Rhetorical Analysis of a News Article

Craig Skinner

W131

29 September 2017

Body Cameras Protect Everyone

Section I:

I grew up in a town outside of Akron, Ohio and my family always received the Akron Beacon Journal, the Akron area’s top newspaper. Since this assignment required a topic relevant to the Fort Wayne area or the area that each individual student is from, I immediately searched the recent articles in this newspaper. The newspaper has an easy to access website that is kept up to date with the daily paper as well as other articles not included in the actual paper. Fortunately, the article I chose, titled “Akron Police body cameras have their eyes on you – and officers,” was on the home page of the website. The article I chose talks about the use of body cameras in the Akron Police Department, and the Department’s intentions on how these cameras may improve the safety of their officers and the people in the community. The video was found on CBS News - Cleveland and covers the same topic as the article.

I personally am very interested in this topic because of two reasons. The first, being the most relevant, is that in recent months and years the United States has had a countless number of issues regarding law enforcement and civilian interaction. In Ohio specifically, an officer shot and killed a 12-year-old boy named Tamir Rice after mistaking his toy gun for a real one. In this case, no body cameras were worn by police at the time of the incident and only a security camera with an obstructed view of the incident was available. The use of body cameras will give us the truth on what really happens in these situations rather than relying on the bias accounts of witnesses, the officers involved and other cameras that may only show a part of the incident. The second reason I am so interested in this topic is because I believe that body cameras make everyone safer, even the law enforcement officials that are wearing them. This hits very close to home for me as my mom is the Chief Probation Officer for Wayne County, Ohio and spends a lot of time working to arrest or meet with criminals. Even though it is just a camera, just the thought of it being there may prevent someone from hurting my mom or any other law enforcement official. Both the article from the Akron Beacon Journal and the video from CBS News – Cleveland claim that the goal of the body camera program is to increase the transparency in-between law enforcement and the citizens of Akron. This specific phrase is what interested me the most in this article and video among many others. The effort to be more transparent is just one step to improving people’s trust in law enforcement and hopefully lessening the divide that exists in our country.

When first choosing these two texts, I was very excited to do more research on the topic and find out more by reading the article and watching the video. As I got into the articles’ content, I began to think about different situations that would benefit having an officer with a body camera and how these devices could improve a lot of tension in between law enforcement and those that they interact with. I completely agree with the words of Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan saying that body cameras can improve this relationship by providing non-bias evidence of interactions that may get out of hand. Although, it is extremely important to note that when video evidence shows a law enforcement officer is at fault, he/she should be dealt with according to their actions. Some situations in Ohio and throughout the country have given video evidence showing an officer at fault, but the involved officer has not been punished properly. So as I do agree that body cameras can be extremely beneficial on an everyday basis as well as for larger incidents that come to be seen on a national level, they are simply only a piece of the puzzle to improve relationships and lessen tension in the Akron area and across the nation.

Section II:

The author of the article I selected from the Akron Beacon Journal, “Akron Police body cameras have their eyes on you – and officers,” is Amanda Garrett. Garret is a professional writer from Akron, Ohio that writes columns for the Akron Beacon Journal. Looking at other articles written by her, Garret seems to write recent news stories that have important effects on the community, such as this article talking about the initiation of the use of body cameras in the Akron Police department. Other examples of articles written by Garret are titled, “Cavs owner Dan Gilbert reveals he received racist voicemails after LeBron James criticized President Trump in tweet,” “Follow along as Ohio natives ride out Hurricane Irma across the Sunshine State.” She also keeps an up to date twitter feed that also spreads recent news and alerts. As previously stated, the article was published by the Akron Beacon Journal, one of the top newspapers in Northeastern Ohio and the most popular in the Akron area. The paper dates back to 1903 when Charles Landon Knight started the Akron Beacon Journal and is currently published by Black Press. This is an article that will appeal to the majority of the people that receive this paper because of its relevance to events happening across the country.

Section III:

Who cares most about this subject and is likely to read about it? Why? It is hard to give an exact answer as to who cares most about this subject because it can be appealing to such a wide variety of people. In recent years, incidents between law enforcement and civilians have wreaked havoc and sparked chaos throughout the United States. Because of all of these incidents, most people believe that both citizens and law enforcement officers need to be held more accountable in order to limit chaos and divide. Both the article and the video contain the same quote from Akron Police Chief Kenneth Ball saying, “Because of the climate that we find ourselves in now the biggest benefit is the fact the community is going to see that we are in favor of transparency. I'm excited for the professionalism of our officers that will be on display in these critical encounters that will now be available to the public with these video cameras.” This directly relates to what was previously said. Initiating a body camera program demonstrates the Akron Police Department’s wanting to benefit the community by being held to a higher standard and increasing transparency. The popularity and relevance of this topic are what make both this article and video appeal to everyone who picks up the Akron Beacon Journal or watches Fox 8 News in the Akron area.

What current events or popular issues could affect people’s thinking about this text? How? Many people that read this text may feel that body cameras, in a sense, are irrelevant. For example, when 12-year-old Tamir Rice was shot and killed by a Cleveland Police Officer in 2014 security camera footage gave a semi obstructed view of the incident. The camera’s video was released within a month of the incident and shows the 12-year-old boy playing with a pellet gun in a public park. As officers arrive, Rice is seen waving the gun around his waist and then falling to the ground as Cleveland Police Officers shot him two times. In the aftermath of the shooting, neither of the officers were indicted by a grand jury and protests were sparked around the country. Since 2014 similar incidents have taken place and rarely do the police officers involved face criminal charges. People viewing the selected texts may ask themselves, “how will body cameras make officers any more accountable if incidents have shown video in the past and how do body cameras increase transparency if there are video cameras nearly everywhere?” Those questions are hard to answer and only time will tell, but recent events, tragedies really, will make the content of the observed texts much harder to grasp for many people.

What information comes first? What comes last? What’s in the middle? Why? Starting with the article from the Akron Beacon Journal, the information that comes first describes the topic and introduces the audience to what body cameras are, following this comes information on how they work, and then finishing with words from the Mayor of Akron and in the Akron Police Chief. The video from CBS News – Cleveland followed a very similar trend. The speaker in the video first introduced the topic that body cameras were going to be used by the Akron Police Department and then transitioned into how the department was able to obtain the proper equipment through winning a federal grant. The speaker goes on to talk about how the cameras will be used while finishing with video from the press conference with the Mayor of Akron and Chief of Police discussing the cameras’ implementation within the department. Now the question is, why did the writer and the speaker, in the case of the video, organize the information this way? To answer, the order in which the ideas are presented allow the audience to understand the topic before the topic’s application is explained. For example, both the video and article explain what body cameras are, how they work, how they may be beneficial, and then all of this information is backed up by quotes or showing a video of the press conference with the Mayor of Akron and the Akron Chief of Police as they talk about the body camera program.

Among recent years in the United States, there have been an increasing amount of incidents between law enforcement officers and civilians. In an effort to provide answers in the fallout of these events, and to limit riots and unrest, many police departments and law enforcement agencies have begun to use body cameras for first person video evidence. In an article from the Akron Beacon Journal titled “Akron Police body cameras have their eyes on you – and officers,” author Amanda Garret explains the how body cameras will be used by the Akron police department, the reason for their use, and quotes the Mayor of Akron and Akron Police Chief from a press conference discussing the beginning of the body camera program. The video I selected from CBS News – Cleveland covered the same information in nearly the same order. Both the article and video give special emphasis on a point from Danial Horrigan, the Mayor of Akron, in which he discusses the effort of the Akron Police Department to be more transparent with the community of Akron by using body cameras. Each of these texts apply to a very broad spectrum of people because of their relevance in current culture while readers’ opinions of the texts can vary upon how they feel of the surrounding issues between law enforcement and civilians. Both the author of the article and speaker in the video present their ideas in a manner in which allow the audience to fully understand the topic and what the author is trying to say. Overall, I feel that each of these texts are very effective in giving the public information about the body cameras while also relaying information on how these new pieces of technology may be able to improve the current issues in our country that surround this topic.

Works Cited