this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2023
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Prosecutors have charged a Metropolitan Police officer with murder after he shot rapper Chris Kaba in London last year.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This is absolutely ambiguous diction.

“…who shot and killed unarmed black man…” would have been substantially more specific and readable without potential confusion.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Except "shot and killed" it self can be ambiguous. What did he kill them with? Did he shoot him then kill him with a knife?

Shot dead, means the shooting is what killed the man.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 1 year ago (3 children)

In school you learn to keep titles short. You added a lot of filler words that can ruin the headline on apps that cut them off, or printed media.

Shot dead is correct.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

"fatally shot" is the same amount of words and less confusing

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

"shot dead" is a phrasel verb, therefore it can (I would argue in this particular context it should) be split:

shot (whom?) dead.

I shot him dead

He shot his wife dead

Cop shot unarmed black man dead (including press-specific omitting of articles because English is stupid)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

And yet, we wouldn’t be having this discussion if the wording was actually unambiguous.

I removed one word and added two. That’s not “a lot of filler words”.