Casting a Wide Net

Police in Daytona Beach, Florida are looking for a suspected serial killer. He's described as…

…likely clean-cut, employed and involved in a relationship, possibly even married…

…"This killer is one of us," Daytona Beach Police Chief Mike Chitwood said. "He is our next-door neighbor. He is somebody we go to church with. It is somebody who is a respectable, decent human being on the outside."

The punchline:

Chitwood asked women involved with someone with qualities likened to the serial killer to contact the police immediately. He said they may be in danger themselves.

Comments

[sage]

Maybe they should go door-to-door. As in "kicking in." That's what they want to do anyway.

[Jozef]

Finally the introverted, all too quiet and weird people like me get a break. Suck it, you clean-cut men in a relationship.

[Episiarch]

Better round up everybody. They're all guilty of something anyway.

[drawnasunder]

Photo of suspect:
http://www.sho.com/site/dexter/myspace/images/slideshow/dexter20.jpg"

[John]

Imagine if the serial killer were black or a woman and they said this? I can't imagine the backlash. It is always okay to round up the evil white males, they are guilty of something even if it is just being white and male.

[Elemenope]

drawnasunder-

Just finished the first season of Dexter on netflix. Fucking good show. Creepy, though.

[jimmydageek]

Something on your mind, John? I didn't see any reference to race in the words:

" ...likely clean-cut, employed and involved in a relationship, possibly even married...

..."This killer is one of us," Daytona Beach Police Chief Mike Chitwood said. "He is our next-door neighbor. He is somebody we go to church with. It is somebody who is a respectable, decent human being on the outside."

Or are white folk the only clean-cut employed individuals out there?

[John]

Jimmy that is a great point. He might as well of said "This killer is one of us, he has a job, goes to church, he is not one of those hipty hop listening darkies." My God people are stupid sometimes.

[jimmydageek]

Really?

[Lamar]

Suspect number 2.

[Neu Mejican]

It is always okay to round up the evil white males, they are guilty of something even if it is just being white and male.

Life is so hard for use white males.
I don't know how we manage...[/sarcasm]

Endomorphs Unite!

[Neu Mejican]

Use = us...
damn

[Neu Yorican]

Life is so hard for youse white males...

=/;^)

[crimethink]

Having now RTFA, it makes the cops look even more incompetent (if that were possible). Apparently they launched an undercover prostitution sting to help catch the serial killer, even thought they say he's not targeting prostitutes. I assumed the sting involved female cops posing as prostitutes to catch johns, one of which might be the serial killer.

Umm, no. I really don't see how arresting prostitutes helps catch the serial killer.

[mike]

Whew. Glad I don't go to church.

[ChuckG]

John,

Your logic is unassailable!

Idiot

[jimmydageek]

No kidding, crimethink. Now they need to find a bunch of ugly ass female cops to replace the real prostitutes they took off the streets.

[Lamar]

It all makes sense. The cops say that the serial killer is "one of us." So naturally, the first place they look is to hookers. My question is whether "one of us" refers to Daytona citizens, or just horny cops?

[thoreau]

I can't imagine the backlash. It is always okay to round up the evil white males, they are guilty of something even if it is just being white and male.

Come down off the cross, John. We need the wood to beat the shit out of the guy trying to ban testicular car ornaments.

[Abdul]

That's like the line from an old Clint Eastwood movie:

Secretary: Waht do we know about the killer?

Clint: He's caucasian, average height, average build.

Secretary: any suspects?

Clint: About 500,000.

Secretary: what should I tell the mayor?

Clint: He's one of them.

[Umbriel]

A recent New Yorker article by Malcolm Gladwell addressed the similarities of "criminal profiling" to "cold readings" by psychics and fortune tellers:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/11/12/071112fa_fact_gladwell

[P Brooks]

."This killer is one of us," Daytona Beach Police Chief Mike Chitwood said.

Can we send in the National Guard to round up all the cops? With live ammo?

[jimmydageek]

Maybe it was an attempt at a confession.

[Amanda]

It is always okay to round up the evil white males, they are guilty of something even if it is just being white and male.

All men are collectively guilty even if not personally guilty because the hierarchical patriarcy has been keeping women down for millenia.

[Dave W.]

I thought the news item about the two off-duty police officers shot to death in DeKalb County was more interesting. The off-duty officers were apparently making an unlawful arrest* in their uniforms, when a friend of the arrested party decided to end the kidnapping by shooting the officers to death.

I believe that you are priviliged to shoot kidnappers in the act of kidnapping, but somehow that is not the way the media is portraying this incident.

Another example of police officers being accorded special rights, even off-duty.

FOOTNOTE:
* The arrest was apparently a reasonable suspicion patdown, which is okay for on duty police officers, but unlawful for regular citizens, IIRC.

[J sub D]

Chitwood asked women involved with someone with qualities likened to the serial killer to contact the police immediately. He said they may be in danger themselves.

In Vegas, the tip line would be silent. Daytona Beach?

[P Brooks]

the hierarchical patriarcy has been keeping women down for millenia.

That's womyn, dammit!

[John]

"Come down off the cross, John. We need the wood to beat the shit out of the guy trying to ban testicular car ornaments."

What are talking about Thoreau, this is PC crapola. This is the product of some fucking con man profiler psychologist fully informed the language of the "white male hierarchy" and all that bullshit. If the killer were black or a woman they would never dream of telling men or black women to be sure to call the police because their wives or boyfriends might be the killer. This is no different than the old tactic of listing a group of random men and placing it on a college bulletin board under the headline "potential rapists". Calling bullshit on this kind of crap is not being on the cross. What the hell is wrong with you?

[jp]

Thanks for the link, umbriel. I've often wondered whether profiling is a crock.

[Ken Hagler]

Of course as jimmydageek pointed out (and went completely over John's head) the article says nothing whatsoever about skin color. John is simply assuming that "...somebody who is a respectable, decent human being on the outside" must necessarily be white.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and speculate that John is a Conservative.

[Jennifer]

If the killer were black or a woman they would never dream of telling men or black women to be sure to call the police because their wives or boyfriends might be the killer.

Nonsense. I do recall reading about a case just a few years ago where cops in some Northern town took DNA from pretty much every young black male in town, in search of a particular black suspect. (The DNA sweep didn't work, however.)

Serously, John, chill. This isn't a case of evil PC stupidity; this is just plain ordinary stupidity. And as much as I would LOVE to call the cops in this case and say "Every man in my office is employed, and here's the names of the ones who are clean-cut and married. Arrest them; they ALL fit the profile!", I still don't take this as the cops saying "Oooh, evil scary white men," but more like them saying "this killer probably looks like an ordinary, non-scary person."

The cops were trying to make a legitimate point here; it's just that they did a hilariously bad job of it.

[J sub D]

John, don't try the professional, easily offended victim, shtick here. It doesn't fly. Black, white, male, female, christian or atheist, you get no sympathy for imagining PC offenses.

[Kolohe]

It must be said from my extensive experience (i.e. watching Dick Wolf TV shows) that serial killers are generally 30-40 year old white males.

[John]

I am not an offended victim and frankly could not give a shit less if the cops call out white people. And yes Jennifer I remember the DNA case as well and the whole country had a heart attack about it. Outside of reason this story will never get any play. That is my point. That is not PC victimhood. It is more the case you people are a little too eager to find PC victimhood where it doesn't exist.

[Jennifer]

Outside of reason this story will never get any play. That is my point. That is not PC victimhood. It is more the case you people are a little too eager to find PC victimhood where it doesn't exist.

What? You're the one finding PC victimhood here, John. The cops talk about how a serial killer is probably "a respectable, decent human being on the outside," and you not only interpret that to mean "we're looking for a white guy," you claim it's anti-white PC racism?

Mote in mine eye, beam in thine. . . you know the drill here.

[Jennifer]

I couldn't find the words "white," "Caucasian" or "European" anywhere in that article, John. So what makes you so sure the cops are saying "get whitey" in this instance?

[Paul]

Oooh! Oooh! I know this guy!

[Mith]

Watched a true crime documentary one time, the killer had murdered these two girls in a neighborhood. Cops have a couple of suspects, but its all guesses and they really have nothing to go on. Cops get the FBI profiler, who goes over everything, and gives them a report: White mail, late 20's early 30's. Clean cut, has a job, in a relationship. Then it ends with "likely mechanically inclined, would like working on VW cars." Neither of their current suspects matches the description at all and the Cops are like "What is this crap? This is the stupidest thing I ever read."

So they just start going door to door in the surrounding area, asking everyone who will open the door if they know anything. Then they get to a house with a couple of VW's in the back and the cops start laughing "This must be the guy!" Start talking to the owner of the house, and he's a normal looking guy but he gets real shifty. So the cops search a little deeper, find the guy has a very old and obscure connection to the families of the murdered girls. Eventually they tie him to the scene with some physical evidence and eventually the guy confesses.

In the doc, even the cop was like "I don't know if the profiler knew something we didn't and couldn't tell us directly, or if it was voodoo or what, but we never would have caught him without the VW thing."

[Mith]

hehe "white male" not "white mail".

And I even used Preview. Must not have had enough to drink today.

[jimmydageek]

Cops get the FBI profiler, who goes over everything, and gives them a report: White mail,...

Anthrax?

[Jamie Kelly]

John, you're aware that serial killers almost always "hunt" victims of their own race?
And when the hell did the police say "white"?
You're being overly sensitive. Suck your thumb or something, take a nappy.
Oops, did I say nappy? RACIST!

[Jeffry Dahmer]

This guy kills just three prostitutes and he gets to be called a serial killer? Puh-leeze.

[lunchstealer]

"This killer is one of us," Daytona Beach Police Chief Mike Chitwood said. "He is our next-door neighbor. He is somebody we go to church with. It is somebody who is a respectable, decent human being on the outside. But on the inside, they are out there preying on women. He is dehumanizing women."

Women in loving, stable relationships are encouraged to take their husbands or partners in to local hospitals for CT scans and MRIs to detect any woman preying that may be going on in his internal organs.

[Isaac Bartram]

If this assesment is based on the work of a profiler everyone would do well to take it with a grain of salt.

This New Yorker article deals pretty nicely with the Myth of the profiler

[Agammamon]

On the other hand, when someone says serial killer, what race do you picture?

For me its a white male, mid-20's+, above average intelligence, quiet and polite.

Shit, I better never go to Florida.

[Stevo Darkly]

Woo hoo! For once, we moody eccentric loners who keep to ourselves a lot and have difficulty maintaining a relationship are off the hook! Woo hoo!

How to celebrate? I know! Tonight I'll take my battered, dark-colored, windowless van out on the streets and roam around looking for vulnerable prostitutes!

[J sub D]

On the other hand, when someone says serial killer, what race do you picture?

When the DC beltway sniper was still loose, I did some amateur profiling. I got it right (ex military, loner, loser) except for the skin color. I confidently said white. Does that say something about me? Or about serial killers?

[Someone Who Doesn\'t Want to L]

J sub D:

Did you realize it was two guys?

My suspicion is that the racial or ethnic group membership of serial killers may be roughly proportional to that of the general public. There just aren't that many serial killers out there (fortunately) and many aren't caught (unfortunately), so the racial makeup can seem skewed pretty easily.

[peachy]

I think SWDWtLHJ has an excellent point - with such a small sample size, finding common features is pretty pointless beyond the obvious (the whole mass killing thing, doncha know.)

[Ralphy]

The white male, mid-30's serial killer thing is entirely mythical. If you look over the list of known serial killers you will find a cross-section of race, gender, and nationality. Sociopathy and violence are not confined to one type of person.

Also, profiling almost never works.

[JW]

J sub D -- The worst part about the the DC sniper is that they had an accurate description of the car the shooters were driving after the very first shooting; I remembered hearing it on the news that night, after the shooters were caught and their car described.

But nooooooooo, someone saw a white panel van driving "suspiciously" kinda, sorta, near one of the later shootings, so all anyone saw after that were white panel vans.

Chief Moose should have chased out of town by a mob bearing pitchforks and torches for his incompetence. Instead, he's some freaking hero since someone else caught Mohamed and Malvo by accident, far away from his jurisdiction.

[lunchstealer]

So was John posting drunk this morning or what?

I mean, yeah yeah white christians the only people you can make fun of yeah yeah but seriously? The problem with this is that its stupid, not that it's racist/reverse-racist/sexist/Johnist.

[TrickyVic]

"""I do recall reading about a case just a few years ago where cops in some Northern town took DNA from pretty much every young black male in town, in search of a particular black suspect. (The DNA sweep didn't work, however.)"""

Maybe it didn't solve their case but getting the extra DNA profiles in the system was a win for them.

[phocion]

Put out an APB for a male suspect, driving a... car of some sort, heading in the direction of, uh, you know, that place that sells chili. Suspect is hatless. Repeat, hatless.

[joseph]

This was bound to happen sooner or latter. Once police start profiling the trend expands.