Tallmanmike

January 2022

<Don't need this template now> Acroterion (talk) 01:27, 13 January 2022 (UTC)

I agree they should be short but I disagree that adding 37 characters makes it a 'substitute for reading the article' or materially longer than it was before, given the 250-character field limit and that it remains a single, summarising sentence.

The version that existed before my edit and to which you've reverted is also factually incorrect - Floyd wasn't murdered by 'Police' in the plural but by Derek Chauvin, a single serving Police Officer and, to date, the only individual convicted in relation to the murder. Suggesting that 'Police' killed Floyd is misleading, implies a different series of events and runs the risk of apportioning blame where it doesn't belong. It also doesn't accurately reflect Court record, as I understand it.

I think the handful of extra characters is a low price to pay in order to clarify the above in the interests of fair and open recording, which is all the more vital on such a highly-visible public article.

Keen to hear your thoughts. Tallmanmike (talk) 01:44, 13 January 2022 (UTC)

We have an entire article to explain all that. Short description and infobox overload are perennial problems on Wikipedia, where something that's meant to be a very concise description, of at most 40 characters - not even a summary - for navigation becomes a vehicle for conveying nuance in a format that is not intended for that purpose. You could reasonably add "police officer" instead of just "police," rather than digressing to Chauvin, but there were multiple officers right there beside Chauvin who were charged and await trial, so that just complicates something meant to be simple. Please resist the urge to make the short description into something it's not intended to be. It's a navigational indication - see WP:SDCONTENT. Even Wikidata descriptors are usually regarded as too wordy (and too prone to vandalism). Acroterion (talk) 02:06, 13 January 2022 (UTC)

I see your point regarding mentioning Chauvin by name in the description - that duplicates the opening sentences of the article.

Re the other Officers, they're charged with civil rights violations, not murder. Even if they're all convicted, it will still only be possible to refer to Chauvin as having murdered Floyd because nobody else present was charged with murder in any degree.

I'll amend again as you suggest and leave it at that. Tallmanmike (talk) 02:28, 13 January 2022 (UTC)

...and thanks for the links, they're useful reading. Tallmanmike (talk) 02:29, 13 January 2022 (UTC)

I learned a few things in looking them up too. I was aware of the 40-character business, but there are a multitude of technicalities. It hadn't occurred to me that the ability to enter 250 characters might lead people astray.

One minor note: I'm going to make "Police Officer" lowercase, since it's not being used as a proper noun. Happy editing! Acroterion (talk)

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