Negativity Detracts From Real Crime Letter Of The Week From Nov. 14

I am writing in response to your Oct. 22, article, “Autopsy: Woman found at dam was murdered.”

I was very disappointed and angered to see that the article focused on the crimes of the victim. I believe that when someone dies, and particularly when they are brutally murdered, it’s not only disrespectful but nearly inhumane to dredge up negative aspects of their past.

My guess is that there are people in this community who loved and valued her, and having her life commemorated in such a way must be terribly painful to them. There is also a strong likelihood that someday her little girl will read that article, and it will become a part of her memory of her mother.

As disturbing, if not more, is the fact that demonizing the victim in such a way detracts from the gravity of the real crime here. Yet another young woman, this time a young mother, was needlessly and brutally murdered in our community. To focus on her shortcomings somehow dehumanized her and legitimized her murder. And, it allows us as a community to sit on our laurels with regard to finding the real criminal, her murderer. She was the third young woman killed in this community in the last two months, yet I have heard little or no public outcry on this issue. Were they not prostitutes or addicts, I suspect that might not be the case.

Because I work with the kids labeled “at-risk,” I know that there’s a good chance that this girl was where she was in life because society and this community let her down, probably repeatedly. Let’s not do it again. Janet M. Young Spokane

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