Notes on 2007, continued

The Homicide Report will change, but will continue in some form in 2008. The Times aims to maintain the tone, conventions and style of this report, although the reporting job will change hands after January and entries may be scaled back somewhat. Names archived here will remain on the Web for the present.

The Times thanks all who have taken part in this effort to report all homicides in Los Angeles County. The Homicide Report is a kind of civic project which owes its success, in part, to the many public servants who have chosen to take an interest in its mission and who have participated in its production. These include both high- and low-level people in law enforcement and various emergency services agencies.

Among them are scores of clerks, police officers, sheriff's deputies, detectives, coroner's investigators, firefighters, technicians and public-information specialists who extended themselves in ways that went well beyond what was required of them--for no apparent reason except their conviction that these homicides deserved attention.

They offered information when it wasn't asked of them, brokered meetings with families, sought out photos unavailable to The Times, pointed out omissions, provided tips, supplied follow-up information without prompting, and generally took pains, again and again, to ensure that all homicides received equal treatment on this page.

Thanks in particular to those who worked with HR inside the LAPD, the Los Angeles County sheriff's homicide bureau, and the state Department of Motor Vehicles. Most of all, HR is grateful to the staff of the Los Angeles County coroner's office for their consistent efforts on behalf of this project throughout the year.

Comments

[Russ Abbott]

I just recently came across your work. It's fascinating. The URL I've listed above is to a blog entry that struck me on first reading HR. Here's another: http://russabbott.blogspot.com/2007/12/too-close-to-home_31.html.

I have no profound comments other than to say that there is something fundamentally real about reading about homicide. I hope you continue in the coming year.

[Truth hurts sometimes]

Jill,

I regret to hear you're leaving, but I absolutely commend you for your efforts with the Homicide Report.

The Homicide Report has opened the eyes of people from all walks of life, in and around Los Angeles, and even beyond, on the unseen and often tragic side of L.A. life.

It's put a human face on the quick 10 second newsblurbs, or four paragraph write-ups in the paper, which are instantly forgotten the second the reader turns the page.

The Homicide Report has shown us that the struggle for hope, for success, for dignity, for security, for order, for calm, and even love, transcends all socio-economic boundaries, all racial-ethnic groups, all religions. The desire to be safe, successful, and secure doesn't stop at the Santa Monica Freeway.
Those inalienable human rights are just as sought after in Compton, Athens, and Watts as they are in Encino, Santa Monica, or Palos Verdes.

This year-long blog has given a voice, to a degree, to those individuals who struggle to maintain their dignity, their sanity, their esteem, their work ethic, their morals and values, their DREAMS, while being seemingly surrounded by a world gone mad.

It wouldn't surprise me if I see a segment about The Homicide Report on 60 Minutes this year. Or 20/20. Or Dateline NBC. Or PBS Frontline.
And it wouldn't surprise me if some reporters at other big city newspapers begin their own versions of The Homicide Report. I remember the Chicago Tribune had a similar endeavor a few years ago, with young murder victims on the front page, every day, for a number of months.

I don't know who's taking over this blog in 2008, but s/he has some pretty big shoes to fill. I truly hope that they'll approach the task with the same passion, resolve, and dedication that you've shown.

Believe it or not, The Homicide Report HAS made a difference.

Godspeed,
THT

[A fan of the representative from California = Jill]

This is the first and only piece of journalism other than 60 minutes that has me in its grip. I think what both presentations have in common is a truth that one cannot turn away from. I simply cannot put it away and dismiss it. Please, please, please Ms. Leovy, let your audience know where you will continue your work. I'd like to follow your reporting?

[Samantha]

I'm really sorry to hear that this site is changing. I have found it to be an extremely valuable tool and serves as a graphic and impactful caution for a lot of the high risk kids that I work with and also with their parents.

It's good work that you do here with these postings and it's a tremedous shame that you are going away. You have more supporters than you know.

[thomas]

...hmmm just another way to take away or limit a voice that was speaking for the voiceless...we're used to it out though, its nothing new. thats why the HR was here anyway right? to give a name and face to the unreported murders in our city. It opened eyes, gave insight and gave it a human side...but i guess thats gonna change huh..

[Paul]

Inspired by The Homicide Blog, I've created by own blog called The Murder Book 2008 which is recording homicides in NYC. In a twist on what The Homicide Blog attempted, I'm trying to record all the murders that make it onto the pages of the city's three daily newspapers to see if there are patterns, to measure the play given each murder and to try to figure out why the reporting of these murders develops as it does. Why do some murders get more prominent play than others?

At the end of the year, we'll see how many of the total number of murders actually hit the pages of the city's newspapers.

I think it will be an interesting ride. Here's the link:

http://tacomaconfidential.typepad.com/the_murder_book_2008/

[susie]

anything or anyone that seem to work for the benefit of the people always
has to come to a end.

thank you for informing the people of the homicides that happen, and
opening the eyes of people.

[Truth hurts sometimes]

Thomas,

It may be for the best that they change up the reporter(s) doing The Homicide Report.

For one person to have to report on the non-stop murder, mayhem, violence, and suffering that goes on in the streets of Los Angeles County,
for 12 MONTHS STRAIGHT...that can't possibly be healthy. 12 months of crime scenes, blood-stained sidewalks, and families in anguish.

Only the most stoic of individuals could do this for an entire year and not be negatively affected by it, consciously or subconsciously.
I think it's safe to say that many people would've lost their faith in humanity by the seventh or eighth month.

But I do sincerely hope that The Homicide Report will continue into 2008, and beyond. And I hope the next reporter assigned to this blog
will approach it with the same dedication and empathy that Jill did.

[Robert C. J. Parry]

It is unconscionable that the murder of anyone shoudl go un-noted by society. If HR did nothing else, it was to catalogue the extent of our society's unravelling, if not the fraying of the each individual thread.

I pray that someone will take the baton from Jill Leovy and carry it forward, with the passion and attention to detail that has been reflected throughout her tenure.

However "Truth Hurts" is correct. It is not good for her to be exposed to such human degredation on a daily basis. Think about it, even homicide detectives deal only with the cases of one section of one community. Jill has touched most every case in not insignificant detail in the largest county in America.

That can't be healthy, no matter how vital to society it might be.

If HR does not continue, I hope the 2007 version lives on in a physical manifestation, to be taken to churches and gathering places so that the faceless, voiceless victims of our broad apathy might never go unnoticed.

[adinasi]

The LA Times,
The verb 'change' in this context is ominous. If 'change' means someone other than the courageous Jill continues to shine the 'ugly light' on Los Angeles, I can accept that. If 'change' means you will cease to report the intimate details of every sad homicide that occurs in this metropolis, you'll give me one more reason never to patronize your newspaper in any form. 'Scaled back somewhat' sounds as if someone has nefariously pressured the LATimes to cease their embarrassment of our dysfunctional city, which only further confirms the belief that the LATimes is only concerned about 'getting along' and being 'in' with the city politicos vs. honest, critical reporting of this city.

Tragic.

[ruben]

LA TIMES

I really hope "Change" means change for the better i am a religious reader of the Homicide report and have gained tremendous respect for you guys, even applying for a new subscription for my home and work, but if you guys remove or reduce reporting i will cancel my subscription.

It is vital that these victims be reported in some way to the community and world and i loved Jill Leovy's work so i truly do hope you stay on course or improve it.

[meng]

The HR put a human face on otherwise (and unfortunately) routine news of yet another murder. I'm sorry to see it "changing".

[Kathy Williamson]

The Homicide Report and Jill Leovy's coverage is a vital tool for all media. Her reporting filled in many blanks and often offered information not supplied by other agencies. I am sure that all of Jill's fans will continue to follow her. Reporting homicides and talking to bereaved family members is not something that you ever get used to. I hope that Jill have moved on to better things and that the person or persons who replaces her will have the same dedication.

[Mary]

I fully understand why this project can't really continue in it's present form. It is clearly a huge undertaking and no one person can be expected to continue with this parade of misery year in and out.
But this was important, really important, and I am not exagerating when I say it has profoundly changed me. I was born and raised in this city, and I grew up in a pretty rough area, but things were not nearly as violent when I was a kid. Like everyone else, I read the paper and watch the news, and I have been guilty of skimming over the obscure reports of homicides in neighborhoods where I never go. I won't ever see those stories without wondering about the lives that were shredded and the mothers who are devastated. Maybe, by opening our eyes, Jill, you have taken a first step to making us all care enough to look for a solution.
God bless all those who lost a loved one to violence this year. May you find some sort of peace.

[Randy E]

DONT CHANGE THE HOMICIDE REPORT!!!!

ITS THE ONLY, REAL NEWS OUTLET OUTTHERE<<

REPORTING HOMICIDES AND AREAS OF THE CITY THAT ARE DANGEROUS..

PLEASE LIST ALL HOMICIDES<< EVERY LIFE DESERVES TO BE REMEMBERED.. NOT ONLy... WHITE ONES!!!!..

[frank]

I hope that every single homicide in this city is still reported in the "New 2008" Homicide Blog, I am sure that, for Jill Leovy to cover all these homicides all alone is a very difficult task. I wish the Los Angeles Times would assign more writers to this important column. The victims and public deserve to know about every homicide in the L.A. area. We do not need news about Paris Hilton or Brittney Spears. Unfortunately it sounds like this blog is going to disappear, without the valiant efforts of Jill Leovy. I applaud the courage and hard work that Jill has put forth in writing this blog. I encourage all the readers to write to the editor of the Los Angeles Times and tell him, this blog covers very important news, which we should all read.

[lindsay]

How sad that the HR is going to be "scaled back." In addition to educating and informing the public better than any other column in the city, the HR also gave people a small place to write a small tribute, to pay their respects to the family, or just generally share their thoughts. The other thing that HR does is post pictures of the victims when possible. I think that that's one of the key features that makes HR what it is...it puts faces to names, and it speaks for those who can't anymore.

I wrote to Ms. Levoy in April when a good friend of mine was shot. She responded the next morning & immediately added my friend to the blog. Thank you Ms. Levoy for your dedication & concern to those who have lost their lives this year in Los Angeles (&surrounding areas). God Bless You, and I truely believe that you have hundreds of angels looking down and thanking you for giving them a voice.

Good Luck with your next assignment You will truely be missed.

[Beryl Moody]

This type of blog or information should be available for every major crime area in the U.S. We need to put a human face on our homicide problem in this country and this blog has been one of the best things I've seen in a long time to do just that. Please continue reporting each and every homicide -- we, the public, need to see the problem and try to come up with solutions.

[90001 - 90008]

I hope you don't change it too much. I like the bluntness of the reporting and "Dragnet" style of stating just the facts of the situation. The comment section really adds a new light to the situation and let outsiders get a glimpse into the lives affected by the deaths. This is my "ear to the street" so please don't destroy this section.

Sincerely,
A Tax Paying, Hardworking, Black, South Central Los Angeles Resident

[Marie]

I live in a part of Los Angeles that does not have entries in the HR -- however, I read the HR regularly to remind myself that my version of LA is not everyone's. The reporting here humanizes the city for me, and being from Canada before 2005, it reveals the realities of this big city - and this big country. I frequently am left wondering how these things go on every day here, and how people are supposed to live their life surrounded by violence and death.

I really, really hope that the HR continues to live on in a way that gives life to the victims of this city. I am saddened by the faces and stories and comments that I read, but what is sadder is if the stories never get told.

Thank you for telling the stories. Please, please don't stop.

[A concerned Angelino]

I feel like the Homocide Blog is important because it opens our eyes to all the homicides in our community, especially mine. My neighborhood is surrounded by 7(to say the least) major rival gangs, that HATE each other and in an effort to eliminate the nemesis, they take the lives of innocent people that have no choice but to live in the middle of the "war zone" because this is all that they can afford. I was able to show this blog to a teenager that was going in the wrong direction, and let me tell you, it scared them straight. Thay were so amazed at how young these kids are when they are killed and even worst, the way it goes down. It's also a way of grieving because people can leave messages to those they've lost. Keep it up!!

[Windu]

PLEASE don't cut back the Homicide Report!!! It's the most useful product of the LA Times. The statistics provide undeniable evidence of who is dying from violence in LA. Just think of how this year we heard from TV outlets that there was an interracial gang war going on, but the data here at the Homicide Report (and related interviews) showed that to be a bunch of baloney.

I can't tell you how many times I've used the HR to dispel people's notions about violence in LA. The murder near the Gelson's in MDR and the two black women found murdered in PDR for starters. On the other hand, the Homicide Map supported the decision of so many people who refuse to live east of the 405.

We need more data, not less. Don't forget that scene at the end of Boyz N Da Hood when Cuba Gooding Jr and Ice Cube are wondering why it seems that no one does anything about the killing. Ice Cube says "Either they don't know, don't show, or just don't care." The HR has done more than any outlet over the 17 years I've been in LA to shine a light on the murder problem here.

[Jordan Stewart]

Having spent time in pretty much every part of Los Angeles County from Malibu to Watts, I have seen nothing that displays the true reality of the entire area and the plight of many of its people moreso than the Homicide Report. If you are going to change it, please empower it as it empowers the average reader to grasp the true humanity of issues that are so often politicized for the sake of sound-bites.

Jill,

You are one of a very few truly courageous reporters, an endagered species in today's rapidly consolidating media environment. Best of luck to your successor and also best of luck in your future endavors. I know firsthand that nothing changes your view of the city more than hearing the stories of people on its streets that have dealt with unthinkable tragedies. I'm not in L.A. now but this report has kept me mindful of its harsh but human reality.

[Renee]

This blog has always been very disturbing to me because of its content, and also very valuable and necessary. I'm not surprised to see it go, but I am sorry.

[A Mother]

Jill, this blog is so much more than you or the LA Times management could ever imagine. I know it takes a lot to keep it going, but it is worth it's weight in gold. This blog has truly opened many eyes that would have otherwise remained closed. It has put faces on human tragedies. It has allowed people one more chance to say good by and to express their hurt, their sorrow and their anger. It is a place where some people might feel comfortable enough to leave information to help solve some of these cases. This blog is like the doctor, preacher, therapist and so much more all rolled into one.

I had given up on the LA Times and cancelled my subscription. Because of the blog I took out a one year subscription just because I felt like the Times was making an attempt to get back in touch with our city. I read this blog at least every other day and would hate to see the Times "change" it so much as to make it worthless. LA Times, please, do not mess up a good thing. If manpower is the issue, perhaps there is a way some of us readers can volunteer time. This blog needs to be able to continue, this city needs it. the old saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." surely applies here.

Jill, bless you and those that have made this all possible. I only wish there was some way for you to know how precious this gift is to so many people.

[reader]

Please do not scale back the homicide report. If anything, it should be expanded. It was this feature that lured me back to reading the LA Times website. I can read about international news and/or celebrity gossip elsewhere, and I do, but this news is covered nowhere else. Who will cover this, if not the LA Times? Is it too much for the LA Times to report the important news (and this is important) as well as the popular news?

Jill Leovy has done a commendable job. This could have been a dry recitation of statistics, but she turned it into a true journalistic endeavor: checking facts, cultivating sources, interviewing those involved. I hope she is leaving for a promotion, she deserves it.

[David Croy]

I'm not surprised. Just as soon as the LA TImes gets something right - largely due to the diligence and industry of a single reporter - it gets killed. I can imagine the need for its stewardship to change hands, since it must be emotionally exhausting to create. It is alarming, humbling, emotional; it touches a nerve in precisely the way that excellent journalism is supposed to. But the HR should be expanded, not eliminated.

[Marina]

Ironic that I was just reading about The Wire's critique of the Baltimore Sun trying to do more with less. It seems that the LA Times has the same philosophy.

Jill Leovy has been doing a wonderful job of doing more with less, but now the idea is, what? Even more with even less? Or that it doesn't matter when people fall in the wrong zip codes?

[Kristy]

Dear Jill,

You have done phenominal work. I'm a westside girl who never really knew anything about the murders that occur in the city, only that they happen "over there." I love the homicide blog because it gives a face, an identity, and a place for mourners to grieve in a public way.

I sincerely hope the LA Times changes their decision to scale back the homicide report. I had NEVER visited the LA Times web site until you came to my law school class to talk about your work. Now I'm on a study abroad in Australia, still checking it because it is important.

Thank you so much. I hope they listen to you and put the blog in good hands. You're phenominal.

[what a shame]

In a world where a former popstar runs over a photographer's foot and the mainstream media cuts to a live video feed on 3 major network channels, the homicide blog is a refreshingly honest and accurate resource to learn about the tragedies affecting real people in our neighborhoods. It would be a shame if it stopped.

[DW]

Scaled back?! You've got to be joking. I guess the Times has to make more room for important things, like the latest happenings regarding Britney.

Well, hopefully you don't scale back too much. I think this blog is the best thing the LA Times has going for it.

[Stephanie L.]

Sincere thanks for the Homicide Report. It gave recognition to the lives reported. It was starkly real, significant, useful, and evocative. The report traveled on a plane of life in L.A. that seemed to slice diagonally through all the layers of froth and celebrity that increasingly characterize The Times' reporting. It's sad that this has to change.

[leevee]

The only thing I hope changes on this site is that it GROWS. I stumbled across this site and have been coming back since then and telling others about it etc. Your service to the concerned public has been a tremendous eye opening and informative experience. You and your staff Jill I know are puttin in work keeping up with the magnitude of homicides you cover and the areas you cover(not just Compton and Watts) but even in white areas too Torrance, Hollywood, and all oover Los Angeles county. No doubt some lives have been changed but some saved as well. I am a resident of the City of Compton. Thank you for thinking of us the concerned public.

[bystander]

I'm so very sorry to hear that the HR is being changed. I read it almost everyday because it gives a very different vantage on our flashy, trashy city. I can't understand that so many deaths can be ignored by most other media outlets. Thank you Jill Leovy for all your hard work and for providing an integrated public forum in our otherwise segregated metropolis.

Please, LA Times, don't change this one. It's something you've gotten right.

[Larkin]

As a former police beat reporter I am really sorry to see HR "change." More than any other source, it provides not only an unblinking portrait of how quickly and brutally lives end, but also a compassionate acknowledgment that someone who was has ceased to be.

One of the apparent immediate changes seems to be that each entry now seems to be headlined with a geographical distinction rather than the name of the victim. This is a terrible mistake, as it implies that death is more tragic in some neighborhoods than in others.

Previously, the prominent placement of the victim's name reminded us that this man or this woman, this boy or this girl, was first and foremost a person-- a living, breathing, sentient human being. The inclusion of each and every individual name are what make the Vietnam memorial and the AIDS quilt so effective, and to downplay them here is again a message that these deaths are not important, that these lives did not matter. I certainly hope the LA Times will re-think this and any other "scaling back" they had planned for this essential forum.

I can understand the necessity of Jill Leovy to set this down for awhile-- covering one violent death after another is a very hard way to make a living. What she did here, though, was something to be proud of.

And the beat goes on.

[steve johnson]

I have the same comment:

Please do not scale back the homicide report. If anything, it should be expanded. It was this feature that lured me back to reading the LA Times website. I can read about international news and/or celebrity gossip elsewhere, and I do, but this news is covered nowhere else. Who will cover this, if not the LA Times? Is it too much for the LA Times to report the important news (and this is important) as well as the popular news?

Jill Leovy has done a commendable job. This could have been a dry recitation of statistics, but she turned it into a true journalistic endeavor: checking facts, cultivating sources, interviewing those involved. I hope she is leaving for a promotion, she deserves it.

[Robert Stanley]

Oh come on. This site could and should win a national award, in fact it is the only award worthy section and news I have seen in this paper in quite some time. It should be replicated around the country and used as an example of the work a real newspaper can do. Honestly whose decision was this? I can't help but think that more resources are going to be put into the image section than this one, I mean hey we must need more information on LA fashion week or the newest restaurants in town. The recent decisions made by this newspaper in the last two years is startling. Since the beginning of the blog I thought that this marks the LA Times as a serious paper on par with NY Times but decisions like these are why this paper can't quite seem to get it right.

[Louise]

I am VERY disappointed to learn that this blog is being scaled back.

I just read about this feature in the LOS ANGELES magazine, and was so impressed by the letter from the editor talking about Jill Leovy and how she had assumed this civic duty that I immediately looked up and bookmarked the site and have told friends and family about it.

Now looking at this week's posts and looking back at December's posts, I can already tell the difference.

I HOPE someone at the Times will reconsider this decision and continue writing this blog in the form it deserves. Change will only happen when people are made aware of what needs to change and why.

It's one thing (yes, a great thing) to report the murders themselves, but the difference between reporting the murders as events and reporting them as personal detailed stories is huge; it's the difference between simply knowing and humanly connecting. People have to care in order to do something with their knowledge.

[jengod]

Yeah, LA Times editors, don't mess with the Homicide Blog. I understand if Jill is burned out, I mean, who wouldn't be, but someone at the Times should pick up the standard and carry it forward. This is remarkable, fascinating and important kind of journalism. Please don't give it up.

[Mark]

This blog reminds me of the great "muckrakers" of a century ago.

Their reporting on the worst aspects of society ended up getting things done.

The LA Times would be negligent and turning their backs on all Californians if they reduce their coverage of the homicides. In fact, they should be expanding it to cover all of the southland!

To the editor of the LA Times, I tell you this: "I couldnt care less about Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. Its the homicide report that brings me to your newspaper."

[io34u089]

It's the wrong decision, period. Especially if it's going to be compensated for by some more frivolous subject or type of coverage. This was a step to bring the murder craze in Los Angeles to the forefront, and to the public, and give it an importance more closely to what it deserves.

Someone must have decided yet again, that murder in LA isn't "that" important! Now a step back closer to the historical complacency over the insanity. To scale back the blog implies that the reporting was more of a form of 'entertainment' than something vital to the community. All those murders used to be ignored.

[cynthia douglas-ybarra]

Jill has done an outstanding job documenting homicides that would otherwise go unnoticed by most Angelenos. The Times needs to make a commitment to all victims of violence by keeping this report a vital part of their newspaper. To do less would be remiss. More often than not, this is the only voice of the voiceless

[Carson]

I hope that this blog continues unaltered. I was just reading the homicide report last night when shots rang out on my street in Echo Park (Ridge Way). One...two....three unmistakable gunfire. I dropped to the floor and grabbed my dog, who was barking in the window, an instinct I didn't know I had as a white guy from the East Coast suburbs. It was obvious the shots were going toward the home of the one black family on my block. Lucky for me, minutes later, police helicopters and many cops were swarming the street. Apparently no one was hurt. Maybe it was a warning. I don't know. But there is a war going on underneath our noses and you'd never know about it if you don't pay attention to this blog. Thank you Jill and LA Times, and please, if anything, give this series a higher-profile position in your paper.

[Truth hurts sometimes]

Carson, do you think this attack was an act of racial intimidation?

Has this family been harrased or menaced by Cholo gangbangers in the past?

I'd hate to see the uglyness that's plagued other areas (Harbor Gateway, Highland Park, Florence-Firestone) take root in a cool neighborhood like Echo Park.

On a side note, it's pretty apparent that the Homicide Report isn't quite what it used to be. The updates are less frequent, the info is very brief, it isn't as detailed as it was last year.
.
I *REALLY* hope it's just the new reporters trying to get themselves up to speed, and not an intentional apathy or vagueness.

Someone suggested that the blog makes our fine, glamorous, wealthy city look bad, the L.A. that no one wants to talk about, and thus the changes.
I sincerely hope that isn't the case.

[just me]

HEY GUYS!!!!!!!!

I think these blogs are the best thing that is happening to society, they have started dialog among the communities, where any other time, we would never really know what the next guy is thinking; good, bad, or indifferent, we were talking, we were sharing our sorrow to family members, we were outraged at the perpertrators of these crimes, we were starting to come together as a society. We can let NOTHING stop this.

It apears to me that we now need to be asking "How can we keep it going?"

Now that we know "WHO" wants it to keep going, Alot of comments tells us that.

Now for the "HOW" do we keep it going?
What about volunteer Homicide Report workers?
Who has time to gather information to send to the the L.A. times?
Who has time to make calls and send e-mail to differnt agencies ?

We can start sending emails to Jill and see if there is anything we can do to help. I have read many of the blogs since it started, and there seems there are alot of us that have resourses to give back, and there a alot of people without resourses that our concerend.
Lets Help!!!!!

[anon.]

It's interesting to note that the LA Times is having Editor "issues". Another person has quit/fired for refusing to cut personnel from the Times.

Could this be the reason for "scaling back" the Homecide Report blog. Obviously the owners of the Times do not feel this blog is a money maker or else there would be no discussion of scaling back.

Jill has done a tremendous job. I applaud her commitement and hope that whoever takes over will contiune to have the same compassion and commitement that she did.