What Murder Isn't Suspicious?

First published: 25^th October 2012

On 25th October 2012, the Hong Kong Standard ran the headline, "Suspicious murder in Yau Ma Tei". Suspicious means arousing the idea that something is wrong without complete proof. So, if you have declared something to be a murder, then it is beyond suspicion, it is certain that there was wrongdoing. To say "suspicious murder" is to suggest there is such a thing as an unsuspicious murder. I guess the Police turn up at the scene, view the corpse, say, "Yes, it's a murder, but we don't think there was a crime", and go home! No! An "unsuspicious murder" is an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms, it cannot exist.

In mitigation, it should be noted that the headline was published under "Breaking News", that is, the latest, fastest reports. Perhaps an editor first received a report of a suspicious death, read the details and changed their headline from 'death' to 'murder' because the facts were clear, forgetting to remove 'suspicious'.