just the result of a belief in female equality. It also stems from misconceptions about sexual deviance. To the liberal, the rapist is complex and utterly unnatural. Rape is the expression of political oppression or of deep-seated psychological disorders. Both of these causes can be uprooted and eradicated. Both are the result of civilization. The liberal believes a rape-free world is actually possible, which accounts for his recklessness when it comes to the issue of safety, something he prefers to confront only when absolutely necessary.
In truth, the rapist is utterly simple and closer to a state of nature. The mugger sees a purse and grabs it. The rapist sees a young woman and he takes her. His sexual impulses are laid bare by his very simplicity. He is the normal and natural man radically simplified. There are no profound depths to his desires. There will always be rapists and there is no hope of ever achieving the liberal’s vision of a world where all sex is consensual. The liberal will not adjust to reality because he fears it means the abandonment of his larger project.
LA writes:
This the way Morgan Harrington was dressed as she was walking away from the concert Arena apparently looking for a ride:
Harrington, 5-foot-6 and 120 pounds, was wearing a black T-shirt with the name of metal band Pantera in tan letters across the front, a black miniskirt, black tights and black knee-high boots.
That’s from an October 22 story in the Roanoke Times about her parents, who at the time of the article said they were still hoping she’s alive.
And here is another October 22 story from the same paper on why Morgan’s case has gotten so much attention.
LA writes:
If I had known nothing about Morgan Harrington, and just saw this photo, with its combination of sauciness and heedlessness, I’d have said she looked like someone who did not have a long life expectancy.
David B. writes:
She also was walking AWAY from the crowd when last seen. At least she was safer with a lot of people around. She made it easy for a predator.
LA to David B.:
Do you have any notion of what the neighborhood and town around that Arena is like?
David B. replies:
I don’t know anything about the area, but a major concert means a crowd. Anybody can be in a crowd. It was after 9 pm and as I previously told you, people you don’t see at noon are out and about after dark. Anywhere is dangerous for young, attractive white women after dark. How many examples of this have we seen?
Laura Wood writes:
According to the Roanoke Times story:
Before the concert, Morgan Harrington tried on three different outfits for her mother to appraise; ultimately she chose the all-black ensemble. The purses she discarded were left in a pile in the room.
LA replies:
Ahh.
With her mother’s approval.
In liberal society, parents send their daughters out to be raped and murdered.
Laura replies:
By the way, I don’t think she looks saucy. She looks sweet—even with a load of make-up on.
LA replies:
Maybe saucy wasn’t the best word. But it sure isn’t innocent. Let’s say she looks both sexually forward and unconscious—a deadly combination.
Posted by Lawrence Auster at October 29, 2009 11:32 AM | Send