Examples

Example Synthesis Kernel Essay:

In Charlie Beck and Connie Rice’s “How Community Policing Can Work” and Charles M. Blow’s “Romanticizing ‘Broken Windows’ Policing,” all three authors discuss the need for programs that bring attention to wrongful use of force among police.  However, each source focuses on a different program: Beck and Rice highlight the positive aspects of “guardian policing” while Blow criticizes the negative aspects of “broken windows policing.” Though different programs have advantages and disadvantages, I think all authors could agree that exploring programs to help reduce violent crime as well as police use-of-force is necessary in combating many tragedies we see in America today; however, the authors make interesting points about the importance of considering the causes of crime within individual communities.

Beck and Rice, one the “chief of the Los Angeles Police Department” and one a “civil rights lawyer,” provide evidence that guardian policing, which consists of having police officers establish trust with residents in high crime neighborhoods in Los Angeles, has been found to reduce the number of murders as well as the number of police shootings.  In fact, since it began in one particular neighborhood named Watts, there have been “no shootings by the partnership officers in over five years” (Beck and Rice). However, within this piece, Beck & Rice fail to discuss other potential solutions other than guardian policing, making this program seem the one-stop solution.

Charles M. Blow, though clearly an advocate for programs that would train officers in ways that may reduce their use-of-force in unnecessary situations, asks us to be wary before simply accepting any program as the savior for today’s problems.  He highlights a misguided program called “broken windows policing” for targeting certain racial groups, primarily African American communities, as violent, when that’s not necessarily the case. He writes, “How you view “broken windows” policing completely depends on your vantage point, which is heavily influenced by racial realities and socio-economics,” (Blow) and emphasizes the need for police officers to view effects of poverty before tying violence to race.

Both texts make valid points for the need for more programs to help reduce unnecessary use-of-force among police.  Though Blow’s piece is focused more on racial discrimination, he highlights strong points about the role poverty plays in a lot of these situations.  Beck & Rice consider community trust at the heart of the problem of some of the crime we see in neighborhoods. I believe Blow’s points challenge Beck & Rice in a positive way, encouraging readers to consider the many facets that contribute to crime in communities and consider ways to combat this issue that is specific to the community members the program works to target.