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‘QUEER’ AND HERE PAGE 3 POWER OF A LITTLE BLACK DRESS REVEALED PAGE 17 SHARKS ADD BITE PAGE 15
THURSDAY, MARCH 1, 2007
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Volume 6 Issue 93
Santa Monica Daily Press
TALE OF THE TICKER TAPE SEE PAGE 14
Since 2001: A news odyssey
THE FOND FAREWELL TO A FRIEND ISSUE
A tough break for injured children BY MELODY HANATANI Daily Press Staff Writer
MID-CITY
Imagine sitting in an emergency room for eight hours with your 9-year-old daughter, who is screaming at the top of her lungs from the excruciating pain of a broken wrist. Picture sitting there for hours, wondering if a physician is ever going to treat your child. It’s a parent’s nightmare. It’s also exactly what Aaron and Anita Astrup experienced on Feb. 15 at Saint John’s Health Center, after their daughter, Ariel, injured herself up the street, in the playground at McKinley Elementary School. That was then, this is now. Now, the couple is angry — angry that they had to wait so long before an orthopaedic surgeon was able to treat their daughter; angry that their daughter was reportedly injected with morphine three times to calm the pain in the meantime; and angry that even SEE ST. JOHN’S PAGE 9
Photo courtesy
ON THE MEND: Ariel Astrup recovers
Fabian Lewkowicz fabianl@smdp.com
SHOULDER TO CRY ON: Anita Purnell is consoled following her talk at a peace march on Wednesday. Purnell’s grandson was murdered at the age of 15.
Finding a separate peace BY KEVIN HERRERA Daily Press Staff Writer
SAMOHI
To mark the one-year anniversary of the murder of Santa Monica High School student Eddie Lopez, his classmates on Wednesday joined family members and the mothers of other victims of gun violence for a peace march through downtown. Standing in front of the pictures of minority victims, advocates for peace said intervention and prevention efforts need to be funded at the same level as crime suppression and introduced a five-point plan to combat a sense of hopelessness that leads youth into a life of crime. “I think the one thing we would like to get across is that many people think murders happen to bad people in bad neighborhoods. That’s not the
Lawmakers unveil package of bills taking aim at gangs
case,” said Marcela Leach, of Justice For Homicide Victims, whose daughter, a graduate of Santa Monica High School, was killed while sleeping in her bedroom in Malibu. “Murders happen everywhere and we want to stop the killing.” The march comes as prosecutors prepare a case against three men believed responsible for killing Lopez and Miguel Martin, both of whom were shot while walking with friends along Pico Boulevard. Lopez, who was killed on Feb. 28, 2006, and Martin, who was killed Dec. 27, 2006, were not affiliated with gangs and are believed to have been the victims of fate, having been in the wrong place at the wrong time. “Sadly, if you are a low income person of color, you are at the wrong
SACRAMENTO Hours before more than 100 people took to the streets of Santa Monica to march in memory of a 15-year-old boy who fell victim to gang violence one year ago, Republican state lawmakers introduced a comprehensive effort to combat street violence. Headed by Senators Tom Harman (R-Huntington Beach) and George Runner (R-Antelope Valley), the legislators introduced a gang bill package on Wednesday that includes a total of 14 different assembly and senate bills, all aimed at addressing what they call an “urban form of terrorism.” In Los Angeles alone, gang-related violence increased by 14 percent in 2006, according to the Los Angeles Police
SEE PEACE MARCH PAGE 10
SEE GANG BILLS PAGE 11
BY MELODY HANATANI Daily Press Staff Writer
at St. John’s following a lengthy ordeal.
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