bad press - it happens

[Orca]

Found in a national Dutch paper a few days ago:

/Dutch
Man in rok rijdt meisje aan
UTRECHT -
Een blanke man met een zwarte rok en zwarte beenwarmers heeft woensdagmiddag in Utrecht een meisje aangereden. Hij fietste zonder zich om het slachtoffer te bekommeren door.
Ondanks zijn opvallende verschijning, de man reed ook nog op een rode fiets en droeg een paarse trui, heeft de politie hem nog niet kunnen vinden. Ook een oproep op Burgernet heeft niets opgeleverd.
De verwondingen van het meisje vielen mee, maar toch wil de politie een hartig woordje met hem spreken. De man is ongeveer 40 jaar oud en heeft vettig haar.
/Dutch

/English
Man in skirt rides collides with girl
UTRECHT -
A white man with a black skirt and black legwarmers Wednesday afternoon in Utrecht has hit a girl. He cycled on without caring about by the victim.
Despite his striking appearance, the man also drove a red bicycle and wearing a purple sweater, the police could not find him. Also requests on Burgernet has nothing. (civilians network)
The injuries of the girl were not bad, but still the police wants a heart to heart talk with him. The man is about 40 years old and has greasy hair.
/English

Too bad that the fact that this man was wearing a skirt was the most newsworthy fact of the news item..
But even the bad stories must be known..

[skirtingtoday]

I think that the journalist is simply trying to get people to read his article completely by putting the eye-catching "skirt on a man" scenario in the first dozen words. The reader (in his view) only looks at the first two sentences and it is then that the "hook" is cast to get you to read he rest of the piece.

Certainly, I am sure most folk here (if not all) would have stopped to check thinks were OK. Once I was cycling past an elderly lady walking in the same direction as me and startled her as her hearing was poor and didn't hear me approach (despite the bell ring) I stopped to make sure she wasn't having a heart attack before proceeding.

Perhaps the fellow's partner disapproved of his skirt-wearing and he was desperate to avoid publicity - not the case here because he was more fully described later, and the fact that he didn't stop. If he had stopped, it probably wouldn't have been recorded or even newsworthy!

[partlyscot]

To my mind, the description of his "striking appearance" is more to say "Why couldn't we find him if he looked that striking?" Could have been a clown suit and the intent would have been the same. Unfortunate that his behaviour reflects badly on us.

[Milfmog]

Unfortunate that his behaviour reflects badly on us.

I'm not sure that it does. It reflects badly on him, but as for us all it does is demonstrate that skirt wearing men are a cross section of society with good 'uns and bad 'uns; just like most other subsets of mankind.

Have fun,


Ian.

[skirtingtoday]

Another example I have just come across certainly won't help skirt/dress wearing by men:-

http://www.islandpacket.com/2014/06/24/ ... stick.html

[Kilty]

Deleted

[Caultron]

You know, though, I did enjoy the writer's tongue-in-cheek attitude on this. "...fashionably-dressed..."

You'd think the robber would be more concerned about being inconspicuous, though. Maybe he thought no one would suspect a guy in a dress of being a bank robber. Or maybe it was a disguise, hoping that everyone would look at the dress rather than him. Like, they wouldn't recognize him on the sidewalk or in a police lineup without the dress.

I suppose it could also be that he wears dresses all the time, but that would sure help the police in picking him up.

Imagine if the police dispatcher announced, "Be on the lookout for a black male wearing a red dress," and one of the cops then asked, "Does he have any distinguishing features?"

[skirtingtoday]

You know, though, I did enjoy the writer's tongue-in-cheek attitude on this. "...fashionably-dressed..."

You'd think the robber would be more concerned about being inconspicuous, though. Maybe he thought no one would suspect a guy in a dress of being a bank robber. Or maybe it was a disguise, hoping that everyone would look at the dress rather than him. Like, they wouldn't recognize him on the sidewalk or in a police lineup without the dress...

Just trying to imaging the police line-up with a half dozen guys in red dresses...

I did like the "...fashionably dressed..." aside as well.

[skirtingtoday]

And here's another robber who "worked" in the Maryland, Delaware and Pennsylvania areas - he has been caught and charged with robberies. Not for wearing skirts though...

http://www.delawareonline.com/story/new ... /13146505/

[Sinned]

I don't think these stories would reflect badly on us. The perpetrators were using female clothing to disguise their identities as the objective would be to draw attention to the clothing and not their faces. Personally the risks involved in robbing a bank of such paltry sums just doesn't seem worth it.

[skirtyscot]

So how much would you need to make it worth the risk?

[crfriend]

Imagine if the police dispatcher announced, "Be on the lookout for a black male wearing a red dress," and one of the cops then asked, "Does he have any distinguishing features?"

Actually, that's a perfectly honest question because it's really trivially easy to change clothes.

For one, if I was going to rob a bank I wouldn't do it in a dress, I'd do the deed wearing a suit and working the scam from the inside. Just like all the rest of them recently.