This article was very enlightening to read as it brought up a new aspect of news articles I haven’t considered before. When reading about police shootings, it seems very black and white since in theory, you were either correct in shooting them or not right? Balko introduces the idea that despite the justifications, the police always seem to be portrayed as the good guys. While it isn’t blatantly said, the wording used undermines the events and the purpose of the article making it lackluster at best. If Long Soldier maintained this type of writing style, it would have caused many sympathizers of “Everything is in the language that we use” to have a nonchalant attitude towards her article instead. To not use the needed grammar only signifies to reader that this story is not important or newsworthy to add literal effect. This heavily adds insult to injury to the victim’s family as their story is being poorly misrepresented by the media in an effort to soften the blow on affected communities. It is the responsibility of these various medias to educate the public of the ironies throughout our system of the very people sworn to protect us, committing murder. We can further extend this irony to whether the same people who are supposed to “educate” us, are actually misleading us.
3 thoughts on “The Curious Grammar of Police Shootings”
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I agree with the fact that leaving out key information through the language that these writers uses allows the officer to be portrayed as the “good guy”. At the very least it allows the officer to not be seen as the bad guy because often times they remain unknown to the public. Additionally, I liked the way you included the fact that the officers who are sworn to protect us are the ones who are killing us, especially in todays society. good w0rk!
I like how you pointed out that the grammar causes the story to become insignificant, and how Long Solider would have created a nonchalant attitude towards the article because I didn’t initially pick up on that. I also like how you pointed out that the victims family would become offended, as the real situation was not portrayed correctly throughout the media.
Interesting point on how “Balko introduces the idea that despite the justifications, the police always seem to be portrayed as the good guys.” It almost seems as if our justice system has no faults and as if the system itself was perfect and infallible in the report from the communication officers. The same people who are suppose to represent public order and enforcers of the law also sow public discord by covering up their own mistakes.