To be angry that the Chief Constable chose the words..

[seeker]

"gentle" and "a chatterbox" respectively to describe the two women police officers who were murdered on duty yesterday.

Can you imagine those words ever being used to describe a man?

Two ordinary hard working people lost their lives, or rather had their lives taken violently from them and thats what makes you angry YABU

Yes yabu. Chances are he didn't even know them and the descriptions were ran by the family and approved.
I know this as one of dads friends was a policeman on duty when he was killed.
Yabu.

YABU. What Earth said.

Get a grip!

YABU.

Gentle has been used loads of times to describe men.

Maybe they were chatter boxes! I think you are over thinking it and being disrespectful. Do you know if the Chief constable had consulted with their loved ones and that is what they had wanted to have been said!

Honestly I think you are being very, very unreasonable!

Sorry but I agree with everyone else, I think you're focussing on something quite insignificant.

I thought gentle was ok, chatterbox a bit 'eh?' but the 'young girls' description of the two officers was extremely disrespectful. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and it's bloody tragic.

I just think they deserved more respect and a an acknowledgement of their professionalism.

It shouldn't be about gender. If they are words that acurately describe those poor officers then why can't they use them. This isn't about equality, we are not 'equal' in that different people have different traits. These women died providing a service to the public. Don't make it a feminist issue - it's not. They were doing their job, irrespective of their gender.

Yabu, what's wrong with gentle and chatterbox?
And what earth said

I thought chatterbox was ok. It is obviously being said in an affectionate way.

I think gentle would be used for a man.
And yes, it probably came from family descriptions.
But I'm that from this appalling case, that's what came to your mind.

And I missed the "young girls"

In what way is it disrespectful to want two women murdered in the course of their duties to be described in a proper, professional adult way?

He clearly wanted to point out they were people, individuals. Not just officers. He did also refer to their careers.

I agree with you Seeker.

I'm not angry about it, its too small a detail in what is a tragic situation, but yeah...feel a bit eye-rolly about those words.

YABU to be making a feminist issue of this. Very. Stop it and think about the bigger picture.

I get what you mean, seeker.

"But I'm that from this appalling case, that's what came to your mind."

Most of us are able to look at things from several different points of view!

It's just icky to be talking about this not 24 hours after they've died though seeker

One was 23 - she was just a young girl.

I do think that 'chatterbox' has a certain mindlessness about it. I would like my police offices to be 'gentle'

I may have it wrong, but the OP isn't taking anything away from the awfulness of the situation, but commenting on the fact that the language used to describe the two police women could be considered to be quite patronising ...

Chatterbox to me brings to mind someone fill of inane drivel ...

I'm 56, so old enough to be their mother.
To me they are, at least the 26 year old, young girls.
They're just words.
Why bring petty feminism into it, it's bad taste. I doubt their families care, so why should you.
Jeez.

People want to project a personal side though. It's a loving way to describe someone like that.

I'd rather them include references like that rather than some trotted out speech they've not even thought about.

I'd want to be remembered as me not as a professional automon so yabvu.

He's giving them their traits, these weren't just policewomen they were people and do you know what dehumanising them just gives scumbags who disrespect people and attack them in the course of their working day an excuse.