Tom Ault
Jefferson City
Dear Editor:
It seems that today in order to understand the complete story about anything a bit controversial, one must actually do a study of the subject to understand the total picture.
I understand that we don’t like controversy and yet many articles written in the news tend to “stir the pot” instead of enlighten the reader.
Recently a police officer shot and killed a completely innocent man, at least innocent as far as we know. It seems that rather than identify the officer as being a “black” officer, it is much more effective to leave off the description of “black officer” and just use the term “police officer.” Apparently it is more important to write a story that can inflame people than it is to write a story that may reflect a more accurate picture.
Today we live in an inflamed world. An incendiary story that lights the fire is more important than one that does not. Is this what journalism has become today? Using this story as a case in point, rather than lighten the load by stating this was a black police officer who caused the offense, it is much more inflammatory to just say a police person did the deed. Have we not spent enough time creating an atmosphere that makes being a policeman or policewoman a more dangerous job now than ever before?
I don’t blame the black community for feeling they are being unfairly victimized, but when we don’t identify that, just like in the white or Latino communities, the perpetrator of the crime is the same race as the victim, we tend to cause racial indifference.
Let’s start holding the news reporters who write these articles responsible for their actions and get on the road to real equality.
Also, regarding the article written as a rebuke to my “Tort” article. I want to thank Robert Haslag for his unbiased and informative letter. While I don’t totally agree with his summation as it is a bit on one side of the fence, I am sure my article was on the other side. I agree there are times when punishment is the only apparent answer to overcome the greed of many large corporations, but I still think that there has to be some bridge between common sense and ridiculous settlements.