Comments Elsewhere

Cop-speak is a non-standard variant of English in which “authorities” is a first-person plural pronoun. In addition to some variant vocabulary, many simple verbs are, notably, replaced by passive constructions and gerunds without missing or unclear subjects; these are part of a systematic grammar preventing the possibility of attributing any form of moral responsibility to the speaker. For example, in cop-speak you might write: “Washington (CNN) — Police near the U.S. Capitol opened fire on Thursday on a car being chased by authorities, hitting a woman driving the vehicle that also contained a child, an intelligence source told CNN.” Whereas standard English would require: “An intelligence source told CNN that police near the U.S. Capitol chased a car with a woman and a child in it. Then they shot their guns at the car, and hit the woman driving it.”