I recently received an email notice from university security about three strong armed robberies that occurred in the neighborhood. It explained that: The perpetrator has been described as a heavyset black male, 30-40 years of age, approximately 6’ tall, 240 lbs. having a Sunni style beard. Apparently this is supposed to be a transparent description of a person's appearance, since it is also used by the Philadelphia Police Department.
What in the world is a Sunni beard? Is it like the one Sheik Hadith al-Dari is sporting here? (Not based on the goatee featured in the Philly Police Department link noted above.) Turns out I'm not the first person baffled by this description. In fact, it seems utterly unhelpful because it provides no information other than that the person has a beard. But it does feel so very au courant!
Will Bunch, with the Philadelphia Daily News, blogged about the incoherence, and the passions, a few weeks back:
I had never heard of a Sunni, or sunni type beard -- hopefully there's not a bloody civil war involving them against Shia, or shia, type beards on the streets of Philadelphia. Actually, at first I assumed it was just my own ignorance, that "sunni type beards" were a well-known phenomenon.
Except that it isn't a well-known phenomenon. Just Google the words "sunni type beard" and you only get 12 results, and several of them are news releases from the Philadelphia Police Department. Then you learn from the police Web site Domelights that at least one commanding officer tried to ban the phrase last year, leading to this anonymous rant against political correctness:
Thanks to liberal political correct pencil pushers with authority like you, you are placing the citizens of your district in danger and destroying our ability to our job, a job you seem to have forgotten how to do. Well at least you can say to the mother of a shooting victim "well we could have caught him but he had a certain type of beard we are not allowed to say in case his feelings were hurt as he shot your son while running from the point of gun robbery he just committed." Disgraceful, simply put and you should be ashamed.
Maybe it's this kind of beard:
http://asapblogs.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/09/14/ap070903030693.jpg
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