Newspeak in Washington State law enforcement

| May 22, 2017

Chris sends us a link to KIRO7 which reports that the police in Seattle’s Department now refer to “suspects” in their reports as “community members” because “labeling someone a suspect can sometimes be misleading if they are not suspected of anything.” In the incident specifically that triggered this report, there’s little doubt that the suspect wasn’t a suspect;

Sources point to the suspect who shot three officers last month after a downtown Seattle armed robbery. When officers involved in that incident were writing their use of force reports they were required to refer to the shooter, Damarius Butts, as a “community member,” not a suspect, police sources said.

Police fatally shot Butts after they said he shot the officers.

Yeah, I suspect he’s decomposing as we read these words as a result of him being a suspect, rather than a member of the community. KIRO also reminds us that the Washington State Department of Corrections has ceased referring to their inmates as such;

Last fall, the Washington Department of Corrections stopped calling inmates “offenders” and instead use the term “student.”

At another KIRO link;

In [Acting DOC Secretary Dick] Morgan’s memo, he wrote that the term offender “is a label that impacts more than the person to whom it is applied. The label has now been so broadly used that it is not uncommon to see it used to describe others such as ‘offender families’ and ‘offender employers or services.’”

You can read the .pdf of that memo at this link.

Category: Who knows

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Doc Savage

Oh, FFS!

desert

This is bullshyt, we have so many pussies running police depts now, its sickening! A bunch of liberal, ass kissing, panty wastes!! imho, makes me ashamed to say I was ever a police officer!

HMC Ret

Yeah, let’s sterilize any word that might offend someone. In doing so, the liberal dimwits who pass such laws can feel good about themselves since they are contributing to the ‘progressive’ movement.

And the lowlife rat fucking suspects, uh, community members can feel better about themselves since they are no longer considered to be the dredges of society. They can now ID themselves as community members. Remember that next time a community member comes to avail him/her-self of your belongings at zero dark thirty. Remember, now, they are members of the community. The community of which you are also a member. Treat them accordingly.

Jeez, when will the insanity stop?

CC Senor

What do we call “community members” from out of town?

Graybeard

comrade

HMC Ret

This is an example of weapons grade pussification.

Dinotanker

Sigh… And to think I grew up over there. I have no clue as to what kind of mad monkeys have bit the collective population on the western side of Washington in the ass. Most of folks I grew up with were too busy trying to get an education, find a good job, get laid, and hopefully be able to put a good meal on the table. But then again, I do come from a family of loggers.

The current fad to “not hurt anyone’s feelings” by using blunt and accurate language is truly disturbing. If you had nothing to do with the crime in question, you are a community member. If you are involved and are not clearly the victim…then YOU ARE A SUSPECT. A very good boyhood friend of mine, who is a retired police officer once said “There are cops, friends of cops, and assholes.” Somehow we seem to have allowed the latter to continue to influence how the rest of us should speak.

I am a homegrown Washington boy. I love my state, and my county. I cannot fathom the current fad (?) of political correctness. I worry for my state. I am at a loss for words, even though I have ranted here more than usual. Thanks for your patience.

Sparks

You go that right Dinotanker. We here in the Eastern portion of the state are held hostage by the liberal left coast. I have always supported the efforts of those who wanted eastern Washington and Oregon to form a separate State. But that will never happen because again, it depends on a vote which would include the I-5 corridor’s say. I like where I live and enjoy the conservative part I live in. But these mandate’s made statewide impact all of us.

Dinotanker

Ahhh dammit, COUNTY should have been COUNTRY!

Fyrfighter

Folks, this is what happens when you don’t spay / neuter libtards… they reproduce at a rate you would expect from lower life forms, and then come up with stupid shit like this!

Ex-PH2

Are you saying they have litters now, instead of just one and done? I thought they were all anti-children, not pro-children. What did I miss?

Graybeard

They reproduce by parasitically replacing the brains of rational people with a liberal mush. A fungus or cancer, if you will.

Fyrfighter

Ex, that’s the college “educated” ones who view abortion as nothing more significant than a teeth cleaning…I was talking more about the inner city types that keep electing idiots like maxine waters, etc. the ones that get bigger govt check everytime they pop out another kid… or the ones that use american born kids as an excuse as to why they shouldn’t be deported…and GB, I totally agree with your assessment, that’s the only explanation for what has happened to my siblings… they sure didn’t end up the way they did due to what my parents taught them…

A Proud Infidel®™

Maybe said “College Education” infests certain human minds like a brain-eating fungus such as that which kills ants:

http://www.livescience.com/47751-zombie-fungus-picky-about-ant-brains.html

Ex-PH2

You know, Bill Clinton did one good thing: he initiated a welfare-to-work program, which meant XX number of hours per week or no welfare check. Obama, that wonderful fella who nearly bankrupted the country in every way, canceled the program.

Some states still have it in place. I think we need to get it back in place nationally.

A Proud Infidel®™

More like that’s the kind of shit that happens when you let libtards infest and infect a location to the point where they take over! Libtards are not unlike a parasitic infection, they infest one location until they’ve rendered it unlivable and then migrate to infest other locations like they did with California and are now doing with OR, WA, CO and other places. Be humane folks, HAVE YOUR LOCAL LIBERALS SPAYED OR NEUTERED.

Andy11M

Well, this all did start a few years ago when the police started using the term “person of interest” instead of “suspect” during “ongoing investigations”.

Ex-PH2

I think that started because some people who were not suspects were interviewed by police and referred to as ‘person of interest’. But it was because they may have been witnesses or somehow connected to an occurrence. (See, you can’t even say ‘crime’ any more. That’s too abrasive.)

ocean12

Washington State Department of Corrections, community corrections officers (similar to probation and parole officers) started calling the offenders “clients” several years ago. Like changing what you call a murder is going make a difference.

Graybeard

Texas Department of Criminal Justice COs and staff were told to quit calling inmates convicts, and later told to quit calling offenders inmates.

They’ve not come up with a replacement for “offenders” yet.

And, FWIW, many old-timers still use the politically noncorrect terminology.

luddite4change

I guess they can just be called “guests”.

Aysel

“involuntary guests”

Mick

‘Customers’

‘Beneficiaries’

‘Disadvantaged victims of the oppressive system that failed them’

Graybeard

What is both frustrating and interesting about this is that the “new” word or phrase soon acquires the nuances of the old-and-offensive word or phrase.

Think of:
Crazy -> Retarded -> Mentally Ill -> Mentally Handicapped

convict -> inmate -> offender -> whatever

Other examples may come to mind.
What the SJWs in their self-delusion cannot overcome is that reality will prevail. An individual convicted of a crime, is a convict, when incarcerated in a prison he is an inmate, and by virtue of his violating the law he is an offender. And people know all this, and whatever the sparkle-pony-riding SJWs decide to use to refer to him, he will have the stigma of being a convicted inmate offender.

The suspected criminal will still be a suspect.

The entire exercise is an ongoing demonstration of the insanity suffered by the retarded left.

Veritas Omnia Vincit

We the people are not required to follow this fucking nonsense. We can call them whatever we want, shitbag criminals will continue to be one of my primary terms.

For those with mental issues I’m not uncomfortable with a more polite term as those poor bastards have no choice in what’s happened to them typically. They are born with a diminished capacity and have little opportunity to change that reality.

Fucking criminal shit bags are there by choice, they choose to take your stuff or your life. Fuck those guys…hope they all get slaughtered in prison.

Veritas Omnia Vincit

And the word usage is completely wrong as a member of the community isn’t preying on the other members. It’s the fucking outsiders who believe themselves to be above the community who feel entitled to take what they want however they feel like taking it.

Don’t want to call them “suspects” fine, call these shitbags what they are, predators on the community or parasites on the community. They are not members of any community of mine, so fuck those guys.

HMCS(FMF) ret

OT – Looks at who the Bezerkeley City Council is friendly with:

https://heatst.com/culture-wars/berkeley-invited-pro-terror-groups-to-planned-forum-on-responding-to-conservative-speakers/

FREE SPEECH FOR ME, BUT NOT FOR THEE

Ex-PH2

I liked this part: “Kershnar claimed to have reached out to several potential speakers, namely, Tur-ha Ak of the Anti Police-Terror Project and Judith Mirkinson – both radicals who have ties to radical anti-police and terrorist activism.” – quote re: Kershnar, who is a radical herself.

The Other Whitey

Lars’s people.

A Proud Infidel®™

More “People of Tolerance” further proving that LIBERALISM IS A MENTAL DISORDER.

Dennis - not chevy

My favorite example of how smart Berzerkeleyites are: One day in Berzerkely, my dog and I were outside a store waiting while the not chevy family was shopping. I noticed people crossing the road to get away from my mean and aggressive dog, some even identified my dog as a pit bull. I heard some folks saying such dogs should be banned from society. I looked around and only saw one dog, mine. When the shopping was done, we all left Berzerkely never to return.
I never have apologized to the masses of Berzerkelyites for terrorizing them with a Basset Hound.

The Other Whitey

Again, Lars’s people.

A Proud Infidel®™

Maybe you were “micro-aggressing” them by showing human superiority over an animal or some candyassed PC shit like that?

rgr769

They were prolly macro-aggressed by not chevy showing mastery over a dog. In the Communist Peoples Republic of Berserkelely, specifically and the Bay area generally, you cannot own pets. There you can only be their “guardians.” Cuz they are like animal peeps. They even have an ordinance to that effect in the San Fransicko.

OWB

That there is one of the very best examples of just how demented lefty folks are. Thanks for sharing.

Your poor Basset could have been severely traumatized by them, except that it had far superior reasoning skills. Your move to leave the area was more than sufficient.

UpNorth

If the “suspect” isn’t suspected of being a suspect, I seriously doubt any officer would describe a “community member” as a “suspect”. 🙃

Hack Stone

What if he lives outside of the city limits? Technically he would not be a community member.

UpNorth

It’s the “community of humans”, Hack. Caught myself before I typed “community of man”, which would have been a microaggression. Or, would that be a macroaggression?

A Proud Infidel®™

Maybe “The Community of Earth”‘or some pot-headed hippie bullshit like that?

UpNorth

That’s it! “The Community of Earth”.

OCCD

In our corrections dept. a few years ago we had a director who was a former social worker. He wanted us to refer to the jail compound as a “campus”, and to address the prisoners as “residents”. Never really caught on. He’s now history thank goodness.

Graybeard

He needed to work an AdSeg block for a month in preparation.

Graybeard

…without a raincoat.

Hack Stone

Warden, the residents are committing a mass campus break!

Rb325th

Fucking stupidity

David

I pointed out to someone how spin works… example, WaPo will refer to the bloody fella standing over the stabbed body with a knife in his hand as the “alleged” killer – but talk about how Trump definitely released highly classified info in a meeting at which they were not even present. People do not realize how thoroughly they are getting played by media who are masters at manipulating connotation vs. denotation.
(Example – if the word in one language for “hero” means someone who dies gloriously sacrificing himself, and in another it means someone who kills stealthily by any means (preferably underhanded) and survives the day – you will fight two different kinds of enemies because their mindset is different.

Casey

Using “alleged” in a news story is not spin. It’s been a part of most newspapers’ style guide for decades. It denotes someone who has yet to be convicted of a crime.

That’s not to say spin doesn’t happen, it does. There is a difference, however, between the use of a style guide and spin.

11b-mailclerk

The -selective- use of “alleged” is spin.

Perry Gaskill

“Alleged” is actually a useful word, and often a means to avoid libel.

It also doesn’t particularly benefit the suspect. Without it, a defense attorney could argue press bias and point to preexisting jury influence.

The Other Whitey

Chickenshit.

Kafir

Well, it’s Washington state, where law enforcement says, “don’t fight back against suspects, I mean community members, you’ll only make it worse”

The Other Whitey

Sounds like great advice for rape victims!

/sarc

Hack Stone

They are not rape victims. They are just people that have not given consent to sexual intercourse.

UpNorth

But, those people may have given consent by the way they dressed, or how they acted, or what they may have said./s

Mick

Damarius

— sigh —

IDC SARC

Vigilante is a strong word too….but keep it up and the public will have no choice.

A Proud Infidel®™

So is Lynch Mob.

RGR 4-78

Spontaneous justice gathering.

RGR 4-78

Undocumented justice adjunct.

A Proud Infidel®™

Undocumented Law Enforcement.

HMC Ret

Have you ever listened to politicians for a while and wondered who ties their shoes?

I mean, really …

A Proud Infidel®™

I truly wonder how so many of them even remember how to breathe.

Silentium Est Aureum

You should hear my Congresswoman.

Calling her a human house plant would be kind.

nousdefions

I see where this is going:

Criminal -> Suspects -> Community Members -> Republican

Criminal -> Convict -> offenders -> student -> Republican

Crazy -> Retarded -> Mentally Ill -> Mentally Handicapped -> Republican

Ex-Garbage Gun Shooter

What we have here is a form of insanity caused by higher cranium temperatures which, of course, are caused by global warming which we all know is caused by excessive bovine flatulence which is quite obviously caused by proponents of the second amendment.

Thus, the obvious and perhaps only possible way to cure this disease is by prompting our representatives to enact legislation requiring farmers to feed their cattle at least one extra strength gas relief tablet per day.

Perry Gaskill

Jerry Brown called. He wants his manifesto back…

J Wright

The leftist pols are crybaby bed-wetters.

A Proud Infidel®™

So in a few years statements like “The suspect in this crime…” will be PC watered to something like “The poor oppressed poop stain in this oopsie…”

HMCS(FMF) ret

“This pillar of the community, who is a good church-going person”…

Atkron

Seattle is a MAJOR embarrassment to the rest of the state…though Bellingham is trying like hell to win the title.

HMCS(FMF) ret

You’re right… there are some areas along the I-5 corridor away from the SeaTac/Olympia area that are red and trying their damnedest to keep the libtard mentality away.

11b-mailclerk

Another example of the Cultural-AIDS that is Progressivism.

It is 100% fatal to civilization in the long run, because it absolutely mandates passivity in the face of, and ultimate acceptance of, -barbarism-.

All in the name of “civilized” behavior, of course.

Ex-PH2

These liberals are like my mother. She would constantly interrupt me in the middle of a sentence with ‘You can’t say that’ even if what I said was completely correct, accurate, and direct. She did this because she didn’t want to offend anyone, whatever that means.

Her theme ran like this: You can’t say that. You can say something namby-pamby inoffensively muddled and therefore inaccurate instead.

gitarcarver

As far as the term “suspect” is concerned (and only that term) I agree that it may be inappropriate.

The American judicial system works on the presumption of innocence. Yet when someone is a “suspect,” in the minds of many they are seen as guilty even before a trial.

In the past, the use of “suspect” was not an issue but today, with search engines that pull up references to people being named a “suspect” – even if later cleared by the police – has an everlasting effect on people.

I am not sure that “community member” is the right term, but when after 10 years a person applies for a job and the HR person sees they were a “suspect” in a crime, or when the person moves into a neighborhood and someone Googles them there is a negative effect. No one ever really reads that the person was cleared of involvement. That’s seldom reported. All is left is the stain upon an innocent person.

(As for the rest of the terms, if you did the crime, you get the accurate label that comes with it)

Atkron

Like Ed Murray (Seattle’s Mayor) being currently sued and suspected of diddling underage boys?

Funny how when the 4th guy came forward, and the police let slip that he called the Chief on the sly to get some half naked young man removed from his house; the Mayor decided maybe he didn’t want to run for re-election after all.

gitarcarver

How about the countless kids in college that are labeled as “suspects” sexual assault cases? When it comes to light that the claim was made up, how do they get their lives back?

There is a difference between being called or labeled something because you actually did it, and actual innocence and the label following you around the rest of your life.

That’s all I am trying to say.

FatCircles0311

Don’t give an inch to the anti American scum pushing this garbage.

gitarcarver

Three words:

Duke Lacrosse Team.

They were “suspects” as was the whole team.

Prior Service

It’s a shame that it is growing increasingly likely that I will never retire to my six acres of island property back in Washington. It is just getting to be embarassing now.

Sadly I remember it before all the duds from Califailia started leaving their state and flooding mine. The west side of the state is a paradise that is now filled with jerks.

A Proud Infidel®™

Thus my theory of liberals and liberalism being like a parasitic infection.

rgr769

It is kind of like cancer, just harder to cure. You can’t even hope for remission.

FatCircles0311

This is the left rewriting criminals into innocents to later be used as further propaganda. If they aren’t literally destroying and removing US history like some Islamist terror group off shoot they are now in police reports redefining perpetrators as the victims.

OWB

Doesn’t really matter what they are called. Let the lefty scum stay all confused about defining the terms. The rest of us all know that when a suspect is convicted they often become prisoners.

Can hardly wait to see how they want to redefine “sex offender registry.” Maybe we can keep them occupied arguing over that one and keep them out of our business otherwise.

2/17 Air Cav

The word suspect, when used by police, is legally significant. A suspect must be Mirandized, for instance. This fact gave us the phrase ‘person of interest’ which seems to fall somewhere between suspect and interviewee/witness. However, the current change in language to describe people who are involuntary dealing with the criminal justice system has nothing to do with legal considerations. Instead, it is part and parcel to what is called criminal justice reform, a Federal initiative that many states have adopted. The reforms include language, not referring to inmates as inmates, probationers and parolees as offenders, or former inmates, probationers and parolees as ex-offenders. Believe it or not, the Feds came up with “criminal-justice-system-involved individual” and similar terms to describe defendants, inmates, and others in the system. This dates to you-know-whose administration.

Mike W.

I work for the Federal Bureau of Prisons and call the Inmates CROOKS.
F**k PC