It was a decision which I had been contemplating for months, but a few articles over the past few weeks have caused me to pull the trigger on canceling my subscription to the Republican newspaper. The paper has an obligation, of course, to report on crime. It has become clear however that one reporter in particular has either been encouraged, or at the very least been given free reign, to emphasize, and I would say to grossly exaggerate, the idea that Springfield is a uniquely dangerous place.
It is a fact that the criminal violence within the city is endemic to certain populations and people who engage in certain behaviors and is not, in truth, an equal opportunity problem. Of course, the nature of gun violence is such that its existence does put the innocent and bystanders at some risk, but any look at the data will show how minute the risk is and, given that every activity and every living environment have some relationship to risk, it makes sense that good reporters would be ones who put those risks in perspective.
Over a year ago I pointed out that the hype around violence and mayhem on one particular street in the city, Union Street, could quite easily be transferred to one suburban road, Route 20, and the numbers of actual injuries and deaths would be far greater, and a great deal more could be understood about who we are in this country, and how we live. It just so happens that on the very day I cancelled my subscription to the paper two more lives were horrifically shattered by the non-negotiable “American Way of Life.” Once again, not surprisingly, no context was given to the story in any of the local media outlets. That average Americans going about the average activities of average middle class life should know that, when it comes to risk, every extra mile of driving, especially on undivided high speed stroads and highways, is buying another ticket in the lottery of automobile death and destruction goes unreported.
As I have often stated, I am not saying that gang members, drug dealers, and most certainly, women trying to get out of relationships with men, deserve to die or that the violence related to those conditions should be ignored. What I am saying is that anyone trying to bring insight to the modern urban situation, especially a reporter with access to sources of information could easily tell us how many of Springfield’s murder victims over the last 2, 3, or 4 years were unknown to their assailants? Yes, it is sad that a woman, minding her own business driving down the street had her car window shattered by a bullet and suffered, whether by the bullet or a piece of shattered glass, a small laceration. I’m glad that it did not happen to me, or to a family member, but how common is that sort of occurrence? What seems many times more common is the circumstance where a victim is uncooperative and refuses to tell the police who fired the shot or shots in question, a circumstance which seems to imply a relationship between victim and perpetrator which indicates that the crime was not random.
I contemplated writing something along the lines of these words to the one member of the editorial board of the Republican whom I have met. I was contemplating how to express my frustration at the imbalance between the hype over urban violence and the apparent inability to connect the carnage of car crashes when I realized that that one member of the editorial board that I knew had only recently lost a sibling to just the type of random danger we all face if we choose to leave walkable, low speed, traditional urban streets, to drive on undivided high speed suburban roads.
I knew her brother, I had met him. He died doing what most of us do every day: driving to work. That driving to work, to the store, to the bank, to the post office, is a lifestyle choice seems unthinkable in the here and now I realize, but it is a choice. I know that my family faces a different set of risks because most of us do not drive or ride in a car on most days and, apart from me, no one in this household has to drive to get to work, and no one in this household has to drive to buy eggs or a gallon of milk, to put money in the checking account, to mail a package, or to buy a sandwich. I feel like Commodus in the scene from Gladiator where he murders Marcus Aurelius complaining about the fact that none of his “qualities” we’re on his father’s list: Yes, if the only danger you see in our society is that of street crime and drug violence then an urban neighborhood is the most dangerous place to be in America, but if you do the math and see that, even in a state like Massachusetts which has the lowest automobile fatality rate in the nation, almost twice as many people die in car crashes than are murdered it begins to become clearer as to where the greater danger lies. On the national level over 40 people are seriously injured in car crashes for every 1 person who is injured by firearms.
You want to champion the woman who wants out of Springfield because she got a scratch on her head by publicizing her “Go Fund Me” page? Great. How about a Go Fund Me page for the millions of people traumatized by car accidents who want to live somewhere that driving an automobile isn’t requisite to participating in everyday life? Where are the follow up articles about even a single car crash victim?
One more time, if you buy or sell illegal narcotics, are in a gang, or if you are in a relationship with a violent person then you are in danger. No matter what neighborhood you live in. If you drive a car, especially on undivided highways, stroads, or through high speed intersections then you are at great risk of serious injury or death. By living in a walkable community, and not being involved in the drug trade or joining a gang I minimize, but don’t eliminate, risk. It also happens that our society’s predilection for suburban and exurban living has made high quality housing in a traditional urban center very inexpensive in some regions, which means I can live safely, cheaply. Even more cheaply now that I am canceling my monthly charitable donation to the Republican.
Let Conor Berry move on to bigger and better things and I promise to renew my subscription.
My sentiments exactly! That Connor bozo needs to go.! Why is he not reprimanded for being grossly inaccurate and prejudicial.
What about all the murders of totally innocent people in small suburban towns across the country? So many I can’t remember them all. New town, ct., Aurora movie theater massacre, churches, military recruiting sites, police departments, restaurants in up scale malls in FL., Etc. Etc. I could go on and on. Where’s this reporter’s comments about
The dangers of living in a small town or city. What a bozo, certainly not a quality journalist.
Your comment should be printed on the front page of the newspaper, if they were truly
fair in their reporting. Sad we only have one mediocre newspaper with very prejudicial
views.
As anyone else, you are free to give or not your hard-earned money to whatever publication you (dis)like.
However, I think your argument has an implied bias and a fundamental misunderstanding of human psychology. The bias is against the ability to multi-focus on several problems, even if their impact is disparate, related to the same or or comparable consequences (death, in this case).
It is a logical misstep often incurred by well intentioned people. A doctor could say “it is immoral to spend dozens of billions researching rare genetic malformations while 2-3 million people die of malaria, dengue fever and other diseases”. Another doctor could say obesity should take all the headlines of health-related news since it is the single driver of a myriad of problems that have become epidemic – diabetes, heart disease etc -, and get angry that they are discussing depression. Social justice activists usually pull the “… but there are hungry people/homeless people in this country” to justify opposition to virtually anything they don’t like.
In other words, you frame the issue as if humans weren’t able to laser-zoom their reasoning in the high elusive odd leaf despite the dozens of low-hanging fruits on the same tree.
The overall number of people that die as direct consequences of any crime is very small in US. That doesn’t mean all priority of news reporting, attention, resources should be put on obesity, bad diets, dangerous traffic etc. Serious crime has an element of evil intent that somehow hurts the psychological perception of safety far, far more than “industrial” accidents or health-related conditions. Some researcher call this salience, there are alternative names over there.
A newspaper that devoted all its “death reporting” space on a basis of what make people die other than old age, regardless of criminal intent being involved, would be perceived as extremely boring and would be quickly out of business.
Almost all people who get involved in fatal car crashes didn’t set up to kill anyone, or crash with anyone. Some drive so recklessly they implicitly accept the consequence as a realistic perspective, and even fewer, a tiny amount of people, purposefully use vehicles as murder weapons in the sense of intentionally causing deadly harm to someone else. I fully agree driving practices are often dangerous due to bad design etc., but people are not intentionally going daredevil when turning the car on.
As for firing a gun or launching a knife in the direction of someone else, it is very hard to come with examples where grave harm was not intended as a direct consequence of the act of pulling the trigger.
Your writing has me confused. What exactly is your point?
Are you asking for groups of people to gather and create neighborhood watches with qualified security?
What other alternative do you have?
Pointing fingers, complaining to hear yourself complain, expecting a news article to have every one of your questions answered , without asking the question?
I find this article to be without logical methods to secure the streets of this city.
I would appreciate a fund raising walk to support neighborhood security. Working with the police.
I would appreciate this walk to be groups in every neighborhood concurrently.
Is thst a possibility for this sight to initiate?