Mint Condition VW Bus Stolen 35 Years Ago Found!
The Creepy, Yet Beautiful Street Art of Dan Witz Now in L.A.
Recession Obsession: Sky's Gourmet Tacos
Does Traffic Get Worse After the End of Daylight Saving Time?
Silver Lake Art Crawl: Also a Food Truck Crawl?
I read the LA Times Homidicide Report by Jill Leovy every morning. When I read on Tuesday morning that there was a 30-woman tussle on the corner of West Slauson and South Western Monday afternoon, I was surprised. When I learned that a woman drove her car into the crowd of fighting women, killing a 22-year-old pregnant woman, I was stunned. But there was more: 200 onlookers stood by and watched while this happened. 200 people watched a woman drive her car into a crowd, hit a pregnant woman, drag her down the street, and then backup and reverse the car over her fallen body again. They watched and did nothing.
Yet, I also watched and did nothing. I didn't write about it. I didn't cover it. Why? I assumed someone else would. Guess what? Very few media outlets have covered it at all. As Tuesday passed and Wedensday passed, I thought repeatedly of these women, of this indicent. I looked for coverage in all the usual places and the not-so-usual places. I then got busy with my own life, my own things, leaving the matter of this violent crime - and the many questions it raises, like, what the hell? - to someone else. Well shame on me. Shame on all of us.
David Markland's mention this morning of the lack of coverage is exactly right - where has the coverage been? Why aren't we asking the big questions - like - what the hell? Why is the media treating this like just another day in Los Angeles? Why is the incident only mentioned in the local crime blotters with a few sentences and little more? The comments of his post are raising some interesting questions as well: What were they fighting about? How would this have been covered if it were men instead of women? How would this have been covered if someone famous was involved? How would this have been covered if everyone in the fight was white? Would it have received any more attention? If yes, if no, what does that say about the city we live in and the media coverage of LA?
Not easy questions to answer or even examine as we rush about LA living our busy lives, but something to think about, to talk about amongst ourselves. If we don't, who will?
Photo of Shontae Blanche from LA Times
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
200 people stood by watching- well, yeah. Callie you can honestly say you'd jump into that mess and try to restore order? i'd be scrambling for my camera like it was an after school brawl in 6th grade.
what a scene that must have been, and a tragic end- but also, what the F was this 8 MONTHS PREGNANT girl even doing in the vicinity of this brawl that from all accounts had been planned for days? way to protect your baby.
i agree with you on the lack of media coverage, but that's not to say i'm shocked by it.
Sadly the media is too busy watching Britney Spears be a maroon.
If she were white, you could bet your ass it would be the nation's top story. It's the same with children who get abducted: you only hear about the white ones.
I did hear about this on KCRW / NPR, for what it's worth... But I've long since abandoned American News Media... They're all the same crap.
wow, i'm sorry jen saxon, but before you call someone a "MAROON," maybe you should learn how to at least come close to spelling it.
Moron.
Even though I don't get the joke, I'm pretty sure "maroon" was a reference to Britney Spear's inability to speak, y'all.
The handwringing over "missing" this story is laughable. I heard about it repeatedly on NPR starting Monday evening. It was also on CNN, MSNBC and FOX.
I guess if it isn't on TMZ it gets by some people.
I've actually heard the term 'maroon' before, but it was in a cartoon context. For what it means, though....
in regards to the comment about 'if she were white, everyone would know about this', I respectfully disagree. Although racism is a pervading means of discriminating in the media, I think that in any situation, such as this one, where you have (I'm being careful with my words), literally, hordes of gang people fighting, most of america would just chalk it up to socio-economics and the hood. I can see this happening in Arkansas, with a bunch of white people, and it not making much of a media impact.
Arguably, maybe this has gotten more media attention because they are black.
Ah. Who knows. Just stay away from Western and Slauson.
grendel20: May I point you here, here and here. Hell, even Wikipedia has an entry on it.
I'm certainly not saying there's some sort of widespread discriminatory media conspiracy going on. I'm just saying when is the last time there was a major media "round-the-clock-update" obsess-fest over a missing black boy? Or a Latina?
Sure, but the issue here is whether or not this received less media attention since those fighting were black. You're links suggest that black people may get less attention in the media when one goes missing. I might stipulate and agree with you there because I really don't want to argue about that ONE case with the girl in the Bahamas. I'm sure there have been other cases that perhaps I'm just not aware of...
however
I'm merely saying that this didn't get much media attention because they were minorities fighting, not black minorities.
Wiki has articles on EVERYTHING!
and i see typos on my last post. sorry, i'm sleepy. i should nap before The Edison tonight.
Yes, this story HAS been covered, but very little of the coverage (any?) in mainstream media has addressed some of the larger questions this kind of story raises. Blogs and other online/local writers tend to dig more into the issues surrounding an event like this and I found it surprising that so few have covered it in more detail in the days after it happened.
With the intense scrutiny given to every detail of Britney's life (there's your TMZ reference thunderboltfan), it seems ridiculous at best that a little more digging and thinking about this event is overshadowed by something like Britney's latest court appearance.
No coverage because of a few basic facts.
1. Couldn't blame bush
2. The driver wasn't white
Typical liberal media. The only time they need a black person is to use as a prop to attack rethugs.
Ryansi51,
I said maroon & I meant maroon. You need to watch some Bugs Bunny, dude.
I would love to have gotten Mr William Holdens opinion on this, since despite the fact it was yelled some 21 years ago its pretty relevant to this story. So go open your windows and yell "Im as mad as hell! And im not gonna take this, ANYMORE!"
You guys need to get avatars so I don't mix ya up! :)
yeah, liberal media has been annoying me lately, too.
Yeah I'm thinking the same thing too. What was that 8 month pregnant girl doing in the area anyways.
First of all, the "stood by and did nothing" is pretty common. It is more of a result of shock than anything. We all freeze up when we see something that horrendous. And again, it was a big, heavy machine that would have plowed down anyone trying to help as well. Years ago, a woman was stabbed to death in the courtyard of the Galleria in front of onlookers who did nothing because they couldn't believe what they were seeing.
I could see people jumping in to protect her if it were a fight, but when a car is involved - how were they supposed to prevent the car from hitting her? Sadly, I can't see many people jumping in front of a car aimed at a total stranger.
we ALL need to watch some looney tunes
Then she might have been hit with an anvil.