May 17, 2010

Who's dying in L.A.

National Public Radio recently did a feature on the Los Angeles Times' homicide blog. Reporter Jill Leovy explains why she started the blog back in 2007 and the truth she hoped to capture:
"The truth about homicide," she says, "is that it is black men in their 20s, in their 30s, in their 40s. The way we guide money and policy in this country, we do not care about those people. It's not described as what's central to our homicide problem, and I wanted people to see that. I wanted people to see those lives and to see that that's our real homicide problem in America.

"The money needs to go to black male argument violence," she continues. "Anything else … you're dealing with the margins of the problem, statistically, and it's not right."

-snip-

"As a middle-aged white lady, my death rate is probably 1 or 2 per 100,000 — maximum," Leovy says. "These young men are dying at 140. They're in a war zone, and the rest of us are living in a different country."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

She's right about the death rate among young black men. Anyone who reads the wire each weekend can see that...Now let's talk about who else is dying in Los Angeles...reporters within LANG. Morality is so low these days as editors remain indifferent and only know how to encourage assemblyline journalism. Yeah, I know, "at least you have a job.." Yeah, but it's painful to report to work each day only to be handed a press release, told "we don't have enough resources for the story you want to tell," and "I don't make enough money to care."
Fun stuff.

Anonymous said...

Anon 10:47 is joking, right? Please
tell me that's a joke. Wow.