local police blotters
The Highlanders, our group of weekly newspapers has begun posting police blotters on line. For the most part they are pretty much skeletal outlines of police calls, mostly about a week old. There are some nuggets though.
From the Azusa Herald There's this item: Monday, July 9 5:48 a.m.; contempt of court; 200 block South Azusa Avenue. Don't know what court is on the 200 block of South Azusa Avenue, but if you are in contempt of it at 5:48 a.m. , you must be doing something seriously wrong.
Unfortunately the best stuff we're publishing these days (as far as crime blotters go) is printed in "The Weekly Star', which is a dinosaur and has no online edition.
For example: "On Thursday June 28, around 3:20 p.m. police were sent to the 2600 block of South Baldwin Park to investigate an attempted murder. A male suspect on a scooter confronted a female victim in the parking lot. he attacked the woman, pushed her to the ground, struck her several times with her own sandal and choked her for several minuted..."
A lot of detail there. You get the picture.
What's funny (and sad) about this is that no one on the daily side picked up on this story. It's not for lack of trying. We routinely call police stations throughout the San Gabriel Valley twice a day and ask "What's going on?"
Arcadia watch sergeants (like many others in the valley) routinely answer, "nothing. All's quiet."
Perhaps the definition of quiet is relative. Many of us in the newsroom believe we get answers like this for two reasons: jaded cops and uninformed cops.
The jaded ones seem to think nothing's newsworthy unless it's a triple homicide involving a celebrity. The uninformed ones seem to think that if they don't tell us something, we'll stop asking.
Somehow our weeklies are cutting through the barrier. Good for them.
Later in the week, I'll post links to the individual blotters.
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CONTRIBUTORS
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| Frank Girardot, Metro Editor for the San Gabriel Valley Newspapers, brings you behind the yellow tape with takes on true crime, cold cases and more. This is also your forum to discuss crime, its impact on your neighborhood and how we cover it. Have any questions or tips? You can leave a comment here or e-mail Frank. |
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Brian Day is the crime reporter for the San Gabriel Valley Newspaper group. E-mail Brian. |
There's no courthouse there... 200 block of S. Azusa Avenue is basically that first block on south side of the 210 Freeway.