The memorial service for 17-year-old Lily Burk will be held at 5 p.m. Sunday night at Barnsdall Art Park. The press has been wisely excluded from the service, except for a single pool camera. Rick Wartzman, one of the Burk-Drooz family spokespersons, has asked that media members kindly refrain from questioning mourners on their way to and from the memorial. Let us hope that the media complies.
Of course, Greg Burk, Lily’s father, is himself a member of the press. So too are many of the friends and extended family members who have clustered around Greg and his wife, Lily’s mother, Deborah Drooz in this time of unimaginable sorrow. Yet those press will be at Barndall Park to grieve and to offer whatever comfort they can, not to report.
In the coming days and weeks, however, it is likely that Lily Burk’s name will be invoked frequently as California state legislature again takes up its discussion about how to cut $1.2 from the state’s corrections budget.
It would be helpful if those discussions could be fact based . But, if past days are any indication, all too many of them will not be.
I have an op ed in Sunday’s LA Times that talks about the dangers of politicizing a horrifying crime like the murder of Lily Burk.
There is much more still to talk about.
Here is the essay’s opening:
Some deaths trigger our collective grief and fury more than others. In the spring of 2008, it was the killing of college-bound running back Jamiel Shaw II, a handsome boy shot dead on an L.A. sidewalk a hundred yards from his front door while his Army sergeant mother served her country 8,000 miles away in Iraq. This summer, the horror that grabbed us was the kidnapping and murder of 17-year-old Lily Burk.
Yet, as is often true with such heart-lacerating cases, with every new revelation about Lily’s murder these last two weeks, the voices of those who seek to morph our grief into this or that public policy agenda grow ever louder.
Like Jamiel Shaw, Lily was a kid we could each imagine as our own. She was smart, a national merit scholar. She was unusually well-liked — the comments on the Facebook page created in her memory express this in vivid detail. Through repeated exposure to the photo her parents provided to the media after her death, we were able to believe that we knew her: Lily Burk with the open, world-welcoming gaze surrounded by a tangle of teenage hair. We could envision her future while in the same moment reeling with the knowledge that all of her tomorrows had irrevocably vanished under nightmarish circumstances.
It is precisely that nightmare that is the other signal reason we have been seized by the death of Lily Burk…..
You can find the rest here.
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PERSONAL NOTE: Like many, I wish I had some kind of better comfort to offer Greg Burk and Deborah Drooz. But I do not. For some things there is no real comfort. There can only be the willingness to stand in fellowship.
An upper class white girl getting killed by a black man is going to get politicized, Celeste. Inevitable.
Very good and wise oped, Celeste. Getting out ahead of this issue is very smart. It’s a shame LATimes.com saddled it with this ridiculous online poll: “Should policies follow on the heels of disturbing tragedies? Yes, so the atrocities don’t happen again. No, they are overreactions to aberrant cases.” That is as pointless as the oped is illuminating.
The Times should have a poll that asks: “Should law enforcement use this incident to further impede on our civil rights?”.
It’s a fact based poll, unlike the current poll, where as there is no guarantee that changing policy will prevent “atrocities”.
I agree the death of Lily Burk has been highly politicized and guess who is leading the pack? Hint her name starts with a C and ends with…………….eleste Fremon.
“In Ciudad Juarez, young women are vanishing
Amid the drug war’s bloodshed, the Mexican border city has been shaken by the disappearances of at least two dozen teenage girls and young women. Officials have few leads.”
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-juarez-missing9-2009aug09,0,4357807.story
The murder of these girls in Juarez could use some Politicizing, maybe then the corrupt mexican police, and incompetent mexican government would actually solve some of these crimes committed by the immoral and sick mexican criminals.
Imagine if the LAPD were like the Juarez and Tijuana police, cases like that of Lily Burk would go unsolved or even investigated.
I found it disheartening that as Newsweek covered Lily Burk’s murder and the LA Weekly’s ‘Grim Sleeper’ story they (and most other media) haven’t been able to see the bigger picture.
As long as the press covers the sensational race and class based homicides they are ignoring the high homicide enclaves that we have allowed to develop in many major metropolitan areas (besides Los Angeles)
Although the LA Times might have failed in many ways its reinstatement of the homicide blog http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/homicidereport/ is the only reliable documentation of the scope of the massive social problems we have allowed. I agree that the killings in Juarez are deplorable, as long as we turn a blind eye to our own backyard(‘s) the cycle of violence and crime can quite possibly visit all of our families.
I don’t see where Celeste has politicized Burk’s murder. Sorry, ironic one. And your post about Mexico is off topic. Got agenda?
For a kick with my French Roast this morning I spent an hr. mesmerized by the Sunday morning clergy on the tube. One guy railed on the forthcoming doom between glossalalia blurbs and stacatto Scriptural quotes. He spoke how Jeruselem would be split, the Muslims were Satan’s messengers,the New World Order would rise with Obama (trained by Kissinger’s crew) at its head and signal some sort of beginning of tribulation. By the time I’d had a coupla cups and wolfed down a bagel and a schmear it was high time for a bike ride. As I ran up my heart rate my pace was driven by ANGER! I’m sure millions of people in this intellectually malnourished country sat like I did and listened to that insane rant, not for the entertainmnent factor, but for a certain amount of hate factor. They had to have taken it in and sent cash to this charlatan, otherwise he’d not repeat his bile next week for lack of paid airtime.
We’ve degenerated as a emotionally balanced planet. We’re grabbing at straws to try to reclaim the “good old days”, and we’re spinning our wheels wasting precious time. That was my topic to ponder during this stifling day. It wasn’t a good day.
Tonight I settled in to watch NBC’s Dateline and had my spirits regenerated. I guess along with the 40th anniversary of the Manson murders and the moon landing it’s the 40th for Woodstock. Has it really been so long ago that half a million yougsters could get together for 3 days and celebrate the way we did back then? Despite the rain and the mud, the lack of food and toilets those kids did something that will probably never be duplicated. They partied HARD with no violence, they policed their own bad drug trips , and they fed each other. There was no racial unrest, no culture clashes. I felt like another kind of preacher, and thought: and God saw it and it was good.
You may know I reside in a different time zone, so if you get the chance, and are a Boomer like me watch it. It may serve to renew your faith in a future. Sorry I’m off topic.
Too many words again.
C: it is likely that Lily Burk’s name will be invoked frequently as California state legislature…
Wow! A journalist doesn’t wait to discuss what happened but assumes what will happen and attacks that…and, politicizes the death in the process.
Every public tragedy gets politicized. How about Obama politicizing people who die without health insurance?
I can’t believe the way that Sharon Tate’s death was politicized by the media so that they could attack Nixon for not using the word “alleged.”
Breaking News, although off topic: Black and Latino inmates are doing their part to “cut” the Chino prison population. But, let’s not politicize that.
Notably, LATimes.com at the moment prominently features a news-free story about Lily Burk’s memorial service, but not a single thing on the homepage about the Chino prison riots that Woody mentioned. NYTimes, by contrast, currently has the riots as their 4th top story.
A member of the elite was tragically murdered. Is it a surprise that this gains so much press?
Yeah, I just got home and noticed that too, O.A. I got an email about the riots this morning but have been mostly trying to take the day off, so put nothing up. Although I’ll have something up about it late tonight for tomorrow.
In a lot of cases, I find that the NY Times is doing a better job on issues regarding California prisons and correctional issues, than the LA Times does. Drives me nuts.
Ah, I see that Kevin Roderick noticed the same thing: http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2009/08/prison_riot_makes_nyt_gon.php
Yeh, Woody, Obama’s health care plan is the same thing as the politicization of Burk’s murder. After all, we’re all as likely to be robbed and murdered in the future as we are to suffer health problems due to inadequate health insurance.
And, “black and Latino inmates” are not doing their part to “cut” the Chino prison population. You don’t even know what you’re talking about. You sound like another one of these stupid sheltered racists hoping for a black vs. brown riot in LA, and it’s never going to happen. The jailers run the prisons. If they don’t, what are we paying them for? Either they’re incompetent, or they like the drama. It’s one or the other.
I doubt you’ve ever stepped foot in a prison Rob. The inmates let the guards pretty much do their jobs, until they decide they need to act out for one reason or another. Most prison riots are black/brown or brown/brown realted though whites are involved in some it’s certainly the minority of them.
Ask any inmate or anyone who works at prison and they’ll tell you who really runs it. It’s common knowledge that goes back many years.
The reason for the disparity in sentencing for powder cocaine and “rock” cocaine was needed due to the violence associated with the sales of “rock” which resulted in the wholesale destruction of many working class neighborhoods of color. Len Bias’s death was not the only rallying point but did play a part.
The drive-bys associated with the sales of crack were pretty much a day to day thing back in the late 80’s and 90’s resulting in the deaths of countless people of color, more than one cop and quite a few innocents that were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
When the”rock” cocaine epidemic hit many poorer communities it brought with it a violence that hadn’t been seen on local strets since Chicago in the Capone Era. The sentencing law was an attempt to stop that violence and resore community order, one of many tools used.
I personally think the same sentencing should have been applied to the same amount of powder, not less for “rock”.
If you want a safe community you don’t lower the level of incarceration for sales of any illicit drugs to next to nothing like they tried to do with “rock” in 95.
Sure Fire, was that excuse city on behalf of the guards and administrators for how screwed up prisons are? Sounds like it. There needs to be reform from top to bottom, and a thorough, independent investigation of the CDCR, the administrators, the guards, the inmates, and all private companies the CDCR has contracted with. Don’t give me this “you’ve never been inside of a prison”. That’s a cop out. Prisons are tax funded.
Sure Fire, I don’t think I’ve ever met someone as full of shit as you are.
Cocaine is the active ingredient in rock cocaine. Anything else that rock cocaine can be made with can be bought at a grocery store, and what you’re basically saying is that those items like baking soda or ammonia, which, again, can be bought down the street at Ralphs, are what really destroyed black communities in the ’80s. No, actually, it was cocaine. It was boiled into rock because you could make a bag of powder coke go farther boiling it into crack than you could snorting it. If the price of powder coke had dropped to crack prices, people would have went crazy snorting the coke instead of smoking it, just as so many rich kids did. My best guess as to why the Beverly Hills snobs weren’t popping each other is because they had money, and that most shootings over crack in the ghettos were due to drug territory. Stop lying, SureFire. Either that or stop getting your information from liars.
You’ve never met me Rob, but you’re quite an eloquent guy regardless. You and Reg have lattes together and exchange witty remarks laced with profanity? You take away something from your position when you do that, Debate 101.
I didn’t say anything like your babbling about regarding the ingredients in cocaine, nice tangent to go off on but off point. I worked the problem and don’t have to lie about what I was a part of, saw or how I came to my position. Was there more money in it by making it into base, of course, but white guys got hooked all the time for possession and u.i., they just didn’t set up shop to sell it in their neighborhoods.
I said the disparity in sentencing was due to the violence attributed to the sales of rock as compared to powder, as in how it was marketed. Argue that all you want but it doesn’t make your position any stronger or are you under the misguided impression that if powder was being sold on street corners and the results had been drive-by’s and gang warfare in places that were more middle class the sentencing laws wouldn’t have reflected that?
If you are you’re dreaming. People would have demanded it.
As for your other gem Rob, the numbers of inmates alone dictates whose in charge at any prison. Are you that unaware, who is it feeding you the laughable info you post. When a correctional officer walks a prison yard he’s a target and he knows it. He’s one that never has the tools in his grasp to keep out of harms way if inmates decide otherwise, it’s common knowledge.
You live in a dream world with all your leftist pals, reality is a bit different than what I’ve seen you post. Ask any parolee you run into who runs the prisons and you’ll get the same answer I posted.
Investigate, investigate, and investigate some more if you want, the ratio’s are what they are and nothing changes.
“Debating” Rob Thomas is a waste of time, He thinks he knows all, he spends his time on blogs arguing about any and every subject. He is an expert on everything, he knows every neighborhood like his own, even if he has never lived there.
R.B. has a bizarre hate and paranoia of cops especially LAPD, forget the fact that he has never personally talked or met any LAPD cop. He also knows evertything about Oliver North and how Oliver North was the bigggest cocaine dealer in L.A.
http://laeastside.com/2009/07/highland-park-in-the-ny-times/
My view is that the term “politicized” is not useful here. Sometimes people use politicize to mean “use for partisan advantage.” I understand why people often find that kind of politicizing offensive. In this case, what we have is people using a tragic event as a jumping off point to talk about policy. And that’s totally appropriate.
I think the point Celeste makes very ably in her piece, which gets a little clouded by her self-imposed headline, is that as a society we often react emotionally to these types of tragedies and instead of rationally examining the trade-offs of our policy choices, we pass laws that are not wise or well-considered.
Mavis, very reasonable point. The LAT piece had another title (theirs) which I liked, but it needed a subhed to work. And my original working title for the essay was “Using—and Abusing—the Death of Lily Burk.” But on the day of her memorial it seemed somehow off base and creepy. I don’t know. So “Politicizing” won. Not the greatest, but I wanted to leave the computer and go to the beach so I stopped dithering and pressed “publish.”
So there you have it. How mediocre decisions get made.
(But the beach was VERY nice.)
PS: I think there’s a certain amount of using this tragedy “for partisan advantage” however.
I agree with you to a point Celeste but I also believe changes in sentencing still need to be made regardless of what the catalyst is. I’m of the opinion that the countless murders of young people in the inner city over the past two decades should have been at some time “a jumping off point to talk about policy”. It should be brought to the forefront over the death of one young lady, regardless of how remarkleble she was or the color of her skin.
I think Jamiel Shaw was reacted to in the same type of way as Lily Burk, and there were countless others that fit their mold before them who received much less public outcry than deserved. Jamiel’s death has spawned an attempt at changing the idiocy of Los Angeles and maybe Lily’s death will as well.
Ah, the ole beach excuse. Fair enough. But next time I don’t want to hear the dog ate my html.
If you feel like elaborating on the “partisan advantage” angle, I’d read it.
@Sure Fire, I’m just curious did you actually, you know, _read_ Celeste’s oped? Because she does talk about Jamiel Shaw’s death and the attempt to turn it to partisan advantage in there.
“You and Reg have lattes together”
SureFire…you stinking, lying sonofabitch. I HATE “lattes.” Hate ’em. Hate all of those Starbucks milkshakes and don’t trust anyone who drinks ’em. Which is one reason I’m always comfortable in my knowledge that Joe Scarborough – who sucks on that crap endlessly – is totally full of shit. Like you.
reg likes Crown Royal.
Sure Fire, what is your point by bringing up the fact that I’ve never met you? Does me not meeting you mean that you weren’t lying your ass off as to why people get more time for crack than they do powder coke? Does me not meeting you mean that you weren’t making hideous excuses for CDCR and their out of control prisons? Why do I have to meet you? Do you think you’re persuasive enough in person to sell me on your bullshit? I doubt it.
I don’t drink “lattes”. That’s an insinuation that I’m gay or feminine, isn’t it? Basically, if people don’t believe your fairy tales regarding cocaine sentencing and prison issues, they must be gay, right? Wrong on both counts, Sure Fibber.
I’m pretty sure you did “work” cocaine, whatever that means. You probably flew Ollie North’s planes. I don’t care if you ran the crack cocaine task force in crack cocaine, cocainiztan. You’re lying about the reason for crack dealers/users getting stiffer sentences. Either that, or you’re spreading lies. Either you’re a liar, or stupid.
Congratulations, btw. You were the first person to bring race into this discussion, and I think it reveals a lot. Nobody said anything about white people being hooked, too. Guilty conscience? You’re telling me that white people were hooked on crack to make the pathetic case that because there were white people who smoked crack, there couldn’t have been a conspiracy to destroy the black community. You have now hit defcom 4 on the bullshit meter. That’s like saying poverty has nothing to do with gangs because a gang member moved to West Covina or some shit.
The violence associated with crack cocaine is due to it’s profit margin. That is no reason to raise the sentencing on crack possession. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that raising the sentences on crack cocaine is going to punish the poor people selling crack more than the, in most cases, well off dealers selling the powder coke.
As far as prisons go, the guards can search cells any time they want to, and can lock inmates down. There’s several more legal tools that the prisons could use to stop gang violence. They don’t want to stop it, for whatever reason. The ‘whoa is us’ attitude toward gangs by the prisons is a fucking joke. Some of the guards actually sound like wannabes themselves. It’s evident on those MSNBC documentaries. You’d think they’d act professional in front of the cameras but it just goes to show how much power they have. They can do whatever the fuck they want on camera and nobody’s going to do anything about it. The CDCR has the legal tools to end prison gangs within months. They just have no interest in doing so. I’ll let you espouse as to why.
You can play your stupid cable news politics game by calling me a “leftist” or accusing me of living in a “dreamworld” all you want. You’re just mad because I won’t believe your tall tales about cocaine sentencing and prisons. That’s all. You’re the one living in a dreamworld, because you think people really believe your crap. People who say they believe you don’t even believe you. They just don’t want to argue with you. I just couldn’t help it because the extent of your bullshit had to be confronted.
Always a pleasure to witness your rants, Rob. I can smell the venom in Kansas. I have one short footnote to add to your mention that: “There’s several more tools that the prisons could use to stop gang violence” Answer: A mini14 barrel will fit very well in that little hole in the cell door.
Reg, you didn’t get Sure Fire’s point by accusing us of drinking lattes? He’s saying we’re basically gay for not toeing the law enforcement line on prison and drug issues. Basically, when you disagree with them they either label you with feminine or gay descriptions, or they accuse you of living in a “dream world”. The good thing about it? It’s what they do that when they’re losing an argument. It’s their last fling of dung against the wall. When it doesn’t stick, they usually leave. On the way out, they might whine to the moderator about the people who owned their asses being hostile. That’s another one of their tricks.
Gava Joe, if you can’t smell Sure Fire’s bullshit from Kansas as well, then you need to stop breathing the tractor fumes.
Gava Joe, if you think that shooting prisoners is the only tool that would stop gangs, outside of the tools guards have now, than you can just go ahead and keep breathing the tractor fumes. The damage is done.
“He’s saying we’re basically gay”
Sorry I missed the point, because I’m totally cool with that…
“Woody Says:
August 10th, 2009 at 6:29 pm
reg likes Crown Royal.”
Now THIS lying sack of GOP shit crosses another line…
An unhinged insult on the order of the “pedophilia” charge.
I didn’t say your gay Latte Robbie, could care less but it must have hit a nerve, or are you always tweaking when you post. You just sound like any other fraud who sips latte with Reggie. I use Reggie because of your language. I mean i could channel Sam Kinison and leave both you idiots in the dust but I sense a lot of females post here so i try to keep it clean. You’re just an internet troll like so many others I’ve talked to.
Shoot your mouth off all you want, I’ve taken shots from idiots for years and you’re a light weight dude. The major b.s I see here is from you and Reg, a couple of experts on everything. Tell me Latte Robbie, what is it you actually do? Like what’s your occupational experience that has made you such an expert on something I’ve been associated with since the 70’s?
Oakwood Alum..umm..yeah I read the whole thing but Shaw’s murder was part of my opinion. Was it off limits to expound a bit? Are you Oakwood Alum meaning Venice? Had an adventure or two down that way long ago, place ever clean up or at least get better?
Reg lost all credibilty of any kind when he put down Crown Royal, no taste on top of terminal stupidity. I’m more of a Jack and Capt. Morgan’s guy but sipping Crown is better than most things I can think of.
You Latte Twins need less caffine and more Crown.
Oh Robbie, I’ve never in any forum complained to the moderator about hostility directed at me. Only a gender confused reprobate would even bring something like that up.
Shoe fits huh?
RobThomas Says:
August 10th, 2009 at 12:48 am
Sure Fire, I don’t think I’ve ever met someone as full of shit as you are.
I was responding to what you posted Einstein, maybe Oakwood will ask you if you read your own posts. You have no idea how prisons operate, your arguements are grade school, get a grown-up to help you post because all you come off as is a mental case who forgot where his daily dose was.
Are you and Reg the same guy?
“sipping Crown is better than most things I can think of.”
Low bar.
“The CDCR has the legal tools to end prison gangs within months.”
That’s like demanding the troops in Afghanistan to end Al-Qaeda- just not going to happen no matter how much energy and/or money is expended.
rob is about 35 yrs old and bags groceries, not kidding. if you want to know more about him he has his own blog.
http://stillnoscriptsworld.blogspot.com/
No Comment.
Easy question Reg, you’ve decided to sit and have yourself an alcoholic beverage while you watch Hannity because you know it’s the only thing that will sooth you until Bill Maher comes on.
What are you having?
I had a friend who had a boat cover made out of old Crown sacks, he had a little bit of a drinking problem but I wouldn’t have questioned his taste.
I’d answer the question in good humor if you didn’t make a practice of accusing folks who disagree with you of being on drugs…
You’re a jerk. Typical of a lot of arrogant pricks with your particular history. Get lost.
Not arrogant, just a lot smarter than you’re vulgar and witless ass. It’s ok for a fraud like you to throw out your nasty little remarks but get a little thrown back you cry like a baby.
You’re too easy loser.
Whatever you need to believe…
Boy, do I not give a shit.