A one-of-a-kind discussion broke out last week on the Houston Herald Facebook page. The unusual and somewhat whimsical nature of the banter caught the attention of some of us at your local fish wrap.
The subject of the impromptu debate was the use of the word “swipe” in law enforcement incident reports regarding thefts posted on the Herald website and included in the printed newspaper. The cyber-conversation was launched by a post indicating swipe was a silly word to use, and even depicted a low level of education (specifically, “eighth-grade”).
The initial post was followed by eight or 10 more which expressed a variety of differing opinions. All in all, it was a fascinating and fantastic example of free speech in action.
Of course, the situation made my active imagination shift into high gear. Especially when people started weighing in on the implications or impact of the word “swipe.”
While me and a few other folks in the office agreed that “steal” and “swipe” quite literally have the same meaning (as Dictionary.com also indicates), a few participants in the debate said swipe – and I’m paraphrasing – is weaker and less incriminating. They felt saying something was “swiped” is less accusatory (and therefore maybe fairer) than saying it was “stolen.”
We were like, “wow; so if we say someone stole something, we’re convicting them in the court of media, but if we say they swiped it, we’re going easy on them. Amazing!”
So then, is swipe more or less impactful than “rob?” Is alleging there was a theft less convicting than saying there was a “larceny?”
These things seem pretty subjective. But that doesn’t make them any less interesting.
Of course, then you have the debate’s originator saying we’re wrong to use the word “swipe” at all.
Hmmm.
As usual, I thought this through (probably more than I should have) and came up with a possible solution.
Maybe when it comes to writing short summaries of incident reports about theft, we should log onto Thesaurus.com and purposely insert varying words in place of stolen or swiped. Maybe we should even base those word choices on the specific nature of given incidents.
For example, if a pirate ship sails down Grand Avenue and a guy with long, dirty hair and bad teeth jumps out and steals a flowerpot from in front of a business, we could say the pot was “plundered.”
If a 1940s-style gangster and his henchmen pull their big black sedan into Casey’s General Store and the guy hops out, points a Tommy-gun at a clerk and demands a Snickers bar, we could say a “heist” took place.
If someone goes into Walmart, shoves a Bizzy Bubs doll under their shirt and leaves the store without paying for it, we could say the toy was “abducted.”
Obviously, if an angry mob descends on one of the local flea markets and the ensuing riot results in a frenzy of theft from the store, we would have to say the old cast iron pans, candle holders, VHS tapes and other things taken away were “looted.”
And maybe if a person we like is accused of stealing, we could simply say they “removed an item from its allegedly rightful position.”
Whether or not this more colorful approach is any better than just saying stuff gets stolen or swiped is up for – you guessed it – debate. And I figure that debate would be even more interesting because there would be so many more angles involved.
Anyway, I’m glad there are people out there who spend some of their valuable time pondering the validity and worthiness of content printed in the Herald and posted on its website. While we will never, ever satisfy everyone with everything printed or posted online (which would be scary if it happened), it’s good to know there are at least a handful of people who care (kind of).
Oh, and one more thing: I won’t be doing so, but I think it would be interesting to submit this whole concept of the value of the word “swipe” to local eighth-graders and see if they can come up with anything this creative. Just sayin’.
Doug Davison is a writer, photographer and newsroom assistant for the Houston Herald.
Email: ddavison@houstonherald.com.
