Talk:Mass arrest

Nomination for deletion
I am nominating this article for deletion because the topic of "mass arrests" is too generic. I reviewed a number of dictionaries including www.yourdictionary.com and [Merriam Webster online] and was not able to find a viable definition for mass arrests. This article states "A mass arrest occurs when the police apprehend large numbers of suspects at once." However, I can find no source that defines how many people need to be arrested in order for it to be considered a mass arrest. Would three people being arrested during an armed robbery be considered a mass arrest?

The references for this wikipedia page don't provide any context or background for the phrase mass arrest. The references only refers cases where the media has used the word mass arrest. I was not able to find any references online that cover the derivation of mass arrests, the history of mass arrests, or contraversies/support for mass arrests. Further, this page was only created a few days ago and the only case discussed on the page is a contraversial case of a large number of people being arrested in Toronto.

If another editor wanted to keep the topic of mass arrests open in some form or another on Wikipedia, I would recommend deleting this wikipage and moving the comments to a section on the arrest page. DivaNtrainin (talk) 14:12, 23 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Since this doesn't appear to be much more than a dictionary definition, I would support its deletion, but as the WP:PROD has been challenged, it would need to go through a full AFD discussion. --SarekOfVulcan (talk) 04:49, 24 July 2010 (UTC)
 * I was under the impression that it is permissible to begin with a stub, rather than a Start- or B-class quality article, when the topic is notable. I'm sure we're all familiar with notable mass arrests, including those that occurred under totalitarian regimes.  Tisane  talk/stalk 05:53, 24 July 2010 (UTC)


 * I'm sure it is permissible to begin with a stub, but now that other editors have taken a look at the topic, we are opening the debate to whether there is enough references and information to have a page on mass arrests.
 * If you look at the four references that are posted on the main wiki page, none of them appear to discuss mass arrests with details. I wasn't able to access the journal articles, but their title suggest they aren't about mass arrests. The New York Times and Baltimore Sun articles don't discuss mass arrests but just use it in the title of the article. The articles are not about mass arrests but are about racism and racial profiling. A good reference for this article would be something that discusses some aspect of mass arrests, such as the politics, legal challenges, definition, or history of mass arrests. A poor reference would be an article that is on the political topic that protesters were marching against or one where the media mentions it once in the article. Wikipedia pages should not be a collection of articles that mention a particular topic.
 * After reading the Baltimore Sun article posted on the main wiki page, I'm less convinced that mass arrests are a clearly defined activity. The Baltimore Sun article uses the term to describe an activity where African Americans were being racially profiled and therefore had an increased chance of being arrested. This is a very different scenario than a group of protesters being arrested within a short period of in Toronto at the G20 summit. Based on these two scenarios, I'm not sure what kind of definition(even a very broad definition) we can ascribe to this topic. It's true that the media uses the word a lot, but they use it to describe a wide range of activities, which is all the more reason not to have a wiki page on this.
 * Wikipedia is not a place to soapboxing or expressing your personal opinion on a topic. It's also not a place to set a precedant and try and create a unified definition of a word. DivaNtrainin (talk) 14:40, 24 July 2010 (UTC)
 * I doubt you'll prevail at AfD, but you're welcome to try it.  Tisane  talk/stalk 15:23, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

External links modified
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