May 2, 2001

Who's to blame for violence?

I recently talked to a Pacifican, who ironically enough, shall remain unnamed. He blames the entire media for such unfortunate events as the recent high school shooting rampage near San Diego. If newspapers, TV, radio and magazines would simply stop reporting such "sensationalism" those kinds of events wouldn't happen any more, he reasoned. And of course, he may be right. If something bad happens in Colorado, and nobody reports it, you and I won't know it happened. And neither will anyone else in Pacifica who might be inspired to imitate such a crime if he knew of it. For all I know, every high school in the United States has had a mass killing, but most are kept quiet to avoid imitation.

I do know I'm grateful to that photo clerk from Long's Drugs who reported the De Anza student with a bedroom full of explosive devices. My son Mike was at De Anza that day to take a class. He might easily have been in either cafeteria or library, allegedly the prime targets. Too close for comfort!

I should confess my bias up front. After 55 years involvement with newspapers, from delivery to ad sales to writing, I prefer to deal with problems caused by knowledge rather than problems caused by ignorance. I think folks in East Timor, Tibet, North Korea, and the interior of China suffer more because you and I don't know the depth and width of their pain. But it's also true folks in Pacifica are kept somewhat ignorant of certain situations that involve their neighbors. With the best of intentions, and perhaps a desire to keep out of court, this newspaper doesn't tell all it knows. Neither do most newspapers. The Tribune used to use exact addresses in the Police Beat column. A story would state: "The murder occurred at 1294 Dardanelle Drive at the corner of Abalone Blvd., in the Vallemar District." Today it's more likely to read only that "the alleged murder took place in a home located in the 1200 block of Dardanelle Drive."

Some brothers used to live near my home. They were well known to the entire neighborhood as the local hellions. They were responsible for habitual and repeated mischief, ranging from drunkenness to vandalism to petty theft to petty fraud. Only when each reached age 18 did he have the opportunity to find his name in Police Beat. When a crime is committed in my neighborhood, I want to know about it. I don't want the information muffled, euphemized, or hidden from my view. I can take it. I'm a big boy.

I'm also amazed at those who want to keep me ignorant of such basic information as the names and addresses of local child molesters. Would you really want to learn you had that kind of neighbor only after he'd damaged another neighbor's child? Or yours? Do the rights of perpetrators trump the rights of their victims? I realize perps are likely to be annoyed, harassed, badgered, pestered, plagued, heckled, perhaps even persecuted if known to their neighbors. So?

As Paul Azevedo reminds us, his opinions are his own, and aren't necessarily those of his wife, his children, or the Tribune, where his column, the Reactor, is now into its 27th year. His e-mail address is thereactor2@earthlink.net