Letter: Public safety trumps ethnic sensibilities

EDITOR,
Last week’s Press-Banner had a small story about a robbery at the local Subway sandwich store (“Scotts Valley Subway robbed at gunpoint” Page 5, Aug. 6). There was a short description of the robber (man, about 30, black jeans, black sweater, black baseball cap), but there was no mention of ethnicity.
I saw nothing about a face mask, so I must assume that the person giving the description noticed his ethnic background. This is not the first time I have noticed this.
It seems over the past decade or so, the color of the criminal’s skin is much less important than the color of his or her pants in the new age of newspaper reporting. Why is ethnicity consistently omitted by newspapers? It would seem that if the goal is to catch a criminal, ethnicity would be at least as important as the sex of the criminal.
My suggestion in the future is to show concern less for ethnic sensibilities and more concern for public safety.
Mike Duffy, Scotts Valley