Murdered child described as "gang member" with scrapes with the law
Something curious is happening right now. Sherman Jones, a 15-year-old boy, was shot dead in San Bernardino on Saturday night, and now the SBPD spokesman has apparently told the Riverside paper some incredible stuff.
Check out this passage on another local paper's Web site: "The shooting appears to be gang-related, Paterson said. Jones was a Los Angeles-based gang member with several previous brushes with the law, Paterson said. He had been living in San Bernardino."
Less than 48 hours after a kid was shot down in SB, the Police Department not only called the boy a "gang member," but vaguely alluded to him having several brushes with the law, according to the paper.
Juvenile records are not public information and not typically publicized unless a juvenile is charged and tried as an adult. In this case, THE VICTIM is having his supposedly private file aired by police, without proof or detail, just a blanket accusation that callouses the public's perception of the victim.
Of course, journalists and the public cannot know what those "brushes" were. If the PD really said this, as the paper claims, then it is doing the equivalent of waving a sealed envelope and maligning someone as a miscreant without offering proof. The "brushes" could be anything from shoplifting to shooting, but we can't know.
If, for instance, a 15-year-old rape and murder victim had a past arrest for prostitution, and the police said the victim was a "prostitute" (stand-in for "gang member") who had "brushes with law," would the journalist print that about the sexual assault victim? I suspect not.
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Andrew Edwards. E-mail Andrew here.
The problem is the people really don't care. All they see is another gang member off the streets, reguardless of circumstances. The paper should be punished for printing that information, and the officer needs to be punished as well. Unfortunately, these crimes are happening all to often, and people are out there with their "Stop Snitching" mentality is so dumb. Parents are losing kids, kids are losing parents what will it take for people to get a conscious and help stop the problem instead of adding to it
The problem is the people really don't care. All they see is another gang member off the streets, reguardless of circumstances. The paper should be punished for printing that information, and the officer needs to be punished as well. Unfortunately, these crimes are happening all to often, and people are out there with their "Stop Snitching" mentality is so dumb. Parents are losing kids, kids are losing parents what will it take for people to get a conscious and help stop the problem instead of adding to it
I think the police release that the victim is a gang member in a attempt to put the public at ease. If the police didn't say the victim was a gang member or the shooing was gang related for the 10-15 murders in the city so far this year residents would be scared to leave their houses. If I though that 10-15 people were killed just for going outside, I wouldn't go anywhere. Knowing they were gang related, I know I didn't make the choice to join a gang so the chance of me getting shot are greatly reduced.
I thought the purpose of newspapers was to impart information, not conceal it.
At a time when more and more information is "sealed" or "private," your timidity is amazing.
When "children" are playing cops & robbers with live ammunition on public streets, maybe it's time to be a little less worried about their privacy.
Oldcynic, thanks as always for responding.
There is a difference between timidity and fairness. It is unfair to relay incomplete information about a child that has no business being in the public domain in the first place.
I think we differ on this because of the way in which we view the subject. I see a child and murder victim (was he a troubled kid? Probably, but that is less important in this case, since he is a victim, not a perpetrator), while you see "children" with "live ammunition."
As a newspaper reporter, I've got to know when to hold em, know when to fold em, and know when to not fall into the trap of making the victim into a monster with incomplete information.
THE POLICE DEPARTMENT HAS NO BUSINESS PUBLICIZING THAT A CHILD MURDER VICTIM HAS A JUVENILE "CRIMINAL RECORD." NONE AT ALL. As newspapers, we conceal the identities of sexual assault victims. We also, typically, do not publicize the juvenile records of children. This 15 year old boy is just that, a boy.
Robert Rogers