If it “walks like a duck with a gun, talks like a duck with a gun, it’s a duck with a gun,” police said.
Bayview cops couldn’t avoid getting into a shootout Saturday. Two officers exchanged gunfire with thugs by a public housing development, though no one was hit, police said.
He said that the use of thug is to meant to denote "would-be criminals" but I think it's too presumptuous. On language: what do we really mean by "thugs"?
Apologies that this is not poetry-related.
I agree Eugenia. I don't know why you would have to describe them as thugs. I think readers get the point if you said "two officers exchange gunfire with two unidentified young men outside the public housing development..." We get that these men were probably not door-to-door salesmen. Thug just seems loaded. My in laws from England were just here visiting and one they noticed about the U.S. was we always specify in new stories what race someone is. They said that in England only sex and age are discussed. They thought we were a bit race-obsessed. Now apparently we are thug obsessed as well!
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