Writer Lia Purpuna's reflections on the unrest triggered by the death of Freddie Gray while in police custody were sophomoric, inaccurate and selectively incomplete ("Baltimore writers reflect on Freddie Gray's death," May 16).
Her essay was described as urging readers to resist the so-called deceptive comfort of clichés, like the use of the word "thug."
"Refuse the ease of rant and cant," she says, "power gained by repeating words that have come before yours, and that no longer work."
Well, to my mind the word "thug" was very accurate. The dictionary defines its meaning as "a rough, brutish hoodlum, gangster, robber, etc."
The only thing which seems to me to be wrong with that description regarding the Freddie Gray riot was that it was woefully incomplete to describe what we all saw: Namely, the definition doesn't include looting, arson and destruction of public and private property, let alone the wholesale threatening of life and limb.
The cliches I heard most were mostly from the protesters themselves, with their repetitive chants of "Hands up, don't shoot!" — as shopworn a cliché as I've ever heard.
John Gillan, Parkville