Sting of a headline

Possible titles:

1. Police officer protects himself

2. Police force denigrated

3. Man shot. Why?

4. Why is it wrong for police to protect themselves?

A headline in the June 30 Kent Reporter read, “Police shoots, kills former K-M student-athlete.”

Why lead off with, in short, “Police shoot, kill?”

What does “he was a former student at K-M (Kent-Meridian)” or at one time an athlete there have to do with the event that led to his death?

What I got out of the story was the police officer was only defending himself from someone attempting to kill him. But the headline makes it look like the police officer just up and shot the young man.

It seems to me a more appropriate headline would have been something like this: “Driver dies while attempting to kill police officer”.

Don’t you think that the family of the officer involved is grateful that he was not injured by the offending driver? We should be praying for the officer. After all, he is the one who must carry this burden and live with it. Probably only his reactive actions prevented his death also.

I am truly sorry for the young man’s family, but I also feel for the police officer and his family.

– Joe Marks


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