Some more details came to light in the current Atlanta Journal-Constitution today. The kid with the shotgun had the keys to the carjacked Pontiac G6 in his pocket AND was wanted in a neighboring county on a charge of armed robbery for breaking into a SYNAGOGUE and robbing a man at gunpoint who was in the building.
Oh yeah, and today in the online headline at www.ajc.com, they refer to the deceased as a "shooting victim."
How is the term "victim" applicable in the case of a suspected repeat felon who died while committing another felony?
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victim
Main Entry:
vic·tim Listen to the pronunciation of victim
Pronunciation:
\ˈvik-təm\
Function:
noun
Etymology:
Latin victima; perhaps akin to Old High German wīh holy
Date:
15th century
(1): one that is injured, destroyed, or sacrific.
Because the mainstream media is anti military which spills over to anti police. Anything they can do to ellicit sympathy from the public against the military or police - which includes using the term "victim" which usually goes hand in hand with under-reporting, or saving the important details for the very end of the article where most people won't read down so far...
Oh wait, it's not like I have strong opinions on these things or anything... ;-)
Aw come on Steven! I know you work in the world of mass media broadcast news, but puh-lease?
A dry definition may look like a justifiable application of the term, but you know very well that when the media uses the term victim, the desire is to create sympathy for the person. I have no sympathy for gun-wielding would-be felons who are killed while doing what they do.
There's a great law in Florida that makes the armed robber liable for a death that happens as a result of their actions, even if they did not kill the person themselves.
For example, in Port Orange (if I remember correctly), the father of a teen-aged manager of a Blockbuster Video started watching his son's store near closing time because there had been some armed robberies at Blockbusters near closing in that area. One night the father entered the store just before closing and was hanging out among the shelves. Two armed robbers came in to hold up the store. The father removed his legally concealed and carried handgun and shot one of the two robbers. The other robber, who turned out to be a Blockbuster employee, was taken into custody. The robber with the 9mm slugs in his body died as a result of a high metal count in his torso. His still-breathing partner was charged with armed robbery and murder in the commission of an armed robbery. The manager's dad was not charged. That to me is a good law, and though your definition would apply to the dead guy as a "victim" I do not believe it is a term that should be used to describe him.
A human life is a human life.
Someone who gets shot is a victim of a shooting.
Period.
Not so sure I agree with the incident in Florida - if we all start doing things like that, that makes us vigilantes, and it can get out of control quickly. Here in the Houston area a man shot another man robbing his neighbor's house, DESPITE THE 911 OPERATOR HE WAS ON THE PHONE WITH TELLING HIM NOT TO SHOOT BECAUSE POLICE WERE ON THEIR WAY, and the public praised his actions! I don't know if charges were pressed or not, but the fact is, he killed a man. Shot him when his own life - or anyone else's life - was not in immediate danger. That's manslaughter at the very least.
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