Maya Williams Ms. Costa ENG2D1 14 May, 2023 It can be used for different intentions, that can be beneficial or harmful. In the novel “The Hate You Give” by Angie Thomas explores the misuse of power and how it has negative effects on themes related to the novel. This misuse of power occurs with police authorities, the media, and the school administration in the town of Garden Heights. The exertion of police authorities abusing their power generated growth for many characters. Despite being unarmed and posing no threat to the police officer, Khalil is shot and killed by him at the beginning of the book while being pulled over. A passage from the novel that demonstrates this abuse of power is when Khalil is waiting for the officer to process …show more content…
The media misrepresents Khalil by portraying him as a drug dealer and gang member without any evidence to support the claims. A passage that illustrates this inaccurate portal of Khalil is, “On the Monday night news, they finally gave Khalil’s name in the story about the shooting, but with the title added to it----Khalil Harris a Suspected Drug Dealer. They didn’t mention that he was unarmed” (Thomas 104). The continuous injustices experienced by communities of colour are increased by the biased reporting of the media, which created negative stereotypes and systemic biases. Also, the comment emphasizes the news report's obvious exclusion of information related to the situation. Regardless of Khalil's suspected drug use, they left out an important detail, which was that he was unarmed at the time of the incident. This lack of attention towards what really happened ignores the fact that using harmful force against an unarmed person raises concerns about excessive police force and action. Additionally, on the news, a single story was presented that only explained One fifteen experiences on the night he killed Khalil. A quote from the novel where this single story appeared on the news was, “The interview was about the night. “Apparently, Brian pulled the kid over ‘cause he had a broken taillight and was speeding” Khalil wasn’t speeding. “He told me ‘Pop, soon as I pulled him over, I had a bad feeling,’” says One-Fifteen Sr. “Why is that?” the interviewer asks. “He said the kid and his friend immediately started cursing him out----” We never cursed. “And they kept glancing at each other, like they were up to something. Brian says that’s when he got scared ‘cause they could’ve taken him down if they teamed up””(Thomas 246). The event in which One-Fifteen's father was speaking on the news, certainly created problems and irritated many people in the community because Khalil was