Literary Analysis

In Michael Norwicks Police Brutality, he expressed the many ways police brutality

has affected and changed many peoples lives and their families. But in this book real life

stories of not only police brutality but racism as well, make up the entire book. Many of

the controversies in Police Brutality, are about racism, not only in society, but also in

Police Departments across the United States. But this book shows us that when police

brutality occurs it isn't always racially motivated. These time-life stories do not only show

how society is corrupt, but the people we expect to protect us are surpassingly and

frightfully corrupt as well.

Police Brutality is usually thought of as most likely being done in metro cites like

Los Angeles and New York. But in Police Brutality , Michael Norwick made it known

that it could happen to anyone and anywhere. John Davis, a white farmer in rural Madison

County Wash. thought he had little in common with Rodney King until he remembered

that one summer afternoon in 1985 that would change his life forever. " That was when

his horse got out of control when he heard the siren and he couldn't stop it, when he did

the deputy drew his gun and beat, punched and stunned Davis with an electric stun

gun(Norwick 16)." After Davis remembered about his scary confrontation with a

Washington Deputy, he realized he had more in common with Rodney King than he

thought. John Davis would never look at the Rodent King video the same way again,

realizing that black or white, it didn't matter.

In the book Police Brutality, Norwick didn't only show the pain felt by people who

have been beaten by the police, but from good officers as well. Two LAPD officers

expressed how they felt, "its us against them," replied officer Patterson. " When I see my

fellow officer die on the scene of an accident and when the paramedic pronounces him

dead and the crowd starts to cheer it makes you sick(Norwick 92)." It showed that even

though these men and women risk their lives everyday to protect them, they still get no

respect by much of society. But it may be because minorities feel they are always targeted

for harassment by cops. " Let me tell you, I have been hassled by cops so many times that

when I get stopped now, I shuffle, I shake, and I jive(Williams 92)!" Many Latinos and

blacks feel the same way because they are pulled over so many times.

When many people think of the Ku Klux Klan the last thing they picture them in is

a police officer uniform. But now there is not just a few out there, there are thousands

and many unite in police departments. In California black and Latin officers received

threatening messages from the "Aryan Police Officers." This shows that there is in fact

corruption in police departments nation wide. Norwick showed that the operation of

organized racist groups within police departments is symptomotive of the racism within

their ranks that often lead to beatings and shootings.

As you can see, Michael Norwick wrote how police brutality can happen to

anyone, anywhere. He also wrote how innocent law abiding officers who do not show

racial preference and do not discriminate could be hated just because of the reputations of

many corrupt cops. But what was shocking was that many police officers know that they

are hated by many ignorant people in society, but what they didn't know is that they are

also hated by some of their fellow officers who often belong to groups with goals to target

minorities on the streets and on the precinct.