More Distortion of the Facts of a Police Shooting
The L.A. Times runs another story on the boy shot by LAPD after he rammed his car into a patrol car. This one is titled Black Leaders Express Anger at Boy’s Death. The sub-head reads: “LAPD’s fatal shooting of auto-theft suspect, 13, prompts questions over why the department has not yet revised its policy on firing at moving cars.” And the opening paragraph says:
As black community leaders expressed growing anger over the death of a 13-year-old boy shot Sunday by a Los Angeles police officer, Police Chief William J. Bratton sought Monday to explain why the department hasn’t changed its policy on firing at moving vehicles, a year after he said it should be revised.
Like the previous story, the initial description of the incident in this version still employs the magic word “toward”:
Officer Steven Garcia, a 9-year veteran, fired 10 shots early Sunday at 13-year-old Devin Brown, who was driving a stolen 1990 Toyota Camry. Garcia, standing outside his police car, opened fire when Devin allegedly backed the Toyota toward the patrol unit.
Late, late in the story, the word “into” makes its sole appearance as part of a police version of the incident:
When Devin, who was driving, allegedly backed into the officers’ car, Garcia opened fire.
No mention is made of the dent in the car.
It looks like this is the version that will run in tomorrow’s paper. It will run on the front page of either the California section or, more likely, section A. And the whispered hint that the driver actually hit the patrol car will be buried well inside the section.
Business as usual at your Orwellian Dog Trainer.
[…] not described. Readers of this site will recall that I have previously registered similar complaints about the paper’s coverage of this incident. For exa […]
Patterico's Pontifications » Dunphy’s Excellent “Outside the Tent” Piece (0c6a63) — 2/20/2005 @ 5:55 pmConcerning Devin Brown
Blogging.LA (e3ac5a) — 2/8/2005 @ 9:08 amOK, so now that the details have been cleared up and there’s no more question about what happend let me just recap for a second. Devin Brown, 13, decides it’s a good idea to steal a car and swipes…
The Dog Trainer article also fails to mention the 13 year old was shot at 3AM. I have a simple questions, wht doesn’t the community ask the parents about their child 13 year old stealing and joyriding a car at 3:00am?
zamboniov (d1861b) — 2/8/2005 @ 9:44 amThis incident apparently has triggered memories of the Rodney King affair down at Times-Mirror Square. The story repeats the canard that the officers were acquitted by “an all white jury” in the first trial. There was at least one Asian-American on the jury.
The story refers to another incident of a criminal fleeing police who backed his car “toward” police who shot and killed him. The Dog Trainer calls the departed criminal a “motorist.”
Note the use of “alleged” before Officer Garcia’s statements about the shooting while the term is absent from comments about him.
Stu707 (6ea365) — 2/8/2005 @ 3:43 pm