Where Has The Media Been on the Long Beach Hate Crimes?

That's the question Fishbowl LA's Kate Coe asks in this heavily researched L.A. Weekly piece about the attacks on three white women in Long Beach on Halloween:

As the Press-Telegram reported on November 3, three white women aged 19 to 21 emerged from a “maze” walk in a house and were confronted by up to 40 black teenagers who pelted them with pumpkins and lemons. The paper said, “The taunts and jeers grew more aggressive, the victims recalled, as did the size of the crowd. Now females joined in, and everyone began saying, ‘We hate white people, f--- whites!’ ”

The bizarre case, now in its fifth week of trial, resulted in hate-crime charges against nine girls and three boys, two of whom will be tried later. Yet the story didn’t run in the Los Angeles Times until November 7, buried inside local news. In that piece, writer J. Michael Kennedy quoted the Press-Telegram’s interview with the victims, watering down the racist language to the vague and more acceptable phrase “a series of antiwhite epithets.”

But it wasn't just the L.A. Times: Coe notes that local and national TV (which has a 24-hour news hole to fill) also has ignored the story. She'll be on KCRW's "Which Way L.A." at 7 p.m. today to discuss the story with Warren Olney.