CAPTURED MUMBAI TERRORIST WAS TOLD TO KILL WHITES
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INVISIBLE CRIMINALS AND THE DAILY PILOT
The almost daily Daily Pilot has a long history of hiding the racial/ethnic descriptions of criminals when it reports on crimes.
We think this does a disservice to readers.
Recently, Joseph Serna, the Pilot's crime reporter, used some of his blog space to try to justify not giving full descriptions. LINK
We don't buy Serna's justifications.
If a newspaper really wants to serve the public, help take criminals off the street, and keep people safe, it should publish the fullest descriptions available and that includes race/ethnicity.
Every bit of a description helps narrow the field of suspects and helps inform and protect the public.
Here, according to Serna, is how the Pilot handles descriptions: "Our policy here at the Daily Pilot is to identify a suspect’s race only after we have three identifiers such as height, weight, age, hair color, eye color, etc. besides race."
See how silly that policy is?
Suppose, for example, a black man wearing a hood covering his hair, and sunglasses covering his eyes robs someone walking down a sidewalk.
Suppose, also, that the only witness is the victim and that the victim can't guess the suspect's age. But, maybe he can say the guy was around 6' tall and of medium build. Okay, so now the police know that the suspect is a black male about 6' tall and of medium build.
You--you lowly member of the public--would have only read something like this in the Pilot: "Man robbed by a male who was described as being about 6" tall and of medium build."
That Pilot description doesn't eliminate many men in Costa Mesa, does it?
Wouldn't a racial/ethnic descriptor have helped?
Wouldn't a racial/ethnic descriptor have helped?
Wouldn't a fuller description, even if not perfect, help protect members of the public and also possibly aid in the capture of the suspect?
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.
