“This is the story of two boys living in Baltimore with similar histories and an identical name: Wes Moore. One of us is free and has experienced things that he never even knew to dream about as a kid. The other will spend everyday until his death behind bars for an armed robbery that left a police officer and father of five dead. The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine. The tragedy is that my story could have been his.” Moore (xi). The Other Wes Moore shows us how similar their childhoods were but they had two entirely different outcomes in the end. Lets see what some of the similarities and differences in the Wes Moores’ lives pertaining to family and police run-ins of both Wes Moores’ were described in The Other Wes Moore.
First of all, the “author” and the “other” Wes Moore have had altercations with the police. The “other” Wes just done with a game of football when his police encounter became about. Wes kept on violently pushing a boy during the game and the boy finally had enough and swung a punch and it Wes in the face and busted open his lip. In response to that Wes went into the kitchen grabbed a knife and was sprinting toward the boy, but the police arrived gave Wes two warnings then, “One of the police officers stepped up… slamming him face first into the trunk of the police cruiser.” Moore (34). This was a very hard moment for the “other” Wes because he did not want his mother to find out about him getting arrested so he had to resort and call