Musings from Brian J. Noggle: <i>St. Louis Post-Dispatch</i> Headline Writer Again Focuses Wrongly

St. Louis Post-Dispatch Headline Writer Again Focuses Wrongly

Here's the headline: Teen student shot by officer is charged with two felonies.

Note how the teen student's major role in this headline is to be shot by the officer, and then passive-voicedly charged with two felonies. What, pray tell could those felonies be? Illegal Larceny of Government Rounds By Secreting Them Upon One's Person Or In One's Body? Failure to Be Dead From Government Shooting? Here's the handy lead to shed some light on it:

A Westminster Christian Academy student who was shot in the leg by police during a confrontation at his school Wednesday has been charged with two felonies.

Well, a confrontation. Perhaps the young man exchanged words with the policeman. Perhaps he tried to speak truth to power or to enlighten the policeman to the policeman's oppressive role in the existing order.

I guess the Post-Dispatch does get to the point eventually:

The officer fired at Vincent - first grazing his leg and then striking it - as the student sat on a curb on the campus with a .410-gauge shotgun, according to Creve Coeur police Capt. Bob Kayser.

Witnesses said Vincent, who had not been in school that day, was pointing the shotgun toward his head and that he had earlier sent a text message to another student, saying he was planning to kill himself.

After police arrived, they began talking to the teen, who threatened to kill himself, Kayser said. At one point, Vincent lowered the shotgun and pointed it at the officers, who told him to drop it, Kayser said. An officer shot him when he did not.

So, this isn't just the teen student shot by police; this is the teen student who brought a gun to school to commit violence upon himself or others.

(More fun with the Post-Dispatch and its love of passive voice here, here, here, and here. More coming to a newstand near you tomorrow.)

- posted by Brian J. @ 8:33 PM