Posted by Dan Ewert : 7/03/2002 12:19:00 AM (Archive Link)
So I was reading the paper, as I am wont to do, and I came across an Associate Press story about Abner Louima. You may recall that he was the gentleman upon whom two police officers decided to practice police brutality. In this case, it took the form of sodomizing Louima with a broken broomstick in a police station bathroom. This resulted in a torn rectum and bladder. What I found curious about the article is how it seemed to intentionally avoid the word, “sodomize.” Every other account of the incident that I have read up to this point has always referred to the assault as sodomizing. However, this AP version referred to the action as “torture” and “brutalization.” Accurate words, yes, but not descriptive as to what actually occurred. If you weren’t already familiar with the case, you’d be left wondering what exactly the officers did to Louima unless you pieced a few clues together. My point to all this is that the AP writer obviously avoided using the verb, “sodomize,” which I think is quite odd and I can’t think of a good reason why he did so.