A report of a mass shooting in Austin, Texas, late Friday night stated fourteen people were wounded, with at least two critically-injured, in downtown Austin. This from redstate.com.
Two men are suspected of being involved in the shooting, according to the initial reports; although the police later said the number was unclear, but there was a description of one of the suspects.
But it’s what the Austin American-Statesman said about that suspect that is causing a lot of talk today.
At the bottom of its article on the shooting, the paper included the following:
Editor’s note: Police have only released a vague description of the suspected shooter as of Saturday morning. The Austin American-Statesman is not including the description as it is too vague at this time to be useful in identifying the shooter and such publication could be harmful in perpetuating stereotypes. If more detailed information is released, we will update our reporting.
They also tweeted this:
As part of our public safety reporting policy @statesman does not publish vague descriptions of possible suspects.
At this time, information provided by police of a possible shooter falls into this category and could perpetuate stereotypes and put innocent individuals at risk.
— Austin Statesman (@statesman) June 12, 2021
So, Def-Con News readers, let’s not actually report the news. Let’s not provide people with what information we may have to protect the public or by which they might be able to identify the suspect. Let’s play some kind of woke game, because we don’t want to say what the race of the shooter is.
Not giving the description of an at-large suspect(s) is simply risking innocent lives, plain and simple. You can bet that if the shooter(s) had long blonde hair and displayed hateful racist tattoos on their arms a full description would have been provided. None of this “perpetuating stereotypes” rationale would have been utilized.
We’ve seen some pretty bad, liberal ideas, but this one may just take the cake.
Now, the police weren’t so reticent; they put out a description of that suspect, and it wasn’t as “vague” as the paper claimed.
So, we can see below what the paper didn’t want to say.
The suspect(s) remains at-large. It is unknown if there is one, or multiple suspects involved. There is one suspect described as a black male, with dread locks, wearing a black shirt and a skinny build. The area will be closed for an extended amount of time to process the crime scene. Investigators are collecting and reviewing camera footage and surveillance video.
Now, of course, this description also went out on television, so I’m not sure what the Austin Statesman thought they were hiding with their effort. It basically just made them look ridiculous and untrustworthy as a news source. What information would be necessary for them to actually cover the news? The guy’s name and address?
Fourteen people have been shot, and they’re concerned about “perpetuating stereotypes”? Maybe, just maybe, that shouldn’t be what they’re thinking about? And reporting truth isn’t “perpetuating stereotypes.”
But, this is where going over the edge with crazy thinking has brought us — and it’s a dangerous place. Of course, Austin is one (perhaps more) remaining progressive liberal shithole in Texas, yes? I’ve never been to Austin and odds are the city won’t be cleaned-up well enough for me to visit in my remaining short years. Oh well.
