Homicide Report

I have not been lurking here much lately, this is not sports related so hopefully no DB.

This is a great idea for what to do with a newspaper on the internet, a homicide blog courtesy of the Los Angeles Times (LAT). The LAT has historically done a substandard job of covering nonwhite related crime.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/homicidereport/

Background:

LAT gives more space to crime in the following order:

Black celebrity crime

White celebrity crime

Black on white non-celebrity crime

White on black crime ( this is rated here because it almost always involves police crime which almost always ends up with findings that it wasn't a crime after all)

White on white crime

Back on black crime

Persons with Mexican, Central and South American ancestry crime.


Now I perfectly understand the LAT’s historical perspective as they were giving their traditional white readership what they wanted. The problem was they formed no connection with the ever increasing nonwhite and immigrant population of SoCal. I mean if you open your paper and can't find out basic information like who is getting killed in your neighborhood and why, that paper is very high (bad) in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

That is why this blog is so great, local crime reporting pwns obv

 

Man, that is depressing.

After reading Michael Connelly's books with the Harry Bosch character - which are as realistic a portrait of LA homicide policework there is, or so I'm told - I had no idea there were this many kills, so many of them random and apparently for no purpose whatsoever.

 

Wow. That's depressingly fascinating. Other big-city papers should do that, just to give a sense of the horrifying regularity with which people are gunned down in the street.

I'm curious, though, how has the LAT covered standard-issue homicides in the past? Is there typically a brief for every one? That's how most metros I've seen do it. And that's basically what this is. And do they still do that, or has this replaced print coverage of most murders?

 

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/states/pennsylvania/counties/philadelphia_county/philadelphia/16730527.htm

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/special_packages/violence/