{"id":4077,"date":"2010-09-18T12:10:01","date_gmt":"2010-09-18T20:10:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.oeconomist.com\/blogs\/daniel\/?p=4077"},"modified":"2011-01-25T02:48:58","modified_gmt":"2011-01-25T10:48:58","slug":"i-suspect-eveyone-and-no-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oeconomist.com\/blogs\/daniel\/?p=4077","title":{"rendered":"<q>I suspect everyone, and no one!<\/q>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I <em>loathe<\/em> the way that police officials and journalists will use the word <q>suspect<\/q> as if it means <span style=\"font-style: italic ;\">perpetrator<\/span>, as in <blockquote><a href=\"http:\/\/www.upi.com\/Odd_News\/2010\/09\/17\/Robber-makes-off-with-spoils-one-dollar\/UPI-63851284755110\/\"><q>When the register was opened, the suspect partially jumped over the counter and thrust both hands into the cash drawer<\/q>, police spokesman Joel DeSpain said.<\/a><\/blockquote><\/p> <p>A <em>suspect<\/em> is one <em>suspected<\/em> &mdash; that is to say <em>surmised<\/em> &mdash; to have done something.  To baldly declare that a person did something is to speak with far more than <em>suspicion<\/em>.<\/p> <p>One can have <em>multiple<\/em> suspects even knowing that an act was committed by just <em>one<\/em> perpetrator.  And one can have <em>no<\/em> suspects despite knowing that some person or persons must have acted; the use of <q>suspect<\/q> for <span style=\"font-style: italic ;\">perpetrator<\/span> becomes utterly <em>absurd<\/em> when virtually nothing is known about the perpetrator. Here <blockquote><a href=\"http:\/\/www.northjersey.com\/news\/crime_courts\/103149514_Glen_Ridge__Police_blotter__Sept__17.html\">An unknown suspect (or suspects) allegedly entered the garage during the previous night and removed a Cannondale bicycle valued at $500.<\/a><\/blockquote> the police don't even know <em>how many<\/em> perpetrators there were.  <em>On whom<\/em> does <em>suspicion<\/em> fall?  Here <blockquote><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thestarphoenix.com\/news\/City+business+robbed\/3439039\/story.html\">officers have no description of the suspect, except that he was wearing a black, red and white bunnyhug<\/a><\/blockquote> they have a gender and a hooded, tri-color sweatshirt.  <em>On whom<\/em> does <em>suspicion<\/em> fall?<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I loathe the way that police officials and journalists will use the word suspect as if it means perpetrator, as in When the register was opened, the suspect partially jumped over the counter and thrust both hands into the cash drawer, police spokesman Joel DeSpain said. A suspect is one suspected &mdash; that is to [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,117],"tags":[287,202,182,73,363],"class_list":["post-4077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-communication","tag-english","tag-everyday-frustrations","tag-journalism","tag-peeves","tag-police"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oeconomist.com\/blogs\/daniel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oeconomist.com\/blogs\/daniel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oeconomist.com\/blogs\/daniel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oeconomist.com\/blogs\/daniel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oeconomist.com\/blogs\/daniel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.oeconomist.com\/blogs\/daniel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4077\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oeconomist.com\/blogs\/daniel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oeconomist.com\/blogs\/daniel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oeconomist.com\/blogs\/daniel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}