Police Brutality In Phobia

The last few years have been filled with many major news stories, ranging from terrorist attacks to mass shootings across the country. However, one of the most concerning and reoccurring themes of the past few years has been police misconduct. All across the country there have been incidents of police brutality, and sadly a lot of these incidents have led to the death of those involved. One of the most infamous cases of police brutality is the incident involving Eric Garner. Eric Garner, a forty-three-year-old African American male, was choked to death by the police in Staten Island, New York on July 17, 2014. Garner was confronted by the police on the suspicion of selling loose cigarettes. After denying these allegations and resisting arrest,

Neil Cavuto, anchorman for fox news, reported on this story on December 3, 2014. In his report, he interviews Rod Wheeler, former homicide detective, and they discuss the decision of the grand jury. This report is drastically different from the other three news sources, and was not filled with as much information. The incident of Garner was only briefly touched on and then the focus was shifted completely. Most of their discussion was about the potential rioting of citizens in New York. This was the main focus for most of the interview, and this was because Cavuto’s questions were about this issue. Wheeler also mentions how the main issue at hand is not whether or not officer Pantaleo was indicted or not, but instead the biggest issue is the system. He mentions how there are flaws in the grand jury proceedings, and that is what people should be focused on. Cavuto’s tone in this clip was very unsympathetic towards the Garner family, and he didn’t seem to actually be concerned with Garner’s death. He was more focused on whether or not citizens would riot, and also whether or not they would light the tree in New York. He spent more time talking about the lighting of the tree than he did actually talking about Garner. Cavuto also asked several pointed questions that forced his guest to answer in a way that backed his ideas. On top of that, Cavuto interrupted wheeler several times while he was talking and didn’t really seem to appreciate the time that wheeler was giving him. It was clear from this clip that Wheeler was on the side of Garner, but it did not appear this way for Cavuto. He never once showed any sign of sympathy or support for the Garner family, and never made it clear that he did not support the grand jury’s decision. Media clips are used in this report, but they are not very effective. The report starts off by showing part of the video of Garner being choked, which