Please Support Homicide Watch D.C.

 This post is a plea for you to support Homicide Watch D.C. Journalist Laura Amico founded Homicide Watch D.C. in September 2010 as a tool to track homicides in the District. Her website, which she runs with her husband Chris Amico, does much more than that. It is, bar none, the best overall coverage of homicides in DC. She has obtained photos for nearly every victim, and tells their stories. She also follows through with court coverage. When I want to know about a homicide in the area, her site is the first place that I turn. It's an invaluable resource to anyone with an interest in the area. It is also a balm to the friends and family of the deceased who often feel that their loved ones have passed without larger notice. The site's stated mission is to "Mark every death. Remember every victim. Follow every case." That is a mission in which I have never seen Laura fall short.

As a result of her outstanding efforts Laura received the opportunity to study journalism innovation as a Nieman-Berkman Fellow at Harvard University. It appeared that she had secured an agreement with a local news outlet to continue the site after her departure. That deal has now fallen through. Unless they can secure sufficient funds over the next 29 days through a Kickstarter campaign, Homicide D.C. will be forced to cease publication.

Please don't let that happen. Please consider donating to this very worthy cause. Please also share this post/news far and wide. While blogs like Frozen Tropics are fun, and serve a very important purpose (in my opinion), websites like Homicide Watch D.C. transcend reporting on that hot new restaurant, or that fancy new condo development. They hit us on a much more visceral level. I think Amico puts it best when she writes that: "We have said, together, with one voice, that how people live and die here, and how those deaths are recognized, matters to every one of us." Please donate to keep Homicide Watch D.C. alive.