Somerville News coverage of last Thursday's bike-path and street robberies

[ron_newman]

is now online, or pick up the paper edition and turn to page 3. Quite a long and detailed report, with a lot of attention paid to our LJ discussion.

(See also: earlier post about Somerville Journal article)

Comments

[fefie.livejournal.com]

Seems odd that it took SJ and SN so long to cover it. This SN article mentions the Tedeschi's incident, which the SJ one didn't.

[ron_newman]

A few years ago, nobody would ever have said that. The two papers have come a long way from being just weekly print publications, but that's still their heritage.

[fefie.livejournal.com]

The 2 papers have blog/style sites that are updated daily and they frequently report timely items which is why I was amazed this took nearly a week to be reported.

[scottdn.livejournal.com]

I was contacted by both papers (and the Globe) pretty immediately and either ignored or refused to comment based on feedback from the victim advocates at the DA office. I was told that I have the right to talk to whoeever I want, but that there's no benefit in doing so. (ex.. things that could be directly attributable to me (ex. newspaper quotes with my name)) may harm the case). They also advised that most of the time, what you tell a paper could also be inadmissible hearsay. But why risk it?

(I'm not a lawyer. I'm sure you could contact the DA office to learn more about rights and responsibilities of being a victim and witness in a criminal case).

I would assume the papers needed more investigation before running a story rather than report on something which could have come from any crackpot on the internet. In other words, there's no easy way you can positively prove that "scottdn" on LJ was the victim in this case. You'll notice the stories use "alleged victim" and "man who claims he's the victim" in the story. I'm glad they contacted the police department to learn more and I'm also glad and thankful they chose to keep my real name out of the stories.

[rethcir.livejournal.com]

I'm glad they arrested these cockbags. I'm glad I was with my buddies when I walked by them vandalizing the new construction on Elm and trying to start shit with us.

[ron_newman]

What new construction on Elm Street?

[rethcir.livejournal.com]

Sorry, not new construction, but renovation on a house between davis and porter.. they were hanging out there on the property being a general nuisance when I passed them (I'm pretty sure it was them at least)

[djdreilinger.livejournal.com]

Hi guys--Danielle here from the Globe City Weekly section. Yes, when I report on something discussed online I have to contact people and verify information (and usually I have additional questions anyhow). I'm looking into concerns about crime in the area--not just these two incidents but the perceptions people seem to have overall. It would be great to talk to anyone who wants to weigh in. You can message me back or email me at djdreilinger /at/ comcast /dot/ net.