Akyat-Bahay-Martilyo-Bonnet Gang terrorizes cyber space

Angry Manileno loves to rant about Journalese (a peculiar type of English that afflicts journalists/reporters, symptoms include the use of cliched phrases as a short cut for actual thought). In this particular gem of a post, he scores the often erroneous practice of media entities in naming gangs after their modus operandi.

If the group breaks into a house they call them ‘akyat-bahay gang.’ If the group uses a hammer to break store display cases they’re called ‘martilyo gang.’ If they wear bonnets - you guessed it - they’re called ‘bonnet gang.” and, should these criminals decide to break into a house while wearing bonnets and armed with hammers, perhaps they shall be called ‘akyat-bahay-martilyo-bonnet gang.’

When we were still working together in the same newsroom somewhere in Broadcast City, I explained that the practice of labeling criminals after their modus operandi is perhaps just a more colorful way of referring to them.

Then again, just recently, I read a news report in a tabloid claiming that a man had been caught and beaten up after he had broken into a house. All by his lonesome, the man was tagged as an Akyat Bahay gang.

In the words of Senator Richard Gordon, I was changrined -- which I believe is an affliction like gangrene.