Blog in critical condition................
Many blogs disappearances or locking are met with sadness, but sometimes certain blogs have lived through their usefulness. Unlike TV shows though, some blogs keep going long after their usefulness has ended. The LA Times Homicide Report blog a vehicle that I have always hated has finally been put in a home.
Reasons this blog annoyed me.
1. Wasn’t going to solve crime. You would think the LAPD would be embarrassed about all of those dead people, but dead poor people don’t make the real newspaper, so they weren’t that concerned. The Homicide Report blog was just a blog. Being in the Homicide blog meant that you didn’t matter. I always joked when I died I was going to be in the Homicide Report blog, maybe it wasn’t so much a joke, but you know an acknowledgement of my non anything status.
2. Gave the Times a whole section to point to when asked if they were covering the African-American and Latino communities, “We have the Homicide Blog, so we cover them everyday, actually we over cover them. We are quite diverse in our coverage.” Why could not murders in our neighborhoods make the real paper?
3. Though I believed Jill Levoy’s heart was in the right place, that blog was like a nuclear bomb. The road to hell is paved with good intentions (and quite a few book deals, yeah that would also include you Steve Lopez.)Â I understand that the point was to showcase and put a face on the violence. I think in general it just made people even more desensitized to Latinos and African-Americans dying in violent ways.
4. More proof in my head that the LA Times is a racist jerk of a paper. I loved how the ads on the LA Times Homicde blog were all of the ambulance chasing, bailbondsman variety while the ads in other blogs were more buy this car, go on vacation to Tahiti.
So good riddance LA Homicide Report Blog. I hope they pull the plug on you for good or maybe someone will do a drive-by on you. How would you go about doing a drive-by on a blog?
Browne Molyneux
I agree with all of your points, but I appreciated the blog because of the value central LA black and brown comunities had for it. I was also annoyed at it for the exact reasons you noted.
Our communities are not worthy of white rich person coverage, like how the world is falling every time a fire occurs in mountain communities, so people from here “take what they can get” in terms of media coverage. One thing Ive noticed is many that minorities of neglected communities have this love for mainstream america and media (because of growing up on the TV, it took years for me to to deprogram this behavior in myself) and are almost hypnotized into emulating stereotypes presented by and appreciating any acknowledgement by the media (and subconsciously white america, aka people the media views as the ones that matter). Its akin to the abused girlfriend who runs back to her man because he neglects her and treats her so badly, running towards those that shun her because filling that neglect void is what fuels her drive. Black and brown folks in america have that same complex, whether it be subconscious or outright.
But the pleas to keep it going from black/brown folks and the fact that the blog was the only aspect of the LATimes that anyone in Watts or Eastlos could appreciate told me it was important despite my issues with it. And like the precedence with these communities, something appreciated and used by folks (for often pragmatic reasons) is of course cut, but Im sure the wine list or other yuppir-centric portion of the times will go on fine despite never being used by white people.
One thing I liked about the homicide blog was that it showed where murders occurred, who was most likely to be the victim, and who the likely suspects were.
Our middle class has a deeply ingrained fear of dark skinned poor people going on murder sprees in a tony part of town. They worry about their high priced children being slaughtered by evil “gang members”.
The homicide blog showed what was really happening – that murder was more likely to occur between poor people within the same ethnic group and practically the same neighborhoods.
browne, you might be surprised to read this, but many of those who appreciated the Homicide Blog the most were those who lost a loved one to murder. One of the things that gnaws on those people–and I know this firsthand–is a feeling that a person they loved so deeply will be forgotten. Or that they died, but no one really gives a shit beyond their circle of pain.
This blog was imperfect, but how could it be otherwise if you think about it? It was a way of memorializing these victims, just like gravestones are an imperfect way of memorializing someone who was loved and who died, regardless of the reasons. They never say all they can or all they should perhaps, but how could they? How could a blog?
Anyway, I think the Homicide Blog was not only well intentioned, but in many ways, noble. It tried to do something very difficult. Obviously it wasn’t everyone’s cup of bitter tea though, and I respect that.
Hector,
“browne, you might be surprised to read this, but many of those who appreciated the Homicide Blog the most were those who lost a loved one to murder.” Are you kidding me?!! I mean in general I know they appreciated it…the reasons why is a whole other post.
In general it is a pathetic state of things when poor people of color are so thankful and grateful that their loved one gets to be memorialized in a blog with a bunch of other dead people of color that know one gives a damn about. That is so sad and horrible that they get so little in life. That we get so little in life. That their life is valued so little in this society that they were thankful for a rotten, broken, dirty bone.
It didn’t help anyone. No disrespect to Jill. I don’t think she meant for it to become the monster that it became, but it didn’t do anything for the people that’s lives were impacted. It didn’t solve any murders. It didn’t make the public any more outraged. It didn’t do anything for anyone, but middle class people and in general middle class white people.
You know poor people are thankful for 59 cent cheeseburgers at McDonalds and Jesus Christ too and neither of those things seem like they have done all that much for poor people of color as of late, but they cling to those things, because that’s the only thing they have.
Bitter, I’m not bitter Hector. I simply have more respect for the people’s whose family members were killed than to simply make some stupid blog that didn’t even make the Times cover that section of LA with more depth. Many of our neighborhoods are nothing but the bad side of town to the yuppie writers and readers of the LA Times and that blog made people feel quite ok with that assessment. It didn’t make people question a damn thing.
You know what would have been noble one of the people of color who work at the LA Times standing up and saying, “Cover my the neighborhood I grew up in with some fucking respect.” That would have been noble. You know what would have been noble Jill saying fuck this noise, these are people and leaving and writing about the people behind the statistics.
I’m still waiting for that day. Maybe Jill is noble, because when she wrote the blog I did read it and she probably quit writing it, because she realized it was bs. Too bad the people who looked like the people who died in the Homicide Report Blog and work at the LA Times didn’t stand up and won’t stand up and walk out the door first.
Browne
I’m not a fan of the Times, but, I think you’re overreaching here.
I don’t know if the Homicide Report led to any tips that helped solve these crimes, but, perhaps it did. Perhaps you have evidence that it was fruitless. I don’t know.
I’m also not sure if the net effect of the report was to desensitize people to violence against Blacks and Latinos.
I think your statement about the makeup of the targeted advertising on the blog is not factual.
It is important, I think, to bear witness to these crimes so that those who have read and heard can be held accountable. It is one thing to say “I did nothing because I didn’t know.” It is another to say “I knew, and I did nothing.”
Spike,
I’m not overreaching, that’s just what people who have never been pulled over by the cops for just being say when they want you to shut up about mocking the status quo 🙂
Overreaching often goes under other names: sensitive, complaining, whining, whatever…
Also are you implying that cases were solved owing to this blog? Possibly you have proof of that, but when I read about people getting killed over and over in the same spots of town I sort of think that would point to a no, but if you know something you be sure to let us know.
I know the point of the Homicide Report was not to desensitize people to black and Latinos dying, but what do you think reading about people in statistical format not in your neighborhood with no real fleshed out coverage of that neighborhood does? I think it desensitizes you to their deaths.
Here’s an example.
See in the 90s they had these things called drive-bys, in a drive by a pissed off kid got a gun and shot at random people, this sometimes happened at school, but when it happened in the in inner city it was “those people” “their parents” in the 90s there was also Columbine. Columbine was a BIG FUCKING DEAL the children, oh god the children, we must help them and send counselors, because they are our children.
And Columbine was a tragedy. It was a big fucking deal, but you know kids that got to see drive-bys that was horrible too, that was a tragedy too, they deserved for people to be empathetic towards them and they deserved to get counselors too.
See the difference. See how a person could be desensitized to the death of certain people while others are viewed as a tragedy. How do you think that might happen? I remember watching the American news in the late 80s and 90s and yeah there was the Cosby show (which I’m sure the Times or the Daily News probably did lots of stories on how it was totally not like real black people, since real black people shoot people didn’t you read the five articles on that) and there was also this on the local TV:
Black man shot this person. Black man shot that person. Black man dead. Black man shot. Black men suspected……I sort of think that repetitive news coverage of deaths, with no other balance or other kind of coverage targeted specifically on one group or two groups of people in neighborhoods the people who are in control don’t go to might possibly desensitized people to the deaths of those particular people of color.
Ok and now in regards to the advertising. I’m right. I don’t have proof, but I do know this. I worked in advertising for a spell. At a major paper at one point and they sell particular ads for particular parts of the blogs in papers, now if the LA Times is not using that model that would explain yet another reason why they are hemorrhaging blood.
I wrote about my observations here:
http://www.thebusbench.com/2008/09/la-times-has-a.html
Yes it is important to bear witness against crimes, but it’s more important to humanize the people in the neighborhood so they don’t just make touching stories for pseudo liberals who want to write books, get funding for stupid art grant programs, and for fodder for whatever other creative bs they want to do.
Browne
I defintely get what you are saying browne…but ultimately it feels like now there is not any major publication witnessing the senseless murders that occur in our communities.
I would check into the blog every now and than. As a person working in the South LA community it did advise me of what was going down. Most times I knew any way, to see it in print felt right, that at least there was some acknowledgment….
Yeah, it was messed up that it was in the “back pages” on some blog, but my feeling is that we need some kind of witness to this mess whe’re in and the fact that the LA Times was doing this was something. Crumbs? Yes. OK? No.
But now there is nothing…
I do get all of your salient points though…
Witness,
I understand what you are saying, but I would rather have nothing if what I get are crumbs. I would rather not have sex than to lie down with your boyfriend after you have had sex with him. I would rather die on my feet than live on my knees.
To me saying the Homicide Blog is ok is like saying (keep in mind I know you are not saying it in this way, but I think of it in this way) that slavery was beneficial because people got a free place to stay or saying that it is ok to deny undocumented workers rights, because they still get paid more than they do in their home country. And shouldn’t they be thankful to just be in this country and serve us.
To all of those things I say no. You turn people into the walking dead with that kind of treatment.
You don’t relegate certain groups of people and their deaths to the back page of a blog and then you don’t try to turn around an justify the crappy treatment by saying, “well there is nothing else there.” As I think Art talked about in one of the first comments, the poc community have battered wife syndrome. POC communities, working class communities deserve more from their newspaper. Or they should rename the LA Times the yuppie white people Times then I will stop critiquing my portrayal in the paper.
I remember when the NAACP got so mad at black people’s portrayal in the film the Color Purple and then got mad because the movie that they didn’t like didn’t get nominated for enough awards or win an award. I don’t know, something…
Me personally I always thought that kind of thing was silly. If I don’t like something I don’t want it there just because its a representation of me. I don’t know, I have this thing called dignity.
I would be very happy if I never ever saw a person of color again on Fox News, corporate TV…not existing to me is better than existing as some messed up horrible stereotype.
And there’s the LA Sentinel. I can just read that and the NY Times.
Browne
In a twisted way, I almost feel relieved when I see a news report about some heinous murder or assault that has been committed in our city by a White person. Why? because it always seems to take some of the condemning scrutiny and criminal focus off of the brown people whom most citizens seem to naturally point to when something goes horribly wrong in our society.
You know to me I was never one of those people that were like, “I hope its not a green man.” Because while I understood that to me I always felt the person that would use that to be racist or prejudice, well a person like that was always going to find something, because humans mess up regardless of race.
I think the thing that bothers me is the whole, “You should be happy, it’s something.” I think that is what pisses me off the most and the lie that it’s for the people of those neighborhoods benefits. I mean come on? Get out of here. Just be honest. Say you came up with a kick idea that would get your name out there and make you money (at least in writing people land, where money just means you can eat items other than ramen.)
Just be authentic even if it makes you look like an asshole. I can handle an asshole. A fake person that isn’t authentic, that person is so unbelievably aggravating.
Browne
I’ll miss The Homicide Blog if it doesn’t return. It was the only source of information when it came to the many murders that happen in my part of Los Angeles. I liked seeing a face and (often limited) some background info about a crime scene I may have passed while driving home from work.
The Times may never have been a great paper when it came to covering South and East LA, but it was getting better before the new Chi-town owners gutted it. I don’t agree that appreciating the coverage is equal to being grateful for slavery – ignoring these deaths is like just like whitewashing tagging as soon as it pops up. The underlying issues haven’t gone anywhere.
And as far as The Sentinel – there’s a great example of a buppie old school rag. Betty Plesant’s column in The Wave is more informative than that whole paper.
Michael in LA,
The beauty of the internet is that anyone can do anything, why can’t The Wave do a homicide blog. Why must it be the LA Times. Why can’t what we do be legit. The internet is far reaching the Wave can easily put up a little blog embed it in their site and there yah go.
It could go international and then people outside the community might even read some of the other stuff and get to learn about news in LA beyond just the upper middle class white eastcoast perspective with a few token little minority pets who don’t pee inside.
I don’t want the Times with the current regime covering the black and latino communities in that way with no other real coverage.
The LA Sentinel is a buppie paper. I do agree, but I mentioned for symbolic reasons. And come on Michael you speak as if you aren’t a buppie. I’m just kidding. Don’t flame me on the buppie comment. The other stuff fine.
Browne
browne,
as the economy collapses are we supposed to ignore rising homicide rate? the LA times homicide blog was a first step in that direction and only they have the resources and time to cover and document these stories.
your comments read like you have more of a problem with jill and her book then the blog. could you imagine having to document every homicide for a year? after reading almost every post and comment since jan 2008 i have to admit its overwhelming and difficult to process. allowing any journalist to step back and process that information into a book is the least we could do. if you listen to her the zocalo talk she gave, i can’t see how anybody could questions her motives, right now she is the only body talking about the overall problem of what a high homicide enclave is (which is not just a los angeles problem). http://www.podcastdirectory.com/podshows/2497568
to me the point of the blog is the documentation of these crimes that are not reported unless there it happens outside of these neighborhoods. unlike the paper in the blog the story continues, updates are posted and family, friends and even enemies comment. for many its a sobering snapshot of what life is really like for many victims of crime.
did you know that there were 14 homicides over one weekend in june? http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2008/06/make-that-12-mu.html if that happened in calabasas or palisades i’m sure the national press would be screaming bloody murder. it’s more likely to get coverage if it happened in iraq or afghanistan. http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/11/16/iraq.main/index.html
in 1992 the homicide rate in los angeles was twice as high. i lived here during that time, and had no idea. it sure didn’t get coverage in the LA times back then. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/homicidereport/2007/10/murder-and-the-.html
here is a quick litmus test for bringing back the homicide blog. ask any friend how many homicides there will be in la county by the end of 2008. then see what their face looks like when you tell them “around” 1200.
can we continue to live with this?
how have we ignored this for so long?
paul
The crime rate, especially when it comes to homicides and shootings, has been going down precipitiously for a while now.
But with the economy continuing to sink and with increased unemployment and who knows what else coming down the pike, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to expect crime to start rising again.
I sure hope that’s not the case, but I just wouldn’t be shocked if the murder rate starts creeping back up. Already there have been several incidents of people killing not only themselves, but their loved ones because of financial stress.
In 1992, there were more than 2,000 homicides in L.A. County. While I get your objections to the Homicide Blog, browne, I have to agree with Paul. You can’t ignore something that remains such a regular, and horrible occurrence in L.A.
Ideally, you would cover every homicide in a comprehensive, in depth way, with as much context as possible. But even with homicide rates down compared to the early 1990s, you just can’t. There’s still too many. These sad stories would come to dominate the pages of the paper, and then you’d get another set of criticism.
But I agree that the media, including the L.A. Times, needs to do a much better job of covering communities such as the Eastside and South L.A. in a more sophisticated and meaningful manner.
Perhaps the problem with the Homicide Blog is not the Homicide Blog in and of itself, but when you look at it in relation to relatively meager coverage of many of these neighborhoods.
Also, I think Paul makes another good point about the Homicide Blog. In that medium, these short stories about homicide victims take on another life because of the narratives that are built around them by family members, friends and readers who post their comments.
In my opinion, seen as a standalone blog, I think the Homicide Blog is no less legitimate than a blog about transportation or about a neighborhood.
Browne,
I did the college militant thing and still have a soft spot for it but no longer focus on how terrible the world is to me, a brown woman. It is a very one sided way to see life when all we do is focus on negative things. My view now is to try and help those that are struggling, poor, and with no resources to get out of their situation, I no longer am just angry about the situation; I am helping solve the situation, that’s the voice they want to hear.
To quote our president-elect Obama:
Today we are engaged in a deadly struggle for those who would intimidate, torture, and murder people for exercising the most basic freedoms. If we are to win this struggle and spread those freedoms, we must keep our own moral compass pointed in a true direction.
Barack Obama
Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.
Barack Obama
You guys are right. You shouldn’t ignore an entire neighborhood that has crime. It’s a pretty big deal, so why does the LA Times do that? What’s up with the blog bullshit coverage.
And covering crime in that way doesn’t solve crime.
You know what the LA Times should have had, an Economic Crimes blog, since all of these rich assholes and the raping of our ecomomy by greedy assholes is the reason that murders are creeping up owing to regular people not having jobs and having to resort to crime.
See the LA Times doesn’t want to solve crime, the LA Times wants to write sensationalized bullshit stories. Stories that don’t piss off their friends, their wife’s friends, their husband’s friends, and the publisher’s friends, so talking about economic crime might have impacted in a negative way certain writers social circle.
In the 90s when crime was off the hook did the nightly news of shootings stop the shooting, from my memories it didn’t, it just made everyone terrified to leave their house oh and gave people this idea that every black guy was going to shoot them.
In the 90s my very slight, very alternative cousin as a black teenager and student and/resident of Beverly Hills got the courtesy of being arrested and held in jail owing to the terror of the black man.
Thats why the homicide blog is f*cked up. Not because its not legitimate its not fair coverage.
If you can show me where that kind of one sided, non indepth coverage of a neighborhood solved crime, please link where and that happen. Please show me where reporting on crime in that way has ever in that part of town stopped people from dying.
Browne
Browne,
i’m in agreement that that blogs don’t solve crime and i don’t think that was ever the purpose LAtimes homicide blog.
what i don’t see is how coverage by the mainstream media is going to solve it either? do we need more “in-depth” stories about every single homicide in la county? if you talk to many of the reporters you would realize how impractical that is. many of these neighborhoods are so insular, that many residents are afraid to talk to anybody. the solve rate on these homicides is somewhere around 20%, and if you add that up over the last 10 years there are over 3000 unsolved homicides in a few very concentrated neighborhoods. (high homicide enclaves)
you can subscribe to a service like spotcrime.org to see about the crime in your neighborhood, but that doesn’t give you the bigger picture and there will be no human face put on the crimes committed. you are right, there are no other examples of this type of reporting. do you ever wonder how this would compare if there were blogs in other cities like chicago, nyc, oakland and baltimore? this is not just a los angeles problem. we have abdicated responsibility for public safety in many urban areas, just as long as the violence and killing stays on “their side of town”
No we don’t need inside the soft cavity coverage of every single homicide. What we need is coverage of the communities that the crimes happen in outside of just crime. There are stupid little bs artists in South LA and on the Eastside too!! There are dumb little human interests stories on that side of town. There are good things happening on that side of town.
If there was more of that coverage and less of this death and destruction totally useless, doesn’t make anyone do anything coverage then possibly when someone died in that same neighborhood next to a great soul food eatery that everyone just read about, people would be outraged and people would fix it.
The police would be a little bit more proactive, but as of right now, South LA in particular is still the “ghetto” with “those people” and that non human part is what allows the cops to do nothing when people die.
I’ll tell you Paul why people don’t talk.
I have talked (or rather been around when someone else did) two times in my life in regards to crime. Keep in mind I’m a private high school graduate, middle class, a woman, professional job.
Ok when I was younger my friends and I were all hanging out around the Rampart area. My friend’s nana lived there. My friend got tired of the gang members on the street selling drugs outside of her house. He called the cops, my other friend who was Asian and pop’s owned (remember how in 92 the cops let the Koreans stores burn to the ground, didn’t let any of the stores burn west or north burn though) a little store in the area told him, “don’t waste your time.” See all people of color know the game. Ok we call the cops and do you know who ends up sitting on the curb in handcuffs though we called them, US. We ended up sitting on the curb being interrogated by the cops…later turns out they were part of the whole drug scene down there.
Ok second time I called the cops. I was an adult. This taco stand in Los Feliz looked like it had been robbed. I knew the owner was on vacation. So I called and waited. The cops came and I was all like “blah, blah, blah…” After a few minutes I got the distinct feeling that they thought I had robbed the place or was trying to play some game with them. I don’t know what it was, but it was something about their demeanor. And at that point I gave them a fake name and got the hell out of there.
The police do not care what you say if you don’t look a certain way. And the police over enforce, but at the same time don’t enforce.
I go on the Blue Line, last week I got asked for my ID twice by Sheriffs for not finding my ticket quickly enough, but at the same time if someone robs you, they are no where to be found. Someone got beaten too death (almost) on that train last week and the Sheriffs response is to just question every black person too death, yeah cause questioning 115 pound me is going to prevent someone from dying.
A history of no response from the cops, a bad outcome when you do call is why people of color don’t talk.
Now you can put that on people of color in these neighborhoods, but I think its how the cops enforce. They need to change how they perceive the majority of people in the neighborhoods. The majority of the people, who are good and decent, just like in every other neighborhood.
I feel there is over enforcement of bs and I have never lived in South LA, I lived in Boyle Heights for a second, but you know I couldn’t imagine having to live in a place where the cops think you are the enemy 24/7.
When I’m in South LA and the cops slow down to give me the once over just because I’m walking I want to spit on them.
And isn’t every neighborhood insular? Tujunga which is pretty white is really insular.
I remember back in the 90s around Playa Del Rey there was lots of hate crimes going on of the skinhead variety. Lots of “we hate n******” graffiti and that got virtually no coverage, see in general on even a human level most people don’t like talking about the bad stereotypes of their neighborhood. And they certainly aren’t going to open up to you if you don’t know them, its not going to solve anything and it could potentially get them killed. And the getting killed thing is a real possibility if you talk in certain neighborhoods. Why should anyone risk death, because someone wants to write a damn newstory.
On a human being level. I don’t get how people don’t understand that.
Browne
Browne,
Unfortunately the experiences you had with police in your life are not uncommon.
I too have heard of many incidents of “bad cops”. I just recently heard of one “Rodney King” like incident, that will not make the news, and I am sure this was not an anomaly. Yes, people continue to take transit and drive around targeted for merely being black/brown, luckily have not been a target myself, but family and those I work with have
BUT-
I have been working in the South LA community for the past few years. and have been very surprised to find some “good” cops.
Cops that are invested in the community, that treat everyone with respect and go out of there way to help through different avenues of helping via referrals to helping agencies in the community, attending community events. These cops have a deep investment in the community they serve and should be lauded for the work they do and not be easily lumped into the category of COP=BAD.
I feel that is unfair of you to blanket your own experiences and to see things as being so Black and White (pun intended)…..
Racism sucks HARD. Anger towards it useful up to a point, at some point healing must begin, otherwise it becomes internalized and stops you from being in a place to help end it….
I appreciate your firm stance and words. It makes people think.
browne,
i totally get where you are coming from, but most people who don’t live in the city have any idea of what its like except for what they see on television. the cops, teachers, and social workers can only help to cure the symptoms.
i have have had a swat team outside my room and have witnessed too many kid’s excluded from gym because the were shot in the ass running away from bullets. right now i can see drug dealing everyday across the street from one of the school’s i teach at.
these problems didn’t happen overnight and i would assume that city policies like racial covenants that limited home ownership http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Los_Angeles, and events like the zoot suit riots, the destruction of chavez ravine and bunker hill as well as the police department policies under william parker and bill gates created and supported the serious alienation that you feel.
you have every right to be pissed and angry about living in los angeles. unfortunately as long as the numbers of people who have had experiences similar experiences remains small there is not much of an audience to demand change to.
Another factor is the prevalent mistrust by many within the Latino community of civil authority based a legacy of apprehension and fear of all police and/or government officials.
This has been carried over from a long history of government corruption in their homelands. Coming from countries where the Police, from the local to the Federal levels runs amok on people’s rights and fearing for one’s life on a daily basis at the hands of the civilian criminal elements as well as from law enforcement, makes one rather skittish. Many in immigrant communities expect only the worst consequences from becoming involved in local criminal matters. There’s some fear based emotional trauma at play in the psyche of some of our communities.
wow. i couldn’t disagree more. wtf?
1. crime reporting isn’t and never was intended to stop crime. newspapers are not police forces or detectives. focus your energy elsewhere, but demand that we have coverage.
2. we need to hold newspapers accountable to covering black and brown communities in life and in death. both.
3. like another poster here, i believe the outcome was quite the opposite from making readers “desensitized”. it always re-sensitized me.
4. the paper is on a downward spiral because of lack of leadership and the lack of 21st business model. local coverage is suffering–including the loss of the homocide blog.
BRING BACK THE HOMOCIDE BLOG. COVER BLACK AND BROWN COMMUNITIES. WE DESERVE VISIBILITY.