Kevin Fauntleroy

2/8/2015
UWRT 1102-029
Professor Connie Douglas
Police vs. Society and the Media
Rodney King, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, and Cameron Tillman; they were either
rightfully slain or beaten in self-defense. They the innocent who were victims on police brutality.
Now because some of those people I named, riots are occurring in Ferguson, Missouri and the
question is are the policing handling them correctly and accordingly. The law says one thing and
the people say another. Hence, I am going to be looking into the causes of police brutality and
how it is perceived because of social media.
The writers background of the first article (Albert J. Reiss Jr.) is that hes a former
professor at Yale University under the department of Sociology and has also previously done
studies on police behavior. Since he has some experience and prior knowledge to the behavior of
police, the content is much more detailed and it is obvious he is knowledgeable and passionate
about what hes discussing in the article. The primary writer of the second article (Lee Sigelman)
was a political science professor at George Washington University who did a lot of political
research. His preconceptions about the subject is that the police have participated in brutality
starting with the example of the Rodney King incident, so it can be assumed that his paper will
go in the direction of finding out the police brutality levels amongst citizens.

Neither articles purposes are directly stated in the article. The first article starts off with a
statement made by a commissioner of a police station and the second introduces the article with
giving a synopsis of the Rodney King incident. Neither purposes are directly stated but the way
their introduction paragraphs are written and detailed, you know that the purpose is to write
about police brutality, the statistics in it, and the perception of it in the eye of the society. The
writers are simply informing us on police brutality and how it is alive today, especially in lowincome areas. They arent encouraging action because of what is currently happening today
which is the issue of police brutality. These writings are both depending heavily on logic because
neither writer has experienced police brutality firsthand but do have the experience and
knowledge of it through previous studies, todays happenings, and their own research on the
topic.
The writers audiences are the society in which live in a problem free society that is well
apart from any negative encounters with police. The writers see the audience as uninformed.
Since the audience is not full of victims of police brutality or witnessed it firsthand or
professionals who study police brutality then they arent going to be fully informed. Whether or
not the police accept the words police brutality, the public wants some plain answers to some
plain questions is proof that the audience is uninformed (Reiss Jr., Police Brutality- Answers to
Key Questions). The writers see the audiences as friendly, innocent people who arent exposed to
the ugly truth of our criminal justice law enforcers. It is thought by the audience that they hold
are that the police are perceived as just law enforcers that stop crime and thats it, nothing more
nor less. So since they have this look on police, they will be more surprised with the information
they are exposed to about police brutality. The writers assume that the audiences background is
middle to high class, the classes that really dont see or feel the hands of police brutality and

because of this reason I do not believe that they will be moved as much by the information being
read by them because they really arent exposed to the negative of police as low-income
households.
The topic of this argument is police brutality and the perceptions of it from societys
standpoint. The writers decided to write about this topic because here recently, we have had a lot
of incidents of brutality here lately and no one to decipher why its even occurring and the ugly
truth about it. Yes, writers have developed the topic fully enough to where when one is
completely finished reading the articles that they are fully knowledgeable of police brutality.
They have used ethos and Lagos throughout the papers to deliver the information that is the
context of the paper and do it well with primary and secondary research, as well as statistics.
In the first article, the former New York City police commissioner statement sets the
stage for the argument. In the second article, the infamous Rodney King incident sets the stage
for the argument in that one. There are many events in history that trigger the argument in both.
From Rodney King to riots that arent as well known in the ghettos. All history has been the
trigger to this argument and topic at hand. The strengths of the arguments in both papers are the
data and information collected and used to fill the context of them. The weaknesses of the
arguments in both papers is that since they both are very knowledge-based and have keen sense
of wording since it was written in an academic fashion, the common man may not fully
understand all of which is written since its not simplified into simple sentences and an obvious
breakdown. Hence, meaning that if these writers are trying to get the word out on police brutality
or get individuals knowledgeable of the issue then they need to make their writings more
informal. In order for someone to grasp a concept or information fully, they have to read it, think
about it, and interpret it in their own way and they cant do that if they dont understand all of

which is being discussed. If both authors of the articles were to keep all the information they
have and write it in a more simpler form so that people from different academic standings could
understand then more people would know what the actual problem is in detail and find a
resolution to it. The police are supposed to be protectors so we are going to want to get them
back in that light.
Overall, both papers served their purpose on discussing the effect of police brutality and
that it is well alive and here today. The use of previous incidents of police brutality, the heavy
researched performed and the previous knowledge the writers possess on the topic made their
writing a much reliable source on the topic being argued. I felt that both writing were well
written and had little to no errors. Since police brutality is my line of inquiry, these two writings
have given me great insight and information to be used when its time to do my final writing and
to continue my research.

Bibliography
Reiss, Albert J., Jr. "Police-Brutality- Answers to Key Questions." Trans-Action 5.8: 10-19.
Google Scholar. Web. 2 Feb. 2015.
Sigelman, Lee, et al. "Police brutality and public perceptions of racial discrimination: A tale of
two beatings." Political Research Quarterly 50.4 (1997): 777-791.