Letter to the editor: Irrelevant headline

To the editor:

I realize it’s impossible to write headlines to suit everyone. Still, with a racially charged issue such as the downtown shooting, I think the paper should weigh its words carefully.

By identifying the driver as “father of 6,” it immediately creates sympathy for the affected children — and tends to put him in the category of a family type. How about “driver had previous anger problems,” “driver had been ordered to anger school earlier,” or “driver had long history of traffic offenses”?

The number of children he has is completely unrelated to the incident. However, his history of anger and careless driving are certainly relevant.

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