Thursday, December 16, 2004
My job
It's often hard to describe the appeal of my job to people. I deal both with people at their lowest and the lowest sort of people and I enjoy my job. The article I wrote a couple days ago really reflects this dichotomy.
Recently, the police made an arrest in a case that was unusual even for Baton Rouge. Here's the police account of what happened: Three weeks before Halloween a man was robbed at gun point. At about 1 a.m. on Halloween the man pulled up to an intersection, looked over to the car next to him and realized it was the guy who had robbed him. The other guy recognized him too, and he pulled out a gun and started blasting away.
The man he was shooting at drove away and a chase ensued with both men shooting tearing down residential streets and shooting at each other. Finally, the man being chased ran a stop sign and plowed into a Mazda, killing both himself and a woman in the Mazda.
The guy who died was about to get married and had three kids. The woman who died was a single mother of two with a steady job and her mom's only child.
Talking to their families was heartbreaking and that kind of interview always feels a little intrusive. The weirdest part was at the end of one of the interviews the mother of one of the victims kept thanking me. It never ceases to amaze me how forthright people are (usually) when dealing with the sudden, violent death of a loved one, especially when it's as random and pointless as the above case. It reminds me what a privilege it is that they allow me to tell their stories.
Recently, the police made an arrest in a case that was unusual even for Baton Rouge. Here's the police account of what happened: Three weeks before Halloween a man was robbed at gun point. At about 1 a.m. on Halloween the man pulled up to an intersection, looked over to the car next to him and realized it was the guy who had robbed him. The other guy recognized him too, and he pulled out a gun and started blasting away.
The man he was shooting at drove away and a chase ensued with both men shooting tearing down residential streets and shooting at each other. Finally, the man being chased ran a stop sign and plowed into a Mazda, killing both himself and a woman in the Mazda.
The guy who died was about to get married and had three kids. The woman who died was a single mother of two with a steady job and her mom's only child.
Talking to their families was heartbreaking and that kind of interview always feels a little intrusive. The weirdest part was at the end of one of the interviews the mother of one of the victims kept thanking me. It never ceases to amaze me how forthright people are (usually) when dealing with the sudden, violent death of a loved one, especially when it's as random and pointless as the above case. It reminds me what a privilege it is that they allow me to tell their stories.
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We just had a terrible tragedy event here in Show Low AZ as well. A little girl was killed by dogs while on a court-ordered visit to her bio parents home. The girl was in foster care for nearly all her life and her parents have been arrested regularly in the past 10 years for drug crimes, assault on adults and minors, criminal michief, etc etc. Bad people.
I absolutely cannot emotionally tolerate interviews with the families of the murdered and thus begged out of the story though it was on my beat. My editor took up the slack, thankfully, and I was relegated to covering the proposed changes to municipal code as a result of the incident.
I agree that cops coverage, and my paper runs police briefs WITH names and hometowns, is largely a gossip sheet. As a staff we break out the most outrageous or most heartbreaking or most wide-reaching crimes into full stories or short briefs and it is not something I enjoy writing in any way. The voyeur in me however, who also insists on watching Survivor, Real World and Big Brother, ultimately can't resist the allure of a peek into others' lives, however tawdry and shameful and at times tragic.
I absolutely cannot emotionally tolerate interviews with the families of the murdered and thus begged out of the story though it was on my beat. My editor took up the slack, thankfully, and I was relegated to covering the proposed changes to municipal code as a result of the incident.
I agree that cops coverage, and my paper runs police briefs WITH names and hometowns, is largely a gossip sheet. As a staff we break out the most outrageous or most heartbreaking or most wide-reaching crimes into full stories or short briefs and it is not something I enjoy writing in any way. The voyeur in me however, who also insists on watching Survivor, Real World and Big Brother, ultimately can't resist the allure of a peek into others' lives, however tawdry and shameful and at times tragic.
who the fuck is jessey in show low? i'm in springerville, all of 40 miles away. i shit you not.
josh.
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josh.
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: 12:13 AM
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