Blockquote > I thought choke holds were considered a no-go since like the 90s?
Perhaps in those mamby pamby North of the Mason Dixon states. MAGA!
/sarcasm
the family of Eric Garner might beg to differ.
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That’s because you have the “complexion for the protection.” You have the privilege of believing it’s “rare and unpredictable” when its all too often a commonplace reality for most PoC in the US.
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I tried to acknowledge that point in my 2nd sentence.
Interesting, because in criminal cases, intent is everything.
- No, it isn’t everything. It’s a consideration.
- This isn’t a court of law.
- I’m not advocating prosecuting the neighbor. I’m noting his or her role in the predictable murder of the victim.
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‘A struggle ensued’ may not be the passive voice, formally, but it is passive in the broad sense that it does not identify an actor. ‘Bob struck Charlie’ is unquestionably active; ‘a struggle ensued’ raises the question ‘ensued from what?’ ‘Happened as a consequence of what?’
Which is a question to raise on cross-examination of any witness who uses such a phrase.
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OK, in that case, don’t say that they’re using passive constructions (which just isn’t correct); just come out and accuse them of obfuscation. The passive voice is incredibly useful and wrongly maligned.
One of many relevant Language Log posts. (On exactly the phrase “a struggle ensued” as it turns out.)
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That’s ridiculous. There are thousands of calls to the police every day. To say they’ll predictably end up with someone dead is overstating things by quite a bit. I get that you’re scared of the police, but they’re not random killers as you seem to believe. there are ~760k police officers in the US. Are they all out killing people every weekend?
What you don’t seem to “get” is that there’s a valid reason to be “scared.”
It must be nice, to still be able to believe that state agents actually exist to protect and serve the public, and that they actually fulfill that role on consistent basis… but it’s a privilege that I and millions of other people are not afforded, simply because our skin isn’t the right color and our pockets are not deep enough.
Enjoy it… while it lasts.
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If we allow things to continue as they’re going then sooner or later every parent of any colour (except for the wealthiest white people) will be having “The Talk” with their kids about the police. With increasing inequality, I have to wonder if that hasn’t already started happening in poor white communities where there aren’t enough darker-skinned people for the police to harass.
Ultimately, being the victim at the end of Pastor Niemoller’s poem is little better than being one of the victims at the beginning. One has to be incredibly complacent, smug, and blind to one’s privilege not to recognise that.
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Agreed; bullying and corruption only grow exponentially if they are left unchecked.
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While you may mean well, you’re being naive.
My concern for my personal safety, while extant, is relatively low because I’m straight, white and not visibly disabled. If you were trying to trolley me because you think fear is an insult, you’re wasting your time; I don’t share that particular insecurity over rational fear.
Again, when you call the cops on a POC or a person with a visible disability, you’re putting their lives in real jeopardy. Unless they’re an actual and immediate threat to you or others (not merely an illusory threat perceived through the filter of privilege), you’re escalating the situation and endangering everyone involved. That’s a mathematical reality you choose to ignore.
It really sucks that we’re denied police forces trained in keeping the peace. But ignoring an inconvenient reality makes it no less so.
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Thank you. I was going to call it out as ‘institutional passive voice’ myself and then thought, hang on, it isn’t exactly ‘passive voice’.
I don’t know exactly what to call it.
Wikipedia refers to phrases like “mistakes were made” which is similar in intent as the ‘past exonerative’ and credits a William Schneider with having coined that term.
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No, I did not. I couldn’t bring myself to watch yet another man be murdered. I just couldn’t.
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“Mistakes were made” is at least genuinely passive. But still, the point is not that they’re using passive, it’s that they’re obfuscating agency (as you acknowledge). Passives can be used for that purpose, but so can lots of things.
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