Why identify Hawthorne rape suspect as a 'former Marine?'
Some readers are posting comments asking why the Hawthorne rape suspect's past military affiliation is pertinent to the story. One called me a "POS reporter."
Gary DeVaughn LaBon is a former Marine, serving in the 1980s. He's now in custody on suspicion of raping and attempting to murder a 70-year-old woman on the sidewalk. (When the story was written, she was unidentified and believed to be 50.)
Here's why:
1. We try to include as many details as we can in any story.
2. We include suspect's occupations whenever we know them. His background showed a former address at Camp Pendleton. We ran a simple check and found he was a Marine, although we could not immediately learn his years of his service on a Friday evening.
3. Any U.S. Marine will tell you that Marines -- past and present -- are held to a high standard of behavior, just like police officers.
4. Even though he is nearly 50 years old, at one time he was strong enough to be a Marine. He is suspected of beating up and raping a woman, now determined to be 70 years old. His jail record shows him to be 5 feet 10 inches tall, 185 pounds. Look him up at www.lasd.org under "inmate information."
By the way, I've gotten heat in the past for calling someone a "former Marine." The correct term is "retired Marine." I'm told this is because once a person is a Marine, they are always a Marine.
In this case, I actually made a mistake and said "former."
Anyway, calling him a Marine was not intended to be a slam on anyone who has served or is currently serving this country. Just a few weeks ago, I wrote about a young Marine hero who died in training in California after serving two tours in Iraq. In the last eight years, I have written more stories about the deaths of our young men at war than anyone at the Breeze.
In other words, I take exception to the comments blasting me as a "POS reporter" for calling him a Marine.
Gary DeVaughn LaBon is a former Marine, serving in the 1980s. He's now in custody on suspicion of raping and attempting to murder a 70-year-old woman on the sidewalk. (When the story was written, she was unidentified and believed to be 50.)
Here's why:
1. We try to include as many details as we can in any story.
2. We include suspect's occupations whenever we know them. His background showed a former address at Camp Pendleton. We ran a simple check and found he was a Marine, although we could not immediately learn his years of his service on a Friday evening.
3. Any U.S. Marine will tell you that Marines -- past and present -- are held to a high standard of behavior, just like police officers.
4. Even though he is nearly 50 years old, at one time he was strong enough to be a Marine. He is suspected of beating up and raping a woman, now determined to be 70 years old. His jail record shows him to be 5 feet 10 inches tall, 185 pounds. Look him up at www.lasd.org under "inmate information."
By the way, I've gotten heat in the past for calling someone a "former Marine." The correct term is "retired Marine." I'm told this is because once a person is a Marine, they are always a Marine.
In this case, I actually made a mistake and said "former."
Anyway, calling him a Marine was not intended to be a slam on anyone who has served or is currently serving this country. Just a few weeks ago, I wrote about a young Marine hero who died in training in California after serving two tours in Iraq. In the last eight years, I have written more stories about the deaths of our young men at war than anyone at the Breeze.
In other words, I take exception to the comments blasting me as a "POS reporter" for calling him a Marine.
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About the Blogger
Larry Altman has covered crime in the South Bay since 1990. He's seen it all - the missing model who turned up dead in the desert, the wives found dead in trunks, the high-school coaches who get a little too close to their players. He drives his young colleagues nuts with his "I remember when" stories. He welcomes your tips and observations about the present, and you can mix in a little Lakers basketball talk if you like.
E-mail Larry at larry.altman@dailybreeze.com.
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I liked this story explaining your rationale for including information! As for me, I really liked it when CBS reported that the suspect in the Yale lab slaying owned two pit bulls. My pit bull-loving friends hated that information being in the story, but I liked it. In the same way, I liked you including the fact this guy was in the Marines. Like Oswald, he was a Marine. And the terrorist who killed hundreds by blowing up the federal courthouse in Oklahoma City, yup he was a Marine as well. So was Charles Whitman, the late 60s University of Texas tower sniper who killed a bunch of people. Other killers like Jeffrey Dahmer were trained to kill in the Army, but still, there's nothing quite like a Marine-trained killer.
Larry, as a veteran having served in the heart of the Iraq conflict, I can assure you that your attitudes towards men and women in uniform is above reproach.
Most of the butthurt internet warriors hurling abuse at you probably pee their panties at the sight of blood, let alone having ever been near a warzone. They think their little yellow ribbon magnets on their Honda minivans qualify them to be the indignant moral authority for all things national defense related.
The only thing you owe to anyone is to tell the truth, which you consistently do.
Keep up the good work.
Larry well said and there is no reason to cover up somebody's line of work or past line of work. Any type of military personnel should be held to a higher standard. Maybe these readers that are calling you a POS reporter, should read about the Marines that are currently enlisted that are active gang members.
THank you to all of those that have served and are serving our country! We do appreciate your service.
Larry
If you "include as many details as we can in any story", then why do you exclude the race or immigration status of the many victims and accused criminals in your news reportage?
Does the Breeze have an editorial standard that prohibits all the facts from being presented like the LAT?
LASteve...
The Breeze does mention race and immigration status when applicable.
If you read the story, you'd see the victim was Asian.
http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/ci_13371284
Let me respond: In this case, the victim's race was used to describe her. She was an unidentified woman. Ultimately, after the story was on the Breeze Web site and picked up by television news, the woman's son was able to call police and identify his mother.
As far as the suspect's race and immigration status goes, he was in custody. There was no search for an unidentified suspect, thus no need to put a description in the article. The story is about a man arrested in a rape case. What difference does his race make? Putting it in only feeds the racists.
Also, we don't generally know someone's immigration status. (Perhaps we can have people wear yellow stars or something so we know what they are.)
It's strange that no reader ever comments when we leave out the race of a white person.
That said, I noticed that the complaint about the lack of race and immigration status comes from someone who wrote in the email address "David@duke.com." I think he answered his own question.
As a US Marine I don't have a problem with identifying someone as a "former" Marine in a news report. You're a little off about the whole former vs retired thing. The saying goes like this: "There's no such thing as and "Ex" Marine. Once a Marine always a Marine"
A former Marine is a Marine who is no longer active but not retired. You become a "retired" Marine once you've completed 20+ years of service. Regardless, we do hold ourselves to a higher standard and when we don't live up to that standard it should be brought to light.
It would probably be more useful for a reporter to find out the type of discharge the service member received to characterize his or her service.
Terms like:
honorably discharged Marine
a Marine dischagred under honorable conditions
a Marine dischagred under other than honorable conditions
a Marine discharged for bad conduct
a dishonorably discharged Marine
On another note, I agree with Mr Kennedy about pit bulls and their owners but I want to to correct one of his comments: "And the terrorist who killed hundreds by blowing up the federal courthouse in Oklahoma City, yup he was a Marine as well" Timothy McVeigh was NOT a Marine. He was a former Army Soldier who was honorably discharged after deciding to end his Army career when he didn't make it through Special Forces training. The Army has it's fair share of nutjobs as well.
As a Marine I respect the press and I want you guys to continue to do your job and report as much as you can about a story. Keep up the good work. Semper Fi