The phrase has real consequences for how the reading public understands police shootings.
Its passive voice obscures agency and avoids even the question of culpability; there is no action, only “involvement.” Its police origins give it a built-in bias, so when it circulates in the press, a police shooting, by definition a matter of power, becomes a question merely of procedure.
The query “was this shooting just or a criminal act?” becomes “was it in or out of policy?” Deeper questions — about the police’s political and economic relationship to the populations it serves, protects, or polices — are even easier to dodge.
Its clumsy evasiveness obscures meaning and denies the victims of such shootings even the slight dignity of victimhood. The person shot disappears into the phrase, swallowed up by the police spokesman’s pallid, passive-voiced, tortuous indifference.
Why is this important to be aware. Because this shit goes on in the corporate media to this very fucking day.
Like this.
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