Views of case get snagged in the Net
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THIS LETTER is for the benefit of the younger people who read your newspaper and might have been misled by one of the comments in your story about the murder case involving a BU medical student ("BU student charged in hotel killing," Page A1, April 21). I refer to the line in your story that the case "exposed the seamy world of prostitution fostered by the anonymity of the Internet."
I would just like your young readers to know that long before there was an Internet, prostitution was widespread in Boston. And long before there was an Internet, there were heartbreaking stories of prostitutes killed by their customers.
Calling this the Craigslist murder, as some have, unfairly taints the legitimate transactions that take place online. I'm sure the name caters to some fears and sensationalizes the crime - and generates interest. But, to be fair, why not call it "the hotel murder" since hotels play a central part in each of the crimes? Perhaps an exposé on the anonymity of hotels is in order.
Dan Reedy
Waltham
EDITORIALIZING ON the murder of Julissa Brisman, the Globe concludes that unless web firms such as Craigslist "take more responsibility for how their sites are used," Americans may "need to get used to a lot more risk in the spaces where they gather." This is both vague and incorrect. Craigslist does nothing to increase the risk a young woman offering herself as a provider of erotic services already faces when going into a hotel room with a total stranger. There is no risk whatsoever of bodily harm to other Americans. If the phrase "spaces where they gather" refers to online virtual spaces, the only risk is seeing such a classified posting, akin to seeing a print ad for "escort services."
Michael Sierra
Concord
