Results tagged “struck” from Crime & Courts

Grieving mother reacts to hurtful user comments

| | Comments (2) |
jakob3.jpgI received this e-mail today:

"Dear Mr. Altman,

I have been reading the emails between you, my brother, and my mother.  I am the mother of the boy who was killed.

You asked if there was anything you could do to help....
There are several very cruel and actually evil comments on the blog under your article.  As the moderator, if you could remove some of them which seemed to express joy in my son's death, and even  comments about how he looked (in the connotation of deserving to be dead), etc. (with captions like LOL)
Some of those comments are devastating to me, my husband, and Jakob's brother and my heart was racing for hours after seeing some of them.
If you are unsure which comments they are, I would be happy to cut and paste
and send them to you in email.

Thanks very much.
Heidi Weathermon
the mother."

Mrs. Weathermon is talking about user comments that appeared under a story I wrote the other day about the death of her son, Jakob. Jakob, 20, of Long Beach was killed last week when a big rig truck ran him over as he rode his bicycle near Carson.

I'm not a big fan of user comments because many people out there seem to take joy in writing crude, rude and hateful remarks.

I'm also not a moderator of them. I just reported and wrote the story. Readers are free to comment as they wish.

The paper has shut them down in this case and removed them. Unfortunately that meant more respectful comments also disappeared as well.

Hopefully those who write hurtful comments can realize the impact they have on grieving family members.

Previous entry and a link to the story of Jakob's death:
Family memorializes young man killed while riding bike near Carson

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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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About the Blogger


Denise Nix knew as young as grade school, when she spent every summer working on the camp newspaper, that she wanted to be a journalist. Denise has spent most of the last 12 years of her career in the courtroom. She joined the Daily Breeze in 2001, where she tracks and reports on hundreds of cases at every level of the justice system. And she's never, ever, seen a judge use a gavel.

E-mail Denise at denise.nix@dailybreeze.com.

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