With 10 Shot Down, Don’t Bury the Story

Since when is the death of 10 people and the wounding of another 15 so passe, so routine, that it’s buried in the B section (“10 Shot to Death During Weekend,” May 20)? The front page is reserved for suicide bombers who kill people far away (“Palestinian Bomber Kills 3,” May 20). But here, where violence has become just as common, you relegate it to the inside of the state section. Have the editors, and the readers, become numb to the loss of life and immune to its consequences? And there’s a social imbalance here, as well. If 10 white kids from Santa Monica killed each other over the weekend, it would be front-page news.

The Times has abdicated its responsibility to put this in our face, out front, every day until we are so outraged that, as a community, we are willing to work together to stem this seemingly endless cycle of violence. We need to get the full story, each and every day, that this city is in deep trouble, that violence just isn’t at our doorstep, it’s in the house -- maybe not the nice house in the good part of town, but that should never be the point.

Phyllis Johnson

Santa Monica

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On the front page it was reported that three people died in a terrorist attack in Israel, while the report that 10 people were shot to death last weekend in Los Angeles was buried. How will we ever eradicate the urban terror occurring on our doorsteps if people are unaware of its existence? The NFL coming to Los Angeles, maybe -- now, that is front-page news....

Anna Klemmer

Los Angeles