Rhetorical Précis

In the New York Times editorial board's opinion "Political Lies About Police Brutality" (October 17th,2015), they argue that politicians are taking advantage of police brutality and protecting the police officers from public opinion. The author first presents their claim by providing direct quotes from politicians; they then show how right wing their way of thinking is by analysis their quotes; and to conclude they show just how often police racially profile African Americans by providing the reader with data on how much more likely a African American is to be pulled over. Their purpose is to show the reader how politicians protect police officers by targeting African Americans as the cause of the incidents in order to show just how bad the issue has gotten and how the United States political leaders ignore and shy away from the issue. They seem to have a left wing and a minority audience in mind because they show just how misguided the right wing politicians are and also show how bad it has gotten for minorities. 

Visual on police brutality

This cartoon by Keith Knight shows an alleged police application question asking what the officer sees in the picture. The picture shows 4 urban kids and the officer is saying that he sees target practice in the picture.

What Knight is referring to in his cartoon is that police officers have the misconception that young African American boys are dangerous and that they shouldn't be trusted, causing the officer to use an excess of force when dealing with them. The cartoon depicts the ongoing issue in the United States about innocent African Americans being killed by the police just because of their appearance. Knight is raising awareness about this ongoing issue to try and bring justice for the victims of police brutality. 

                     Work Cited

Knight, Keith. "Cartoonist Keith Knight Takes “They Shoot Black People, Don’t They?” on the Road in 2015 @ Green Galactic PR." Green Galactic PR RSS. 16 Jan. 2015. Web. 07 Mar. 2016. <http://www.greengalactic.com/2015/keith-knight-cartoonist-tour/>.