Choirmaster’s Slaying in L.A.
* Sadly, personal experience moves me to write to second Kevin Starr’s response to the David John Falconer murder in Los Feliz: Living in Los Angeles renders us all “at-risk” of being victimized by violence (Commentary, April 28). I am a native Angeleno, and had long considered myself too young, too cool and too savvy to be personally affected by the nefarious specter of crime. Although my apartment had been burgled once and it always seemed open season where my car was concerned, the fact that such incidents occurred when I was not present helped me to depersonalize the situation. That changed two years ago.
After dinner one pleasant April evening, my girlfriend and I were out for a walk around my Los Feliz neighborhood (four blocks from the convenience store where Falconer was slain) when three guys and a large gun cornered us. Were they the same three who killed Falconer? Probably. It’s a nice neighborhood.
As the subject of the assault, for me the experience was vaguely surreal--I had never been that close to a handgun that big. For Yolanda, who was held aside and watched, it was terrifying. We got off easy--I lost $10, my wallet and some pride. Then, a week later, the riots/uprising/rebellion occurred, and I became a bona fide paranoiac. Rather than Starr’s “social and psychological solipsism,” the most distinct feeling I had was of nihilism: Modern society had imploded. I was torn between arming myself, wreaking sociopathic havoc, and packing up and moving to Kansas.
Instead, I stuck it out and two years later, I remain paranoid, unarmed and (mostly) law-abiding. (However, I have moved from Los Feliz.) As Starr suggests, I never feel completely safe and am always hyper-aware of my surroundings. I play little tricks now and then to keep my phobia in check, but it will never dissipate completely. Is this any way to go through life? If you live in this city--hell, any, for that matter--there is no choice. Still, I love L.A. Sucker that I am.
DANTON S. MILLER
Los Angeles
* Starr asserts that Los Angeles “is becoming one level, bloody playing field” where everyone “is equally liable to being cut down by murderous strangers.” This is utter hogwash. Every criminologist, every cop, and everyone who bothers to look carefully at the world around them knows differently. The probability of being murdered is enormously higher if you are a young, poor, person of color than if you are white and middle-class.
It is unconscionable for Starr to vent his anger, fear and grief while hiding behind the cloak of academic responsibility. The hysteria he promotes compounds the direct damage done by crime. It amplifies mistrust, feeds racism, and degrades social cohesion. It encourages people to call out the National Guard, suspend the Constitution, search every home, seize every gun, and cage everyone who appears threatening.
It is a shame that he has contributed to the problem he bemoans.
BRYAN J. VILA Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Dept. of Criminology, Law and Society
UC Irvine
* I never met David John Falconer, the choirmaster and teacher who was murdered at a convenience store on his way home from choir rehearsal. But in 1990 I wrote letters to 30 churches in Los Angeles, trying to get donations of choir robes for a Gospel chorus I had started in a residence for 110 children who are wards of the court. Falconer was the only one who responded. “We have 30 robes--maroon, all sizes--you’re welcome to them.” I sent him a photo of our kids performing--so proud in their robes. He was a blessed man who made a difference.
LYNN ANDERSON
Los Angeles