Missing child: 12 years old =man?

[eponinepontmercy]

This is a story from my local news website.  How is a 12 year old a "man" in any sense of the word?  I hope he's found soon.

The Wilmington Police Department is asking for your assistance in finding a missing child.



Twelve-year-old David Hinson is described as a black man, 5 feet tall, weighing around 80 pounds.



He was last seen wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and sweat-pants when he left his Wilmington residence in the 1400 block of Maryland Avenue around 3:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon after an altercation with a family member.



According to authorities, the boy suffers from mental issues as a result of injuries sustained from head trauma a number of years ago.



If you know his whereabouts, police are asking you to call patrol at 302.576.3921.

[tres3]

because he's black.

[IIOY]

Is "man" the word used by the police or the individual who wrote this up for the local website? The people who run the various local news websites that I follow tend to have little regard for precision or, occasionally, facts, so if this was a word choice made the article writer, I'm not sure I'd read too much into it. Hell, this morning I was marveling at the shitty editing in two of the front-section articles in today's WSJ.

[erbear]

Dec 22, 2014 8:20:27 GMT -5 IIOY said:

Is "man" the word used by the police or the individual who wrote this up for the local website? The people who run the various local news websites that I follow tend to have little regard for precision or, occasionally, facts, so if this was a word choice made the article writer, I'm not sure I'd read too much into it. Hell, this morning I was marveling at the shitty editing in two of the front-section articles in today's WSJ.

That's what I was thinking. I grew up in Delaware...the writers of the paper aren't exactly Pulitizer Prize material  They do refer to him as a "child" in the previous paragraph. My guess is the writer didn't want to say, "XXX is black", for some reason.

[statlerwaldorf]

I'm wondering if they meant to write male. Whenever my local newspaper takes things from the police reports, they usually use male or female.

[zoegirltx]

I did read a study a while back about how most people consistently over-estimate the ages of minorities, especially males, so they are often viewed as much older than they actually are.