San Francisco Police Department Seeks Help To Solve Crime But Blurs Face Of Suspect

This could make for an interesting line up.

The San Francisco police posted a videotape of a man lighting the hair of a woman on fire on a bus.  They were seeking the help of witnesses but bizarrely blurred out the face of the suspect. When confronted on the curious effort, the police insisted that it was just trying to get people to recognize the victim. Huh?

The young man is shown in the videotape casually moving over to sit behind the woman and then puts a lighter to the back of her head. She was helped by other passengers as the suspect and two friends ran off of the bus.  She obviously could have been severely burned or even killed in such an attack if the fire spread.

This is what the police posted:

Police spokesperson Adam Lobsinger later explained that they were trying to find the victim because “without the victim, when we catch the suspects, it’s harder to do anything,. We are still looking for the suspects.”

That is a bit hard to follow. One would think that they are trying to find both the victim and the culprit.  The latter is particularly important since he is out in the public after lighting the hair of a woman on fire. Regardless of the eventual prosecution, you should want the public’s assistance in finding this maniac and getting him off the street. You can actually show both faces and achieve both purposes. Moreover, you have a videotape to help with any prosecution regardless of the victim.  The police also have the driver as a witness.

I just cannot track the logic on this one.