Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1,251, Getting a Confession.
This is English as a Second Language podcast number 1,251.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
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This episode is a dialogue between Andy and Diane about getting someone to admit he did something wrong.
A confession.
Let's get started.
I got it.
I got a confession.
You got a confession out of that suspect?
How did you do it?
We've been after that guy for days.
I put the pressure on and he buckled.
Did you make threats?
Of course I made threats.
It's an interrogation, not a tea party.
I may have gone over the line a little, but who's to know?
He knows, and any half-decent lawyer will make mincemeat out of that confession.
He'll get it thrown out of court in a heartbeat.
I leaned on him a little hard, but it's not like I put the screws on him.
Do you think I should go back in there and talk to him?
Rookies!
Andy begins our dialogue by saying to Diane, I got it.
I got a confession.
Here, to get a confession means to get someone else to make or give you a confession.
A confession C-O-N-F-E-S-S-I-O-N is when you say that you did something wrong, when you state that you have done broken the law, for example, or done something that you should not have done.
In a legal context, in a legal situation, a confession is when someone who broke the law tells the police that he is guilty, that he broke the law.
The word confession is also used in some Christian churches to refer to a formal act of asking for forgiveness and what's called absolution of having done something wrong.
But here, we're just talking about a confession to the police.
Diane says you got a confession out of that suspect.
A suspect, S-U-S-P-E-C-T, is a person who is believed to have committed a crime or broken a law.
But we don't have any proof or evidence yet, or at least not very much.
A suspect is someone the police believe is guilty of a crime.
Diane says, We've been after that guy for days.
To be after someone means to be trying to get information from someone, or trying to catch or find someone.
To be after can also be used to mean simply to be trying to reach a certain goal or a certain objective.
I am after a victory.
I am trying to get.
I am pursuing a victory.
Here, Diane refers to being after that guy in the sense of trying to get him to make a confession.
And he says that he put pressure on the suspect and he buckled.
To put pressure on someone is to try to influence someone by doing something that would persuade him to take the action you want him to take.
Andy says he put pressure on the suspect and he buckled.
To buckle B-U-C-K-L-E here refers to doing something that you don't really want to do because another person is forcing you or pressuring you to do it.
If your daughter keeps asking for a ice cream and she does it over and over and, over and over again, eventually you might buckle.
You might say, okay, I'll buy you an ice cream.
This is a case where a suspect buckled under the pressure that Andy put on him.
Diane says, did you make any threats?
A threat.
T-H-R-E-A-T is when you tell someone that if he doesn't do what you want him to do, you will do something bad to him.
You will cause him injury or pain or something else that will make him change his mind.
Andy says, of course I made threats.
He says, it's an interrogation, not a tea party.
An interrogation, I-N-T-E-R-R-O-G-A-T-I-O-N, is usually something that the police do with a suspect.
They bring the suspect to the police station and they interrogate him.
They ask him questions to see if he did anything wrong or to get information from the person.
Another country's military services might also interrogate someone who is from another country, an enemy country.
A TTEA party is literally a social gathering, a small party you have with friends and at which you would drink tea and have perhaps little pieces of cake.
Tea parties are much more common in countries outside of the united states.
We might think of great britain, for example, where they have afternoon tea.
A tea party would be a little more formal of an event.
The idea in this expression however, is that a tea party is a nice, friendly get-together, whereas an interrogation is not.
That's why Andy says it's an interrogation, not a tea party.
We were not there to have fun.
Diane, however, says the confession is no good if it's coerced.
The verb to coerce C-O-E-R-C-E means to force someone to do something or say something, often because you are threatening that person with some sort of pain or harm.
Andy says Diane says the confession is no good, meaning the police can't use it if it was coerced from the suspect, if Andy did something to force the suspect to confess.
Andy says he may have gone over the line, L-I-N-E.
The expression to go over the line means to do more than what you should do or to do more than what is acceptable.
In this case, he may have coerced the suspect, making the confession no good.
Andy says, I may have gone over the line, it was possible that is, but who's to know?
Meaning, no one will know if we don't tell anyone.
Diane says he knows, the suspect knows, and any half-decent lawyer will make mincemeat out of that confession.
Half decent means pretty good, someone who is not the best, but good enough.
Diane is saying that even a lawyer who isn't very good will make mincemeat out of that confession.
To make mincemeat, M-I-N-C-E-M-E-A-T, out of something is to destroy it, to defeat it.
We often use this expression in talking about defeating someone's argument or making someone's argument look to be incorrect.
It might also be used in the sense of physically attacking another person.
That six-foot, five-inch man will make mincemeat out of anyone who tries to fight him.
The verb to mince M-I-N-C-E in this case means to chop up or to break up into smaller pieces.
Minced meat, then is chopped up beef.
I think in American English we would probably call it something like ground beef.
In British English it's more likely to be called minced meat or mincemeat.
Although, just to make things even more confusing, there is actually a dish that It's a kind of pie, called mincemeat pie, which doesn't have any beef in it.
It's sweet.
It's made with things like raisins.
That's a British food that is eaten often during Christmastime.
But back to our story.
Diane says the suspect will get the confession thrown out in court in a heartbeat, or I guess technically the lawyer will get it thrown out of court.
To have something thrown out of court C-O-U-R-T means to have a judge say that it can't be used against the person in a criminal or any other kind of legal trial.
So if evidence is thrown out of court, the judge says no, you cannot use that particular piece of evidence against this person.
Perhaps because, as in this case, it was gathered illegally.
There are rules about how you can get information that will be used against a person in a trial.
And using coercion to get a confession breaks one of those rules.
So the judge will throw it out of court.
Diane says the confession will get thrown out of court in a heartbeat.
H-E-A-R-T-B-E-A-T.
In a heartbeat means very quickly.
The verb to beat is used to describe the motion that your heart goes through when it pumps.
And of course, your heart pumps many times a minute.
So it's a very short amount of time.
In a heartbeat then means quickly.
Andy says, I leaned on him a little hard.
But it's not like I put the screws on him.
To lean, L-E-A-N, on someone can mean a couple of different things.
Here it means to try to influence or coerce someone.
To lean on can also mean to get support from another person.
So it... has in many ways two opposite meanings.
To lean on means, in this case, to pressure someone.
But you could also say, I lean on my friend.
He helps me.
He supports me.
To put the screws S-C-R-E-W-S on someone means the same thing as to coerce someone, to force someone to do something by threatening that person.
Diane just says, you have a lot to learn, meaning Andy is still not very good at what he does.
Andy says, do you think I should go back in there and talk to him?
Diane says, stay out of there.
You've done enough damage, meaning you've already made the situation bad enough.
I don't want you going in there and making it worse.
Then she ends our dialogue by saying, rookies.
A rookie, R-O-O-K-I-E-S, is a person who is just starting to work in a certain area or field.
We talk about rookie players on a team, on a professional baseball team.
These are players that are just starting.
It's their first year.
New police officers who don't have a lot of experience are sometimes called rookies or rookie cops.
And that's the case with Andy.
He obviously doesn't have very much experience being a police officer yet.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
I got it.
I got a confession.
You got a confession out of that suspect?
How did you do it?
We've been after that guy for days.
I put the pressure on and he buckled.
Did you make threats?
Of course I made threats.
It's an interrogation, not a tea party.
The confession is no good if it's coerced.
I may have gone over the line a little, but who's to know?
He knows and any half-decent lawyer will make mincemeat out of that confession.
He'll get it thrown out of court in a heartbeat.
I leaned on him a little hard, but it's not like I put the screws on him.
You have a lot to learn.
Do you think I should go back in there and talk to him?
Stay out of there.
You've done enough damage.
Rookies.
Our scriptwriter is no rookie.
She has a lot of experience writing wonderful scripts.
Thank you, Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2016 by the Center for Educational Development.
