Here's my letter to the Detroit News on this stunning misrepresentation.
Dear Editor:
As a veteran of the Los Angeles and Detroit Police Departments, I am a firm believer in accurate and honest crime reporting. But to call 16% of those murdered in Detroit "visitors" is not only misleading, it needlessly hurts our entire community. Do you call non-Detroit residents who work at the Detroit News visitors? Or perhaps you call them "carpetbaggers?" Am I a "visitor" when I shop in Hamtramck? Of course not. Using the term "visitors" for those who have a primary residence in the suburbs, including Highland Park, Hamtramck, Dearborn, and others, recklessly damages our reputation, and creates the impression that tourists and true visitors to our town are being routinely gunned down. And that's just not true.
Words matter. And if any institution should know and respect that, it's one of our major daily newspapers. Shame on the Detroit News.
Thomas E. Page
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