Kevin Connor

Dr. Clark

Rhetoric, Race and Eugenics

25 April 2017

Rhetorical Analysis

Police departments across the nation are considered to be a prominent

subject for many forms of different media outlets in todays day in age. A

wide array of instances have taken place in more recent years that display

the wrongdoings by law enforcement in America in digital media. Though

excessive force and racial profiling by the police has been extremely relevant

throughout most of our nations history, recent events highlighted by the

media have seem to reignite tension between certain members of society

and law enforcement. With the notable deaths of Trayvon Martin, Michael

Brown, and LaQuan McDonald, we have seen many groups and movements

against law enforcement gain nationwide attention. Black Lives Matter is

the most well-known activist movement that has formed mainly due to the

killing of unarmed African Americans by the police. They have spoken out

and marched against racism in modern day America. In recent news, police

interrogation site in Chicago known as Homan Square has been subject to

much scrutiny by the public following two articles revealing many inhumane

tactics used by the Chicago Police to detain and interrogate those arrested.

This site is giant warehouse used by the police to detain and interrogate
suspected criminals in an off the record manner. This purpose of this

paper is to breakdown the nature and language of two related articles to

provide an in-depth overview of the text. When analyzing rhetoric in an

article, it is important to understand the purpose the text serves. The

purpose these articles serve is to highlight the wrongdoings of the Chicago

Police Department in regards to the Homan Square warehouse site. Both

articles use of data and interviews displays an accurate and unbiased look

into the Homan Square interrogation site used by the Chicago Police.

In August 2015 Spencer Ackerman and Zach Stafford of The Guardian

released a story on a Chicago Police interrogation site known as Homan

Square called Chicago police detained thousands of black Americans at

interrogation facility. Two months later, Ackerman released a follow up

article updating data and statistics related to Homan Square titled Homan

Square revealed: how Chicago police disappeared 7,000 people. From the

title change alone, it is clear to see how the use of rhetoric within the title

displays an initial theme to the reader. In the first article Chicago police

detained thousands of black Americans at interrogation facility, portrays a

theme of racist ideals held by the Chicago Police Department to the

audience. The follow up article titled Homan Square revealed: how Chicago

police disappeared 7,000 people seems to be a use of more ambiguous

language towards the audience. There is no outright explanation to as why

there was a drastic title change, however I believe that it is important to

note.
 From the start of the article it is clear to see that the general tone is

one that is scholarly. There are various sources provided to support the

information. These sources include analysis of arrest records through the

Freedom of Information Act, first-hand accounts and stories of people who

were brought to Homan Square, statements and interviews from lawyers who

had clients held in Homan Square as well as statements from both police and

former police. With a wide array of sources provided in the article we can

assume that the text uses a logical appeal to the audience. In the selected

reading from Palczewski, et. al, the classical origins of rhetoric are provided.

One of the most well-known philosophers known as Aristotle, did extensive

research on the subject of rhetoric. He found that one of the key elements of

rhetoric is persuasion. There are three types of artistic proofs that are used

to persuade an audience known as ethos, pathos and logos. Both of the

articles use a logical appeal. The origin of logical appeal spans from

Aristotles teachings of logos. Logos is the artistic proof that is most

prominent in the text being analyzed. Logos is defined as: that which relies

on argument itself, by showing or seem to show something. (Palczewski,

et. al 15)

One of the main themes throughout the text is the topic of racial

profiling displayed by the Chicago Police Department. The data found states

that 7,185 arrests were made at warehouse site from August 2004 to June

2015. Nearly 6,000 of those arrested were African American, meaning 82.2%

of people detained at Homan Square were black. Related to the trend of

African Americans being arrested at a much higher rate in Homan Square,

the Clash of Civilizations ideograph instills the idea that racial tension is the

norm in our society. The Clash of Civilizations has been deployed

throughout the history of the United States to represent African American

men as savage and to justify the forms of state punishment inflicted upon

them.(Gage 2) Along with the portrayal of African American males as

savages and brutes, a recent 2017 study by Journal of Personality and Social

Psychology found that black men are seen as physically larger and more

threatening than similar sized white men. From this we can see that the

rhetoric used throughout our societys history has painted an unfair and

inaccurate picture of black males as a whole. Within the original article,

Chicago police detained thousands of black Americans at interrogation

facility, a former detective operating out of the Homan Square warehouse

stated When I was a detective, occasionally I would arrest a white person,

and the white detectives would be overly interested in why I was arresting

someone white. This goes to show how normal white privilege in our nation.

Simply due to visual symbols attributed to skin color, white is seen as safe

while black is seen as a threat.

One downfall of both articles I found, was the lack of statements and

quotes from Chicago police officers. In any article or piece of news content,

it is important to hear both sides of the story. There is a small portion of

content issued from the department and a former member in the articles. I

understand that it is likely a police officer would most likely not want to
provide information on the site since they claim Homan Square is used as an

undercover site as well as preserve their reputation on the force, but I find it

hard to believe that the highly regarded Guardian could not find someone on

the Chicago Police Department to give an interview or provide information

about the controversial site. In conducting my research for this paper, I had

the opportunity to interview of longtime member of the Chicago Police

Department who works in the field of organized crime. I chose to keep the

identity of the officer anonymous in order to preserve her reputation and

reduce the risk of controversy. I began by stating some of the data and

interviews provided in both of the articles. I mentioned that the articles

claim that many of those arrested were detained for minor crimes such as

dealing and use of drugs, public intoxication, and routine traffic stops. In

response, the officer stated that these offenders were merely not brought in

out of the blue. Extensive surveillance and investigation is done on all

subjects from anywhere to weeks to months before they are detained or

arrested at Homan Square. The officer went on to state that everyone

brought into Homan Square has a valid reason for being detained there,

saying that only high profile cases and offenders are dealt with at Homan

Square. At the end of my interview with the officer, I was even offered a tour

of the facility. I found this interesting due to the language used in the article

that displayed Homan Square as a highly confidential place. Clearly there is

an evident difference between the information provided by the articles

compared to the information given to me by the officer. However, she did

agree with the description from the article Homan Square revealed: how

Chicago police 'disappeared' 7,000 people of the site as something out of a

Bond movie. She described the warehouse as eerie and intimidating.

The officers agreement with some of the rhetoric used to describe the

warehouse is interesting to note. Even though she openly opposed many of

the texts claims regarding the arrest of innocent civilians for minor crimes,

she fully agreed with the articles description of the warehouse site.

We are in the time of both political and racial tension. With the rise of

digital media in the past years, there is a never ending supply of information

readily made available to the public with a click of the button. Depending on

the outlet or the source, this information can be presented in a way to appeal

to a certain side of the political spectrum. People tend to have a preferred

news outlets that caters to their beliefs and opinions. Though it is good to

have variety in media outlets, the swaying of a story in order to appeal to a

certain audience is negative downfall that can create false ideas and spread

fake news. Aside from the slight lack of first-hand accounts from police, this

text does an extremely good job of presenting data, statistics, and various

interviews that simply state what takes place at Homan Square. Both liberal

and conservative outlets are guilty of using certain buzzwords to garner

attention to their content. Though most would say that current liberal

ideology tends to speak out against law enforcement, as the articles clearly

do, the language used to present the information is done in a way that

seems to be moderate. Generally when people consume content related to

issues regarding race and police brutality, they take a position or a side

before they have heard the full story. In highly controversial cases such as

this, it is important for writers to use language and rhetoric that is

considered to be neutral or moderate. The nature of an articles language

matters greatly if the author hopes to successfully get their point across to

an entire audience. In this case the author(s) presented the facts they found

in a clear and straightforward way resulting in a well-executed piece of work.

 Works Cited

Ackerman, Spencer. "Homan Square revealed: how Chicago police

'disappeared' 7,000 people." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media,

19 Oct. 2015. Web. 25 Apr. 2017.

Ackerman, Spencer, and Zach Stafford. "Chicago police detained thousands

of black Americans at interrogation facility." The Guardian. Guardian

News and Media, 05 Aug. 2015. Web. 25 Apr. 2017.

Chicago Police Officer. Personal interview. March 2017.

Gage, Scott. "Michael Brown and the Clash of Civilizations: Activating

Racialized History, Normalizing Racialized Violence." Present Tense 5.2

(2015)

Palczewski, et. Al. Rhetoric in Civic Life. State College, PA: Strata Pub., 2016.

Print.

Wilson, John Paul, Kurt Hugenberg, and Nicholas O. Rule. "Racial Bias in

Judgments of Physical Size and Formidability: From Size to Threat."

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (2017)