Homophonic offences

This morning - still in bed - we heard the BBC radio announcer say something like this:

Police investigating allegations of racist and homophobic offences have raided about 150 addresses across London.*

But the announcer stumbled over one of the words and said "homophonic offense".

Homophonic offense! I howled. About damn time they went after that - all those extra apostrophes - it's is just not the same as its - and for far, far too long people have been using them interchangeably with impunity.

I mentioned this at work - and one of my colleagues said "This has come not a moment too soon." We laughed all day about this.

Of course, though I try my best, I too am guilty of the occasional homophonic slip. Most of us in our team admitted to having difficulty choosing between bear and bare in certain circumstances. I urge forgiveness and understanding, but not silence, when it comes to the homophonic offense.


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* yes, yes perhaps I should be more concerned with the fact that police powers are being used against people who've committed thought or speech crime (at worst) or that real crimes (vandalism, harrassment, actual but small-scale violence) are being prioritised over other similar real crimes because they've come under some kind of "hate crime" category - but you have to admit that homophonic offense is pretty darn funny.