Boston-area road rage.

[randomness]

Some years ago I remember LA getting a lot of crap about people shooting each other on the roads after a couple of incidents. As palmwiz explained, at least one of them was way up in Antelope Valley or something, but LA still got a reputation for highway shootings.

Now, with two road rage shootings in two days in the Boston area, I wonder if the national and international media are giving the story as much play as they did the LA shootings. For one thing, Lynn and Brockton are each closer to Boston than Antelope Valley is to LA.

If not, I think it speaks to differences in the images people have of the two cities. I'm particularly wondering what kinds of stories people elsewhere are hearing about the story.

[Edit: two stories from the Globe:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/08/04/mother_and_son_shot_after_traffic_dispute/
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/08/03/brockton_traffic_argument_ends_in_tragedy/]

Comments

[contrariety.livejournal.com]

So, I think you're quite right that there's an image difference--and I think it can be summed up in one word: gangs. Or, in two words: gangs, baby. Just goes to show you that road rage stories aren't about road rage, per se: they're about generalized fear of violence in society. If they were really about road rage, per se, Boston would obviously always have been the epicenter of the story, because, dude. Boston. A more road-rage-inducing driving experience I cannot imagine, and anyone who's ever driven here knows it. Grrrragh.