Dave just posted yesterday’s story of an Arab who pulled a gun on a soldier and got shot by another soldier. Funnily enough a similar thing happened to Police in New York yesterday. Here’s the New York Time’s headline and first paragraph:
Detectives in Queens Kill Man Pointing a Pellet Gun
Two plainclothes detectives fatally shot a man on a darkened Queens corner after he came at them — pointing what appeared to be a semiautomatic pistol, the police said Sunday.
Here’s the NYT (based largely on a Reuters story) reporting of the similar event in Israel:
Israeli Troops Kill Palestinian Youth in West Bank
HEBRON, West Bank (Reuters) – Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian teenager on Wednesday in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron after the youth threatened them with what appeared to be a pistol, but which may not have been a real weapon, a police spokesman said.
Can you see the problem? Good, you’re not fit to work at the New York Times or Reuters.
- “man pointing a pellet gun” – make clear there’s a gun involved right up in the headline
- “fatally shot a man” – no use of the phrase “shot dead”
- “darekened Queens corner” – excuses
- “he came at them” – acting aggressively, in Israel the youth only “threatened them”
The NYT story from New York reads like an opening statement for the police officer’s defence at a trial for wrongful shooting that will never come.
