letter to the editor prewriting

Letter to the editor prewriting 3/30/09

Summarize article: Dash cameras in Dallas police cars provide information on situations without bias.

Complete Rhetorical Analysis chart for original article (identify weaknesses)
Purpose: To tell about how the dash cams can help determine who is right and wrong without assuming.
Author: The author is using a specific example of when the dash cams were used to show that sometimes they can work for the police officers and sometimes they work against them.
Audience: The author is targeting anyone who drives in the Dallas area, as well as anyone that might feel as though they were treated unfairly. It is also directed towards law enforcement since it can work to prove they did the right thing, but it can also be evidence when they do something wrong.
The author uses examples to show how the cameras can be good and bad for authors specifically. In the past, the cameras have shown the police did the right thing when they were wrongly accused of harassing someone. The cameras have also provided proof in the past when officers did the wrong thing.

What appeals work best for target audience? I think that the logos (facts/specific examples) work best for the target audience. There is also the use of pathos since they talk about how Ryan Moats’ dying mother-in-law was inside the hospital while he was being ticketed and lectured. Moats and his wife asked to be able to go into the hospital to be with their family while she was dying and the officer pulled his gun on them. This definitely works with the pathos of the audience since anyone in that situation would want to be allowed to go be with their family.

Strengths and weaknesses: Strengths would be that they authors plays on the emotions of the audience, connecting a feeling of sympathy with them. Another strength would be that the authors sites more than one incident where the cameras have proved useful. One weakness of the article is it does not talk about any legal wrong doing of the officer. They talk about how what he did was insensitive, but there is nothing legally wrong.

I think that dash cams should be used and should be considered good evidence because earlier this year, a boy from my neighborhood was shot by a police officer. Without the proof of the camera, police can do whatever they want and then it is their word against someone else’s. This gives police an extraordinary amount of power and can lead to corruption.
I support the use of dash cams because they are not bias and they show exactly what went on. I believe the argument could be better if it discussed whether or not the videos are considered legit evidence in court and whether or not what Powell did was illegal, or if it was simply insensitive.
When I read this article it made me think about how important a dash cam can be. I have always felt like police can say or do whatever they want since they are given a lot of authority in society, meaning situations that end in “he-said-she-said” often result in the officer getting the benefit of the doubt .