“Police executed a search warrant on [a suspected murderer’s] apartment and recovered a weapon” in Detroit.
In Missouri, a “gun was recovered Monday at Belton Middle School after a student brought it to school and hid it in the gym area.”
Across the pond, “London Police Recovered …Scissors, Pliers, And Screwdrivers” “In A ‘Weapons Sweep’.” (If you haven’t already read this article from April 2018, I urge you to. It’s a telling illustration of Leviathan’s endless quest to render us totally incapable of defending ourselves against tyranny: “Now that Britain has largely disarmed their [sic] populace of firearms, conservatives reason that knives are the next target. But even knives are not the problem, according to the Regents Park Police, who recently boasted on their Twitter account of confiscating a pair of scissors, some pliers and a screwdriver during a so-called ‘weapons sweep.’” Hearteningly, Twitterers heaped delicious scorn on the thieves: “Thank goodness for your vigilance @MPSRegentsPark. Were it not for your noble efforts, someone might have reupholstered a chair; or worse, assembled an IKEA wardrobe,” scoffed one. Another snorted, “They stopped an electrician on his way to work.” )
Back home, cops in Illinois “recovered two firearms” from a vehicle they chased. One “firearm” “had been reported stolen…,” but the other apparently belonged to the driver.
And that’s my point. Dictionary.com defines “recover” as “to get back or regain (something lost or taken away).” In the cases above, no owner had lost his gun or tools until the cops robbed him.
Is the media’s consistent misuse of “recovered”—by which they mean “police stole this item, be it guns, drugs, money, or even a screwdriver, from its rightful owner”—mere carelessness from illiterate reporters and editors? Or is it a sinister Freudian slip, i.e., a reflection of the belief that all our goods and even we ourselves belong to the State?
10:31 am on January 16, 2020
