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Dept. of Deja Vu: Police account of shooting doesn't match witnesses'.
This weekend, the Daily News reported discrepancies between the police account of a shooting that left a North Philadelphia man paralyzed and the account given by witnesses - all eerily reminiscent of our recent cover story.
Dept. of Deja Vu: Police account of shooting doesn't match witnesses'.
Happy Monday!
In celebration, I'm going to share a hitherto-tightly-held journalistic secret — a magic recipe for getting a scoop no one is likely to have. Just follow these steps:
1. Wait for Philadelphia Police to shoot or kill someone.
2. Ask questions.
That's what Daily News reporter Regina Medina did this week and — lo! — she stumbled on a slew of witnesses who contradict the police account of a shooting that left a young North Philadelphia man paralyzed.
Police say the man pointed a gun at them; witnesses say the police shot him in the back as he fled.
Medina's reporting, what's more, unearthed a witness who says the police called her "a white n----- lover," and asked her "why am I living in the jungle with a bunch of n-----?"
The story reminded me of a similar experience I had, after reading a tiny blurb in the daily newspapers about a man — Air Force veteran Harry Bennett — who was fatally shot by police, also in North Philadelphia, after being tased when he allegedly brandished a "meat cleaver."
A week late to the story, I went to the scene and found several witnesses who offered a very different story than that given by police and faithfully written down un-questioned by reporters. Among the various details witnesses offered was the observation — confirmed by four people independently — that police dragged the man's body, ankles-first, down a set of concrete steps while he was either bleeding to death or already dead.
In this weekend's case, one paper seems to have talked to witnesses and the other didn't — and it shows. The Inquirer's article on the same incident is only a few paragraphs long and contains only the police account of what happened. The DN, however, spoke to witnesses and obtained a completely different story than that offered by police.
Does that necessarily mean the police account is wrong? Of course not — but the police have a vested interest in giving simple, clean explanations. And that makes their stories worth checking.
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