Wednesday, July 21, 2004
The Seattle Times carries a story today (Wednesday, July 21, 2004) by reporter Doug Merlino about the arrest of a man on hit-and-run charges. The man, identified as Timothy Jay Crawford, was allegedly driving a minivan that struck a man changing his tire on the side of the Highway 167 off ramp from Interstate 405 in Renton. The police allege that, after the accident, Mr. Crawford was taken by ambulance to Valley General Hospital in Renton and then caught a ride with an unidentified party and left before the police could speak with him.
What prompted me to comment on this story is not the accident or Mr. Crawford’s alleged behavior – it is that the story described Mr. Crawford as a “transient” (the quote marks are mine). According to the story, byline, Mr. Crawford, 46, was “known to live in the Tacoma and Spanaway areas” and “has a history of drug dealing and drunken driving.”
I wonder why the Seattle Times decided to describe Mr. Crawford as a transient. Isn’t the preferred term “homeless”? I suspect that the good liberals at the Seattle Times just couldn’t bear to admit that the “homeless” are capable of committing crimes and acting irresponsibly. They won’t want to acknowledge that some “homeless’ persons are “homeless” not because of economic injustice but because they are petty criminals that no landlord wants to put up with.
Who doubts that if Mr. Crawford had been the one struck while changing his tire, we would have only heard how he was “homeless”? Word games like this are beneath a respectable newspaper. But, then again, the Seattle Times stopped being respectable a while ago.
What prompted me to comment on this story is not the accident or Mr. Crawford’s alleged behavior – it is that the story described Mr. Crawford as a “transient” (the quote marks are mine). According to the story, byline, Mr. Crawford, 46, was “known to live in the Tacoma and Spanaway areas” and “has a history of drug dealing and drunken driving.”
I wonder why the Seattle Times decided to describe Mr. Crawford as a transient. Isn’t the preferred term “homeless”? I suspect that the good liberals at the Seattle Times just couldn’t bear to admit that the “homeless” are capable of committing crimes and acting irresponsibly. They won’t want to acknowledge that some “homeless’ persons are “homeless” not because of economic injustice but because they are petty criminals that no landlord wants to put up with.
Who doubts that if Mr. Crawford had been the one struck while changing his tire, we would have only heard how he was “homeless”? Word games like this are beneath a respectable newspaper. But, then again, the Seattle Times stopped being respectable a while ago.
- posted by Thomas @ 12:38 PM
