‘Blood for Blow’ Blows Up

By JUSTIN KENDALL

This week’s cover story, “Blood for Blow,” triggered an online backlash — the kind of response we’ve never seen on a feature story. Many readers wondered why The Pitch reported the story of the drug-trafficking murders of Anthony Rios and Olivia Raya. Many commenters called the story’s ending “harsh” and said that it lacked compassion. Still, a handful of readers wrote that Rios’ choice to deal drugs from his home endangered his family and came with consequences. Here’s a sample of some of the comments:

“People do what they gotta do to survive,” Shelley wrote. “Maybe to some people Tony and Liv aren’t innocent, but who are you to judge? They were good people who didn’t cause trouble, didn’t kill, steal. They lived life. … Maybe they didn’t make the right choice, but death was not the price to pay.”

“I truly believe The Pitch owes the families an apology,” K wrote. “Good people, made bad decisions, and their life was taken away because of it, isn’t that enough punishment? I believe it is.”

Raya  

“Very sad but a chilling reminder of what your grandmother told you — lie down with dogs you get up with flees,” j wrote. “It also shows however that even a drug dealer and his enabling girlfriend are people, human beings with families, aspirations and could actually be good people who would do anything for you outside of their drug dealing.”

Several callers complained that the story simplified Rios’ life as simply a drug dealer. One caller rapped a response. And then there was a call from the federal government’s star witness who wanted to clear up his motives for testifying.

Anthony Smith called The Pitch to say that he didn’t testify for a shortened sentence or a $20,000 reward (listen to Smith’s phone call below). Smith says he did it to clear not only his name but also his brother Andre’s name.