Charged with same crime, Iowa paper shows black suspects’ mug shots but whites get yearbook pics More on this here. The article from the 23rd of March (with yearbook images) has since been removed and replaced with the one linked above, which shows mugshots for the accused. What I find more important though, is the wording in both articles. What relevance do the suspect's wrestling careers have to the crime they're accused of? Were they wrestling in the home they allegedly burglarized? The new article even cites their respective school competitive records. In all seriousness... who cares? It'd be just as dumb if the author sought after employer accolades for the other suspects. The newspaper attempted to justify the discrepancy by claiming that they must make a formal request for mugshots. So why for one and not the other, if the crimes were committed on the same day?
Just guessing about the pictures: the yearbook photos of the three white guys were easier to find. They all attend the same university. The black guys are all of different age, from 24 to 50, and a request for mugshots was easier to do than digging out some old yearbooks.
That's what I thought too, but then I drifted away from that idea due to the content in both articles. They're repeatedly referred to as wrestlers, while the other is suspects. Why? It's entirely irrelevant.
It could be bias. But as someone who worked in newspapers for 18 years, it's more likely that those were the easiest photos to find, and nobody at the paper tumbled to the different treatment (indeed, there may have been different staff laying out each day's paper). That appears to have been the case here: http://www.kcrg.com/subject/news/public-safety/mug-shot-use-explained-20150324#chJHEvZjJscLgEOW.99 In Johnson County, the jail posts mug shots on its website for the duration of a suspect’s stay in jail. That process allowed KCRG-TV9 to quickly obtain the photographs of the Coralville suspects when the crime was first reported. The Linn County Sheriff’s Office, however, requires news outlets file a formal request to obtain mug shots of any suspects booked at the jail. KCRG-TV9 submitted a request for mug shots of the Hawkeye wrestlers shortly after the article was first written but did not receive a response from the jail until after 8 p.m. that night. Those delays are not uncommon as jail staff often must attend to many more pressing issues than sending a picture to media. In addition, one of the wrestlers did not have a mug shot taken because he was issued a citation, which is a type of arrest, and not formally booked at the jail. The wrestlers’ positions on the University of Iowa roster gave us immediate access to a recent team photograph of the men. We used these pictures in lieu of available mug shots, which we have typically done in reporting other arrests of college athletes. Once mug shots were made available to us, we added those mug shots to the article. So two different jails with two different photo policies, and a journalistic decision that was deadline-driven. Arguably lazy and thoughtless, but not racially motivated.
It's an interesting detail, in that they are higher-profile people. If it was a ring of doctor-burglars, that would be noted, too. Not because being doctors impacts the crime; it just makes for a more interesting story than "run of the mill thugs commit burglary."
I'd agree if news was meant to be interesting first, and informative second... or else why even mention the boring article about the other suspects. You don't need to be previously incarcerated to be a suspect of a crime.
If the white kids had mug shots they would have been used, but unlike the black suspects they did not so the newspaper found the only pictures it could.
Oh I don't know, maybe the black guys were arrested 12 times each before this.hence, mugshots easy to come by.
The mugshots featured in the article were taken after the suspects were arrested for the burglary the article cites.
You would've seen your suggestion in the newspapers justification. Instead, they merely stated that "mugshots must be requested"... not that "they're prior convicts, and we had these already".
Why baby pictures for Trayvon Martin instead of his social media pics? When the news wants to promote a particular viewpoint, it frames the story in a particular context. When they promtote war, it's "for our safety", not "for our gain". When they promote Obama, it's "for hope and change" not "political party politics". I'm sure this will continue because it's effective.
I would venture to say the answer is simple, and this is wholly in my opinion. White, preppy folks gone bad also sells papers. You fill your paper with mugshots of African Americans, and folks who read the daily crime reports get their fill, but post a couple of nice looking white kids in suits and ties then say they are alleged to have committed some crime, and folks see it as outside the norm, something that will grab your attention. Put up their mugshots and they will like like any other piece of meth addled criminals. Racist? Whether conscious or not, it certainly appears to be using race as a selling point.
Ok... let me play the racist devils' advocate here...... They can't use yearbook photos of people who didn't go to school ?
Here's a better explanation: You use the most recent photos you can. The yearbook photos of the wrestlers are from their COLLEGE yearbook, and thus are current: all of them are 19. The black men are older; they range in age from 24 to 50. Their yearbook photos, if any, would be outdated, and thus pointless to use.
oh, boy. Really? If it makes you feel better, when Michael Vick was arrested his atheletic career was mentioned constantly, they weren't just like "random dude is arranging dog fights." It's Iowa.
2 of the men are from Chicago. It's the same background in each image. It's fair to say the pictures were taken after the individuals were arrested for the cited crime. - - - Updated - - - Not wise to compare a NFL-drafted athlete to some kids from IU
