1.29.2007

Why Aren't People Making a Bigger Deal of This?

So, four people were murdered in the District on Saturday night. Four! That's absurd. Two of the deaths were east of the Anacostia. The other two victims were found in Northwest Washington. The murders were unrelated and appear to be connected to robberies and/or gang violence. I also should note that two more people were murdered in Prince George's County on the same night.

So, where's the crime emergency now? Are we still on crime emergency? Do we have to declare another? I'm assuming that since this story is in the Metro section and not on the front page that the victims here were very much non-white. Is that what we have to wait for? A white guy in Ward 3 to get bludgeoned with a baseball bat? If that were to happen there would be a shit-storm of news coverage. There would be press conferences. There would be emergency legislation from the Council. There would be indignation. There would be outrage.

Let's not forget that the Metro area lost six people on Saturday night. The city lost four. If this isn't front page, above-the-fold news in a local paper, what is? According to the Post, that sort of space is reserved for pictures of rich people housing and water. The Chesapeake Bay's pollution will be around for a while. These six victims won't be.

41 comments:

  1. Consider writing that in to the WaPo ombudsman.

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  2. They are saying the four district murders were tied to drug and gang activity. Are we supposed to be surprised that four people died due to gang and drug related dealings? A white guy getting beaten to death with a bat in Ward 3 would be a lot more surprising and newsworthy than this recent activity. Why should we be making a big deal over some possible drug addict/gang bangers death? They knew what they were getting into when they started messing with that shit.

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  3. and the 2 NW murders were in the Shaw area where residents have been complaining to the local PSA for years about the gang and drug activity in those exact spots....MPD rocks!

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  4. Just because they were gang/drug related killing does not mean that the victims were in gangs or dealing drugs.

    If I'm shot dead after being mugged in Shaw by a gang member or a crack head, it's good to know that you'd have my back.

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  5. For once I agree w/ you. I watched the news and, as they ticked off the murders, noted (thankfully) that each one occurred in black neighborhoods I do not visit.

    You should CALL the Post's ombudsman. National paper, yes. But they screwed up....

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  6. Sollution: Send LSS to cover gang violence in Anacostia.

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  7. My buddy lives in M Street Towers at 11th and M. The area is not exactly "Shaw" as most would describe it -- too far west. It's as close to Logan Circle or even Downtown as it is to Shaw.

    That said, it seems like there is a heavy police presence there but the gangs don't seem to mind. They carry out their slayings and drug deals right on schedule.

    I can't wait to see what Mr Accountability Fenty has in response.

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  8. I seem to remember when Republican politicians would point out that Baghdad was safer than Washington, DC. I seriously fucking beg to differ.

    Unlike Baghdad, the District doesn't have 50-75 murders EACH DAY. And we don't have car bombs going off on DC streets like three or four times a day. Oh yeah, we don't have mass kidnappings of people from public buildings.

    In other words, Rusty...big fucking deal. Yeah, four homocides is a bad night in DC. But you weren't here in the early 1990s when DC resembled the Baghdad, Iraq horror show of today. The body counts were staggering. The city is leaps & bounds more safer now.

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  9. Rusty's got a nasty case of white guilt.

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  10. I live in Shaw and in the areas that have had a great deal of shootings over the past few months (5th and M, 5th and O, 7th and P, etc). In fact we had three shootings in one day last week. We have been trying and doing everything we can to get MPD to address the situation but they chose not to ... it continues and the nightly sounds of gunfire continue. And up until last night, teh media chooses not to report on the issues ... must not scare people from coming to the new convention center for the NBC4 Health fair or car show ..... These aren't "black" neighborhoods that are under attack. People of all races/creeds now live in those neighborhoods and we are all starting to be held hostage by the dealers from MD/PA coming into our area and the gang wars. Unfortunately, it looks like someone white will get killed before the MPD and media decide to do something about it. but then someone in upper NW will get robbed or shot and they'll forget about Shaw/Logan again. /Rob aka TruxtonResident

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  11. Take your crime emergency and go fuck yourself! As long as no Italians were killed I aint even losing any sleep over it.

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  12. "Why aren't people making a bigger deal of this?"

    because crime, even the fatal kind, is part of human nature. especially in large metropolitan areas. just a guess.

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  13. Rus -- take a field trip to DC Superior Court one day. Drug dealers rob/kill other drug dealers every day. This is not news. It's the reality in DC, and it sucks, but it's not newsworthy in the normal sense of the term. The Post could literally fill the entire paper with drug related crime if it wanted to. When criminals kill non-criminals, that is newsworthy.

    Although we might think of drug dealers as tough guys, they actually are pretty easy marks for more serious criminals because: 1) they have lots of money on them, and 2) they are pretty unlikely to go to the police (Just imagine, "Officer, somebody stole my drug money.").

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  14. Feh. The Post fulfilled its Black quota for the year with that "Being a Black Man" series. Wake me up when someone gets set on fire.

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  15. Black people being the victims of crime in black, crime-ridden neighborhoods, while tragic, is not unusual. It happens every hour of every day.

    A British guy's throat being cut in Georgetown, one of safest neighborhoods in the city, is highly unusual. While the "crime emergency" may have been a bit hysterical, it did deserve attention.

    See, this is why you don't have a job as a real journalist.

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  16. Yeah the drug dealers have a way of controlling their population. Cant have too few. Cant have too many.

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  17. You want to hear about black people killing other black people eh?

    Go buy yourself a rap cd then.

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  18. Yeah go buy a rap cd or turn on a black radio station and listen to the songs they are playing.

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  19. Oh my God. First, I don't recall anywhere in the article where it said that the victims were gang members or drug dealers. It's an obvious possibility, but the "blame the victim" sentiment in these comments disgusts me. (Except for the baseball bat guy. He may have had it coming by swinging a bat at someone else.)

    If one of the victims were white, there's no way people would guess that he/she was dealing pot and therefore deserved to get shot. Fucking ridiculous.

    And, Jeff, I know a murder can't be a front page story everytime. Crime happens. But four in one night, six counting PG, is extraordinary. This should be a front page story.

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  20. Also, I am becoming increasingly wary of the racist comments people are leaving. I'm not the thought police and I try to give people a pretty long leash when it comes to discussing race, but people are starting to annoy the Hell out of me. Cut it out with the racist shit.

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  21. Hey Barbaro was not a white horse and he got the lead off story on NBC4 this afternoon. Is that good enough for ya?

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  22. FUCK YOU RUsTY ... I HATE YOU AND YOUR GAY LOVE OF OTHER RACEs

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  23. Impeach Rusty .... We all really dont like him, we demand a person who hates more than the metro and white people

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  24. Ricky-

    Pot dealers don't get shot.

    On another note, The WaPo walks a fine line between being the paper of record for their community and being a national newspaper. Some of the things you may locally think are newsworthy don't fit into their budget, because of national/ regional considerations. So yes, the 4-6 homicides are news, however they are part of an ongoing story (DC violence) that gets coverage (albeit scant), as opposed to individual news items to be reported on seperately.

    Think about all the murders in Baltimore... per capita it's probably a much higher number. But the Sun only covers the most egregious.

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  25. R.I.P. Barbaro.

    We will miss you. :(

    Obviuosly I am no biggot because he was a horse of color and I am deeply saddened by his passing.

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  26. Yeah the racist stuff has got to stop.

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  27. For the record, an article in the Post this morning states that at least two of the four killings were not drug or gang related.

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  28. Yeah, that guy living with an Alzheimer's ridden mother and walking home from his own dialysis treatment deserved to get mugged and shot three times in the back of the head.

    "Why should we be making a big deal over some possible drug addict/gang bangers death?"
    ~not a sermon

    Fuck You.

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  29. The murder spree continues. Today's Post front page?
    - Dead horse
    - Counterfeit purse ring
    - Philandering priest
    - Thriving Virginia jobs market
    - BASEBALL BASEBALL BASEBALL
    - Some crap about Iranq

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  30. Um, I don't get the print version of the post. But I read about this yesterday because it was one of the top stories on the online version. Is that not good enough?

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  31. USA Today ran a front page story on Thursday about how violent crime is on the rise in cities across the nation. That shouldn’t diminish what happened here, but just keep that in mid before you get all James-style “only in D.C.” about it.

    By the way, my metro train has been on time every day for a week.

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  32. I agree w/ Rusty about the racist comments but, for crying out loud, his white guilt gets really annoying after a while.

    Remember that guilt is a negative emotion. I don't feel guilty.

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  33. I feel guilty about not being able to practice my golf swing recently due to all of the cold weather we have been having. My fraternity is throwing a huge golf tournament in April and I feel as though I am cheating my team mates and not taking it seriously enough. Huge bragging rights are at stake here. I have not been able to get any decent sleep for the past few days.

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  34. I'm not racist. I love the Orientals.

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  35. DC it appears has a high crime rate. It doesn't matter whether you live in the SE or NW it's all dangerous! I moved to DC from Chicago several years ago. I also hate DC. I know you are probably thinking that I should move. I wish it were that easy.

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  36. I said "possible", Rusty. The media at the time were making it sound like everyone involved was a dealer or a addict. Can you blame them?

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  37. Honey its worse than you think.

    http://remakingleslumhistorique.blogspot.com/

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  38. Still dissapointed to see the level of bigotry here. I really hoped this country had progressed further than this. The anonymity of a blog exposes how people really feel.

    -Lone Black Guy

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  39. Right there with you, LBG

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  40. DC does not need more police. The police are everywhere where I live in SE. You can't stand on the corner for more the 2 minutes without seeing a cruiser somewhere. The problem is the criminals (drug dealers/gangs) are brazen and don't care if cops are around. The solution is for people to raise their children properly. It's just that simple folks!

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  41. Good to see Rusty is still drowning in white guilt.
    Seriously, you need a hobby, or a clue, or at least a boyfriend.

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