Tallahassee violence is real

I’ll admit I know nothing – as a young staff member pointed out yesterday – about the night life on the streets of Tallahassee.

But I do know this: Curtis Brown, 26, died in the parking lot of McDonald's/Circle K at 811 Lake Bradford Road Sunday morning.

And now his mother, Mary Brown, and other family members and friends are grieving for the man Leon County Sheriff’s Office deputies called “an innocent bystander.”

I know all of that and this, too:

Nothing good can come of 150 people, ages 15 to 34 – at least some of whom are apparently coming from an “after-hours club” and some of whom are carrying guns – congregating in a parking lot at 4:30 in the morning.

And nothing did.

I’ve seen the pictures of what came from it. They are on Tallahassee.com.

Controversial? You bet. We’ve gotten several phone calls calling us insensitive and uncaring. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Too many people are being shot in our community, and too many people’s lives end in text-only reporting. There is too much grieving that we never see. It is time to humanize the violence, to tell it in full color.

Headline: TPD arrests 19-year-old in shooting.

Headline: LCSO: Handyman fought intruder.

Headline: Madison Co. sheriff seeks two in homicide (of Leon County woman).

Headline: Woodville woman's death now considered a homicide.

Headline: Three charged in Holton St. killing.

Those are just some of the headlines that have appeared in the Tallahassee Democrat in less than three months since the beginning of the year. These are real stories, not make believe on TV. All of them should make you cry.

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Yes, it IS my job to stir trouble

Sometime fairly recently, the question has changed. It no longer seems relevant to ask people how they prefer to consume news and information, that is, in printed newspapers or on digital sites.

Now what seems more important is how well sourced our news will be and, just as importantly, whether it will be vetted.

Let me give you an illustration from this weekend:

About 5:30 Sunday morning my cell phone rang. Leon County Sheriff Office deputies were on the scene of a shooting on Lake Bradford Road.

I woke Local News Editor Rebeccah Cantley, who headed to the scene while I posted breaking-news alerts and initial reports on Tallahassee.com, Facebook.com and Twitter.com.

Let’s face it: As a trained journalist with 30-plus years in the business I simply did what you or any other citizen could have done on that first report or, for that matter, a deputy could have done himself on a government Web site.

But in a short while, Cantley was on the scene, and that’s when the paradigm changed. It was at that point the journalist used her training to ask and gather information that official sources may not have provided as readily. She called me often to add greater detail as I updated the story on the Web. That process has continued since that story broke, with other reporters, editors and photographers taking over.

When she arrived, Cantley found about 150 people on the scene of the shooting, most – if not all, these days – with the ability to post quickly to any of a myriad of Web sites the same information I had posted in my initial report. No doubt, some did.

During the course of our reporting on this story – and most others, for that matter – our reporting moved quickly away from reliance on official sources for all our information, asking ourselves what are we not being told, what is missing, what makes sense and what doesn’t.

At the same time, on Tallahassee.com, our readers – armed with our reporting – did the same thing with us, questioning and discussing our reporting.

But it didn’t have to be that way, did it? Is an independent, mass-audience news source such as Tallahasse.com that important anymore, what with everyone able to report local news these days?

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Judge infringes on free speech in Hoffman case

Statements made by Leon County Circuit Court Judge Kevin Davey during a pre-trial hearing in a civil case brought by the parents of Rachel Hoffman against the city of Tallahassee drew an immediate and strong reaction from First Amendment advocates.

“We don't see the justification for the gag order in this particular case," said Adria Harper, director of the Florida First Amendment Foundation. “It seems too broad.”

The ACLU and the Tallahassee Democrat are considering a challenge to the order.

Davey not only prohibited parties in the case from talking to the media – and anyone else – about the civil case, but he also prohibited Hoffman’s parents from speaking publicly on legislation known as Rachel’s Law outside of legislative hearings.

Davey is an experienced judge, but this decision – so far there is no written order, only oral instructions on how the order should be written – is poorly done and not well researched.

How could it be otherwise? Davey said during the hearing he had only gotten the case a few hours before the hearing.

“But, you know, I try to sort of avoid things that I think might be mine. You know, if you're a criminal judge, and there is a crime, you know that's going to be your case probably. You've got a 50 percent chance of getting it,” Davey said, according to a transcript of the hearing.

He didn’t bother to hear arguments from either side before making his decision or consider whether the case meets any of the high standards the courts have imposed for issuing gag orders. There was no careful examination of the facts, maybe not any examination of the facts. The judge appears to have been acting on information he thought he knew from outside of the courtroom.

I say that because the judge said so.

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Note to reader: Back off the mustache, pal

Maybe it’s the stock-market crash or the economic crisis. It seems one or the other is blamed for every malady coming down the pike these days.

It has to be something. Maybe something is in the air or the water. Or maybe somebody slipped Stupid Pills into the vitamin jar.

I mean what is wrong with some people?

Let me give you an example:

Last week, I wrote a blog in reaction to state law-enforcement officers protesting at the Capitol over possible state budget cuts. I said we have to be able to support the basics as a state, in particular our police agencies and schools. If we can’t do that, I asked, what is the point of government?

In reaction to that I got an angry e-mail from Ruth on Saturday when the blog appeared in the Tallahassee Democrat. You could tell the anger by the use of all capital letters. The e-mail suggested LEO’s unions have gotten a grab bag of generous “goodies” for the officers and that LEOs are overpaid.

The e-mail then made fun of my mustache. “Have you ever considered getting rid of the hair under your nose?”

Swell. That really improves the quality of your argument. I don’t know what their mammas taught them about the rules of proper behavior, but I get e-mails from people all the time who make fun of my height, how I talk, the way I dress, where I grew up, my athletic ability, etc. Mustache comments are rare, I guess because there are so many other things to not like about me.

I get it. When you put yourself out there in public, you open yourself up to the whackos. So I sent a fairly standard response back.

“The job of being my wife is taken,” I wrote back. “But thanks for the suggestion.”

Ruth wrote back, and I’m now cutting-and-pasting directly from the e-mail because you won’t believe it otherwise.

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Remembering the Holocaust in the digital age

Barbara Spiegler Goldstein is particularly moved by photographs of train tracks that led to the camps where 6 million Jews and others were murdered.

The tracks show that the Nazi’s genocide was carefully planned. The builders of the tracks, the planners of the routes and others – all had to know.

The photographs overwhelm emotions, but also teach us important lessons from that horrible period of time, 1933 to 1945, and our own time as genocides occur around the globe.

This year, Yom Hashoah – or Holocaust Remembrance Day – is observed April 21. Candles will be lit around the globe in remembrance.

Locally, the Holocaust Education Resource Council is planning a series of educational opportunities from March to May not only to help us remember, but also to help the schools meet state mandates.

In 1994, the Florida Legislature passed the Holocaust Education Act, which requires all school districts to incorporate lessons on the Holocaust as part of public school instruction, an unfunded – or barely funded – mandate.

To get the conversation started in the community, Goldstein has set up a HERC Facebook page.

HERC’s third annual Student Essay/Art Contest is being formally announced in the schools, in the Tallahassee Democrat and on the HERC Web site this week as part of the activities. The deadline for submissions is April 24.

A series of programs and speakers will take place around town as well. The first is the Afikim Exhibit at the LeRoy Collins Public Library from April 17-22 to honor liberators from World War II. The exhibit recognizes American soldiers who liberated concentration camp survivors and nurtured them back to life. A multimedia installation, it features photographs and interactive kiosks with oral histories.

And an awards ceremony is planned for May 17 at the Challenger Learning Center.

But the centerpiece of the HERC offerings will be photographs.

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Happy birthday, Toney Douglas: Bring the ACC trophy home for your party

Tomorrow is Toney Douglas’ birthday. This one is his 23^rd. None would be better than this one should he work his magic for the Florida State Seminoles one last time in the ACC Tournament.

Mr. Defense. Mr. Offense. Mr. Desire. Mr. Clutch.

Click here to see our special online-multimedia project on Douglas. It was begun weeks ago, before anyone dared dream FSU would be this close to history, before Douglas was named first-team All-ACC and ACC Defensive Player of the Year. You can see a 50-photo gallery on his FSU career by clicking here.

Douglas has taken this ’Noles team places none has gone before: to the ACC title game.

Sure, there are a bunch of great and very good players on the team. But ask them why they’ve accomplished so much more than expected this year. I’d bet they’d say T.D., taking nothing away from ACC Coach of the Year Leonard Hamilton, or Derwin Kitchen or any of the fabulous freshmen.

After shocking No. 1 ranked North Carolina in the semi-finals, probably costing UNC the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament, but not much more, Douglas fell to his knees in the Georgia Dome. Afterwards, on national TV, the Georgia native said: “I’m so happy I’m about to cry.”

FSU’s opponent in the championship game is one of the teams always there: Duke, a team that is a media darling for a good reason. It is always THAT good.

Duke seems to own a spot on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine, a permanent spot on ESPN’s SportsCenter show.

FSU, on the other hand, was picked to finish 10^th in the ACC. It came within a hair of beating Duke once in the regular season and took a whipping in the other game. The only time an FSU basketball player is on the cover of Sports Illustrated is when he needs extra cushioning for the bus ride.

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Jobs, jobs, jobs: You ideas can make them work

Home Cooking

Our Jobs ·Our Economy·Our Future

Real Ideas from Real People

CLICK HERE TO TALK ABOUT YOUR IDEAS

CLICK HERE TO SEND YOUR IDEAS TO THE MAYOR

OK, so what do you have to lose by taking the Home Cooking campaign seriously?

Our community is facing a triple whammy: government jobs are being lost, the undersized private sector is losing jobs, and it’s harder to bring new jobs to this community than to find Osama bin Laden.

So a few people got together with Mayor John Marks to talk about how we – that is, the community – could change the last of those three things, or at least get a start at it.

All that is needed are your ideas for things the community can do to create jobs. Now.

Think about this: Tallahassee and Leon County governments; Leon County Schools; media outlets including WCTV, Fox49, WFSU, the Capital Outlook and the Tallahassee Democrat; Capital City Chamber of Commerce; Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce; and the Florida Retail Federation are all working together, collaboratively to generate ideas.

Has that ever happened before on ANYTHING?

All that is asked of you is your ideas.

The concept is this is a very smart and well-educated community (those are not always the same things, as you know). Working together – brainstorming, if you will – maybe something will bubble up and really happen. And so what if does?

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Reasons I'm optimistic on newspapers

Even as economic bombshells pummel the newspaper industry’s landscape, I’m gaining confidence in our future. You might say I have a Charlie Crist-like optimism.

I’d understand if you think that’s Pollyannaish. Another 175 jobs – 40 in the newsroom – were lost just this week at the Miami Herald. That’s more than 20,000 lost jobs in my industry in the past two years.

The Rocky Mountain News shut down last month, and the Tucson Citizen, Arizona’s oldest newspaper, will close by the end of next week if a buyer cannot be found. The Citizen is owned by Gannett Co. Inc., parent of the Tallahassee Democrat.

The Tribune Co. has filed for bankruptcy, as have the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily News and Philly.com and the Journal Register Co.

Many companies, Gannett included, have had mandatory furloughs or salary reductions or both.

I could go on and on and on and, unfortunately, on.

The Democrat has fared better than most newspapers, largely holding onto our strong readership base, even vastly expanding it when Tallahassee.com is added in. But a combination of the worse economy of my lifetime and a disconnect between online-audience growth and advertising revenue is taking a big toll.

So what’s the basis for my cheery outlook?

Most importantly, newspapers are still doing good journalism and many understand that though we can’t be all things to all people anymore, we can and must be one thing: a watchdog on government and its officials.

We can’t – and we won’t – back away from that. Not now. Not ever. If we were to go away or ignore this vital role, our basic system of governace in this country could fail, too. No other medium, not even the Internet, is prepared to step in and fill that void.

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Cops protesting in the streets: The world is upside down

Perhaps it was just so jarring waking up to photographs of police and other law-enforcement officers rallying in protest of possible budget cuts by the Legislature that would cost more jobs.

Maybe I’m just getting old. In my day, it was understood that officers only took to the streets to keep the peace between rival factions. You know, like when the peace-niks and hippies protested the war in Vietnam in the middle of street as busy people tried to clear a path to work.

Or when the pro-choice and anti-abortion people would get together to discuss their differing viewpoints.

I digress, but I once was in the middle of shots being fired as a reporter covering rival groups marching in protest of a Klan rally at a nearby farm. I was grateful for law-enforcement officers being in the streets that day as I jumped behind a stone fence.

But have we come to this? Police officers feel the need to remind us that public safety is tied to public funding.

They must feel the situation is urgent. Officers I’ve known over the years would rather do almost anything than be in a picture of law-enforcement officers protesting or rallying for or against anything. A sign of the times, I guess, but I’d bet they just hated having to do that.

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FSU is now crazy about basketball

Go crazy, Florida State basketball fans: Your teams are going to the NCAA tournaments. The madness is just beginning

That's right: BASKETBALL. Admit it. Unless you are the stray Gator or Hurricane or Bulldog who has wandered in here, you are getting excited over basketball in this football-crazed place.

Only a handful of schools have successful men’s and women’s programs hitting the mark at the same time each year, and now the 'Noles are among them.

The men’s team is going to the NCAA tournament for the first time since senior guard Toney Douglas was in elementary school; who knows where the freshmen were.

The men should be seeded no worse than a No. 6, according to me. ESPN’s “bracketologist” Joe Lunardi has them at a No. 5. Lunardi is the expert, but, unfortunately, he also has them playing the tournament's first round in Boise.

Douglas has already been named a near-unanimous pick to the All-ACC first-team and could pick up Defensive Player of the Year honors this afternoon. Maybe more.

Douglas will be featured in a special report Sunday – Selection Sunday – in the Tallahassee Democrat and in a multimedia report on Tallahassee.com and Nolesports.com.

And to anyone who does vote for Leonard Hamilton as ACC Coach of the Year: You missed a great season. Who has done more with such a young team than Leonard?

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My daughter knocked another girl down

These are words I never thought I would write: My daughter Danielle won her boxing match with a TKO.

That’s technical knockout. Meaning the referee stopped the fight to prevent injury to her opponent.

If you open the link to the photo gallery, mine is the one in the Carolina blue, light brown pony tail flying.

I'm dealing with a lot of emotions.

Yes, I’m a proud daddy.

But, you know, that’s my baby girl, and you know, always will be. No matter how big she gets or how many people she knocks down to the canvas.

I’m all for equality in sports, but I’m not sure I like the notion of girls boxing. At least not my girl; I’m still not over the shock of opening the “I made the team!” e-mail with a photo of my little girl surrounded by a bunch of hairy guys in University of North Carolina boxing uniforms.

And I don't want to her a lot talk that I'm being sexist. I already know that. It's my daughter.

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No, Mr. Meggs, Bill Proctor is not an idiot

It must be nice to live in a world where you get to change the reality if the facts aren’t running in your favor. It must be nice to be above questioning. And it must be nice to be able to dismiss as an “idiot” anyone who dares to try.

Leon County State Attorney Willie Meggs said what he said and now is attempting to hide from it. Here is what he said verbatim to a reporter for the Tallahassee Democrat:

“I think we have a defendant here who is lucky to be alive, because the officer should've shot him and taken his life for his conduct.”

Antonio Givens, 21, was sentenced last week to 11 months on attempted aggravated assault on a law-enforcement officer on Dec. 3, 2007.

Givens led officers on a car chase. Once stopped, he got out of the car and ran. He then pointed a gun at an officer, and the officer shot at him twice, hitting him in the mouth.

Meggs is now saying what he meant was the shot to the face could have killed Givens, so he is lucky to be alive and that any other interpretation is out of context.

Sorry, but that just doesn’t wash. Re-read the quote. It’s pretty straight forward. Key words: “the officer should’ve shot him and taken his life for his conduct.”

That seems to run contrary to the notion of using the least amount of force necessary to restrain a suspect. It’s not what the officer did but what Meggs said about it that is drawing criticism.

Leon County Commissioner Bill Proctor criticized Meggs for the comment, calling it a “serious breach of decorum” in a letter to Gov. Charlie Crist. That’s when Meggs said Proctor should mind his own business and said he was “tired of responding to idiots.”

Presumably, he meant Proctor, but now that I think about it, he could also have meant the newspaper or the reporter, or maybe the public at large. He didn’t say, but we’ve questioned him from time to time.

Whether you like Proctor or think he’s the worse thing to happen to local government is not the point: The man is not an idiot. Say what you want about Proctor, but don’t underestimate him or try to dismiss him with a one-liner.

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Extreme reaction to Home Makeover

I could not for the life of me understand why a woman was screaming at me – chanting, actually, at the top of her lungs – the word extreme.

She obviously was extremely unhappy with our coverage of the “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” build in Tallahassee last week, though I think she was more upset with ABC for only building one larger home instead of two or three smaller ones. I think she wanted me to do something about that.

You just can’t please everyone. Doing something nice just isn’t what it used to be. Several posters online were outraged by something about the community effort: wrong type of house, wrong family, wrong this or wrong that.

This lady wasn’t alone in her criticisms; she just took the cake: first place in the Boorish Behavior category.

By the end of her voice mail, I was worried about her health and actually feeling a little sorry for her. I had to assume she has a lot of other issues in her life and calling the newspaper editor to scream was just an outlet for her pent up anger. I’m here for you.

There are things that anger me, too. For example, the economy is in shambles and the Legislature opens today. My retirement has been moved back from age 56 to age 83 and I’m fearful our lawmakers will do something to move that to age 91. At this rate, I will still have to work long after I’m dead and gone.

No wonder so many people in our community were look for a reason to feel good about something.

By this morning, thousands upon thousands of people will have clicked on our photos, videos and stories of the EMHE on Tallahassee.com. They have viewed about a million pages. That’s an extremely large amount of traffic.

Think about this: Nothing we have done, save coverage of Tropical Storm Fay, has generated as much reader-viewer interest as this.

From start to now, coverage of the Rachel Hoffman tragedy did not generate this much traffic.

Nor has coverage of the Cheryl Dunlap case.

Nope, not the election either.

This was bigger than any single FSU football game, though a win in a big game might easily top EMHE, if that ever happens.

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Harvey case a reminder of value of newspapers

My inbox and blog board have been flooded with responses to our coverage of Wakulla County Sheriff David Harvey’s hit-and-run crash and subsequent revelation that he had been drinking. Overwhelmingly, with a few exceptions, they have not been running in Mr. Harvey’s favor.

One note stands out. It is from a local doctor who, to the best of my knowledge, is not an activist or known Harvey political opponent. He is a military veteran who loves his country.

“However, like every democracy … there are two levels of justice, (one) for the wealthy who can afford the best and (another) for the rest of us.”

That in a nutshell is why the public is outraged: Harvey provides an example of what ordinary citizens have long suspected, but rarely been able to prove: the rules and the law only apply to “us,” not to “them.” That is what the doctor means by a two-tier system.

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When democracy degenerates into “us” versus “them,” it fails. If nothing else in our country, the rules must be the same for everyone, the playing field level. That is the very least we should expect.

The media – backed by an engaged and now outraged public – are the best hope for justice in cases where the powerful try to cover their indiscretions with the authority of their offices. That has long been the role of the media, and may it always be so. It is, as one reader wrote, “why we have a newspaper.”

My view of the facts in Sheriff Harvey's hit-and-run crash suggests to me that he and WCSO deputies wanted this incident to go unnoticed by the public at-large. For whatever reason, the facts suggest a coverup was under way.