Editorials—Details

News Reporting

07/24/2010

The news coverage of Thursday's tragic shooting at the High Court, in which Det. Lt. Liusila Brown was gunned down by Siaumau Siaumau, Jr. disturbs us somewhat.  While the coverage of the tragedy itself was excellent, it's the politically correct news writing that bothers us.  The Samoa News reported that Siaumau "allegedly" shot Brown.  Allegedly?  If was done in front of several witnesses, including The Samoa News own reporter, who managed to take pictures of the event as it unfolded.  Audio of the event was also captured by KHJ reporter La Poasa, in which the gunshots themselves can be heard, followed by Siaumau standing over Brown's fallen body and cursing him.  To say that Siaumau "allegedly" shot Brown seems to lessen the seriousness of the tragedly.  It wasn't "alleged", it happened in broad daylight in front of witnessses and reporters.  Of course, in our criminal justice system, Siaumau is "innocent until proven guilty", but that's utterly proposterous in this case.  Had police in American Samoa been allowed to carry weapons (see separate editorial), officers would most likely have returned fire and Siaumau would have been killed.  Instead, we'll now have to spend taxpayer dollars on a trial and probably a public defender and, since there's no death penalty in American Samoa, we'll also have to pay to incarcerate this dirtbag for the rest of his life.  But the real point of this editorial was the use of the word "allegedly."  Can we omit that from future stories?

--- talanei.com

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