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

[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.

[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!!!!!

[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.

[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.

[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

[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.

[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."

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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?

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.