Not PC To ID Suspects By Race

[realtraveller]

Here's the Washington Post's explanation as to why it left out the race of four killers roaming Prince George's County, Maryland.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...072300740.html

Although the police report gave a description of one of the suspects as being black and having cornrows, the paper chose to leave that portion of the police report out of the story in the paper.

The paper didn't want to make all "young black men" 'suspects'. (So instead they made all 'young men' suspects?)

Why print a partial identification? Isn't at least one of the purposes of printing a story like this to help the police catch the kilers? Why would the paper delete information that the police thought important to get out to the public? Does the paper think it's judgment is better in crime solving than the police's? Does the paper think that being PC is more important than catching people who murdered? Don't people have the right to know who is suspected of committing a serious crime in their area regardless of that person's race?

[erik_kosberg]

Why the "PC" characterization? Context is important. "Young black male with cornrows" would be a very useful way to narrow search parameters in northern Maine but not at all useful to limit the search for someone in the south Bronx. In the first case, the pool of suspects might be narrowed to 2 or 3 people; in the second to two or three hundred thousand.

[realtraveller]

So a really BROAD description, which includes more people, IS the best way to NARROW the search.

[nicholmere]

The suspects are wanted for murder and the paper censors the detailed police report?

In general, race and ethnic background should not be mentioned unless they are clearly relevant.

The editors thought the vague description of the car was more relevant than the more detailed description of the murderers?

They are also relevant and should be used in crime stories when we have enough specific identifying information to publish a police description of a suspect who is being sought.

They had the gender, the height, the hairstyle, the clothing, and the race, of one of the suspects, but it was not specific enough? How much more detail would the editors want before they released what the police said?

[Prepoia[$]]

This is a fine example of PC bullshit. If the persons were white, one with blond hair and one with red hair and one that was bald, I sure wouldn't be "offended as a white person" that the description was given out in the papers. It is relevant to identifying and subsequentially capturing the murderers and that's what's important in serious crime. Not all white bald men etc would be profiled as a possible murderer and if they were, so be it until the crime is solved.

[wivabef]

This reminds me of a story that I think I have told before.

A man tells his wife to go meet his friend at the airport. He tells his friend to look for a petite woman. He tells his wife to look for a tall man.

They both try to find the other at the airport. Finally, after all the baggage claim area has been cleared out, they are the only two left.

She laughs and says, "It would have helped if he had told me you were black!"

He laughs and says, "It would have helped if he had told me you were pregnant!"

[erik_kosberg]

realtraveller said

So a really BROAD description, which includes more people, IS the best way to NARROW the search.

Um, no, that's not at all what I said.

[AuntieEmma[$]]

I wonder how often suspects get caught because of descrptions in newspapers (when there are no pictures). I know that supects do often get caught when there are photographs or composite sketches, especially when those are shown on TV. But what about by written descriptions alone?

In other words, if the newspaper had printed the entire police description verbatim, what would the chances be that it would have made any difference?

[Prepoia[$]]

Maybe no difference at all. But, the extra information may help and then it's worth printing it. It may even make people more aware of others around them that resemble the description which may prevent them hurting others. I'd rather error on the side of too much description than not enough. Besides, police wouldn't give out descriptions if they didn't think they were helpful.

[realtraveller]

But can anyone argue that a description that leaves out the suspect's race is MORE helpful in catching the suspect? Obviously not. The WaPo has made its priorities clear and it's not on the side of helping the public identify a double murderer.