Was the Blade writer supposed to call up the local Crip affiliate and see if they wanted to take responsibility for this? "Honesty" as you put it (that relies on assumption), and fact are two different things. I prefer my news to come in facts, with as little as reporter "spin" as possible.
You're right. I should not view empirical evidence and draw my own conclusions based on experience. How wrong. That's just "spin". I'm sure the blue bandanas on 20-30 youths were simply a coincidence. Or not:
Toledo Police Investigate Gang Violence After Fireworks
Several incidents happened in downtown Toledo just after the fireworks in Promenade Park.
Toledo Police say they responded to a shooting at Cherry and Seneca. Then a second shooting happened a short time later at Lagrange and Central. Both of the victims were shot in the leg, and neither suffered serious injuries. Police do say that both shootings were gang-related.
Police are also investigating the report of several assaults at International Park that were blamed on gang members. One woman tells News 11 she saw a man get jumped by gang members for wearing a blue shirt.
Some people we talked to say gangs are a problem. "They do come through with their colors and sometime there are 10 or 15 that come down the streets," said Ken Holly, a north Toledo resident. "People are afraid to move.
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"Honesty" did not refer to this one story. I'm referring to the practice of the media bullshitting us by ***not*** referring to phenomena in a certain way because they don't want to use direct language to describe certain activities going on around here. You even say the article "implys all that [I] have assumed". Why does it have to "imply" anything??? Just say it! "20-30 youths, all wearing gang colors, possibly of the Crips gang, stabbed a guy last night." What...because we say violence is gang related we might encourage more? Might drive down our thriving tourist trade? So the answer is just covering our eyes and telling ourselves it isn't happening?
It's the same thing when I hear the media talk about the "recession" because we (or they) can't bring ourselves to call our current economic time exactly what it is--a "depression". A recession historically lasts for about a year. We're on year 4 of extremely weak economic activity, guys--it's a depression. Depressions are long term recessions. But no....can't say that. Might spook the markets. Would be bad for elected leaders. Once again, honesty is buried in semantics because "recession" makes us feel better than "depression".
The Blade, in particular, makes stops-n-starts in regards to describing gang activity in this city. They run a big Sunday article talking about the new "gang" outreach and no tolerance yada yada yada....but when gang activity blatantly occurs, they have to obfuscate it and leave it to the reader to "imply" it was gang activity? Not to mention the fact that so many young black men (mostly) are turning up shot dead in the streets or carted into hospitals....and not one reporter or enterprising individual at the Blade can start linking a number of these stories together. Perhaps this is due to lack of manpower, but I would bet that in some circles, highlighting a growing gang problem would be seen as "talking down" the city.
So, the happy talk in our local rag continues...never mind those dead or maimed guys, packs of kids sporting colors walking 10 wide down the street, or how we've turned even more neighborhoods into fear prisons for women, children, and the elderly from lack of any discernible police strategies to combat these punks....let's talk about regulating the pedicabs downtown. And more dogs in suitcases. And the Seneca County Courthouse.