Linguistic question re IV

[David Morris]

Pynchon obviously enjoys portraying modern vernacular American
English.  He does it in all his novels.  Unfortunately, it cannot be
translated, and require familiarity with specific local "dialects" to
be appreciated.  He also dabbles in historic vernacular in MD and AtD.

>> 2011/8/9 János Széky<miksaapja at gmail.com>:
>>>
>>> There is Jade apologizing on page 84: "...the cops told us they'd drop charges if we just put you at the scene, which they already knew you were so where was the harm..."
>>> The syntax seems to be elliptical here so please tell me what 'which they already knew you were' means exactly.
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> János
>>>
> This not very grammatical pattern of spoken American English is very common.
>  Well understood and requiring the fewest possible words.
>
> Americans are lazy, which is why they use as few words as possible, which is getting worse, which we already knew.