Good Guys 1, Criminals 0, Media -15
By Mitch Berg
Homeowner kills intruder:
Gerald Whaley told police that he was home alone when he heard what sounded like several intruders breaking in through his garage about 11 p.m. Minutes later, he shot a burglar once with the .22-caliber rifle he kept loaded by his bed. The intruder stumbled downstairs and collapsed in the home on the 11700 block of Bittersweet Street.
Whaley, who had no phone, got dressed, climbed out onto a second-floor deck and went next door to call police. The intruder was dead when police found the youth, whose name wasn’t released Tuesday.
And then the Strib reporter dug up a Dostoyevskian biography on Mr. Whaley, detailing years of housing code citations – possibly germane to the shooting – and his battle with the Anoka-Hennepin School Board, which isn’t.
This is the same Strib that figured that reporting Alan Fine’s complete innocence of a charge in a 35 inch story reported on page A1 was being excessively thorough.
November 29th, 2006 at 10:31 am
And then the Strib reporter dug up a Dostoyevskian biography on Mr. Whaley, detailing years of housing code citations – possibly germane to the shooting – and his battle with the Anoka-Hennepin School Board, which isn’t.
I was perplexed by that very same thing, Mitch. It reminds of the Nick Coleman column where he was writing about the UND “Fighting Sioux” controversy. Nick felt the need to mention the man whom the hockey arena was named after (Engelstad) collected Nazi paraphernalia.
November 30th, 2006 at 11:49 am
How many column inches would the Star Tribune give this story if Gerald Whaley was the one laying at the bottom of the stairs, shot dead by an unknown assailant? NOT MUCH! And probably nothing at all if Mr. Whaley was injured by the assailant so that he could no longer live in his own home, and take care of himself. That wouldn’t be worth anything to the Star Tribune. No anti-gun political points to be made there.