No matter how rough your weekend was, it could’ve been worse. Take Naphtali Brooks’s, for example.
The New York Daily News reported Friday that the 21-year-old undergrad was arrested for stalking and threatening the life of Liz Claiborne Inc. CEO, William McComb.
Brooks had worked at a Lucky Jeans (a subsidiary of Liz Claiborne) store on Fifth Avenue in the Flatiron District but was laid off earlier this month. He then sent numerous emails to the company executives and CEO William McComb, made 10 calls to the company’s headquarters and showed up at his previous job.
Brooks threatened to find a way to “lower the value of the corporation’s stock, threatened to go to the press and give the corporation a bad name,” according to a criminal complaint. On Feb. 12, the complaint says McComb personally instructed Brooks to stop “contacting him and any other corporate executive or employees of Liz Claiborne subsidiaries, Fifth and Pacific and Lucky Brand.”
The Daily News interviewed Brooks at his home in Somerset, New Jersey. “They arrested me for no reason. They lied to the arresting officer,” Brooks said of company officials. “They told me they were going to discriminate against me because I’m African-American. They also said it was because I’ve had homosexual experiences, even though I consider myself straight.”
Brooks said he plans to file a $15 billion discrimination lawsuit against the company.
We’ve reached out to Naphtali for comment but have not heard back from him.
The New York Post reports that the Brooks was arrested in Penn Station on Wednesday. He was a philosophy major and voluntarily withdrew from NYU earlier this month.
Brooks was last reported to have been working as head of marketing and operations for the NYU chapter of Textbook Friend, a site that allows students to trade textbooks with each other. Brooks briefly worked with Max Wiseltier of replyallcalypse fame and Gallatin senior Justin Pinderhughes to launch the NYU chapter of the site.
Wiseltier told NYU Local that Brooks asked him to be a part of the project “because I had 15 minutes of fame at NYU and could help spread the word.” However, Wiseltier said he ceased working with Brooks and ended all contact with him around one month prior to the stalking incident, noting that Brooks “disrespected me, a lot of our friends, and countless other people.”
“I feel like he is living in an alternate reality and has no grasp on how to deal with his emotions or other people,” Wiseltier said.
A community effort is needed with trained volunteers and staff to work with the victim and police to help document and record the stalking activity and hold stalkers accountable before damages and/or violence occur. Submit grants to http://www.grants.gov for federal funding. Click grant search, enter stalking enforcement.