Learning Strategies

So let’s suppose that the Boston Globe (4/24) is reporting on a crime story, based on a press release from the office of Suffolk County DA Dan Conley. And let’s suppose that the crime took place in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Boston. Would you expect that the article would begin like this?

A Dorchester man was sentenced yesterday to more than seven years in jail for selling crack cocaine from a Beacon Hill apartment.

Well, Chris Stanley observed that the DA Office’s 4/20 press release began like this, so we know where the Globe got it from:

A Suffolk Superior Court jury yesterday convicted a Dorchester man of selling crack cocaine out of a Charles Street apartment in the shadow of Beacon Hill last year, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley announced.

Apparently the Globe, which is located in Dorchester, and the DA’s Office, which includes both Beacon Hill and Dorchester in its jurisdiction, both feel compelled to identify a crime with Dorchester just because that’s where this criminal comes from, even though this particular crime took place in tony Beacon Hill. Yes, crime is admittedly more of a problem here than there, but why make it seem worse than it is?

Labels: Dorchester