Author Statement

When I was told to follow a line of inquiry to discover information about an issue, I had no idea
what I wanted to do my project on. Then one day I was browsing the internet and I saw a news article
about a cop that shot a man that he pulled over for a traffic stop because he thought he had a gun. After
reading the article, I thought about how much news I have read about the police and how they are
becoming more and more militant over time. I realized that this would be a good topic for my inquiry
project, and I would be able to find a lot of good research on the topic.
I wanted to specifically find out if Americas police force is militarizing, why, and how it impacts
our society. I came into the project with some preconceived notions about the issue already. I have read
so many articles about the police overstepping their bounds and militarizing, especially in the wake of
the first wave of Ferguson Riots that I started forming a negative opinion about the police and their
militarization.
There are really two aspects of police militarization that I researched heavily in doing this
project. The first was about the militarization going on with the police force in Ferguson, and the second
was how SWAT teams military gear and tactics and the War on Drugs is harmful to American society.
While these two aspects are closely related and share a lot of attributes, I learned that these two issues
can, and in my opinion should, be viewed as separate entities.
In preforming my research, I developed the opinion that the SWAT teams hyper activity and
extreme military tactics are harmful to society and I wanted to convey this through my Multi-Genre
Project. The first two pieces that I did apply to this view on the issue. I did a bumper sticker about how
the polices SWAT teams more closely resemble a military, and then I did a police report about a
botched no-knock drug raid by a SWAT team. My last piece of the Multi-Genre Project pertained to the
militarization going on with the Ferguson Riots.

When I did the bumper sticker, I wanted to clearly communicate my message about the topic.
Simply, that the police and the military are two different things that are becoming one. To do this, I
followed the general conventions of a bumper sticker. I made it short and simple, with only two words
and a couple of pictures. By using pictures and symbols, I can effectively communicate my opinion in a
short amount of time, which bumper stickers are supposed to do. The top of the bumper sticker says
Police Military. This is extremely concise and clearly shows my opinion. People will read this and
start to think themselves about the police and they will start to make connections and form connections
about the issue. They will think about the articles that they have read in the media. Then, immediately
bellow these words I have three images: a police cruiser, an Armored Personnel Carrier, and then a tank,
all connected by arrows showing progression. People will see these images and make connections in
their minds. They will see a police cruiser, and extremely recognizable image, and then see the APC and
start thinking about how they have seen those pictures in the media and how big and scary it looks
and how it doesnt look like something a police force should have. They will then see the tank, and they
will see the progression that the photos show, and see the direction that the police force is taking.
For the bumper sticker piece I followed the rules of bumper stickers. With regards to format,
bumper stickers are usually round or rectangular, and I went with rectangular. Bumper stickers usually
contain a short phrase and/or pictures. The primary audience for bumper stickers are drivers on the
road. If a driver read my bumper sticker at a red light, they would start to think about the issue whether
they wanted to or not. Most people will not change their opinion by just reading a bumper sticker, but
the goal is to just get them thinking about the issue.
The inspiration for the bumper sticker piece came from the article Militarization and Policing
Its Relevance to 21st Century Police by author Peter Kraska. This piece is very brief and to the point,
with a couple of words and some pictures, so it does not contain a lot of research. The idea however,
came from the article, because the article showed me how the SWAT team is a part of the local police

department, and how they are getting more and more military equipment. My strategy was to be clear,
concise, and interesting. I chose pictures and symbols that would be recognizable, and that allow for the
reader to think about the issue.
The second piece that I created was a police report detailing a botched no-knock drug raid. I
learned in my research that SWAT team deployments for no-knock drug raids have been increasing at a
dramatic rate from the 1980s to now. According to Peter Kraska, there has been a 140% in deployments
of SWAT teams. A lot of times these drug raids go wrong. Peter Kraska says that he has recorded more
than 275 instances of seriously botched SWAT raids on private residences. He says Botched PPU raids
often devastate the communities and police departments involved, sometimes resulting in disbanded
SWAT teams, laws being passed prohibiting or curtailing no-knock deployments, and expensive litigation
judgments (Kraska).
An example of these botched no-knock drug raids occurred at a Georgia residence in the spring
of 2014. I based my police report on the details of this real life event. The officers of the SWAT team
threw a flash bang grenade into a babys crib during a no-knock drug raid, and the baby was horribly
injured. I wrote this piece to convey to the public the horrific implications of a drug raid gone wrong.
Because of the excessive military tactics and equipment, a baby suffered disfiguring injuries, both the
parents and the officers suffered from the trauma caused by the incident. The police department also
now has to pay for the medical bills for the child (Chen). This piece was supposed to show how even
though the police were just doing their job, it can have terrible effects on the innocent. The public can
read this police report and they immediately question if it was necessary to use flash bang grenades and
a battering ram.
Police reports are used to provide details of an event anytime a police officer is called to a
scene. I looked at sample police reports and followed the format. At the top, the officer records basic

information like the date and who was there at the scene. The report then goes on to detail every event
that happened in detail. The headings are in bold and underlined, and then they give the descriptions for
each heading. They use official, descriptive language. The style is relatively formal, because police
reports are used as official documents, and they may be needed later in court.
When I did my mock police report, I followed the conventions of police reports. I kept the exact
same format as ones that I found in my research, and I imitated the style. The content was a little
different than a typical police report because instead of detailing a routine police call, this report was
about a drug raid gone horribly wrong. Since in my example the suspect was not even at the location of
the house that they raided, it was a little hard to do the Actions taken and Summary section,
because the police really didnt do any actions besides the raid itself.
Police reports are written to have as a document for the police department for legal reasons
such as developing a case. If the suspect goes to court, it is used as a document in the legal proceedings.
The audience is the police department, and if the case goes to court, the people of the court room such
as the judge, prosecutor, defendant, etc. I wrote this piece to appeal to these audiences. It is official
sounding and contains the necessary details. Police reports can also be made available to the public,
which is the angle that I was taking. People who are concerned with the police and their tactics will read
this account of a botched drug raid and their opinions will grow even stronger and they will share the
story with people they know. The message will get out there about how drug raids can be harmful to
both the public and the police department.
The police report was inspired by an article I read on ABC News. The events that I wrote about in
the police report actually happened, and I took the story and turned it into a police report. I took the
details from the article to create the piece.

I chose to write about an event that actually happened because using an event that is real gives
the message more credence instead of just making up a story that isnt true. Since it is a real event that
was documented, I was able to give accurate details of what the police did and how they reacted.
The final piece that I did for my Multi-Genre Project was a newspaper article. I chose a
newspaper article because this is the primary method of communication that is used to show people
about the events and consequences of current events with the police, so it is very relevant. I wrote my
article about the Ferguson Riots and the polices reaction.
I mainly used this piece to inform people who are interested in current events about the
Ferguson riots and how Fergusons police force militarized greatly to control the protestors. I was
originally going to use this piece to show that the police went overboard and the militarization became a
negative event, but as I continued my research, my opinion began to change, and thus my objective in
writing the piece changed. I started to think that the polices militarization was necessary in this instance
as some of the protestors turned extremely violent and unlawful and the police need the boost in
weaponry to control the situation. I started to think that in some cases militarization is ok, and
sometimes even necessary. Therefore I changed my mode to inform, and let the audience form their
own opinion. I tried to take a neutral stance in my article and just state the facts of the events in
Ferguson.
This genre piece was influenced by numerous articles I have read about the Ferguson unrest.
The main article that I used was from the New York Times. I took the specific information about the
protest and unrest going on in Ferguson. I got my information specifically about the police militarization
from an article by Paul Szoldra from Business Insider. This article focused on how the police came to the
protests dressed in riot gear, being driven in armored vehicles, and carrying weapons (Szoldra).

For my newspaper article, I wrote in the style of newspapers. I included a catchy headline, and
then provided the news to the readers. I included a photo of the riots, because a lot of times
newspapers will have a photo to go along with the article. This helps the reader visualize the events of
the story and get a sense for what is going on. I tried to be objective and tell the facts of the event. My
article was brief, and discussed how the public feels about how the police is reacting. I decided to keep
the article brief and not include any social or political opinions about the nature of the riots, because
that was not the purpose of the article. I wanted to talk about the police and their reaction to the riots.
This project was created to hopefully get the reader thinking about the issue and forming their
own opinion based on the facts. Overall, I wanted to show how in general, police militarization is
harmful to our society. I wanted to show how no-knock drug raids create very dangerous situations and
the dangerous situations created are not worth the result of an incarcerated drug offender. I also
wanted to show how sometimes, specifically in times of extreme civil unrest, militarization is necessary
to keep the piece and prevent a complete fallout of peace and order caused by violence, looting, and
arson. My main goal is for people to think about the issue and decide for themselves, and perhaps make
a change about all of the SWAT deployments for the war on drugs, but also see that this is not a black
and white issue.

Works Cited
Buchanan, Larry, Ford Fessenden, Haeyoun Park, Tim Wallace, and Alicia Parlapiano. "What Happened in
Ferguson?" The New York Times. The New York Times, 12 Aug. 2014. Web. 07 Nov. 2014.Oxford
University Press. Web. 27 Oct. 2014.
Chen, Tina. "Baby in Coma After Police Grenade Dropped in Crib During Drug Raid." ABC News. ABC
News Network, 30 May 2014. Web. 06 Dec. 2014.
Kraska, Peter B. Militarization and PolicingIts Relevance to 21st Century Police (n.d.): n. pag.
Cjmasters.eku/.
Szoldra, Paul. "This Is The Terrifying Result Of The Militarization Of Police."Business Insider. Business
Insider, Inc, 12 Aug. 2014. Web. 12 Nov. 2014.