September 5, 2007
Latest Murder News (And A Suggestion To The Chron)
Following up on yesterday's blotter, we're sorry to pass along word from today's Chronicle that one of the murder victims over the weekend, David Sterling, was killed on the way home Monday afternoon, after picking up a burrito for his girlfriend. Investigators think it was supposed to be a retaliation shooting from the guy shot in the garage by kids on bikes a day earlier, but because Sterling had no record and no known gang affiliations, the investigators think it might have been a case of mistaken identity.
Another victim profiled in the story (J. Daniel Schirra, pictured here), was a radio and television major at SF State. He was on the Dean's List and was scheduled to graduate this spring. Schirra was last seen when his friends dropped him off at his apartment around 1 a.m Monday morning. His naked body was found 2 hours later a few blocks from there.
We're currently at 81 murders for the year (the paper says 79, but two more came in after the article went to press, according to the SFCrime Blog). If the rate continues, we'll be at 120 for the year, which would be the highest number since 1993, when the count was at 133. By comparison, last year total we only had 85.
Okay, here's our thought. These two stories are really horribly sad. But why aren't we getting similar stories about the other 77 murder victims this year in the Chron? (Let us say right now that we are not interested in hearing comments about how the murder victims deserved to die or anything like that -- if you want to talk about that, go to the SFGate comment section on this story instead.) We know they're stretched pretty thin over at the Chron these days, but maybe they could do something similar to the NY Times's Portraits of Grief and do thumbnail profiles of every homicide victim this year. It might be a really interesting way to put a human face on the growing public safety problem.
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The LA Times started the Homicide Report, putting faces and life histories to all the murders.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/homicidereport/
I agree with you. People often forget that the victims as well as the criminals are often disproportionately from disadvantaged and/or poor communities. Nowhere is this more apparent than the Tenderloin.
When is something going to be done about this in our city?
Is it because the sfgate folk are too busy with a New York Times-style memorial to fallen colleagues in the War For Hearst Profits?
Why not run that feature here?
rita,
why not run these portraits here? why assign them to the chron?
when was the last time you heard of a white college student being potentially murdered? that stanford girl killed herself so that doesn't count. outside of this poor guy, i don't see how you could put any sort of positive spin on the lives of the other 81 gang bangers/drug addicts that died this year. pretty pointless if you ask me.
Potentially murdered? he was dropped off at home, never went through the front door, and was then found naked, and stabbed to death in a parking lot. Not to mention that police were washing ...something... off the steps of a nearby elementary school and questioning staff there. Murdered on the steps, body dropped in the parking lot?
Also, those other 80 victims were not all gangbangers and druggies. What about the 15 year old shot and killed after being mistaken for a rival gangbanger? The 23 year old shot to death for the same reason? The 17 year old girl killed with a bullet meant for someone next to her? The 16 and 15 year old best friends found stabbed to death, their bodies dropped in hunters point? The 50 year old woman killed by a stray bullet in a gunbattle in the tenderloin? The woman shot in the head while riding her bike? The man intentionally run-over by a homicidal driver in the Mission? C'mon.....
Is there another one to add to the list?
Driving east on MLK Drive thru Golden Gate Park at 11:30 this morning, saw police and the coroner's van (euphemistically called "Medical Examiner") stopped just north of Sunset Blvd., with yellow crime scene tape all over the place. Does anyone know what happened?
guest #8:
I think this is what you saw http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/09/05/BA41RVKPN.DTL&tsp=1
Medical examiners and coroners are distinguished by title for very critical reasons. It's by no means just a euphemism. Cub reporters use them interchangeably to the great chagrin of medical examiners who historically have been held to a much higher standard of expectation and quality through appointments and medical-board oversight. Coroners are more commonly rural and elected locally, sometimes with little or no professional experience or education. That's changed somewhat, but you'd be surprised how bodies and crime scenes are handled in some parts of the country, let alone in the city. Most MEs probably still appreciate the distinction.
Daniel's murder sounds like sex was involved, eh? Did he have plans to hook up?
Why would his body be naked? Why was it outside?
Weird and creepy
Say what you will about SFPD, but pretty much everyone agrees that they don't have the manpower or resources to even try to effectively police the city.
But that won't change until there's the political willpower to stomach legitimate tough-on-crime policies.
People are appropriately upset about the rising murder rate and we all say we want the city to do more about it, but no one stepped up to run against a totally defeatable Kamala Harris.
rah, i wasn't trying to suggest the college student didn't die under mysterious circumstances that could have been murder but it sure sounded fishy to me that he was bound and naked. i'm guessing some bad s&m experiment? who knows. this is the home of those san francisco values.
as for the 6 folks you call out that sound like innocent victims of the violence out of the 81 murders, that is really sad. why people try to live in places like the western addition or bayview is beyond me. move!!!!
what the fuck are you doing there if you aren't slinging rock or your ass on a daily basis?
suckafree, why is it that anyone not a smug wealthy white person is trash to be disposed of like an old shoe or something? every time these issues come up you suggest that anyone not a smug white guy in tech is trash.
and guess what? your suppositions on that one guy's death are total BS. You have NO KNOWLEDGE OF WHAT HAPPENED and then top off your observations with a crack at "SF values."
If you really hate living here so much as evidenced by your flurry of blog comments, why not move to San Jose? Or Nebraska? or Dallas?
Or at the very least, get off your high horse and get your own blog and man up and tell us who you are. Unless you're so embarassed at what you have to say.
See, I am, so hence, my guest status. HAHA!
we'll see when the investigation comes to a close. i'm guessing he might have been lured into something like a late night hookup and then robbed. who knows.
that laist link to their 560 murders to date, i guess that's where we are headed as the bay area, was really sad. i found it interesting how they went and found a person of color that wasn't a criminal to start the column, then posted everyone of color that died below.
what kind of sad commentary is that? of the 560 that have died, all were criminals?
guess they made my point for me guestilicious, so suck it!
;)
I live in the Western Addition because I like my apartment and my neighbors and I can't afford to move anyhow. So I guess if I get shot I just brought it on my own dumb nonprofit-working, law-abiding, Western-Addition-living self.
i have refrained from making comments to you for a while, suckafree, coz i am just tired of wasting keystrokes... but this one really necessitates it: i've decided that though you pretend to be some kind of a rich white man who intends to send his poor neglected children to private school after they're done with their nanny, you are actually dirt poor and a perpetually unhappy sonuvabitch. and yes, assumptions assumptions, but i'm pretty sure i'm spot on. suck that.
The reason people live in dangerous neighborhoods is because they are the only places in SF where rent approaches affordable. And it's *still* too expensive in most cases.
i agree with the other guest.
suckafree knows nothing about Daniel's life, his personality and what he was all about. Don't pretend to know something about someone just because you read three small paragraphs about them in the paper.
i drove down Farallones street and onto San Jose Avenue, sketchy ass neighborhood. My guess is he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, in the wrong state of mind. a sweatshirt that he was wearing that night was night in the pile with the rest of his clothes. what does that say?
you've got a lot of nerve lecturing people on how to comment, given your long record of heartless posts about any number of various rape and murder victims in and around the bay area.
Why are comments that blame victims for their murders or low- or moderate-income people for not being able to afford Marina rents allowed here?