Crime Blotter, Monday Jan. 25: Pacific Heights Hot Prowl, North Beach Gang Fight, Serious Shooting At 16th And Potrero

Have we seen the end of racial descriptions in the Appeal's crime blotter? I think it's better if race is not addressed, in that it defeats any argument that crime coverage is stereotyped or unfairly singles out one race or another. Today's blotter doesn't mention race, but still gives an idea of the circumstances behind the report.

/me waits for someone to complain that mentioning the gender of involved parties is sexist.

The argument to exclude race was less an issue of political correctness and more about overall relevancy. Eve included the race of an individual in Friday's blotter (http://sfappeal.com/news/2010/01/crime-blotter-friday-jan-22-north-beach-street-fight.php) because it was complemented with more information. From what I gather race will be excluded unless the writer feels it otherwise important to include.

In terms of sentence construction, using "man" or "woman" instead of "person" does nothing to the overall sentence. It doesn't add anything extra to the sentence. Race was being used as an adjective, and the debate was more about its inclusion being irrelevant unless complemented by other information. That's only the argument against "man" or "woman" being contextually fine to leave in.

The argument that adding "man" or "woman" could somehow be sexist has yet to be brought up by anyone that feels offended. The issue has been brought up in a slippery-slope context, but not as an issue in itself. I'd be interested to hear someone's opinion if they think that gender is not only unnecessary, but actually detrimental to the blotter, much in the same way the race issue was debated.

Peace.