The press can be reasonable and responsible! (sometimes anyway)

[MikeG]

This is the current article/headline:
Documents: Ariz. vet killed by police thought to be drug trafficker

But earlier in the day, the title was:
"Arizona veteran killed by police mistaken for drug trafficker, documents show"

This is one of those stories where they want to blame police for killing a suspect (readers can find all the coverage on it) as he was a Marine veteran and was hit with a number of rounds and didn't fire a shot. As far as I can tell, he forgot to take his safety off when he met officers at the front door with his AR. If you watch the video, the SWAT team announced their search warrant three times in English and Spanish and also hit the police Siren as they arrived to remove any doubt about who they were. They breached the door and the suspect jumped out and pointed AR at them. SWAT at door fired at him and killed him. Since the AR calibre of the suspect and SWAT are the same, they initially though some cases from the SWAT team were from suspects weapon but subsequent reports indicated suspect did not fire and his safety was on. I can't think of a scenario where he would intentionally have the safety on while carrying the rifle so the lack of firing wasn't because he knew it was police, it was that he accidentally left safety on. They believe he is involved in drug cartels and a double homicide.

I sent email to the by-line reporter that this was not what the documents or Sheriff's dept said and he actually replied and they changed it!

To be fair, I bet it was a lot more than me that complained but it was nice to see reporters respond to random emails. They don't write the headlines so I think big discrepancies between article and headline makes them look bad to the public.

I am not fond of the Pima County Sheriff Dupnik but the rank and file officers don't need the bad press.

To: MikeG
From:Holstege, Sean
"I agree and did already. I think they were already in the process of changing it when I saw it.

--------------
From:MikeG
To: Holstege, Sean
Subject: bad headline: "Arizona veteran killed by police mistaken for drug trafficker, documents show"

Headline doesn't match the story. Nothing I've seen said he was "mistaken" for a drug trafficker. In fact he had lots of artifacts consistent with drug traffickers.


"mistaken" needs to be replaced with "thought to be" or "alleged". I don't think Pima County has backed off the the drug trafficker connection.



Please alert your headline editor if you don't write them yourself.

MikeG

[3.slow]

Note to self. If police or SWAT team raids house, do not have gun in hand

[JeffW]

Sometimes the news will correct mistakes. I work for the school superintendent and he recently got rated unacceptable (undeserved i think) and headline on the web page for newspaper said "School Chief rated Unacceptable". I walked into the task force office and everyone stared busting my chops knowing it my boss, but saying things like "we knew you sucked" and crap good natured (i hope). Anyway I immediately called the reporter (who i know) and told her "hey everyone thinks the headline was about ME" told her everyone was busting my chops. She said she did not write the headline, apologized and she had it changed 15 minutes later.

Thankfully all total the headline was only up there for about 2 hours total and none of my guys saw it. They might have agreed.
Actually some days I think it might apply to me.