Speaking for the Dead

[flamingyouth]

By KEVIN SITES

Jill Leovy's war isn't thousands of miles away. In fact, without traffic, she can drive from her office to the front lines in about ten minutes.

It's being fought mostly in the tough, minority neighborhoods of Los Angeles County, where three people are killed each day on average — more than a thousand a year.

Leovy is the creator of The Homicide Report, a blogging project by the Los Angeles Times in which she is attempting to record every homicide in Los Angeles County over the course of a year. She has covered over 700 to date.

Because it is often the only public acknowledgement of the event, the blog has become a memorial for murder victims, with family members and friends posting responses adjacent to many of the entries, providing updates on children or expressing the pain of being left alone.

Most of the reports are just a sentence or two long, but they are filled with heartbreak, like the death of Michael Presley, 19, buried in the same grave as his father, who was also murdered years earlier.

Or the story of twin brothers Noel and Joel Velazco, both shot to death only a few feet from each other, but six years apart.

http://potw.news.yahoo.com/s/potw/49321/the-invisible-war

The Homicide Report: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/homicidereport/

I've known Jill since college. She's an amazing person.

[MadMaddie]

1. I hate to bring politics into this but every time a Republican

Adminsistration gets into office....money gets cut to these areas of cities, money for police gets cut, the economy usually goes to shit...and now we have outsourcing of many US jobs and you have a disaster.....crime and murder goes through the roof...

I am glad she is doing this work...but it must be very heartbreaking..

[DaveJ]

3. Which is why Republicans should never get elected

That's what happens when political leaders combine:

1) the attitude that money is the most important thing in life
2) lack of social services for people who need to get ahead
3) complete lack of morals when it comes to killing for money

While not a minority, I think that the ability to keep neighborhoods affordable embodies the spirit of freedom and democracy. Unfortunately, this is also where people who need money end up. So obviously crime and violence will increase in affordable neighborhoods when Republicans are in charge.

We really need to stop being complacent about the existence of a hideously immoral and unethical political party. I mean, it's not just the fact that the people in it are bad (almost forgivable since humans are imperfect by design), but the fact that the entire party is fundamentally based on greed and corruption. People like Hannity, Rush, and Coulter get a share of the airwaves just because they make money, and nobody does anything about the hate that they generate. Sure they have the right to express themselves but they should be off in a corner where they belong, in the adult sections of bookstore along with the rest of the porn. Sorry if I'm beginning to go off on a tangent. This problem is so incredibly clear it's eating at me.

[NC_Nurse]

2. Very moving.

Thanks for posting this. Good on her.