Every Murder Matters

In the last few weeks, two men were killed in Washington, D.C., Angelo Alphonso Payne and Jason Anthony Emma; however, they did not receive the same media coverage. In fact, Colbert I. King writes in the Washington Post, he has learned a great deal from the media about Emma, who was fatally shot in Capitol Hill, even that Emma had recently moved from Arlington, Va., and was excited to live within walking distance of D.C.'s happening bar culture. But, King writes, he's learned few details in the death of Payne from the city's Southeast neighborhood.

But I wish I also knew more about the shooting of Payne.

It's not enough to know that police responding to reports of gunfire found Payne unconscious and that he later died at a hospital, or that there are no suspects or motives. Oh, yes, and that a shooting within hours of Payne's slaying also left dead another young man, 22-year-old Darnell Rivers, in another Southeast neighborhood.

What do we know about these victims and their families? They, too, are human beings. Aren't they worth space in the paper?

Read Colbert I. King's entire piece at the Washington Post.

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