Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012

As a reader, I sometimes need more

These days, a lot of newspapers are devoting sections of their websites to mug shots of the latest people arrested by police. And why not? The web has a nearly infinite amount of space for posting content, including photos, and if position on a web page suggests popularity, then the mug shots enjoy high readership.

It is useful, I think, to attach faces to crimes, because not every criminal is the stereotype portrayed by old television shows.

But the mug shots are not completely satisfying because they make me want to know more about the faces behind the crimes.

Unfortunately, no media outlet has the time or resources to probe every criminal defendant in detail.

One night last week, I was reading the Chicago Tribune; I visit the paper's website about once a week to keep up with the Cubs. On this particular night, however, the paper had nothing new about the Cubs, so I just wandered around the website, where I ran across that day's mug shots.

I didn't make it through all 150 photos, but I saw enough to make me realize I wasn't always satisfied with the two or three paragraphs that accompanied each shot.

I didn't spend too much time on the folks charged with burglary and larceny, because I just assumed they were stealing to support a drug habit. That's sad but hardly intriguing.

But I did pause on the mug shot of the 17-year-old who, while in jail awaiting trial on a murder charge, was charged with trying to hire someone to kill a witness in the murder case.

I wanted to know how a 17-year-old came to be an accused killer suspected of trying to have a witness killed.

I wanted to know, too, how a 19-year-old, with the words "Love," "Hate," "Kill" and "Take" tattooed on his chest, came to be charged with first-degree murder.

How does it come to be that a 19-year-old plans the killing of someone else?

I'm not one of those people who say society should forgive crimes committed by people who happened to be abused, neglected or what-have-you as children. But a mug shot doesn't tell me all I need to know about every crime.

Sometimes I need to know more. I suspect you do too, and I hope you'll let us know when a story needs a fuller telling.

Drop me a line at sbolejack@newsobserver.com, or give me a call at 836-5747.