Strange Strange World
It's a strange world when I agree with Charlie Sykes. This topic has been bugging me lately...it seems like you never get a suspect description any more. In most cases you should be able to at least provide height, weight, gender, and yes, race. Amanda and I were able to provide that much when we got mugged a month or so ago (in a related thought, the three guys described at jsonline.com who committed four robberies on the East Side last night sound suspiciously familiar). What possible reason besides lame PC-speak would there be to not include that information when reporting a crime?
THURSDAY, March 1, 2007, 9:54 a.m.
UWM'S CYA DESCRIPTION
(Note: This column appears in CNI Newspapers.)
By Charles Sykes
Just when you thought political correctness could not get any wackier, along comes officials of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Early on Wednesday, February 21, a UWM student was walking on campus when he was robbed at gun point. Fortunately, the student was not hurt, and he was able to give campus police a description of his assailant.
According to campus police, the suspect was a "a black male, with a dark complexion, 5'4" to 5'-6" tall, thin build, and in his mid-20s." During the robbery, the suspect "displayed a black handgun," and afterward "ran to a parked maroon or red Mercury station wagon, which he then drove south on Cramer Street." According to the police description, the suspect was "wearing jeans and a brown-and-gold jacket with the word 'Ecko' written in a graffiti style on the back."
But when the university's administration put out a campus-wide email alert on the incident, the description was edited down. Instead of being described as a "a black male, with a dark complexion, 5'4" to 5'-6" tall, thin build, and in his mid-20s," students were told only that the robbery had been committed by "a man in his mid-20s."
Administrators left in the color of the gun, as well as the color of the station wagon and a detailed description of the suspect's jacket. Everything in fact, except the description of the suspect himself.
.
Asked about the omission by a student journalist, Tom Luljak, vice chancellor of University Relations, explained: "The details of the suspect's physical description were so general it would not have contributed significantly to the ability of the public to make an identification (of the suspect)."
But Luljak could hardly have made the description more general than reducing it to "a man in his mid-20s," which describes just about every man on the UWM campus. In fact, the problem here was not that the police description was so general, it was that it was so specific.
"It is important that the university does nothing to contribute to racial profiling," Luljak said. But apparently, UWM's sensitive administrators were also concerned about eight and height profiling as well. Otherwise, why remove the description of the suspect's weight and height as well as his race?
Just four months ago, a UWM student named Joe Munz was gunned down in a robbery attempt, but for the administration political correctness once again trumps personal safety.
Other than warning students to watch out for guys in "Ecko" jackets, the administration's email was useless -- except , of course, for protecting the sensitive rear ends of assistant chancellors.
THURSDAY, March 1, 2007, 9:54 a.m.
UWM'S CYA DESCRIPTION
(Note: This column appears in CNI Newspapers.)
By Charles Sykes
Just when you thought political correctness could not get any wackier, along comes officials of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Early on Wednesday, February 21, a UWM student was walking on campus when he was robbed at gun point. Fortunately, the student was not hurt, and he was able to give campus police a description of his assailant.
According to campus police, the suspect was a "a black male, with a dark complexion, 5'4" to 5'-6" tall, thin build, and in his mid-20s." During the robbery, the suspect "displayed a black handgun," and afterward "ran to a parked maroon or red Mercury station wagon, which he then drove south on Cramer Street." According to the police description, the suspect was "wearing jeans and a brown-and-gold jacket with the word 'Ecko' written in a graffiti style on the back."
But when the university's administration put out a campus-wide email alert on the incident, the description was edited down. Instead of being described as a "a black male, with a dark complexion, 5'4" to 5'-6" tall, thin build, and in his mid-20s," students were told only that the robbery had been committed by "a man in his mid-20s."
Administrators left in the color of the gun, as well as the color of the station wagon and a detailed description of the suspect's jacket. Everything in fact, except the description of the suspect himself.
.
Asked about the omission by a student journalist, Tom Luljak, vice chancellor of University Relations, explained: "The details of the suspect's physical description were so general it would not have contributed significantly to the ability of the public to make an identification (of the suspect)."
But Luljak could hardly have made the description more general than reducing it to "a man in his mid-20s," which describes just about every man on the UWM campus. In fact, the problem here was not that the police description was so general, it was that it was so specific.
"It is important that the university does nothing to contribute to racial profiling," Luljak said. But apparently, UWM's sensitive administrators were also concerned about eight and height profiling as well. Otherwise, why remove the description of the suspect's weight and height as well as his race?
Just four months ago, a UWM student named Joe Munz was gunned down in a robbery attempt, but for the administration political correctness once again trumps personal safety.
Other than warning students to watch out for guys in "Ecko" jackets, the administration's email was useless -- except , of course, for protecting the sensitive rear ends of assistant chancellors.