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Comparison: Globe coverage of Boston's two most recent murders

Amy Lord, white, female, 24, South Boston, 7/23: 11 stories, including an analysis of why she didn't run, a story about a neighborhood reeling in fear and a story in which reporters interviewed scared white suburban parents (including one who used to clip stories about urban murders to post on the family refrigerator).

Unidentified black male, Roxbury, 7/20: 1 story. Note: Although the victim is anonymous to Globe readers, the Herald identified him as Perris Haynes, 29, a father of two, and talked to his family and friends.

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Comments

Say what you will about either paper but we are lucky to have two newspapers. What the Globe doesn't cover, the Herald will and visa versa.

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True enough. I'd amend that to say that we're lucky to have a couple of pretty damn good weekly enterprises too, like the Dorchester Reporter— which this week has an interesting look at ongoing efforts to combat gun violence in its backyard. The story leans on earlier stories the paper has done on illegal gun trafficking and how those guns get into city neighborhoods.

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We talk about goon control before gun control? What good will gun control do when there's already millions of easily accessible guns out there, and thugs committing crimes with the said guns are routinely let out with nothing but a slap on the wrist? Why stick it to law-abiding people when a thug with mile-long record can easily buy a gun on his street corner, knowing perfectly well he'll get laughably low bail he'll jump if he gets caught? Why not enforce laws that are already in place instead of coming up with feel-good crap that serves no purpose whatsoever other than getting some sleazy politician re-elected?

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Why stick it to law-abiding people

How is closing the loopholes that allow "thugs" to get their hands on guns "sticking it to law-abiding people"?

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Expanded background checks combined with a federal anti-gun trafficking bill is the best way to stem the flow of illegal guns from weak gun law states to strong gun law states.

These days, many of the illegal guns seized by BPD (over 500 last year) are traced back to Tennessee. Most of the illegal guns seized in Chicago are trafficked from out of state, too -- Mississippi #1.

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It would certainly help if you read the entire post. There's tens of thousands of illegal guns on the streets of Boston, and they won't magically disappear overnight even if you outright ban the manufacture and sale of new guns, period. The damage is already done, the population can murder itself many times over with illegal guns that are already out there - you can enact all the feel-good legislation you can possibly imagine, but it won't solve the problem uless you go after the perpetrators instead of inanimate objects. Unless by "closing loopholes" you mean welding all door and windows shut so people can't walk over the nearest shady street corner in RoxDot, where a gun is easier to buy than a bottle of beer. Oh, and sawing off everyone's legs so they can't find a way to sneak out, just to be sure. Or maybe ensuring thugs caught with guns get locked up for a while, but that would be very un-PC.

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Of course the illegal guns already in the system won't disappear overnight. As if that fact makes it ok to keep refilling the pool? Give me a fucking break. This is the single worst line of reasoning against better gun control that you nutjobs trot out.

"The damage is already done."

As if more damage could not possibly be considered. More guns on the street is worse. Eliminating the means by which illegal guns hit the street is better. That's just fucking math, which you are apparently terrible at.

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Gun advocates use that line constantly...it's the humans not the guns that are the problem. Well, getting one gun off the street is progress if that gun ends up being used to harm an innocent percent.

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..to this discussion: http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/press/fshbopc0510pr... - another source of illegal firearms.

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Compared to the Globe and Hearld, the coverage on Universal Hub often includes more details than other sources, and it's always more up-to-the minute as new developments unfold.

Most of all, there is relevant and thoughtful dialog about current events here, while at the old-fashioned (Boston daily) newspapers, the comment sections are nothing but a joke.

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Totally agree. I rarely read the Herald, but I'm glad it's there. I definitely think there is room for two papers in Boston. A friend once said, "If you want the news, read the Globe. If you want to find out what really happened, read the Herald." Tru dat!

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And the point of posting this is...?

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if you don't know the point of posting it, feel free to move on.

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Let me clarify what I meant for you; I simply don't care about the point that Adam's trying to make.

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feel free to move on.

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I fully intend to as this "news" site has really gone downhill in the last few weeks.

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Don't worry the fox news trough is still open for business.

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I've been writing this sort of thing for years now.

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I suppose we could compare news coverage of Trayvon Martin to Amy Lord. In both cases a "white" Hispanic killed someone. In this case however the guy left his house with evil intentions.

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You've posted some good things occasionally but often you seem kind of all over the place.

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This is amazing! Well done.

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News about news is news, and often it's the most important news.

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Angry anon doesn't care! Stop the presses!

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3 violent attacks on women in 19 hrs is a lot different than what you're trying to convey in your race baiting bullet.

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And deserving of extensive coverage. But the death of a young man with two young kids who may have simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time is horrifying as well.

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11 stories versus 1 story is statistically significant and worth discussion.

Do you think the media's editorial decision to cover the former so much more than the latter was a result of the popularity of their early coverage, their 1st story, or do you think the assignment editor knew from the get go, that the former would drive ratings more?

She was abducted, used for her ATM card, then eventually stabbed to the death and dumped. That's a horrific story that grabs your attention.

What happened to him? Does it grab your attention. Would it if we knew more?

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Yes, it might be odd for me to be complaining given that a) I've run more stuff about one murder than the other and b) I at least like to play reporter, but the Herald story seemed compelling (along with the photo they ran) and Jed up above gave another possible angle to pursue.

Except for the story about frightened suburban parents, I think the Globe's done a very good job covering the Lord case - and they seem to have broken most of the major angles of it; it's just striking how they didn't apply that same enterprise to the earlier case.

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I think you raise a really important question:

Why so much more coverage of one murder, the one in south boston, than the other, the one in h block?

Any equally important question is whether coverage affects how law enforcement resources are applied to solve the crime and reduce lethal violence in these neighborhoods ...in order to make them safe for residents. It's a good time to put this question to candidates for Boston mayor.

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link to the frightened suburban parents story? I don't make a habit of reading the Globe's vapid ramblings, so I missed it.

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Here, with a link to the full version for people with Globe/boston.com subscriptions.

When Donna Hines's children were growing up, she would cut out every newspaper and magazine article she came across that chronicled some tragedy and tape them to the refrigerator in their Westborough home. They called it her refrigerator of death.

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that suburban parents with kids in the city worry about them but what about the city dwellers who live there 24/7? The class issues are enraging me.

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When Donna Hines's children were growing up, she would cut out every newspaper and magazine article she came across that chronicled some tragedy and tape them to the refrigerator in their Westborough home. They called it her refrigerator of death.

Am I the only one who think this sounds sick?

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I'm not sure "sick" is a fair or appropriate way to characterize it. But it does sort of sound like an obsessive-tendency maybe with some anxiety issues thrown in.

Of course, I am not a psychologist and my internet diagnosis is worth basically nothing.

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REFRIGERATOR OF DEATH!!!!

But seriously, this is why I will never live in suburbia.

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I'm a young white girl from the suburbs and I live a few blocks from where Haynes was shot (and no it's not the gates of hell) but I was on vacation at the time. When I went back to work on Wednesday I got a text from my mom asking if I heard about the Lord murder (of course I had) when I asked her if she had heard about the one near my house she had no idea. She still proceeded to text me about all of the action that's going on in Southie right now wtf?

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to undermine the horrific death of a young FL man named Trayvon. However, I think the attacks on these three women are equally, if not more horrific. Will the Rev and Al be in Boston this week or will Obama address the nation? "That young women could have been my daughter!"

I bet they were target based on their race! Three young White women living in an area comprising of mostly young educated professionals.

So let recount the articles: 11 regarding southie and aprox 11mm regarding Trayvon.

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If Trayvon Martin was a local case, we'd have something to talk about. It wasn't.

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Agreed. UHub is about LOCAL news and events. Not National. We wouldn't be talking about Trayvon here unless it was directly connected to Boston.

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I get your point and agree with you 100%. This is a huge issue not just here in Boston, but everywhere. The Media and public love a good story about bad things that happen to white people... but when it happens to people of color, it's often ignored. It sickens me.

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There were 3 shootings and another incident of gunfire apparently without a victim in the space of ONE hour the night Perris Haynes was killed. Both of these things are horrific, but one of them is getting ample coverage in the Globe.

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Jesus, I hope so. I'd hate to think there are this many people who want to yell at Adam for posting this.

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It's a waste of kilobytes.

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I agree, all those people are just wasting bandwidth.

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They may or may not all be the same person, but I'd be willing to bet that they're all white.

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Those horrible whites are voicing their angry opinions again. Why can't they see the racial injustice thread we strive so hard to weave into everything here? I'll bet those angry whites don't even like diversity. Wait until I tell my professors at Emerson.

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Can it be implied from your comment that your not a big fan of "diversity?"

Is it that awful that a particular class/race of people who have and continue to control every economic, educational, media, cultural, and political institution in the western world might want to take stock of their actions and assumptions, and how they might negatively impact those of different cultural or economic backgrounds? For starters - as a white person - maybe I shouldn't assume that every young black male murderd in Roxbury or Mattapan is a gang banging thug.

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Can it be implied from your comment that your not a big fan of "diversity?"

Not necessarily, particularly because of the satire of my post, commenting on the ignorance of Molly and her comment about "everyone is white" or whatever she said. I think diversity is fine, a part of life that is at certain times and places more necessary than others; not something I necessarily hold to the highest ideal nor something I condemn. I am a particular "fan" of diversity of thought, which seems to be the one type not celebrated in these circles.

Is it that awful that a particular class/race of people who have and continue to control every economic, educational, media, cultural, and political institution in the western world might want to take stock of their actions and assumptions, and how they might negatively impact those of different cultural or economic backgrounds?

No, it isn't, although I'm not sure how that question informs this particular story... Is that to say that I'm not "taking stock" if I don't view the news coverage of these murders as some kind of gotcha moment that exposes how we as a community value whites more than minorities? Do I have to ignore the difference between these murders, including the higher crime stats in predominantly black neighborhoods, in order to "take stock?" Please, tell me what to think, so as to make sure I'm doing enough for victims of color. I thought by treating everyone equally I was doing enough, and didn't realize thought control and seeing everything through a racial lens was part of the equation.

For starters - as a white person - maybe I shouldn't assume that every young black male murderd in Roxbury or Mattapan is a gang banging thug.

I agree- you shouldn't. I don't. But I don't look to string disparate events together to fit a narrative of racial oppression when there are too many other variables in play. It does a disservice to true racial crimes, like the 1998 killing of James Byrd in Jasper, East Texas.

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No, it isn't, although I'm not sure how that question informs this particular story... Is that to say that I'm not "taking stock" if I don't view the news coverage of these murders as some kind of gotcha moment that exposes how we as a community value whites more than minorities? Do I have to ignore the difference between these murders, including the higher crime stats in predominantly black neighborhoods, in order to "take stock?" Please, tell me what to think, so as to make sure I'm doing enough for victims of color. I thought by treating everyone equally I was doing enough, and didn't realize thought control and seeing everything through a racial lens was part of the equation.

It informs this particular story because - on its face - there is demonstrable proof of this community's newspaper of record treating these two different stories differently, by an 11 to 1 margin.
Now, there may be, and probably are, legitimate reasons for this difference. In another comment, I talked about the random nature of the crime, the kidnapping aspect, the mutiple ATM angles - all of them make a good case for approaching the Amy Lord story differently than Perris Haynes. But the reality is two people from the same city are still tragically dead, the victims of murder. One victim will likely see their story covered through to the eventual conviction of her killer. The other one will likely fall into anonymity.

The role of journalists is to dig into stories and if done well, inform the public about information they can use to make their community better. Jouranlists can't do that if they approach their stories with assumptions or pre-determinations about a particular victim or community. And frankly, it's not that far-fetched that a media organization owned, managed, and staffed by a majority of white people might subconsicously gravitate their coverage toward a white victim.

Adam's post is important becuase it allows us as a community to debate these issues and determine if our local media is doing its job properly and fairly to all of this city's community's. A reasonable person can look at Adam's post and come up with a littany of reasons why the disparity may be appropriate. Another reasonable person can come up with a list of reasons why it isn't. And well-meaning people at the Globe, Herald, or any other outlet in the city can reflect on those stats and determine if there is anything they feel they should change.

Personally, I don't think its offensive, or even that provocative, for Adam to pose the question.

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First off, thanks for your respectful response. Really. At the risk of sounding like I'm being condescending, you raise a lot of good points.

You and I agree there are a lot of factors here that might- in my view, very likely- explain the difference in press treatment here. So for me, that's a full stop. I simply don't try to reach the conclusion that there is a sort of racial phenomenon at play. It is just too speculative, and invites more questions than it answers, and frankly, raises racial specters that are better raised by the loads of more obvious stories in the news. Sadly, aren't there enough blatant stories of "racial injustice"- to all sides, and from the POV of all definitions of that term- that we don't need to diffuse the sample set through speculative examples?

I also agree that:

Jouranlists can't do that if they approach their stories with assumptions or pre-determinations about a particular victim or community.

But that's what's a play here, in my view. Pulling together different murder stories across the city is done in this piece with those "assumptions or pre-determinations" at the fore. This is an UH article that is largely editorial, not objective "journalism."

And I think that most journalists approach their stories with an agenda, very often a well-meaning one, whether it's subconscious or not. The left-leaning nature of journalists in this area (as evidenced by, among other things, voting patterns, and the audience reading their papers) informs their stories despite best efforts at impartiality. And a lot of these journalists, due to their belief systems, have a tendency to search for racial injustice in the events they cover.

So, while I think this is a good point:

And frankly, it's not that far-fetched that a media organization owned, managed, and staffed by a majority of white people might subconsicously gravitate their coverage toward a white victim.

I also think this gravity is offset by the media organization's agendas, biases, white guilt, what have you.

And ultimately we're back at the same place: whether or not you see the difference in press coverage here as fact-based or as something more insidious.

Again, thanks for the respectful response.

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Best post on UHUB that I have read in quite a long time.

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Today most Whites see White racism as a part of the American past, and anti-racist struggle as largely completed. Yet people of color – African Americans, Native Americans, Americans of Latin American or Asian or Middle Eastern ancestry – consistently report that they experience racism (Alter 2004; Bobo 2001; Feagin and Sykes 1994). These reports are not the product of oversensitivity or paranoia. Instead, they may even understate the impact that White racism has on the everyday lives of people of color (Bonilla-Silva 2003; Feagin and Vera 1995).

While American workplaces and public institutions are increasingly integrated, very few Whites have social friends among people of color (Bonilla-Silva 2003:107–111). White isolation makes it easy for them to dismiss the complaints of people of color as “whining” and “playing the race card.”

Whites do not themselves experience harassment for “driving while Black,” or the stony inattention encountered when “ordering a restaurant meal while Indian.” Their conversations with family and friends are never interrupted by perfect strangers telling them to “Speak English! This is America!” Nobody has ever tried to seduce them by confessing that they’ve “ always wanted to make it with a hot Asian chick.” And they don’t have the kinds of conversations with people of color where they would hear about such incidents, which are so frequent as to be stereotypical. Everyday moments of discrimination are only part of the picture, though.

-Jane H. Hill

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You're citing, what, a bunch of tenured college professors who researched something with a pre-drawn conclusion? National Geographic reports that the most common inter-ethnic marriage is between White Men and Hispanic Women. Sounds to me like your description of a separate white world is baseless. Also, not all Hispanics are "people of color". My mother's family is in PR, whiter than you probably. It amazes me how many self- proclaimed racial justice advocates get upset by that, it's like our lightened complexion offends their definitions of race and victimhood.

As for driving while black, please explain to me how the police know the skin color of someone driving 85 miles per hour in the dark of night? How do they distinguish between Latinos and Italian-Americans?

And at restaurants, what makes you think there's never been bias against Jewish customers? My goodness, I've heard many anti-Semetic comments from the staff and kitchen, often coming from people of color.

I'm also curious how you assume that Italians, Russians, and Albanians never have issues with language barriers.

And what makes you think that racism comes from white folk, directed at minorities? Please read up on the targeting of Hispanic immigrants by black gangs as targets to rob. I personally know someone this happened to. They do it because they assume the immigrants use cash and are too scared to report it to the police.

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Bonus points x a billion for citing Bonilla-Silva <3

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It's a very good safety school.

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This is noteworthy because they are both stories about apparently innocent, and sympathetic, victims of random murder but they have been given significantly different treatment. Based on the Herald's story, the man killed on Harold Street was a father of two, was not involved in crime, and appears to have been killed because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. This is horrifying. Two children have lost their father to random street violence. Had his story been given as much attention as that of Amy we might have an even more fulsom picture of this. Likewise, had Amy's story been given the same level of coverage by the Globe as the man from Harold Street, we would know that the body of a young white woman was found in Stony Brook Reservation. Police are asking witnesses to come forward with details. I do not buy an argument that the Globe deliberately gives more coverage to white people than to black people, but there is a sociological phenomenon at work when differences in coverage like this happen. It is worth thinking about for the Globe as a paper and all of us as readers of that paper.

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Smart take Adam. Thanks.

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I know race baiting makes you feel better about yourself Adam, but also break down the UHub reader response and comment activity over the same stories. I guess we are all ignorant racists.

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Showing concern about people of color and the struggles they face in their neighborhoods is race baiting? Nice buddy.

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No, devising false constructs about the press favoring one group of victims over another is race baiting. What does Adam's post have to do with concern about people of color and the struggles they face?

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Hmm.

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Seriously. Who doesn't get that dead pretty white women get orders of magnitude more news coverage than dead black people (regardless of looks or gender)? Welcome to reality.

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Just because it's reality, doesn't mean it should be. And if you refuse to acknowledge the unpleasantness of a certain reality (like so many posters in this topic), then you can't change it.

Imagine if today, we still refused to acknowledge that people of the LGBT community wants the same rights as straight people. And every time someone brought it up, posters just screamed "oh, it doesn't exist, because I don't want it to" or "well they don't, to reality" then were would we be today?

Yes it's reality, but that's no reason to be complacent about it.

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You missed his point by a mile. He's not saying we should become complacent because it's reality. We're not supposed to go "Eh, that's life" and shrug it away. He's saying that BECAUSE it's reality, everyone needs to acknowledge it, because that's the first step in fixing it.

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What do you mean by false constructs.....it clearly shows the press favoring one story over another.

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The only way you have proof of the press "favoring one story over another" is if you are comparing apples to apples. To look at this as a story about differences in press coverage due to color, you have to ignore hundreds of variables: different neighborhoods, different nature of crimes, whether one death was accidental and/or a case of mistaken identity, the background and mental condition of the assailant, motive (including financial), etc.

That is some crazy logic, to ignore everything about the stories except for what fits one's preconceived views about the coverage of victims of color. Especially when it's the dreaded Herald that prints the identity of the black victim, which was ignored by the Globe.

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How is the title "Comparison: Globe coverage of Boston's two most recent murders" and then a straight, factual list of the coverage "devising false constructs"? Adam isn't even stating a conclusion. If anything, the intent is to simply spark discussion.

Of course, I tend to view anyone that unironically uses the term "race baiting" as someone who's main goal is to derail honest discussion.

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...
People, don't you understand
The child needs a helping hand
Or he'll grow to be an angry young man some day
Take a look at you and me,
Are we too blind to see,
Do we simply turn our heads
And look the other way

Well the world turns
And a hungry little boy with a runny nose
Plays in the street as the cold wind blows
In the ghetto
...

That was from another era when there was a war on poverty, not a war on those in poverty.

The late Rev Ike is with you anons et al, the best thing you can do for poor people is not be one of them.

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That's "White Guilt", which how a person trying to protect their unearned privileges pseudorationalizes their lack of concern over statistically demonstrated and validated evidence that racism is a problem in America that they personally benefit from.

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Then you've been paying as little attention to the Globe as the Globe has to Mattapan, Roxbury, and Dorchester.

Let's remember who their (current) ownership is, and where they come from.

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Remember the recent Globe list of "Bostonians of the Year," only one of whom was from Boston?

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Yet!

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C'mon, Adam. You're better than this.

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The real story here should be about our lawmakers' lack of response to all these murders. Deval Patrick won't sleep until he hikes the gas tax, but god forbid he and his merry band of incompetents do something... anything... about this serious problem.

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Every violent crime is a sad event, but crime overall has dropped 5% this year vs. last year, and there have been 25 homicides in Boston though July 23 of this year vs. 26 during the same period last year. (Source.) That's after several years of drops. Boston also compares well with other urban areas: we had 58 homicides last year vs. 215 for comparably-sized Baltimore. (Source.)

In short, maybe there is something that legislators can do to reduce violent crime further, but right now these crimes appear to be a couple of unfortunate and unusual events.

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it's worth noting. Here's an interesting take on the issue...http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/01/lea...

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Citing motherjones.com is like a the KKK on race issues!

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Wasn't citing Mother Jones on race issues, but you probably didn't read the article.

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Citing motherjones.com is like a the KKK on race issues!

motherjones.com is partial to tar and feather but enjoy a good hanging. nothing like the smell of a burning cross in the morning. the kkk called themselves christians. amazing what some christians will do in the name of god.

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25 murders? Do you believe those stats to be true?

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What basis would we have for assuming those stats are not true? Are you implying that number is higher? On what basis?

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The Boston Globe gives a slightly different number -- 29 through the end of June -- but either figure seems roughly correct to me. (Source.)

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Can we assume that both the Globe's and BPD's numbers include the marathon bombing victims?

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If you click the Globe link, you can see the list of murder victims by name, which includes the bombing victims. (The list does not include MIT police officer Sean Collier, who was killed in Cambridge, not Boston.)

The BPD link is a spreadsheet that covers several different kinds of crimes and does not name the victims individually.

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The Globe link also includes the 3 marathon victims and one murder that occurred after July 22. The BPD numbers are up to July 22, and don't appear to include the victims of the marathon bombing, which I presume would show up in the numbers for D-4. That would make up the difference of 4 right there.

I also noticed there is a murder from July 20 on Harold St Roxbury (B-2) missing from the Globe list. There is no way to know if that one is properly reflected in the numbers in the BPD report since there are no names listed and B-2 has 13 homicides.

I'd say 25-29 is about right, unless there is reason to think both the BPD and the Globe are under reporting murder stats to the public.

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what does Deval have to do with two homicides in boston?

have you ever heard so much whining about raising the gas tax 3 cents a gallon from 23.5 to 26.5 a gallon? Mass. still has the second lowest gas tax in the north east. The increase will cost .36 a tank for a 12 gal. tank.

the red line broke down again this morning. when will it be renovated? the streets i drive on are full of potholes. when will they be fixed? route 128 95 south interchange in canton is backed up everyday during rush hour, can we fix that, too?

wait. this is a thread about two murders. sorry, i got sidetracked.

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The state police services have been offered to Mayor Menino/Davis but they declined.

Mayor Bloomberg(who rues his birthplace of Medford) injects himself into the Senatorial race of Scott Brown because of his position on guns.

Bloomberg supports NYPD Chief of Police Ray Kelly's policy of stop-and-frisk policing and ignores vocal opponents. That's not community policing.

The BPD from Roache to Davis does reports and then doesn't release them or enact their recommendations.

D.A. Conley/Boston Mayoral candidate would get high if not 100% endorsement from the Patrolmen's Association for officers cleared in brutality, and excessive force cases resulting in death.

The fiscal conservatives can voice their opposition to the Governor's priorities, but short of the National Guard what else is he to do. In the February snowstorm there were drivers who demanded their RIGHT to put themselves in harms way and would have been ripped about delayed response times.

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...is the second homicide in 7 months that BPD located at or near 131 Harold Street http://www.bpdnews.com/?s=harold+st

the house at 131 is known as "the Poker House," which no reporter has picked-up on, and might suggest a different angle than the young men of H-Block and their enemies. I suppose if a reporter talked to neighbors, that might come out.

One of the family member's name in the Herald article seemed very familiar to me - I looked it up and she's a political supporter I know from a local church.

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Remember that big bust all over the news a few months ago? There was a list of suspects published, how about someone digs around and finds out about charges and bails? I wouldn't be too surprised if a majority if those low-lifes were let out on sub-$1000 bails despite their long records.

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What does "the Poker House" mean?

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Could it be that left-leaning newspapers usually try not to report on anything dealing with the inconvenient truth that's very un-PC - i.e. certain neighborhoods are way more dangerous than other neighborhoods, and people there get gunned down on regular basis? Also, papers print what sells - gangland shooting is unfortunately a normal occurrence around here, people have been completely desensitized and it certainly won't generate any advertising dollars for the paper. I was actually surprised by the Herald article, it wasn't their usual fox news trash style.

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That simple. The Globe always reports from the perspective of wealth privilege. The Herald somewhat less so, but its readers are addicted to their unearned privileges.

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"Left-leaning newspapers" aren't reporting on the positive things that happen in those neighborhoods either. If anything is reported at all, it's about drugs, shooting, some guy scamming the OneFund, or some other terrible thing that hardly characterizes all of certain neighborhoods over other neighborhoods.

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It's about time someone is pointing out this kind of "reporting". Well done Adam...don't listen to the those who are so quick to turn facts into race baiting.

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But....but this was AMY!

I was just talking to someone about this the other day. The disparity in coverage is nothing new, but thanks for calling it out. No need for "race baiting," "we" already know how it is.

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My day is now complete with this information!

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This is definitely something that's worthy of a discussion at very least. I think the answer is simple, though. On the news org's end, it comes down to a business decision.

Actual statistics on one unnamed local news site: the original Southie story saw 52+ times the readership as the original Roxbury story... As in -- for every 1,000 readers for Roxbury, there were 52,000 readers for Southie.

Let that sink in.

The reality is that for-profit news orgs write for their audiences. If no one's going to read it, news orgs don't care.

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One way for victims of color to have their murders "elevated" to the kind of coverage that Amy Lord is getting would be to for the inner city gangbangers to stopping offing them in record numbers. Sort of hard to give each of those murders special treatment when there's so many of them.

But there's no sex appeal in that message, especially when race baiting plays so well in this city.

Just out of curiosity, what are the odds that this message is reaching the illegal gun owners and career criminals of the city's most dangerous neighborhoods? Anyone think they care about the alleged racial disparity of press' coverage of the havoc they're wreaking?

Folks lamenting the difference in these stories will continue to do nothing about it, and/or will agitate for tougher gun laws that will make no difference to the inner city.

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Really? Seriously?

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I'm pretty new here, but is this what you do "whyaduck?" You just fart one word replies and pithy phrases into your keyboard, with zero actual intellectual contribution to the discourse? I think a lot of people are having the same reactions to a lot of these posts, from all sides, but how many run to the computer to type "Really?" and "Hmmm"?

Nice little niche you've carved for yourself.

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I only go the intellectual reply route when I feel that the poster that I am replying to offers something worthwhile to reply to.

Or maybe I am just a bit lazy this Friday.

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Be careful. Whyaduck has a blue belt in karate.

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blue with a green stripe.

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Good comparison post, sir.

For those that think it's anything more than that? It isn't. Settle down, please.

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Nothing to do with race, so anons settle down. A "white-trash" scumbag would also get little attention. The fact is, this girl was... *gasp* possibly a suburban ex-pat! Or, *double gasp* a yuppy! That means 90% of the Globe's readership feels *mega-gasp* they could be next!

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I agree with what you're saying in principle. The added layer of a seemingly random victim combined with the kidnapping/driving around to various ATMS angle is probably adding layers to the coverage of this story. With that said, if this poor woman had been from Revere or Quincy, I don't know if we would have seen the level of follow-up stories that have been written here.

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It isn't just 90% of the Globe readership. 70% of the Massachusetts population is basically white, and white people see something like this and say "this could have been me or my wife/mother/sister/daughter/friend".

When someone black dies, the white person often thinks "well, that is what happens in those neighborhoods", or "well, that is what happens when you hang out with a person like that"....

Sad but true in my opinion.

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EXACTLY. Lowell cops killed a white woman a few months ago and no one cared because she was poor, drunk, and a prostitute. It's not racism. Sure, maybe this guy was in the wrong place at the wrong time but the other guy was probably killed over some gang/drug beef. That's not big news because it happens all the time. Someone driving around kidnapping and murdering people would still be big news if it were a black girl living in Southie who worked at a good job and recently graduated from college.

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spot on!

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Of course, in this country race and class often are intertwined. So I agree with you partly.

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Adam, I just wanted to thank you for posting all of the news, regardless of the race of those involved. The point you make is one worth making again and again. This has been and will continue to be my source for local BALANCED news.

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Ye olde slow news day

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Perhaps it would be fair to say that the Globe prints a greater 'quantity' of black-on-black crime articles (which are little more than notices now) and more 'quality' (read: in-depth) articles when it involves a suburbanite meeting a violent end in the city, particularly if the victim is a white female and abduction is involved?

In any case, as noted by others, it seems the Globe is simply making a cynical business decision. Unfortunately, black-on-black crime, particularly young men killing other young men, is no longer considered newsworthy because of its frequency, similarity in narrative to the other cases, and a frequent lack of detail from police or any witnesses.

However, it would be unfair to say that the Globe is callous or racially biased, given their track record of reporting on the root causes of these crimes, which is symptomatic of a far greater problem worthy of in-depth coverage. For example, they did any excellent series on the problems plaguing the area around H-Block a few months ago, and before that a series on the lengths some members of the community go through just to put food on the table.

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most murder is intra-racial. 86% of white murders are "white-on-white." there's probably a less loaded way to describes the crimes. racializing the crime brings to it an inference that may or may not be accurate.

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My 19 year old white son was murdered with an illegal handgun wielded by a 19 year old vietnamese person

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Adam, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for posting this. It is very relevant. It seems like when a white person is killed than it is all over the place and journalists are going crazy to get a report. When a black person is killed, I feel like their death is usually ignored by the press because they think its just another black guy who was killed in a gang war or stabbed in a fight. People don't stop to think about what the man's family, friends, and entire neighborhood are going through. Just my two cents. Keep up the great work Adam.

And RIP Amy Lord and Perris Haynes.

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Thanks for acknowledging this!

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It's not news if it happens several times a week. Tragic? Sure. But we all know the reason the Southie attacks are getting more press is because it is not the norm. People getting shot and killed in Dorchester, Roxbury, and Mattapan has become the norm.

It's not ideal, but it's the truth.

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This is my view, and it's not a popular one here. Also, the particularly horrific and protracted nature of the Amy Lord killing (at least stages of which are captured by surveillance cameras), the repeat offense by an (alleged) assailant known to law enforcement, etc. There are many differences between these news stories, and for the time being one is more newsworthy due to a lot of factors... at least until more is learned about the Perris Haynes murder (and will that happen, given the tight lipped, "no snitching" reputation the H-Block neighborhood?).

Occam's razor is being ignored an awful lot on these pages.

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that's a mighty high horse you have there

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of a Patrice O'Neal special which contains this classic bit of provocative comedy that sums up some of the sentiments in this thread:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TeCMCJc5-jg&feature=&...

You're coming at it from a different direction though...

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Actually it's not the norm at all. It happens in certain partsof those 3 neighborhoods perhaps more often than in other parts of the city, but it is hardly the norm in a statistical sense. Of the the things that happen to a person on any given day in Dorchester Roxbury, or Mattapan, being shot at is still a deviation from the norm. There is nothing normal about passing through or living in any of those neighborhoods and being shot at. What is normal is arriving home safely everyday without having been a victim of crime. People living outside of the city don't hear about that in the news because it's not news.

I don't see the difference in reporting being due to attacks being the norm in one area and not being the norm in another area. The homicide rate in Boston is low compared to other cities. It does not happen on a daily basis although sometimes there will be a string of shootings reported in the news that can make it feel to the rest of the suburban public that it certainly must happen everyday in every part of all of those neighborhoods.

This notion that people getting shot and killed in certain neighborhoods is normal just perpetuates complacency and the attitude that it doesn't matter as much as when it happens in other areas to people who are not white. Claiming that it isn't reported on in the same way as a murder in Southie because it has just become "normal" and therefore to be expected minimizes the tragedy that it is and attempts to brush it under the rug without examining the more serious and harmful forces potentially behind it, like socio-economic disparity, ability to sell papers, and yes, even race and/or gender. Being shot and killed is not the norm in any part of the city, and the murder of innocent person in Dorchester, Roxbury, or Mattapan absolutely does deserve as much attention as any other murder of an innocent person anywhere else in the state.

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Thanks for this tumblr-esque no content social justice numbers comparison of people who were tragically murdered just so we can belittle their tragic deaths into a criticism about news. Until the dead are completely othered into statistics based on their race or social status can we truly show we captial-C Care.

Up until this I was truly concerned why we were referring to Amy Lord by her name as a human instead of a white suburban girl used as a statistic to compare to the deaths of other individuals who should be identified by their race and class status.

Again, thank you for this post designed to make people argue over things we all know about already from daytime TV. I was starting to think that after Trayvon, there wouldn't be any other way for people to accuse each other of being racist/classist or othering victims - and certainly not on a local level.

Perhaps soon in another post someone will post an ambiguous snapshot of a person on the street so we can all claim how progressive we are by talking about the sad state of affairs of urban life all while doing nothing at all and accusing others of not Caring enough.

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Pull up all of the recent DotRoxMpan murders and see how many of them were not thugs shooting thugs, you might be unpleasantly surprised. You'll start seeing coverage similar to Amy Lord when 9 out of 10 murders are innocent bystanders and 1 is a thug with mile-long record, not the other way around.

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Oh please, now pointing out the disproportionate coverage given to crimes depending on what race the victim was is "tumblr-esque", whatever the hell that means. I love that the existence of tumblr, for some people, seems to be a reason to dismiss anything relating to social justice as BS. Damn you tumblr! All those race hustlers! If they stopped talking about race, it'd just go away! Same with those feminists who think all sex is rape! Tumblr!

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How many Odin Lloyd stories have there been in the media lately? Is it up to thousands by now?

If we're not terribly interested in the circumstances of victims' deaths here, and are just uniformly treating all murders the same in order to check boxes on a racial play card, it looks an awful lot like the media cares much, much more about victims of color than white victims.

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Nobody outside of his family and friends would ever have heard of Odin Lloyd if the suspect in his death weren't a receiver on the local NFL team. Same for the two guys shot to death a couple years back outside the Theater District.

You ever hear of Malcolm Campbell? How about Clifton Campbell? Or Carly Jones? No, didn't think so.

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And you're completely making my point for me with your examples. No, of course I've never heard of them. When I looked them up from your links, I see that they were all shot in or around the worst areas of the city. It is that consistent and frequent set of circumstances around their murders that make their stories completely "unnewsworthy". [And by that, I don't mean to you or me personally; I mean literally why it the tales are buried or non-existent in the media.] The very fact that those murders are so similar is at least a large part of why they're not on the front news page.

It would be so more compelling for you to show us examples of murder victims of color that, say, were kidnapped, driven to ATMs, stabbed, and tossed and/or left for dead in a park.

If I buy into the racial bias that you and others allege is at least partly at work here, then I'll posit that it works very often the opposite way, too, i.e., preventing minorities' heinous deeds from being elevated to the level of George Zimmermann. It's why you won't ever hear of Josh Chellew as victim of a hate crime. [Not accusing you personally of spiking stories of black on white crime.]

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He's as much an outlier as you claim Amy Lord is.

I'm not arguing that her case doesn't deserve attention. I am arguing that there are reasons not to ignore or downplay other murders in Boston.

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So you agree that Amy Lord is an outlier, as Odin Lloyd is, and then admonish me for bringing him up. However, very premise of your whole article is the unequal treatment of these murder cases by the press. So either use outliers like Lloyd and Amy Lord (or find two cases with as close to identical circumstances as possible but with victims of different races), or throw together murder victims of equal "non-newsworthiness," and then begin your comparison of their press treatment. The point is that it is tough to buy a case of racial injustice here when you are comparing apples (outliers, by your own admission) to oranges (non outliers like Perris Haynes).

What makes any of us remember victims- or perpetrators, for that matter- of tragedy is a combination of time elapsed, unusual circumstances, proximity/causation to significant events, any personal ties, the frequency of similar events' occurrences, etc., all of which should be considered before race if we're being intellectually honest. You won't remember those men's names you threw at me any more than I will in six months, nor will we probably remember Amy Lord's. And it's sad any way you slice it, because absent some combination of the above factors, there are just too many tragedies to make all this news stick with us. Fabricated racial introspection won't solve this.

I remember Ryan White because he was the first kid I'd heard of who died of AIDS. I remember Phoebe Prince (white) and Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover (black) because they were the first local teens/kids I'd heard of who killed themselves due to bullying. I remember a kid named Shaun Ouillette who was killed with a baseball bat years ago because I was his age and he lived closeby, and because I was struck by the casualness with which he killer described his motive (he wanted to see what it felt like to kill someone). I don't know the names of other kids since who died of AIDS or baseball bat beatings or bullying-related causes, and it has nothing to do with race.

I think all of these cases deserve attention, just like you do, but sadly there are so many of them. And striving to give them some kind of artificial weight based on race isn't going to improve any deceased victim's legacy.

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While I understand the "is it dark out there?" element of Boston crime reporting, I think that comparing these two is apples and oranges. Both random, yes, and tragic, but the kidnapping, robbery and stabbing of a young woman on her way to the gym by a stranger is going to trigger a greater response than a man shot in the middle of the night in a gang-infested neighborhood, even if it was a case of mistaken identity. We remember the unusual stories and unfortunately young black men, even innocent ones, getting shot by other young black men, is not unusual. Extreme youth, extreme innocence get your attention--we remember Louis Brown, Tiffani Moore. Luis Gerena went to school with my daughter and was roughly the same age when he was killed. But when the motive or connection is unclear, when it just sounds like another case of someone who brushed against trouble somehow...it's hard to pay as much mind. Take the murders in Waltham of the three young men, now maybe attributed to the older Tsarnaev brother--three young white guys, in the drug trade, slaughtered horrifically. Did I hear about it at the time? Was it widely publicized? No. the general attitude seems to be that they made their own bed.

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I caught that you said

He's as much an outlier as you claim Amy Lord is.

and I wrote some of what I just wrote as if you'd admitted that she is an outlier (which I think you might consider, but I don't want to put words in your mouth).

I still think the apples to oranges comparison holds up, but wanted to fix that before getting jumped on by anyone for it.

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I think the point is that even though I live in one of "the worst parts of the city" if I (young, white, college-educated, female) became a victim of violent crime it would probably get some coverage. Could the same be said for one of the (very successful) black/hispanic high schoolers I work with? Probably not

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The editor here has been baiting readers and bashing South Boston on this site from day one. Way back. Thanks for nothing.

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this is why you don't see them flocking to live in Roxbury or Dorchester.

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You obviously don't know very much about either Roxbury or Dorchester.

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So instead of hiding behind "anon", one can hide behind a clever alias like "Dotratgirl" or "adamgsucks" instead? What is your fascination with anon users anyway? What does putting up some stupid fake internet alias have to do with anything and how would it give more creedence to ones opinions? It really only seems to be an issue if it goes against your own biased opinion. Isnt that right, mr bigshot journalist man? Youre just a glorified blogger, dont let it go to your head. Further, if you dont want people sharing their opinion and having dialog and instead would rather have the same people licking your **** everyday telling you how great you are then dont run your silly little site to begin with.

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How am I supposed to address somebody who calls himself "Anon?" You do realize this is one of the last sites left that lets you posts without any name whatsoever? Try posting without a user name at bostonherald.com. You might be more comfortable there anyway, they seem to have a whole fact-free zone thing going on, especially when it comes to neighborhoods where people's skins are darker than they'd prefer.

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Is it because you like to hide behind the Anon unregistered alias when you like to insult people?

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I'm using my dictatorial powers to block any and all anonymous posts about the Martin case. There are plenty of places to discuss that case and I'm not going to let this discussion turn into a debate about it. Want to rant about local coverage of local cases or complain about my views about that? Have at it.

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This story deserves more coverage because its about terror and the murder of an innocent woman. this girl wasn't dealing weed or drinking on ruthven st at 3 am. She was trying to go to the gym before work. People die in dorchester Roxbury and mattapan every day over drugs. So who fucking cares. (remember the mattapan massacre ? that got plenty of media ) When an innocent girl gets killed for trying to get up, go to work, be productive it deserves the cities attention until someone is caught.

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Really? There's the problem in a nutshell.

Interesting statistics from BPD: Through 7/23, South Boston has had as many murders as Mattapan (based on the stats from the week before, it doesn't look like Lord's murder is included in the latest stats).

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in Dorchester, Mattapan, and Roxbury due to all those bad drugs from someone who lives in.....Reading? Lincoln? Brookline?

You sound like the guy from "The Godfather". "They're animals anyways, let them lose their souls".

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Outside the city . Since you jumped to conclusions ill say given your take on my comment You are obviously a transplant from upstate New York western ma or Marin county . My perspective on people dying from weed related causes however comes from seeing people killed everyday over weed and weed money. Why do you think people get shot on h block ? Why are there gangs ? Why does it happen so much that it doesn't even make the next days paper? I'm obviously an ignorant douche from lincon.

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Meanwhile, Adam, while I understand the point of what you were trying to get at, but the Globe is reporting today that Edwin Alemany attacked a woman last September, the woman was able to grab his wallet which contained ID, and yet Mr. Alemany wasn't arrested. Um, uh, someone dropped the ball there....

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that people must stop getting murdered during times of big news stories such as the funeral of Ted Kennedy or the inauguration of Barack Obama because the press never even touches the stories of murders in places like Dorchester, Mattapan or Roxbury during events such as those.

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What's the context here? If you're trying to level charges of racism, you really need to try harder.

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There's a place and time for such a discussion. In other cultures and countries, one would at least wait until the dead were buried before using their murder as a tool in a political conversation. At least that's how my family in PR would react, and this is yet another example of what they've been telling me, that Americans can be cold.

Had you waited, more details would also have surfaced, especially that Alemany was a serial criminal targeting young women in their 20's. There are serious racial disparities in the US. This is not one of them.

This post was inappropriate at this time and I'm disappointed in Universal Hub.

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This doesn't even touch on the large amount of coverage local TV news is giving the Lord murder (with lengthy segments still appearing on today's broadcasts) while barely mentioning Haynes.

And they aren't really talking about the other two attacks in conjunction with the Lord coverage, so you can't play the "3 attacks on women is different" card here.

I also wonder if the BPD is holding a community meeting in Haynes's neighborhood to reassure people.

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