NY Times Declares Michael Brown To Be 'No Angel' [View all]

[LloydS of New London]

Source: HuffPo

Posted: 08/25/2014 10:25 am EDT Updated: 10 minutes ago

The New York Times is drawing criticism for a Monday article about the life of Michael Brown, the unarmed black teenager shot dead by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri.

The paper's John Eligon wrote a lengthy profile of Brown, touching on the "problems and promise" he faced. Much of the piece could be seen as sympathetic towards him. It was this paragraph, though, that set people off:

Michael Brown, 18, due to be buried on Monday, was no angel, with public records and interviews with friends and family revealing both problems and promise in his young life. Shortly before his encounter with Officer Wilson, the police say he was caught on a security camera stealing a box of cigars, pushing the clerk of a convenience store into a display case. He lived in a community that had rough patches, and he dabbled in drugs and alcohol. He had taken to rapping in recent months, producing lyrics that were by turns contemplative and vulgar. He got into at least one scuffle with a neighbor.

"No angel" struck many as a very jarring descriptor to insert. The reaction was swift: of course Brown was "no angel," because he was a regular human being, but what did that have to do with his death?

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/25/ny-times-michael-brown-no-angel_n_5708619.html?cps=gravity

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There's a tweet by Jamil Smith below the article that's spot-on.