HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) – Activists are questioning why violent tragedies in urban centers like Hartford don’t get the same media and government attention that has surrounded the recent murders of a Cheshire mother and her daughters.

Cornell Lewis, a Hartford minister, said Monday that Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s response to urban violence has been “slow as molasses” but that she called for a review of the state’s entire criminal justice system soon after the July 23 burglary and arson in suburban Cheshire. The crime left Jennifer Hawke-Petit and daughters Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11, dead.

State legislators also called for an investigation of the state’s parole system after learning the two suspects in the Petit murders were parolees. Lewis said similar responses are needed when young people die in Connecticut’s inner cities.

“If we don’t, then to me, it’s sending a double message: one type of life, beautiful and white, as valued. Other kinds of life are not valued,” said Lewis, a minister, during a news conference with a group of activists in Hartford.

Chris Cooper, a spokesman for Rell, said she cares about safety in all cities and towns. He pointed to a variety of efforts to address gun crimes in the state’s three biggest cities, along with enhanced state police presence, expanded job and educational opportunities for young people, and help combatting gangs.

As of July 28, there have been 17 murders in Hartford, police said. At the same time last year, there were 15 murders. About a week-and-a-half before the Petit murders, two teens were shot to death execution-style. Police believe they were involved in a botched robbery.

Those deaths, Lewis said, garnered only a few newspaper articles and TV reports. Meanwhile, the Petit murders have become a national and international news story, with reporters struggling to hold back their own emotions, he said.

“You see people with teary eyes, in the media, shaking hands and voices that seem to be wavering or quavering,” Lewis said. “When the two young boys were shot in the face, it was done professionally. It was hard-hitting and then that was it.”

Richard Hanley, assistant professor of journalism and director of graduate programs at Quinnipiac University’s School of Communications, said he believes the extensive media coverage of the Cheshire murders is justified. He said the case is newsworthy because it happened in a small, suburban town and involved “extreme violence” over a period of hours that included sexual assaults, strangulation, arson and the beating of Dr. William Petit, a well-known diabetes physician who was the lone survivor.

The case also raises questions about who should be placed on parole and whether the state’s Board of Pardons and Paroles had all the necessary information.

“There’s a complexity here that I don’t think is actually readily understood by critics of the coverage,” Hanley said.

But he added that media coverage of urban violence can be improved.

“I do think more work needs to be done in the cities in covering why a level of violence persists,” Hanley said. “And the media should look at how it covers these things.”

Hanley said there’s a sense that urban homicides are covered using “drive-by journalism,” where reporters don’t spend time learning more about the victims, the suspects and the reasons behind the violence.

Francis Davila, a Latino community activist in Hartford, said he wants the media coverage and the government response to such tragedies to be equal.

“I think that it takes too long for something to happen when it comes to people of color,” Davila said. “I’m not saying that nothing happens at all, but I think it takes too long. And I think when it happens in certain geographical areas, certain things happen quite quickly.”

AP-ES-08-13-07 1710EDT