N8CCRG t1_iuj42y1 wrote on October 31, 2022 at 6:40 PM

Thank you CNN for calling him a "then-officer" instead of an "ex-officer." It's about damn time.

mces97 t1_iujd3nv wrote on October 31, 2022 at 7:41 PM

Can you explain what the difference is? Serious question.

N8CCRG t1_iujf4ov wrote on October 31, 2022 at 7:55 PM

"Ex-officer" is ambiguous. Were they a former officer, who then committed a crime, or did they commit the crime as an officer, and afterwards get fired.

In addition to being ambiguous, news standards did not use the "ex-" modifier regularly. They used it for certain groups like (ex-)officers and (ex-)military who committed an act while in that role, and were later fired, but not for other groups like, say, truckdrivers. In other words, even if a truckdriver was later fired, the headlines would still refer to them as "truck driver who did X" and not "ex-truck driver."

mces97 t1_iujf9fb wrote on October 31, 2022 at 7:55 PM

Thank you for the clarification. 🙏

tom90640 t1_iujepep wrote on October 31, 2022 at 7:52 PM

He was an officer "then", he is an "ex-officer" now.

mces97 t1_iujfb84 wrote on October 31, 2022 at 7:56 PM

Oh, yeah, that makes sense.