Riding Crime's Crest

On her way to a church dance one night, a 22-year-old San Francisco secretary named April Aaron picked her way through the Panhandle, a densely wooded, dimly lighted strip of parkland on the city's west side. Suddenly a figure leaped from the darkness, snatched April's purse and, when she screamed, slashed her viciously with a knife.

Even in San Francisco, few purse-snatch stories rate much attention from the press.

But April's case had Page One quality--young innocence cruelly hurt. The papers made the most of it. The victim was "pretty" (the Chronicle}, "vivacious" (the Examiner), "deeply religious" (the News-Call Bulletin). As doctors tried in vain to save April's right eye, news stories frothed at her assailant. He was "fiendish" (the Examiner), "sadistic" (the News-Call Bulletin), "probably a sexual psychopath" (the Chronicle). Swathed in bandages and an eye patch, April posed bravely for photographers and forgave her attacker: "Anyone who is like that--we ought to feel sorry for him." But having latched onto surefire excitement, San Francisco's papers were ready neither to forgive nor forget. By last week the city was in the middle of a "crime wave"--courtesy of the press.

From Blotter to Front Page. MOLESTER OF CHILDREN STALKS S.F., headlined the Examiner, resurrecting--and inflating--the case of a man who had been following, but not molesting, schoolchildren in the city's Sunset district since Jan. 1.

Proclaimed a headline in the News-Call Bulletin: OFFENSES RISE SHARPLY. S.F.

POLICE LOSING FIGHT WITH CRIME. In one issue, the News-Call Bulletin lavished 154 inches on April and subsidiary crime stories, including a map of the city with dots locating the scenes of recent crimes, grimly adorned with the Dracula-like silhouette of a criminal.

Not to be outdone, the Chronicle bannered a drugstore robbery in Armageddon-size type: NEW S.F. VIOLENCE, BRUTAL BEATINGS. "The wave of violent crimes on San Francisco streets," wrote the Chronicle, basing its conclusion on a single felony in which two men suffered minor injuries, "rolled on last night, and police continued to press their beefed-up counter-campaign." The Chronicle started an April Aaron Fund; the News-Call Bulletin offered $500 for her attacker's arrest. The Examiner, scrabbling frantically for new crime-wave evidence, picked up a police-blotter report about a purse-snatching sailor and triumphantly blew it onto Page One.

From Meters to Car Boosts. Inevitably, the manufactured crime wave engulfed the police department. Both the News-Call Bulletin and the Chronicle blasted departmental indifference ("These citizens want action," shrilled the Chronicle, "not explanations"). The Examiner printed a singularly unjust cartoon of a mugger escaping under the very nose of a motorcycle cop--who was too busy writing a parking ticket to notice. And all three papers printed statistics to prove that since Jan. 1 crime in San Francisco was up 13% over last year.

Crime was indeed up in the city for the first quarter of 1962, but most of the increase could be accounted for by a rash of parking-meter hoists and car boosts (filching from unlocked cars). And as a matter of fact, "street crimes"--which include purse snatches--actually dropped in April. "Contrary to recent newspaper accounts, San Francisco is not experiencing a crime wave," reported a grand jury flatly, as it took official notice of the whipped-up wave--a circulation-grabbing stunt that is as old as journalism itself. As for San Francisco's papers, they barely took notice of the grand jury. Not at all embarrassed, they went merrily on, riding the crest of a wave that they had created from a single unfortunate incident in Panhandle park.

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