Today’s Chronicle editorial blasts the Houston Police Patrolmen’s Union for its billboards. In the piece, the Chron’s editors predictably misspell the name of the union, which is featured prominently on the billboards:
The Houston Police Patrolman’s Union launched the latest effort, posting the first of four highway billboards placed just outside the city limits. The billboards proclaim a rising crime rate, police staffing shortages, a dysfunctional dispatch center and an unsafe “don’t chase, don’t catch” policy. It concludes with the kicker, “Nowhere else but Houston.”
It’s Patrolmen’s, not Patrolman’s.
The editors of the Chron also slammed the biggest cop union in town. They got the name of that organization wrong, too:
The larger Houston Police Officer’s Association this summer unveiled an unscientific poll of police officers and has used it as a weapon to bash HPD administrators.
It’s the Officers Union, not the Officer’s Association. (Believe it or not, we still have more than one officer in this city.)
Granted, these mistakes aren’t that big of a deal on their own. But they don’t stand on their own as minor mistakes in a good newspaper. Instead, they’re symptomatic of much larger problems at the Chronicle — lack of attention to detail, emotion-laden screeds instead of well-thought-out opinion, and sloppy copy editing.
I emailed Chron reader representative James Campbell this morning, and he directed James Howard Gibbons to issue a correction in tomorrow’s paper. The mistakes have been fixed in the online version, though the link to the editorial is still erroneous. We’ll see if that correction shows up in tomorrow’s paper.
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8 Responses to “Chron goofs on editorial, fixes mistakes (sort of)”Search
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Get real - it’s obvious that Chief Hurttus has solved the problem of jail overcrowding. Just pick up a few after some are released…No overcrowding, controlled occupancy rates, etc.
The signs only state the obvious. Anyone with a brain knows what the problems are. The questions what is the city going to do to fix the problems?
The union, and I really don’t like unions, is correct this time and I hope that drawing public attention to the matter will result in positive steps to fix the problem.
If the cops were allowed to “take out” those that choose to flee, then the innocent bystander would not be involved in the first place. Right now the DPS is the only organization allowed to shoot the tires; we need to provide the proper training to all county and large metropolitan organizations to do the same thing. But the policy of chasing someone around basically until they run out of gas is what is putting citizens in danger. And if the crooks know that if they try to run that all measures to stop them will be used, maybe they will think twice. (or maybe not, but let’s give it a try).
We need serious penelties for running from the Police.
Add at least 1 year, no time off for anything, for runniing from the police. If the pilice are trying to pull you over for an expired inspection stiker and you run, then you should pay the fine for inspection sticker and do the year for running. Second offense, 5 years. Third offense, LIFE.
This is ridiculous…why in the name of safety do we have so many police agencies (state troopers, county sheriff deputies, constables, police)? Has anyone just thought of consolidating all police agencies in each county into one police force? I guess it all comes down to power and bureaucracy and politics, but it is plain stupid IMHO to have all these separate police agencies.
vlou
#5
Don’t forget Metro police! And yes, it is all about power, etc. Why is it that the County Sheriff is elected, but the HPD chief is appointed? D’oh!
Many of the departments could and should be combined.
Conbining the Sheriff dept. and the city of Houston would be slightly more difficult in that the parts of the City of Houston is located in 3 seperate counties.
True, but thank God for small favors. The county is run much better than the city, in my opinion. Under a unified system, it’s pretty likely that the City would dominate and bring HPD’s problems into the Sheriff’s Department.