Wikipedia talk:Requests for mediation/Shooting of Michael brown

District Attorney (D.A.) titles

The Talk Page section there was closed while I was writing, so this is probably moot. Fwiw, I agree with Dyrnych. I see ChrisGualtieri making extensive edits (on that page and on related pages like Robert McCulloch) that are consistent with only one side in this sensitive incident, aggressively defending these through reverts, undos or similar editing, and then accusing others of 'warring' (including over small potatoes) when his edits are balanced, edited, or reverted. Incidentally, the term 'District Attorney' and its very common abbreviation, 'D.A.', are generic terms widely used to refer to county prosecutors. The United States Judiciary Act of 1789, Section 35, provided for the appointment of a person in each judicial district to prosecute federal crimes and to represent the United States in all civil actions to which it was a party. ... Each State was a district, except for Massachusetts and Virginia which formed two. Districts were added when additional States were admitted. The statute did not confer a title upon these local agents of federal authority, but subsequent statutes and court decisions referred to them most frequently as “district attorneys.” ... This term for a prosecutor originates with the traditional use of the term "district" for multi-county prosecutorial jurisdictions in several U.S. states. ... Even after those states broke up such districts and started appointing or electing prosecutors for individual counties, they continued to use the title "district attorney" for the most senior prosecutor in a county rather than switch to "county attorney."[1] Official titles vary by state. If this case were in Kentucky, for example, the official title would be "Commonwealth's Attorney," but for a broad Wikipedia audience the more readily identified 'district attorney' might be a better choice. Many reliable sources refer to McCulloch's assistants as "Assistant District Attorney," using the generic title for a county prosecutor. Whether or not this widely used term should be capitalized (as often done) or not does indeed strike me as small potatoes. (If not capitalized, then there is clearly no issue at all.) Benefac (talk) 05:56, 1 January 2015 (UTC)