Word: interest
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Despite the terms at their disposal, police departments often prefer to dub an individual a person of interest because it has a measure of political correctness that technical terms lack, according to Dr. Rande Matteson, an ex-officer and professor of criminal justice at Florida's Saint Leo University. Matteson says the term is "less damaging" than dubbing someone a suspect, particularly if the police prove to be wrong in their identification. Cynthia Hujar Orr, president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, says authorities may also use the term as a way to curry cooperation, on the assumption...
...term person of interest is meaningless. There's no legal definition, and the Department of Justice doesn't offer a formal meaning - despite the fact that it first popularized the term, during the investigation into the 1996 bombing of venues at the Summer Olympics in Atlanta. In that case, security guard Richard Jewell was dubbed a "person of interest," sparking a frenzy of speculation despite scant evidence of his involvement in the bombing. Once exonerated, Jewell pursued a series of successful libel suits against media organizations whom he accused of ruining his reputation by using the term...
Both Hujar Orr and Matteson agree that the term has outlived its usefulness in the Le case. When an investigation of an individual reaches the point that police are able to obtain search warrants for DNA evidence, they argue, it's time to stop dubbing someone a person of interest - and start calling the person a suspect...
...Americans do. When we fail, when we face a crisis, we pull ourselves up and make things better. I believe the only reason we haven't built it isn't because of Americans. It's because we're being held back. And who is holding us back? Politicians. Special-interest groups. Political correctness. You name it - everybody...
...clear impression that the American plan on missile defense will involve NATO ... to a higher degree in the future," the AP reported him as saying. "This is a positive step in the direction of an inclusive and transparent process, which I also think is in the interest of ... the NATO alliance...