Joseph McKain

A picture is worth a thousand words, the popular saying goes. Sometimes the picture inspires more than a thousand words — but sometimes these words tell an inaccurate or misleading story.

Take the photo of Joseph McKain, for instance. The image, on Page 7 of Tuesday's edition, shows a bruised and battered face, signs of “road rash” where, according to an accompanying news report, the 68-year-old Cabot man was tasered and handcuffed after resisting arrest following a traffic stop Sunday morning in Butler.

The image shows plenty of scrapes and swelling, a severity of injuries that suggests a beating. Readers of the Butler Eagle's Facebook page commented as much, saying among other things that state troopers who pulled over the driver were more energetic than they needed to be in subduing him — and that the news story withholds this information.

That's an interesting observation. It's also an irrational assumption.

One of the most important functions of a law enforcement officer is to be a professional witness. Police make detailed observations, make measurements at crime and accident scenes, take notes and write up incident reports, and testify in court proceedings. This doesn't mean they are infallible. Cops make mistakes, sometimes intentionally. Sometimes they leave things out.

Ask yourself this question: If the state police wanted to hide evidence, do you think they would release a photo showing the roughed-up defendant? Do you think the Butler Eagle and other news outlets would publish the photo?

According to Monday's news story, troopers said they had to subdue and restrain the driver. First he refused to stop; and when he did stop, he refused to get out of his pickup truck. Two troopers stepped in and removed him but he continued to resist. One of the troopers deployed his Taser, and McKain was placed in handcuffs.

There are details that could not be resolved that night, nor should they be. Speaking generally, there could be any number of physical, medical, psychological or other conditions or circumstances that led to an incident of erratic driving and resisting arrest. Those details are routinely examined and presented as evidence during court proceedings.

If police overstepped their authority and caused injury unnecessarily, individuals have the right to pursue civil damages or criminal charges. One notable recent case that comes to mind is that of Ed and Audrey Cramer, who sued Buffalo township and its police, claiming they were falsely arrested for possession of marijuana when they were actually growing hibiscus.

In the Cramers' case, the expert observers were badly mistaken when they thought hibiscus was marijuana. It would be equally bad to assume from a photograph that a defendant suffered unnecessary police brutality.

And it would be totally wrong for a news organization to report that an incident did or did not happen, either way, if the fact has not yet been established.