Why is it some people JUST HAVE to know the race of suspects

[cboy4]

who commit crimes?

I have a friend who's a producer at a TV station in Florida, and he told me last night they get calls from pissed off people wanting to know why the race of the criminal who was reported on the news was not disclosed.

This television station's policy is......it's irrelevant, unless there's something very distinctive about the description (i.e., black male wearing red sweat pants, a Boston Celtics cap or a white male with a dragon tattoo on his right arm, wearing a Bush Sucks t-shirt, etc.)

I agree.

Does it really matter if the gunman who holds up a liquor store across town is white or black or Asian or whatever, if police don't have anything other than a generic description of the person?

Perhaps the one exception I can think of is if, lets say, there's a gunman actively on the loose in a neighborhood.

People should have some idea who to look out for....whether they're black, white, red, yellow, brown.

Otherwise, what's the point of saying a black man held up a bank wearing jeans and a white t-shirt when there's lord knows how many black people wearing jeans and white t-shirts in a given city??

I think to mention the race of every suspect only furthers stereotypes, which I'm sure is why this TV station and others refrain from doing so, despite the pissy calls.

[Swede]

1. I think it's only important if the suspects aren't in custody.

Other than that I'm ambivalent whether race is stated or not.

[undeterred]

11. Years ago I was victim of an attempted sexual assault

but I was rescued. I am white. I am amazed at how often people ask "Was he Black?" (No, he was white, and an overwhelming majority of sexual assaults are between people of the same race.)

I honestly didn't know the stereotype of Black man as rapist, although I gradually figured it out.

People are always working from stereotypes, I guess.

[frankenforpres]

2. i dont see why they wouldnt report it

im not for censoring information.

[Kerrytravelers]

4. It's not censoring. If it's not relevant to the story, then it's just extraneous information.

If it's someone on the lose, I want to know. But if they've got the people in custody, then saying that the guy who robbed ten liquor stores is now caught is good enough. What difference does it make if he's the black guy who robbed ten liquor stores or the white guy who robbed ten liquor stores?

[exlrrp]

5. Sometimes its hard to define race

There's people of all colors and mixtures. What are they going to do--Say: It was a brown man that could have been either arabic or Latino or could have been a very tanned white man

[cboy4]

8. That's not the question. Why do you need to know?

???

[frankenforpres]

9. why do i need to know anything?.....

why say it is a "man", when it could have been a woman? journalist report facts. if they are unsure about the facts, they can say that.

[cboy4]

13. I don't understand what you're talking about. Even the most

frightened witness, whose had a gun pointed in their face, can I'm sure at least identify gender if the suspect is not wearing a mask.

The question, and I'll ask you again, is why do you need to know the race of the person involved, if the clothing description is too generic to help police make an arrest?

[frankenforpres]

17. more info is better than less.(n/t)

[cboy4]

20. You're still not answering why you need to know the race. Why is more

info better than less concerning this issue?

Why do you care about the race, especially if the person is in custody?

Please specifically answer that question if you will.

[frankenforpres]

23. because i dont want the news censored.

i thought i said that already

[karlrschneider]

3. Race is not mentioned unless the suspect is at large.

If they can't describe the perpetrator properly, why even mention it?

[LiberalArkie]

6. Why say "Male" or "Female" isn't that demeaning to that gender?

I resent police saying "Jeans" or "T-Shirt" as I often wear those. Why say person? Isn't that demeaning of us Homo Sapians?

Or does saying "White 6' tall male wearing black jeans, plain white t-shirt, and white sneakers" kindof eliminate a whole hell of a lot of people. Wouldn't saying black or white or oriental eliminate a lot of people and narrow the list of people to look for?

[cboy4]

7. Well, your first problem is calling people "orientals." This is 2006, and

they are known as "Asians."

Second of all, you're being very flippant.

I'm talking about generic descriptions where the witness can't describe clothing, other than the suspect is white or black or Asian or Hispanic.

[Nikia]

10. Well, clothing can be changed rather quickly

If the suspects dressed in layers, they could even shed them while running. The man wearing a green sweat shirt might be wearing an orange tee shirt in a matter of a few seconds.
Obviously a good witness should be able to tell something about the perpetrator other than race, like approximate height, build, and other factors.
If the perpetrator is at large, I don't see anything wrong with revealing any identifying characteristics. I would hope that with questioning that the witness would include more details and those could be updated when a more complete description is given.

[cboy4]

12. Exactly....identifying characteristics coupled with race is fine.

But just a black guy wearing jeans with an afro.....what's the point in that?

[Lars39]

14. If there's *two* liquor stores held up the same night,

same degree of violence, except the race of the gunman at one of the stores is white, which holdup is featured on the news? I'd lay bets it would be the holdup with the black gunman.

[cboy4]

16. Hmmm. Interesting point, but since newsrooms are fairly diverse

places by design, I don't think that would fly (although I understand what you're getting at.)

I believe the assignment desk rolls a crew to the closest scene, and they air the videotape from that location (if in fact it's the only scene the news crew has time to get to before air time.)

[gulliver]

15. It's more wrong to censor the info than to release it.

People have a right to know what they want to know. I agree that the information you are talking about censoring (race of the suspect) furthers stereotypes, but it does more harm to censor it than release it. News reports aren't supposed to be social forums. I disapprove of them censoring out Bush's more idiotic blunders (in the name of "what's the point") too.

I just want the facts. I'll decide how I want to use them. If they have pictures, I want those. If not, I want an accurate description. That's freedom of the press.

Suppose there were a couple of white guys in suits who caused the deaths of six or seven hundred thousand people. Now there's a stereotype feeder!

[cboy4]

18. You do know the news censors stories all the time, right? Some news

directors don't even allow the airing of a body bag being loaded into the coroner van, let alone a pool of blood next to the wreckage of a drunk driving accident.

And the argument isn't whether people have the right to "know what they want to know."

The argument is why you need to know whether the person who hit up a bank 20 miles from your house is black or white or another race.

So the question....why do you need to know that?

[frankenforpres]

24. poor logic here

if i say im against murder, and you say "well, you do know that murders happen all the time" does not make me change my opinion about murder



i am against the news being censored, you telling me that it is censored already, doesnt change my opinion

[dubykc]

26. I personally would rather get new that is relevant than have to ...

sift through a ton of extraneous crap that serves no purpose other than to satisfy the morbid curiosity of the reader/viewerships as well as fuel the already out-of-control racial stereotyping and profiling.

[mondo joe]

19. Unless a suspect needs to be identified, appearance does not seem to me to

be relevant.

I don't support censoring - but certainly the news has to select what is relevant and what isn't.

[Retired AF Dem]

21. There is a big difference if I should be looking for

a white male, 6'0" tall 190LBS and a black male 6'0" 190LBS. Sorry when it comes to looking for someone I have to know the race.

[Name removed]

22. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[dysfunctional press]

25. the race of the suspect should DEFINITELY be part of the physical description.

it's a very big part of the description, as well as the most obvious- if you're looking for a 5'10" male with dark hair- it's a big help to also know if he's white, black, hispanic, asian, native american, etc...

it bothers me when tv news tries to be overly pc and try to be race-neutral about the news- when news, almost by definition is NOT race-neutral.