Word of the Week: Felon – by Nancy Friedman

In April 2019 The New Yorker published a Talk of the Town piece about a free walking tour of Manhattan led by E. Jean Carrollwho at the time was known almost exclusively as the author of Elle the magazine’s long-running advice column. The piece was written by Lisa Birnbach – a famous consultant in his own right – and the walking tour was named ‘Most Hideous Men of NYC.’ Who qualified for the MHMoNYC title? A lot of characters you’ve probably heard of: Roger Ailes, Bill Cosby, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Bill O’Reilly and of course Trump Tower’s most famous resident.

At the end of her piece, Birnbach noted that “Carroll plans to offer her ‘Hideous Men’ tours on the first and third Sundays of each month.” I gave a little shout: I was going to New York very soon and would be there on the third Sunday in May. I immediately booked my spot on the tour.

That didn’t disappoint, although in retrospect there was a curious omission. In addition to the perpetrators mentioned The New YorkerCarroll – who wore a bright red wig and was cheerful, energetic and often hilarious – led us to the rap mogul’s former haunts R Kelly (serving a 31-year prison sentence for child sexual abuse), film producer Harvey Weinstein (in prison since February 2020 for felony sexual abuse) and TV presenter Charlie Rose (no jail time, but he was fired from CBS and PBS after multiple sexual assault allegations came to light).

But even though our tour had begun at Bergdorf Goodman, on 5th Avenue and 58th Street, Carroll had never mentioned her own fateful and unwanted encounter in a dressing room there, in 1995 or 1996 (she was a bit vague about the date), with the future 45th President of the United States. She would publish her account of it almost exactly a month after our tour, in the June 21, 2019 issue New York magazine. The result was, as we know E. Jean Carroll vs. Donald J. Trumpwhich resulted in Trump’s conviction in May 2023 on charges of sexual abuse and defamation. A year later, Trump was convicted of 34 crimes of falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment to adult film actor Stormy Daniels. Trump too in three other cases he is charged with misdemeanor assault.

This is all a long preamble to this: Is it right to call Trump – the first former U.S. president to be found guilty of felony crimes – a “criminal”? Is it a good idea to call him that?

And what about those other high-profile guys who were in the news this week? New York Mayor Eric Adams, 64, has been charged bribery, wire fraud, conspiracy and two counts of soliciting campaign contributions from foreign nationals. Rapper/producer Sean Combs, 55, aka Diddy, aka Puff Daddy, aka P. Diddy, is “accused of kidnapping, drugging and forcing women to engage in sexual activitysometimes through the use of firearms and threats of violence.”

They are of course innocent until proven guilty. But if that evidence comes through, will they be ‘criminals’?

Well, technically.

A criminal, says Merriam-Webster (as well as other standard dictionaries), is someone who has committed a crime. And what is a crime? It is “a serious crime,” such as murder or rape, or anything else “involving forfeiture.” In many U.S. jurisdictions, it is a misdemeanor if the prison sentence is one year or more, and a misdemeanor if the sentence is less than one year.

We get criminal And criminal offense from the English-French word criminalwhich meant ‘culprit’ and which is related to fellas in ‘one blow’. (To see Stan Carey’s article for Vocabulary.com for more information about ‘one blow’. Criminal has no connection with it colleaguealthough. I wrote about colleague in 2019.) Merriam-Webster Offers criminal, culprit, lawbreaker, farmerAnd rejected as synonyms, among many other similarly malicious nouns.

No one knows how the word ended up in French; a lengthy entry in the OED suggests a Latin source that meant “bile” or “someone or something that is full of bitterness.” The Online Etymology Dictionary relays another theory, put forward by Professor R. Atkinson of Dublin, which relates criminal to Latin fell ‘suck’, ‘which had an obscene secondary meaning in classical Latin (well known to readers of Martial and Catullus), which criminal etymologically a ‘cock sucker’.”

Hold that thought.

Something strange has happened criminal in recent years, and especially since Trump’s conviction in May: it has been rehabilitated. Just like his cellmates gangster, criminalAnd exile – all of which brought with them strong condemnation in not too long a time – it has been stripped of censure and even elevated to heroic status.

For example, in the US Patent and Trademark Office database, there are FELON trademarks for it wine; for misuse And bicycle parts; and for golf clubs that do not follow USGA rules (“But hey, golf is supposed to be fun!” — Custom golf center).

The cosmetics brand Sally Hansen sells a nail polish called Watermelon thuga name possibly chosen solely for its rhyme. And a brand called Righteous criminal sells meat snacks for humans and dogs; a ‘manifesto’ on the website tells a fanciful story about a ‘syndicated international choppy cartel’ and quotes Nelson Mandela: ‘When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw become. ”

It’s that Mandela-esque sentiment that drives the most striking reframing of “thug”: as a partisan badge of honor.

Search for ‘thug’ + ‘shopping’ and you’ll be presented with a Kmart’s worth of pro-Trump, pro-thug merchandise: ‘I vote for the criminal“buttons,”Convicted Felon ’24’ T-Shirts“Criminal for President 2024‘ sulks – all this despite a warning the Trump campaign showed that profiteering out of conviction was off limits. (There are some too “Prosecutor vs. Criminal” products, a reference to Vice President Harris’ long career as district attorney and attorney general of California.)

One of the first thugs to jump on the bandwagon was 20-year-old Weston Imer of Colorado, who financed his trip to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee by creating and proclaiming “I’m Voting for the Felon” T. shirts . “We all know that these charges were fabricated by the New York City Attorney’s Office and elevated from felonies to misdemeanors just to ‘get Trump’.” Imer told Colorado Politics in a text message.

So is Trump a real criminal or a persecuted victim? Make up your mind, sir!

Here we have two reclaimed slogans in one yard sign:

Yard signs and T-shirts are one thingbut serious journalism is another. The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization based in New York, warned an analysis from July 25 against labeling the former president as a criminal, citing the latest edition of the Associated Press style book“coincidentally released the day before Trump’s sentencing,” which advises using “person-first language to describe someone in jail or someone in jail.”

“Trump has spent much of his career delaying and avoiding legal proceedings,” wrote the Marshall Project’s Carroll Bogert:

Part of the impetus behind the sudden widespread use of the word “thug” is undoubtedly to put Trump down and label him as no better than a common criminal. And that’s the problem.

Most people in prisons and jails in America come from a life of poverty and discrimination. A label such as ‘criminal’ or ‘prisoner’ contributes to keeping them on the margins of society. . . .

By calling Trump a “thug,” we risk rehabilitating a word that has fallen out of favor for good reasons.

Trump is a person convicted of crimes. So do millions of other Americans. How we describe him affects them too.

Very sound advice. Alternatively, you can default to E. Jean Carroll’s terminology and call TFG and other persons convicted of crimes Most Hideous Men. Or here’s a thought: you could cite history and etymology and call them assholes. That can’t possibly offend anyone, right?

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