Political Correctness

I try to keep my comments and observations to reflect the lighter side of life, however, there are occasions where events unfold in manner completely devoid of humor. Typically, I quickly file them away in a place that will never find its way to these pages, but there are exceptions.

Recently a city police department released details on a crime to the media where political correctness officially took the leap from lame to irresponsible. I would normally let it pass, but this is the second time in recent months the same police force has forced me to consider the danger of their actions. While I have never been a fan of trying to water down the English language to the point where we strip out descriptiveness, it has taken criminal activity to illustrate that it isn’t simply self-righteousness masquerading as enlightened, but dangerous.

The most recent incident was an attack on a woman walking in a park. Fortunately, aside from some bumps and bruises, the victim escaped largely unscathed. In their formal announcement, the police notified the public that they are looking for witnesses, and we were told to be on the lookout for two 5-foot-4 males. The earlier episode that first caught my attention was even more egregious. An Amber Alert was issued with a full description of the child, the vehicle that she was put in, and once again, the height of the abductor.

What’s missing? How about any useful information. In an effort to ensure that we don’t offend an ethnic, age or whatever demographic you might choose, the police have managed to make the entire male population suspects. Thus, severely limiting the odds that the suspects will be caught. A woman has been attacked, a child taken from her home, and we can’t mention that the suspects are white, black or hispanic because someone’s feelings might be hurt? No mention of if they were twenty or eighty because there is concern of stereotyping? Can we no longer say that the suspect was overweight to avoid making someone watching the report from feeling insecure about themselves?

Someone in the upper layers of law enforcement has totally lost their ability to think clearly. They are making the already difficult jobs of their front line officers far more difficult than they need to be. I can only hope that someone in the decision making process has a stiff cup of coffee and suddenly realizes that they have created an absurd situation only capable of making bad situations worse. If we are seriously try to find someone, their appearance would seem to be relevant to the case. How about job one being to catch the bad guys and protect citizens? If a credible description exists, let’s assume that rationale adults want dangerous criminals caught regardless of their physical characteristics.

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