Ask HN: Why aren't we talking about Alton Sterling or Philando Castile?

8 points by JackDanger 9 years ago | 7 comments

I'm seeing posts about the bomb-disposal robot and lots of interesting little stories that I'd love to read some other day but this is the one news site I know of that doesn't mention Alton Sterling or Philando Castile. Why is that?

minimaxir 9 years ago |

Via the Guidelines:

> Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon.

cmontella 9 years ago | |

I would consider using a robot bomb to kill a suspect an "interesting" (for scary values of interesting) new phenomenon: http://motherboard.vice.com/read/dallas-pd-using-a-bomb-robo...

greenyoda 9 years ago | | |

And that aspect of the story is indeed being discussed:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12055492

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12057421

Red_Tarsius 9 years ago |

Because the topic doesn't belong in a news aggregator about technology, science and business. My heart is near the victims and you can show them respect in other meaningful ways.

ChuckMcM 9 years ago | |

Pretty much this. There are so many places to talk about these things. It doesn't mean that people here don't consider the topic important, I've seen discussions on twitter, facebook, reddit, and elsewhere that explore many of the same points that the news media is exploring.

IanDrake 9 years ago |

If I was Mr. Castile, the last thing I would want is to have my good name [0] banded about in pairs with Mr. Sterling who was an armed felon and sex offender with a history of resisting arrest [1].

[0]http://heavy.com/news/2016/07/philando-castile-criminal-reco...

[1]http://heavy.com/news/2016/07/alton-sterling-arrest-record-c...

jacquesm 9 years ago |

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12054230

And many other submissions besides.