Kentucky city pays $150,000 to man beaten by police for walking away from bus stop
Nikcoli Carter claimed he was waiting for a bus at the corner of Dixie and Hill when he was "unjustifiably" approached by police and then punched and kicked him numerous
Archived page, if you're paywalled or region-blocked
Until we see “OFFICER PAYS” instead of “city pays” this shit will never stop
I'd settle for many thousand "OFFICER FIRED AND ARRESTED" headlines.
This article says so much in how it tries to not assert any facts. He “claimed”. Everything is in quotes. Oh, the charges were dismissed. The police department somehow lost all recordings. Huh, the arrest report didn’t mention beating him. Oh.
I worked at a newspaper.
To avoid libel lawsuits and focus on the facts, journalists use qualifying words like “alleged” and “claimed” even when a collection of facts seems to point to particular unproven truth.
It’s the job of the justice system not the journalist to prove guilt.
Yes, I understand why they do it. That’s usually before a case is decided or settled, and they can’t say “someone did this or this” because it might be libel if they are found innocent. So they have to say “allegedly” or “police say they believe” (no offense but this is fairly common knowledge). It is okay to definitively state that someone committed a crime after they've been convicted.
I suppose that in this case, they had a settlement without admitting fault or something and so have to continue using that sort of language. They do not have to credulously repeat what police say about other aspects with no questions though. For instance when they say “oh oops police lost the tape” they could follow that up by discussing whether it is common or not for police to conveniently lose recordings that could be incriminating.