The following is my source-based essay based on a social matter in relation to language.

The Relationship between Police Brutality and Language

In today’s society, there are many instances of police brutality, especially against communities of color. According to Ben Kuebrich, “nearly sixty years after Emmett Till’s murder, we still have to march in the streets and tell people that Black Lives Matter” (567). However true this quote is, it may lead many to believe that police brutality only exist in African American communities. However, in other communities such as the Jewish community and the Indian community, these events may occur. In many police brutality cases, the circumstances are unclear or assumed. While there are physical and violent aspects of police brutality, however, there are rhetorical aspects as well. This paper examines the influence that different aspects of language such as tone, medium, audience, etc, have on these situations.

In many cases concerning police brutality, the language used may be considered appropriate, but the tone in which they speak may not be as pleasant. Many may comment that police officers use a tone that is somewhat aggressive and assertive towards the person being addressed. The first source, “We Believe It Was Murder”: Mobilizing Black Resistance to Police Brutality in Champaign, Illinois by Sundiata Keita Cha-Jua, exemplifies this. In this source, readers can become aware of the tone that police officers use towards hostages. 

In his interview with the Illinois State Police investigation team, Norbits stated, “I remember trying to put my hand on his shoulder, pulling him, telling him to get down … he moves, twists. Something happens where I no longer have a hold of him… We re-engage. I, this is where, and I’m not trying, I just, this is where I get a real vague recollection… Um, I remember trying to get him down on the ground, er, yea, and the gun goes off.”(Cha-Jua)

In this section, the author reveals the stance of the police officer, however, witnesses have another story.

In the civil suit filed on his behalf, by his mother, Laura Manning, Manning-Carter claimed he and Kiwane were standing in the back doorway to get out of the rain, when two police officers (Chief Finney in plain clothes and Officer Norbits in uniform) charged them “with their guns drawn and leveled” at them, yelling and swearing, and “ordered them to get on the ground.” According to Manning-Carter, they both immediately complied by sitting on the concrete stoop near the back door; Kiwane then “stood up and walked toward” the officers. Chief Finney “pushed him and he tripped over the concrete stoop and fell backward onto the ground into a seated position.” At this point, according to ManningCarter, Finney “fired a shot downward into the chest” of Kiwane, who “yelled Oww” just as Manning-Carter heard Finney’s gun discharge. (Che-Jua)

One of the victims explained this. As we can see, the author’s language in the two different perspectives slightly changed. It reveals that the author’s tone is skeptical. Readers will understand that maybe what the police officer said was invalid because of the fumbling at the end of his sentence. Meanwhile, the victim was keen on the story which made it more realistic and believable to readers. In these sections, the author’s purpose was to bring awareness to the diction used by the two perspectives. To spread this awareness, the author delivered his thoughts into academic writing.

As mentioned before, police brutality does not only happen towards African Americans but also to many other cultural or ethnic groups in many different places. In the second source, “Problems in the promised land; Israel’s black Jews” by Economist Intelligence Unit N.A. Incorporated, the Ethiopian Jews situation was examined. “Politicians chided them for the violence while issuing vague expressions of sympathy” (Problems in the promised land; Israel’s black Jews). The diction used by the anonymous author depicts how politicians view certain matters. This tone reflects the thoughtfulness of the politicians, the way they respond to police brutality. “A young black man had been shot dead by an off-duty policeman in unclear circumstances” (Problems in the promised land; Israel’s black Jews). The anonymous author makes a stance when he/she started this sentence. Police officers are sometimes so irrational that they do not have a stance, their arrests are sometimes based on mere assumption, which is sometimes false, this is when people try talking to police officers and the police would strike at them. The purpose of this delivery was to expand the issue of police brutality beyond the U.S and African American communities. Their audience includes all people, especially the police officers and those with a higher authority.

Many articles are written based on experience or something that the author was exposed to. In the third source, “White Guys Who Send My Uncle to Prison”: Going Public within Asymmetrical Power by Ben Kuebrich, the author uses the different elements of language to express his thoughts. “It is December 5, 2014, and I can’t think of public, power, or police without replaying the squad car sliding onto the lawn of a Cleveland park- and the police not even stopping the car, much less speaking to twelve-year-old Tamir Rice” (Kuebrich, 567). This is the first sentence of the foreword written by the author. The tone of this sentence was frank and biased against police officers. His analysis of aggressive language evoked his stance on the topic; he was empathetic towards the victims of police brutality and hostile against police officers, specifically the justice system. Kuebrich went on to give another instance of police brutality in his society.

 Raul Pinet Jr., a resident of Syracuse’s Westside, was killed by jail guards. He was a husband, a brother, and a son. As he was thrown into a police van, witnesses say that he yelled, “I don’t want to die!” Like Michael Brown and Eric Garner, he was unarmed. Like the police that killed Michael Brown and Eric Garner, none of the jail guards were charged. Pinet Jr. was killed without a trial, and the people that killed him never went to trial (Kuebrich, 567).

By choosing to refer to the Raul Pinet case, the author is showing his audience that there is more than one problem that includes police brutality. His audience seems to be everyone reading his work since police brutality happens in many communities.  In this section, Kuebrich mentioned “He was a husband, a brother, and a son”, this implies the tone of the author which connects with his stance. Also from this section, his words denote a sense of remorse and compassion for the victims of police brutality. The image the author sets for the police is a heartless beast that kills without even thinking. The author writes this piece to convey his ideas toward police brutality and inform his audience of such cases where the police are not always right.

People always get into problems that they do not want, but because of their company, those people have to face the consequences. In the fourth source “An Accidental Activist” by Jean Lee Cole, the author was not directly involved in the situation, however, he had to face the consequences. This text is a narrative written to develop the idea police brutality is not a one-person issue. “Freddie Gray and I shared the same post office; we might have occupied the same subway car or waited for the same bus. The police van in which his neck was broken passed within a few blocks of my house”(Cole, 1). With his use of vivid language in this sentence, the author’s stance seems to be the same as the other authors in this paper; he is for the victims and against the justice system. “I remember making not of a story in the Baltimore Sun about a black man- yet another young black man- who had apparently suffer injuries while in police custody” (Cole). The author’s tone in this sentence seems to be sympathetic towards those victims of police brutality. There is no uncertainty in his words, it is like he was so sure the injuries that the “black man”(Cole) suffered were caused by the police. His audience seems to be anyone interested in the matter.

Overall, police brutality is a worldwide problem. Many authors have different perspectives on the matter, however, most of them have similar ideas. People who choose to publish their writings, all have something in common. Despite their different stances, their purpose is to send a message to their audience in a specific tone, via different mediums, and in their own language. In the end, readers can understand the rhetorical situation in each of their works.

Website

Cha-Jua, Sundiata Keita. “‘We believe it was murder’: mobilizing black resistance to police brutality in Champaign, Illinois.” The Black Scholar, vol. 44, no. 1, 2014, p. 58+. Gale Academic Onefile, https://link-gale-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/apps/doc/A376852450/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=AONE&xid=41939bab. Accessed 12 Sept. 2019.

Magazine

Cole, Jean Lee. “An Accidental Activist.” The Concord Saunterer, vol. 23, 2015, pp. 115–120. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/44484704.

Scholarly Article

Kuebrich, Ben. “‘White Guys Who Send My Uncle to Prison’: Going Public within Power.” College Composition and Communication, vol. 66, no. 4, 2015, pp. 566–590. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43491901.

Newspaper

“Problems in the promised land; Israel’s black Jews.” The Economist, 13 July 2019, p. 46(US). Gale Academic Onefile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A592936298/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=AONE&xid=6fa0b482. Accessed 12 Sept. 2019.

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