Essay, Research Paper: Literary Analysis

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.