Back in the late 80s, when I was a copy boy at the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, I worked Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. While we had computers, there were also a whole room full of printers churning out copy from the wires.
The Los Angeles City Council dropped plans Tuesday for a symbolic moratorium on killing, deciding instead to use the upcoming anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination to promote peace.
Council members had been asked by a handful of activists to declare a 40-hour ban on murder and other violence, a concept one critic quickly derided as “silliness.”
After a 45-minute debate, the council reworked its resolution, saying the city’s opposition to homicides should last more than a single weekend.
“A moratorium on violence and killing is something we should support 365 days a year and every minute we live,” said Councilman Richard Alarcon, who represents part of the San Fernando Valley.
I’m guessing on Friday night Chuck would send me into the wire room, ask about the body count and he’d proceed to file the roundup. We’d repeat the routine Saturday and Sunday and on Monday morning some enterprising reporter would do a story about the number of violent deaths during the city’s moratorium on murder.
And all this time, I thought murder was already illegal.
(I didn’t have time to dig for a better post to put this comment, so here it went. My apoolgies for any blog-related offense this may have caused.) I live on East Foothill, just west of Mountain. My son (a freshman at MHS) came home yesterday and told me that he heard that there was another MPD officer shooting Tuesday night at/near the corner of May and Foothill. He said that the officer was supposedly shot in the arm. I heard helicopters for a couple of hours on Tuesday evening and was just wondering if you had heard anything about this and/or if I have missed a post somehow (not likely, as I check this blog several times each day).
Thanks for your response and your blog. If not for it, I would surely be in the dark about what goes on in my fair city.
Sandi