The Face of Police Cruelty

Recently, cops on the campus of UC Davis have been caught on video casually spraying a line of non-violent protestors in the face with pepper spray. Obviously hearing this story brings grotesque images to mind, and I am sure than most have seen some sort of image depicting the brutality used by cops at other "Occupy" spots all over the United States. This article also included the video of the event taking place, and upon watching that video I was horrified to see the extreme measures taken by the officers against a group of people who simply want to remain where they are. The protestors show no sign of violence, and the cop just goes down line inflicting pain as if it were nothing. I can not imagine how anyone could do such a thing to a group of people, and the brutality has been rising as the "occupy" movements have grown in popularity around the U.S. While I know that the officers do have a duty to restrict the protestors from "occupying" wherever it is that they are, these measures seem too extreme.

Joan Walsh, the author of this article, uses both an ethos and pathos appeal in her article. Her points where she questions the officers' actions and thoughts seem to present an ethos appeal as she truly is questioning the mindset of the police officers. These questions are able to efficiently target the ethos of the reader, as it causes them too to question the officers and their actions. At other points, Walsh focused on the pathos appeal, continuously adding her own opinions on the topic and the occurance at hand. One of her many emotional appeals comes when she says, "What the UC Davis protesters did Friday was non-violent. What the cops did in response was brutality" (Salon.com). Obviously she felt that her opinion would be able to appeal to the emotions of the reader and efficiently illustrate her thoughts on the event.