As we approach the third anniversary of Lucy Wayland (aardvark)'s death, we want to consider the possibility that Debian contributed to the death. Let us look at the series of events and put the Coroner's report in the correct place in the timeline.
The facts around the suicide of Frans Pop are very relevant too.
5 December 2018: Favoritism
Lucy Wayland was a Senior Applications Engineer at ARM in Cambridge, UK. Wayland was placed in the lowest rank in Debian: the title Debian Contributor.
Wayland notes the following competencies on her LinkedIn page:
Software engineer with large amounts of experience of working in design, implementation and test of embedded systems, both in-unit and toolchains, especially in the safety-critical domain.
Specialties: Assembler, C, C++ and Ada for embedded, real-time and safety-critical applications. Deep knowledge of fixed-point, floating-point, and associated DSP functionality. ARM NEON/Advanced SIMD.
On 5 December 2018, the Debian leader's girlfriend, Molly de Blanc, who never did any technical work, was given the highest rank, Debian Developer. How would Wayland and all the other women feel? When women see a promotion like that, they feel that their skills are being ignored and the only way to get ahead is to sleep with somebody.
17 December 2018: Wrecking Christmas
Molly de Blanc couldn't do any technical work. She decided to use her new status to intimidate other people. On 17 December 2018 she was involved in the plot that secretly expelled Dr Norbert Preining. They began to blackmail him: he must bow down before them or they would tell everybody he was expelled.
Dr Preining and other victims bravely spoke out publicly. For several weeks, Debian volunteers were exposed to hundreds of negative emails about Molly's blackmail recipes.
24 December 2018: Wrecking Christmas 2.0
On Christmas eve, the blackmailers sent a nasty email to thousands of people asserting that another volunteer is a pedophile. They used their Debian titles to send the defamation and make it look credible.
Christmas is normally a season when organizations thank their volunteers and give them the time and space to relax. Debian stole this rest from people including Lucy Wayland. Wayland started 2019 stressed.
30 January 2019: Wayland's death, the Coroner's report
There is significant research showing that volunteers who are exposed to bullying suffer more than the victims. In other words, Wayland, as a witness, may have suffered more psychological stress than Dr Preining and all the other blackmail victims. Wayland and many other women may have also felt humiliated by the way Molly was promoted.
These are the words of the coroner:
Medical cause of death:
- 1a) Multi-organ failure
- 1b) Ischaemic hepatopathy and pulmonary fat embolism
- 1c) Fall with rib, clavicular and comminuted humeral fracture
- 2. Alcohol dependence syndrome
How, when and where and for investigations where section 5 (2) of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 applies, in what circumstances the deceased came by his or her death:
From events precipitated by a fall downstairs at home under the influence of alcohol and suffering alcohol abuse dependence syndrome. The fall resulted in multiple fractures, causing substantial blood loss. The deceased was on the floor for a long time before calling for assistance, resulting in hypotensive shock and liver ischaemia. The deceased then suffered fat emboli in both lungs. Their origin could have been her liver or as a result of the numerous fractures or both. The injury to her liver and the pulmonary fat embolism led to multi-organ failure; on 30th January 2019; at Addenbrooke's Hospital.
Conclusion of the Coroner as to the death: Accident.
Original documents from the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Coroner Service
We should not assume that Lucy's alcoholism was an intrinsic fault. Research shows that stress, such as the Debian lynchings that started at Christmas, contribute to alcoholism.
Behavior is described as an interaction between genetic constitution and environmental influences. Of the environmental factors affecting an individual, one of the most potent is external stress. Although it generally is held that stress increases drinking, the articles in this issue clearly demonstrate the complexities of this simple construct.
2 February 2019: Molly promotes bullying at FOSDEM
FOSDEM 2019. Molly de Blanc displays a slide suggesting volunteers should be locked up if they don't obey the leader's girlfriend. This is the slide chosen by Molly:
At this moment, Lucy Wayland's body was lying in the morgue.
11 August 2019: Molly promotes bullying at FrOSCon
Molly was invited to give a keynote speech at FrOSCon.
She displayed a hand-drawn diagram showing three users pushing a developer. It looks a lot like an assault.
Bully/Molly de Blanc: Well we can use our collective power to push others
Conclusion
Molly's slides did not appear spontaneously. These slides are a reflection of the Debian gangster culture. Molly is simply a symptom of the problem.
We believe it is well within reason to suggest that a culture like this is consistent with stress, alcoholism and accidents.
Lucy Wayland. Rest in peace.
