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Police supervisors in a city in Mexico are translating great works into cop talk in hopes of making the force better communicators and softening their brutish image. A fascinating Washington Post article relates how Gabriel García Márquez’s classic, One Hundred Years of Solitude, was reframed in radio code for the blue of Nezahualcoyotl.
The before version: “‘Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Col. Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice,” García Márquez wrote.
After: “Many alfas later, in front of a 44 squad, Col. Aureliano Buendía had a 60 about that distant afternoon when his father 26 him to 62 ice.”
If only Miami Police Chief John Timoney was assigned some reading. Translating Henry David Thoreau’s essay on civil disobedience could be a good start. –Janine Zeitlin
