{"id":353019,"date":"2018-03-20T10:03:05","date_gmt":"2018-03-20T09:03:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/copspeak-when-black-children-suddenly-become-juveniles\/"},"modified":"2018-03-20T10:03:05","modified_gmt":"2018-03-20T09:03:05","slug":"copspeak-when-black-children-suddenly-become-juveniles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/copspeak-when-black-children-suddenly-become-juveniles\/","title":{"rendered":"Copspeak: When Black Children Suddenly Become \u2018Juveniles\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_8916611\" style=\"max-width: 360px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-8916611\" src=\"https:\/\/fair.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/ABC-Juveniles.png\" alt=\"ABC 7 Chicago: Police: 'Large Disturbance' Involving Juveniles at North Riverside Mall\" width=\"350\" height=\"314\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>If <strong>ABC<\/strong>&#8216;s <strong>WLS-TV<\/strong> (<a href=\"http:\/\/abc7chicago.com\/police-large-disturbance-involving-juveniles-at-north-riverside-mall-\/3171531\/\">3\/3\/18<\/a>) had called it a &#8220;large disturbance involving children,&#8221; it wouldn&#8217;t have sounded nearly so ominous.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>As FAIR has noted many times before (<a href=\"https:\/\/fair.org\/home\/copspeak-7-ways-journalists-use-police-jargon-to-obscure-the-truth\/\">7\/10\/16<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/fair.org\/home\/6-elements-of-police-spin-an-object-lesson-in-copspeak\/\">1\/30\/18<\/a>), one of the primary goals of \u201cCopspeak\u201d\u2014broadly defined as the media internalizing police verbiage to sound Cool and Official\u2014is to dehumanize those officers have detained, harassed or killed.<\/p>\n<p>One popular iteration of Copspeak is when reporters refer to children or teenagers as \u201cjuveniles.\u201d This works to criminalize and dehumanize a distinction\u2014being a child\u2014we would otherwise view in a sympathetic light, by using the dry, scientistic language of an anthropological study. \u201cPolice shoot fleeing juvenile\u201d impacts us far less than \u201cpolice shoot fleeing child\u201d or \u201cpolice shoot fleeing teenager,\u201d which is why it\u2019s the preferred term of the police, and thus police-aligned local reporters doing their best Copspeak impression.<\/p>\n<p>Here are a few recent examples, children are referred to as \u201cjuveniles\u201d before they\u2019ve been indicted much less found guilty of any crimes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Juvenile Male Shot in NE DC (<b>WUSA<\/b>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wusa9.com\/article\/news\/local\/dc\/juvenile-male-shot-in-ne-dc\/65-484876928\">10\/17\/17<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>One Adult Dead, Juvenile Wounded in Officer-Involved Shooting in St. Louis City (<b>KPLR<\/b>, <a href=\"http:\/\/kplr11.com\/2017\/11\/23\/one-adult-dead-juvenile-wounded-in-officer-involved-shooting-in-st-louis-city\/?utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&amp;utm_content=5a182e1704d3012f892ec775&amp;utm_medium=trueAnthem&amp;utm_source=twitter\">11\/23\/17<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cBetween 700 and 1,000 disorderly juveniles gathered en masse near the JCPenney wing of the Cherry Hill Mall, according to police.\u201d (<b>Philly Voice, <\/b><a href=\"http:\/\/www.phillyvoice.com\/hundreds-of-juveniles-run-wild-at-philly-area-mall-five-charged\/\">12\/29\/17)<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Juvenile Expected to Be Charged After Officer-Involved Shooting in Jackson (<b>WJHL11<\/b>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wjhl.com\/news\/juvenile-expected-to-be-charged-after-officer-involved-shooting-in-jackson\/934047462\">12\/30\/17<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>Police: &#8216;Large Disturbance&#8217; Involving Juveniles at North Riverside Mall (<b>ABC7<\/b>, <a href=\"http:\/\/abc7chicago.com\/police-large-disturbance-involving-juveniles-at-north-riverside-mall-\/3171531\/\">3\/3\/18<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cSounds like @BaltimorePolice has dissipated the hundreds of juveniles along W. Franklin, according to @7eleven employee who says no damage occurred.\u201d (<b>Baltimore Sun<\/b>\u2019s Doug Donovan<b>,<\/b> <b>Twitter<\/b>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DougDonovan\/status\/972681527334195202\">3\/10\/18<\/a>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For centuries, societies have made a distinction between crimes committed by children and adults, with an understanding that, developmentally, they have different notions of guilt and responsibility. Blurring this distinction with \u201cjuvenile\u201d turns children into criminals, instead of what they are: children.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_8916612\" style=\"max-width: 360px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-8916612\" src=\"https:\/\/fair.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/WJHL-Juvenile.png\" alt=\"WJHL: Juvenile expected to be charged after officer-involved shooting in Jackson\" width=\"350\" height=\"319\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em><strong>Nexstar<\/strong>&#8216;s <strong>WJHL<\/strong> (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.wjhl.com\/news\/juvenile-expected-to-be-charged-after-officer-involved-shooting-in-jackson\/934047462\">12\/30\/17<\/a>) gets two of the key terms of Copspeak into the same headline.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Often, the term \u201cjuvenile\u201d is coupled with \u201cmale\u201d to maximize the dehumanization. This works in conjunction with other elements of Copspeak (<b>FAIR.org<\/b>, <a href=\"https:\/\/fair.org\/home\/6-elements-of-police-spin-an-object-lesson-in-copspeak\/\">1\/30\/18<\/a>): Instead of a \u201cboy\u201d or \u201cteenager killed,\u201d we have a \u201cdead juvenile male\u201d dying \u201cafter\u201d an \u201cofficer-involved shooting.\u201d The normal language of human interaction is replaced with Borg-like jargon: Chests become \u201ctorsos,\u201d boys become \u201cjuvenile males\u201d and\u2014by design\u2014humans become cadavers.<\/p>\n<p>If one opens<b> Google <\/b>in <a href=\"https:\/\/support.google.com\/chrome\/answer\/95464?co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop&amp;hl=en\">incognito mode<\/a> and types in \u201cjuveniles,\u201d the top results are either medical-related (e.g., \u201cjuvenile diabetes\u201d) or connected to crime: \u201cjuvenile detention,\u201d \u00a0\u201cjuvenile detention center\u201d and \u201cjuvenile justice.\u201d One does not, after all, ask a friend how their \u201cjuveniles\u201d are doing, or tell your spouse to put the \u201cjuveniles\u201d to bed; when people we consider like ourselves are under the age of 18, we generally call them \u201cchildren.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>During the Baltimore unrest in April 2015, a panic that produced several bogus narratives (<b>FAIR.org<\/b>, <a href=\"https:\/\/fair.org\/home\/medias-baltimore-teen-purge-narrative-falling-apart\/\">4\/29\/15<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/fair.org\/home\/federal-documents-debunk-baltimore-gang-threat-narrative\/\">6\/25\/15<\/a>), the Baltimore Police Department <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/search?q=from%3Abaltimorepolice%20juveniles&amp;src=typd\">routinely used the term \u201cjuvenile\u201d<\/a> to pathologize a gathering of mostly African-American children. \u201cSeveral juveniles are part of these aggressive groups,\u201d the department breathlessly warned on <b>Twitter<\/b>: \u201cThere is a group of juveniles in the area of Mondawmin Mall. Expect traffic delays in the area.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Baltimore police were not unique in applying this phrase to African-American children: The \u201cdisorderly juveniles\u201d in the Philadelphia-area mall and the \u201cjuveniles\u201d causing a \u201clarge disturbance\u201d in suburban Chicago, cited above, were also mostly black teenagers.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_8916610\" style=\"max-width: 360px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-8916610\" src=\"https:\/\/fair.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Cameron-Tillman.jpg\" alt=\"Cameron Tillman \" width=\"350\" height=\"197\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Fourteen-year-old Cameron Tillman (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.wdsu.com\/article\/teen-fatally-shot-by-terrebonne-deputy-state-police-investigating\/3373002\">9\/24\/14<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>When 12-year-old Tamir Rice was shot and killed by Cleveland police, <b>USA Today<\/b> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/news\/nation\/2014\/11\/23\/boy-fake-gun-shot\/19438005\/\">1\/23\/14<\/a>) wrote in its lead paragraph that cops were responding to a report that \u201ca juvenile was scaring people.\u201d The fatal shooting by Houma, Louisiana, police of Cameron Tillman\u2014a 14-year-old hanging out in an abandoned building with a bb gun\u2014was summarized by local media (<b>WDSU<\/b>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wdsu.com\/article\/teen-shot-killed-by-terrebonne-parish-deputy-3\/3373000\">9\/23\/14<\/a>) as \u201cthe deputy fired a shot or shots, striking one of the juvenile suspects.\u201d After George Zimmerman killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, <b>Fox News<\/b>\u2019 Tucker Carlson (7\/2\/13) asked former NYPD detective Bo Dietl about Martin\u2019s school records, and Dietl responded:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Well, you know, a lot of times when they&#8217;re juveniles like this, they could commit robbery. And they classify as a juvenile delinquent type of act.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>All three of these \u201cjuveniles\u201d were African-American children.<\/p>\n<p>Reporters likely believe they\u2019re being Official and Serious when adopting Copspeak, but they ought to consider why these terms are used. Police, like the military, use language deliberately designed to dehumanize those with whom they interact, in order to obfuscate their guilt when they kill or injure. It\u2019s an institutional lexicon developed over decades of public relations fine-tuning. There\u2019s no objective reason why reporters ought to follow suit, unless they view themselves as extensions of the police.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"et_bloom_bottom_trigger\"><\/span><script async src=\"http:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\nThis piece was reprinted by <a href=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\">RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission from <a href=\"https:\/\/fair.org\/home\/copspeak-when-black-children-suddenly-become-juveniles\/\">FAIR<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If ABC&#8216;s WLS-TV (3\/3\/18) had called it a &#8220;large disturbance involving children,&#8221; it wouldn&#8217;t have sounded nearly so ominous. As FAIR has noted many times before (7\/10\/16, 1\/30\/18), one of the primary goals of \u201cCopspeak\u201d\u2014broadly defined as the media internalizing police verbiage to sound Cool and Official\u2014is to dehumanize those officers have detained, harassed or [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2521,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-353019","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353019\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}