By Jonathan Aurthur Santa Monica
In his column, (SMDP, Sept. 12), “The good, bad and ugly this month in Santa Monica,” Bill Bauer waxes alternately stern and patronizing in discussing the murder of a young black man, Jalonnie Carter, in the Pico neighborhood. After graciously patting the victim on the head posthumously, Carter “seemed to be on the way up” despite “the lure of the street,” Bauer goes after “the usual grandstanders (who) are blaming police, lack of jobs” etc., and mocks those who think more jobs and opportunities for “troubled” inner-youths “will stop this kind of senseless violence.”
Earlier in the same column, Bauer talks about the farmers market carnage of July, when, in his words, “an out-of-control automobile careened through a crowded downtown farmers market,” killing 10 people and injuring scores more.
Notice the calm, value-neutral language here, as if the car “careened” on its own, driver-less. It just happened. Tragic, sure, but hey — cars will “careen,” won’t they? Not a word about any possible responsibility on the part of the 86-year-old driver or his family, or anybody else — such as AARP, the senior lobby, which steadfastly denies that elderly drivers lose capacity over time and may need special testing.
Could this be because, unlike in the Pico neighborhood murder, the driver was an old white guy — not unlike Bauer?
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 17, 2003. Read the original PDF.