By Alan Toy Santa Monica
With the senseless murder of Eddie Lopez we have all suffered a great loss. Eddie exemplified kindness, which we have too little of in our community. I am grateful to see so much coverage about the death of this fine young man, but I am struck by how many times the media have to repeat, he was not a gang member. This paper said “family members contend (Eddie) was not a gang member.”
Oh please. Would we see this kind of reporting if Eddie had been a North of Montana white kid? I don’t think so. His race, it seems, causes this “guilt by association.”
Yes, Eddie was evidently gunned down by an actual gang member, but the only “gangs” he hung around with were the Santa Monica Little League gang, the Samohi football and baseball gangs and that notorious crew, the Santa Monica High School honors students gang.
Let’s be a bit kinder in our telling and retelling of this community tragedy. I think Eddie would have wanted it that way. And if our kindnesses start abundantly at home, they will find a way into our streets and into our press, where more of it belongs.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 11, 2006. Read the original PDF.