Reader says we are inconsistent in identifying suspects by race
On the eve of our chat about crime and race, we’ve received this submission for a letter to the editor:
I just wanted to send an email in response to your story about a St. Louis County man that has attacked women. The very general description of the man leads me to believe that he is white. I say this because if he were a black man, your description would say BLACK. Im not sure if your paper is aware of the black community’s displeasure with this ongoing bias from the media. But whenever a black man is involved in a crime, the St. Louis media make it a point to state he is black. When a white man commits a crime, he’s simply a male in his 30s, height, weight, etc. Further race aside, how will people know what to look out for with the dumb, ignorant description from your story. That description represents many people in the St.Louis area. Please try to do better with this in the future. Thanks.
Here’s the existing Post-Dispatch policy on identifying people by race in stories:
“We do not identify an individual by race unless the information is clearly relevant. In crime stories in which authorities seek a fugitive, a racial designation is included only as part of a very detailed description that provides enough information to aid in the capture of a suspect. We should take the position that designating a person as white or black, or some other racial classification, does not provide information, necessarily, on what the person looks like. A person’s complexion, facial features, distinguishing marks may all be part of a detailed description. The same theory holds for unidentified bodies in a police investigation. We do not identify them as black or white, or any other racial classification, unless it is part of a detailed description.”
Actually, the Law & Order item –“Police seeking suspect in attacks on 2 women” – that upset the letter writer contained a description that said the suspect is white:
St. Louis County police were looking for a man believed to be responsible for two attacks on women Wednesday.
One attack was about 6 p.m. in the 9400 block of Gentry Avenue in Lemay. A man grabbed the woman and displayed a knife, but she broke free. The other was shortly before 7 p.m. at the Aldi store in the 1000 block of Lemay Ferry Road, where a man tried to assault a woman in the store’s bathroom. She also escaped.
No one was hurt in the attacks, police said.
Police said the man is white, in his early to mid-30s, about 5-foot-11, with a medium build. He was wearing a blue stocking cap, bright orange hooded sweatshirt, dark blue pants and work boots, and driving a new-looking blue Chevrolet.
Anyone with information is asked to call police at 314-889-2341 or Crimestoppers at 1-866-371-8477.
(1 votes, average: 1 out of 5)
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Steve Parker is the deputy managing editor for news, and oversees the Post-Dispatch's front page. STLtoday's online news editors are on his newsroom team. Parker has been at the paper since September 1980. 
It apparent if the crime is located in an area where blacks dominate the area. I don’t believe it’s needed to say the suspect is white. But since the majority of crimes committed in this area are perpetrated by Blacks it should always be part of the story.If Black community don’t like that then don’t commit crimes.
I found this amusing because I actually keep a file on these. Apparently your writer never has a problem with black suspects not being identified as black. My favorite is when the PD says the suspect is about 6′ wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt. (Wentzville 9/2/07). Please call police if you have any idea who this suspect is. What?
I noticed this news report also because he was identified as black, which is very rare at the PD. My clippings show whites being identified many more times than blacks - which is actually very rare. (Lemay 8-21-07,St. Louis 4-16-08). Do a search, and I think you will see that black suspects identified by the PD is rare. Since the PD prefers only to identify whites generally when they are suspects, when they are not identified I usually assume the suspect is black. But that is the only reason.
I’m sure you’re aware the reasons that the PD don’t engauged in stated race of perpetrators of crime.
They have for years believed that telling the race will somehow cause people to judge Blacks overall in our society harshly. Another item is the post to my knowledge has never printed the crime stats from the justice dept. If wrong please correct me.
I suppose I could make the case that by not printing the race of the accused criminals the damage in this city/county suffers could be actionable in a court of law. Like any plague/communicable disease those at risk are notified. Being a member of this society we are at risk by the violent nature of a group that commits 50+ of the felonies in our area and they being only 13% of the general population overall.
I’m also sure that the destruction to buildings brick motor is immeasurable. I believe that if reparations are needed for blacks for past treatment, then their action within our cities should be taken in account and offset any payment to them as a group.
Mr. Centrist
PS
If someone knows where I can find the total amount of murders in our urban cities, from 1950’s to the present, all Black on Black and Black on White.
Just a feeling on this, I suspect that more people of color have died in our cities then all the deaths of solders in all of ww1 ww2 Korea, Vietnam and now Iraq??????
If I’m Right then we could make the case that People of African decent are the most violent people on the earth.
The public should be given as much information as possible regarding the decription of the suspect, regardless of their gender, race, religious orientation, etc etc etc. The public’s safety is more important than the white community or black community or any community getting their feelings hurt over the decription…
>If I’m Right then we could make the case that People of African decent are the most violent people on the earth.
Uh, aren’t you forgetting someone? For example, people of German descent (ever heard of WWI, WWII, Holocaust). Or people of Turkish descent (Armenian Genocide of 1915). Or people of Chinese descent (Mao). Or people of Khmer descent (Pol Pot). Or people of Georgian descent (Stalin)…
Yes, that’s what I mean. Such “measurements” are quite pointless.
I trust that some of you have or will submit questions for the noon chat today about race and crime.
yes we can - I’m not sure about what you have surmised, but I do know that in July of 2008, there were more deaths in St. Louis than in Iraq. The same statistics apply even more widely in Chicago. The press is a little touchy about covering deaths in American cities, especially Hispanic gang murders in LA, but get quite excited about covering deaths in a war that is fighting terrorism. Here is an intersting link:
http://stuckon-stupid.com/2009/01/02/iraq-afghanistan-2008465-deaths-chicago-509-change-we-can-believe-in/
The PD is always hiding the truth from the people about interracial crime. I have looked at federal govt websites on this issue and I know the stats. It is the black who are committing the vast majority of interracial crime.Just last year a black man slaughtered six whites in Kirkwood. The PD didn’t seem to think race was a factor, even though the black population in St.Louis was proclaiming him a hero. Imagine the outrage from the PD if the races had been reversed. You are nothing but a bunch of left -wing hypocrites. When are you going to do an honest investigation in your paper about interracial crime? I’ll tell you- NEVER!!
Larry: I hope you’ll get a chance to read the question and answer session with crime expert Richard Rosenfeld, also on “A Conversation about Race.”
The following question and answer from that chat contradicts your assertion about interracial crime.
“QUESTION: My question is this. Is your discussion going to be an honest attempt to describe the problem of crime with valid statistics or do you plan to pick and choose those that would seem to support your prejudices toward a socio-economic causality for crime? Will you demonstrate the causal relationship between race and violent crime? Will the statistics you present show the contrast of white on black crime and black on white crime? Will you please show the statistics that relate to the number of rapes of white women by black men and white men on black women? Will please answer why 6% of the population (black males) commit the vast majority of violent crime? And lastly, when you are done with your presentation will you entertain alternative reasons for the disparate amount of violent crime by race other than the theoretical notions of socio-economic influence and discuss equally valid presumptions like genetic predisposition to violence.”
“ANSWER: Yes, we should have an honest and open discussion. The vast majority of violent crimes are intra-race — victim and offender of the same race. A partial exception is robbery. 20 years ago, upwards of 40% of white robbery victims (includes Hispanics) were robbed by black offenders. But that figure has been cut in half and now is about 20%. A small percentage of all populations commits roughly half of the crimes. There is some strong research on genetic propensities to violence. The genetic variation does not appear to be correlated with race and interacts with environmental circumstances, such as poverty.”
Larry: I also have to challenge your assertion that the “black population in St. Louis” proclaimed the killer in the Kirkwood attacks as “a hero.” The Post-Dispatch and other media did a number of stories examining racial aspects of the incident. No community support of the horrific event was ever discovered.