Question of the Day (March 5)

Editorial: An arrest made by a Midville police officer is provisional until the officer has taken the suspect to the police station and the watch commander has officially approved the arrest. Such approval is denied if the commander judges that the evidence on which the provisional arrest is based is insufficient. A government efficiency expert has observed that almost all provisional arrests meet the standards for adequacy of evidence that the watch commanders enforce. The expert has therefore recommended that, because the officers’ time spent obtaining approval is largely wasted, the watch commander’s approval no longer be required. This recommendation should be rejected as dangerous, however, since there is no assurance that the watch commanders’ standards will continue to be observed once approval is no longer required.

In the editorial, the two portions in boldface play which of the following roles?

(A) The first is a claim, the accuracy of which is disputed by the editorial; the second is a conclusion drawn in order to support the main conclusion of the editorial.
(B) The first is an observation that the editorial disputes; the second is a conclusion that was drawn from that observation.
(C) The first is a finding that was used in support of a proposal that the editorial opposes; the second is a judgment that was based on that finding and in turn was used to support the proposal.
(D) The first is a finding introduced to support the main conclusion of the editorial; the second is that main conclusion.
(E) The first is a conclusion, the evidence for which the editorial evaluates; the second is part of the evidence cited in favor of that conclusion.