Anyone who believes America, or even diverse-on-purpose Oak Park, has transcended race as an organizing principle of our fears and frustrations need only look at the comments on our website at OakPark.com. Responding to last week’s fast-moving story about attempted abductions of three teenage girls in Oak Park and Austin, some readers are steaming over the Journal’s policy on when we identify by race a person suspected of committing a crime.
Here’s the policy, as it appears each week at the foot of the police blotter in print and online: “We report the race of a suspect only when a serious crime has been committed, the suspect is still at large and police have provided us with a detailed physical description of the suspect as they seek the public’s help in making an arrest.”
We’d close this by noting that crime in Oak Park is at a 40-year-low and that dark complexion, mid-20s, medium build, wearing a blue hoody is not a detailed physical description that will lead us to safer streets.