Editorial: Crime Reporting on West Boca News
A SWAT raid is news anywhere, especially in a suburb like West Boca. A reader notified us of a raid. When we posted on Facebook about what was then an unconfirmed rumor, two other readers commented guessing correctly that a man named Nick, who has a twin brother, must have been involved.
After our investigation, we wrote up the story – Twins Arrested in SWAT Team Bust – and the Facebook post was one of the most popular we’ve ever seen – nearly half the people who saw it clicked on it. For those familiar with the concept of “click-through-rate”, that’s astonishing. It’s news. People want to read about it.
In the story we wrote sympathetic comments toward the pair, especially in the final paragraph. Without reading the whole story and thus missing the sympathetic part, one sent us a message: karma is a bitch, just remember that!!
We’ve had other complaints, and they are usually rude. One brother complained that we mentioned his sister’s arrest for breaking into a car, offended because she has a drug abuse problem. We have long been critics of the War on Drugs and we touch on that in some of our crime articles. We believe that ending the drug war would reduce other crimes. But criminals should still be held responsible for the crimes they commit.
Another story we did – Spanish River Thugs? – provoked a flurry of comments (at the bottom of the linked article) from one of the arrestees, at least one of the girlfriends, and other friends, all indignant that we covered their alleged misdeeds and republished their “interesting” Facebook photos. They’re all really nice people apparently. Four days after his comment, the sweet and gentle arrestee posted this photo of himself as his profile, smoking and giving the finger to the camera:
He called us “unprofessional.” He’s right actually. We don’t claim to be professional journalists. West Boca News is an attempt at citizen journalism, and we don’t make money at this.
These complainers are unaware that crime reporting is a small part of what we do at West Boca News. Crime stories account for less than ten percent of all stories we’ve written, and about twenty percent of stories in the last few months. Recently we’ve written a lot about various store and restaurant openings and closings – especially the soon-to-reopen Palmetto Walmart – as well as road construction on Glades Road and a major project on I-95 at Spanish River Blvd. They are also uninterested in our crime coverage until it’s about them, reflecting a selfishness that has become all too common in America.
The internet is full of various mugshot websites. The Sun Sentinel posts them too. Once the Sheriff puts it out there, it’s out there. Unlike other media, our approach is to investigate the story and provide more context about the people, the places and more. It’s not “entertainment”. People in West Boca want to know about crime here because it affects us. Some live in gated communities with guards, home alarm systems, double deadbolts, and firearms at the ready, all to protect themselves from a crime threat that is very real.
We see many cases of serious crimes (like robbery, burglary, and assault) dropped by prosecutors with either a “No File” or a “Nolle Prosse”. In many of our stories the person arrested has had multiple previous arrests with charges often dropped or reduced to little or no jail time. In a story we did in October, a father-son duo allegedly assaulted a man at a local Subway. The pair had 43 different court cases dating back to 2002. Their daughter/sister had the following delightful comment:
“It was just an ass whooping … It was just a normal fight like a regular fight between two men and it wasn’t that big of a deal.”
There are two possible sides and both may have some truth to them. On the one hand it’s possible that deputies are arresting far too many people without justification. On the other hand it’s possible that our so-called criminal “justice” system is failing to hold criminals accountable for their crimes.
I’m a criminal defense lawyer. I have many friends who are police officers, prosecutors, judges and of course other defense lawyers. I’m known for being pro-defense. Yet from what I’m seeing here in Palm Beach County, it is my opinion that the larger problem is not police making bad arrests, but rather the failure to hold criminals accountable. We think the responsibility for that falls mainly on the State’s Attorney, including the current one and his predecessor.
We will continue to report on crime news in West Boca. Our readers want to know. Perhaps there’s hope that the public attention drawn to arrestees, that they apparently don’t like, will discourage people from committing crimes in the first place.