First of all my controversial topic is whether cops are truly bad or not. Obviously, with a topic like this no matter how credible a source might be, this topic can be influenced heavily by personal biases. I tried to take that into consideration in choosing my articles. Regardless of how many articles are for which side, I just want to say that I by no means support one side over the other.
Article 1- My first article is from the Washington Post, and is written by a former cop. He talks about his time being in the St. Louis Police Department. He says that many, but not all cops, were very racist. Commonly referring to all black people as “thugs” regardless of whether or not the person was a victim or a bystander. The officer even talks about websites that his work peers had made that were dedicated to racist rants, which had to be shut down by administrators multiple times. I think that this is a good, credible argument, which offers a unique point of view that you
do not always get with this debate. I think the fact that not only was this person a cop, but also a minority working gives a really interesting point of view. Most views are usually one or the other but not both.
Article 2- This next article comes from David Protess. who is the President of the Chicago Innocence Project. His view is that the police are no different than any other profession. Are there some that are racist? Probably. But there are also a majority that are good people. And obviously all that people hear about are the bad stories. He sympathizes with the police, saying that many of them are victims of circumstance. I also think that this is a well written article. And comes from someone with good credentials. Protess offers a unique view as well, being that he comes from one of the Chicago, which has one of the top crime rates in the entire country. This is definitely a good article to take some information away from.
Article 3- My third article comes from a more uncommon discussion. It is a decent sized discussion article regarding one of the books the author, Heather MacDonald, wrote. She takes a
very strong approach on the debate saying that this so called war against police puts black American at serious risk. She goes on to even relate it to the war on terror. MacDonald also talks about how if we continue down the same path that we are on, that this problem may never be solved. This article is not one I would probably use a ton when writing in the future. It seems to be a pretty biased, and very far on one side of the controversy. Although, I do think that there are a few things that relevant and true information that could be pulled away from this. But a the vast majority is a strong opinion.
Article 4- My fourth article is written by Paul Sperry. It’s his reflection of a statement that a very influential man named Eric Holder. His statements talked about his distrust in all police officers. Claiming they are all racist and use unconscious bias to discriminate against black people. Sperry breaks down the individual claims that Eric Holder made, backing each thing up with many what appear to be facts and stories. On some of the claims he agrees with Holder, but on some he disagrees with what he believes to be a better option. Although this is an opinion piece, I think it holds more value than most because of how
neutral it appeared to be, and a strong presence of facts and statements. It an article that almost seems professional to me. So for those reasons, I will most likely use this article in my upcoming paper.
Article 5- My final article is from the Detroit Free Press, which is another opinionated article. Although, I think this article shares a very common media view of the circumstance. Which is, how many cops are actually the criminals? Are they really the bad people? This is what is often discussed quite often on large amounts of news channels. It gives many descriptions of real life stories where police officers have made wrong, and in the author’s eyes is an act of racist intent. Similar to my previous article, this is another opinion article that I can imagine using. Although it shows only one side of the argument, I think the author Stephen Henderson, shares a view that many others believe to be true. He shows the very base of the argument. So for that I think the article has quite a bit of information to offer.
