The outrage gap on murder

To slice through the swine flu scrum, murder needs something sexy like a handsome medical student who stalks a beautiful young masseuse through the Internet.

There's nothing sexy, fresh, or new about the death of a 15-year-old kid on a Roxbury street. Another black teenager is dead, a victim of senseless urban violence. To many, those deaths are sad but unremarkable.

Turner was on his way to school when a man walked up to him at the Dudley Street bus stop, spoke briefly to him, and then shot him twice in the head. Earlier in the week, 18-year-old Tamon Evans-Choate was shot as he walked along Tonawanda Street to a nearby recording studio. He died reciting a prayer: "The Lord is my Shepherd."

"Good Morning America" won't be calling anytime soon. These deaths produce the usual flurry of community concern and official reaction.

"It's not unusual to experience cycles of increase and decrease relative to gun violence and gang activity," said Boston Police Department spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll. "Our stats on gun violence had been down for some time, and over the last couple months began to increase. We have been focused on concerns of gang activity in areas of Dudley and Tonawanda Street - locations of the two latest incidents."

As of Friday, Turner was the 19th Boston homicide in 2009.

Even the local media response is "a double-edged sword," said Tina Chery, who founded the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute in honor of her son, Louis David Brown. He died in December 1993 at age 15, an innocent victim caught in the crossfire of a gunfight that broke out on the corner of Geneva Avenue and Tonawanda Street.

It's difficult to generate publicity about youth and community issues, said Chery. It takes another black teenager dying on a city street for the calls to pour in.

"Shootings make headlines," she said. Then, after the headlines, she has to decide, "Do I use this as an opportunity?"

Almost on cue, Turner's shooting helps promote a specific cause. The Mother's Day March to End Violence, a 3.6-mile walk through Dorchester, takes place today. Organizers expect at least 5,000 participants, including mothers of murdered children and mothers of children who are in prison for committing murder. This event is one way to show that "people care," Chery said.

But she can't help noticing the value put on different lives. Even when a young woman like 25-year-old Julissa Brisman is murdered, she said, "the victim doesn't get as much attention as the young, white male" charged with the killing.

She's talking about Philip Markoff, the BU medical school student who hooked up with Brisman through a Craigslist masseuse ad and allegedly killed her. The suspect is a smart, good-looking young man, who was headed, it seemed, for a fairy-tale wedding and a happy, successful life. He could be our friend, brother, or son. That human connection stirs the horror over the crime he allegedly committed and the consequences - a young woman dead, a promising medical student headed for prison.

There is serious talk about banning ads that promote prostitution and pornography, proving that the First Amendment has fewer friends than the Second. Last week, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that illegal gun possession is a "passive and victimless crime."

The bottom line is that people want to do something to stop another Craigs-list Killer. Some state attorney generals actually believe they can by prohibiting masseuse ads. Either that, or they are grandstanding.

When it comes to stopping urban violence, there's no easy answer; but history shows that intervention programs can help. House lawmakers eliminated $3.5 million for a youth violence prevention program operated by the state Department of Public Health, and halved the funding, from $13 million to $6.5 million, for an antigang violence program. Advocates hope the Senate will restore the money.

Budget cutbacks come with a cost. So does public indifference.

Joan Vennochi can be reached at vennochi@globe.com.