Selective Indignation

Dear Editor,
    A good example of selective righteous indignation on the part of The Austin Chronicle can be found in the Nov. 27 "News of the Weird" section, last fragment. In it, a murder suspect named Larry Joe Jerry Jr. is cited as "an example of the highly revealing 'Three First Names' theory of criminal liability," tacitly concurring with the theory's apparent notion that someone with three first names is predisposed to criminal activity. How anyone who rightly takes offense at the stereotyping of someone because of race or color, something with which they were born, can turn right the hell around and support, however lightly, that a person assigned three names at birth is to be regarded as a good bet to being fitted for an orange jumpsuit one day is beyond me. Though the degrees of permanence of each "condition" vary, the fact remains that furthering a stereotype of any kind that targets an innocent for negative public speculation and scrutiny is wrong as the day is long.