more on "Monday"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Maybe I've  missed something.

Since it has to be explained to be understood (as "because nobody likes
Mondays") can't there be one set of speakers to whom it's a racial insult
and others to whom it's just a nonracial put-down?

JL,

On Tue, Jul 24, 2012 at 11:41 AM, Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: more on "Monday"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> For cops, there is no "own time". They are either on-duty or off-duty,
> but they always represent the police force. This is the reason why he is
> singled out relative to the regular hecklers who likely would have been
> ignored (or, if identified, just banned from the ballpark).
>
>      VS-)
>
> On 7/24/2012 11:16 AM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
> > At 7/24/2012 08:50 AM, Amy West wrote:
> >> My point is probably moot: I believe in the coverage the off-duty
> >> admitted using it as a general insult, but not a specifically racial
> >> one, so the intent was there to insult but not on a "hate speech" basis.
> >> And note that the ball player *knew* the racial insult sense, which the
> >> cop says he didn't. So I guess the philosophical question comes down to
> >> Is the off-duty cop being a jerk or a bigoted jerk on his own time?
> > Or perhaps a bigoted jerk who is smart enough to know (or to have a
> > lawyer who knows) that the legal punishment and moral disapprobation
> > for a hate crime are more severe than for a general insult* (whether
> > he is found guilty by a state court or by his town's civil service
> > authority).  That would be true in Massachusetts, but I don't know
> > about New Hampshire, where the "crime" occurred.
> >
> > * Even if "general insult" is not a misdemeanor, it would be
> > disapprobated less than a hate insult.
> >
> > And was it on his own time?  Was he on paid detail as the ballpark,
> > or just visiting?  Aren't police officers bound by conduct rules at
> > all times, even when off-duty, as the military are?
> >
> > Joel
>
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