I would characterize my author's writing style by informative because she always provides plenty of data on the specific issue that she is currently writing about. As stated on page 27, "Most of all, it captured his internal ethos about policing which allowed him to decide that real success was not defined by is police department, the public, society at large. To other cops, ghettoside was where patrol cars were dinged, computer keyboards sticky, workdays long, and staph infections antibiotic-resistant. To work down there was to feel sense of futility, forgo promotions, and deal with all the stressful, dreary, depressing problems poor black people had. But to Skaggs, ghettoside was the place to be, the place where there was real work to be done."(page 27, paragraph 2) She uses diction to describe how other officers see ghettoside as just hard work and boring. It's not a big deal to solve the cases. However, to Skaggs, it is more than that. Skaggs cares about every single unsolved murder and to seeks to find justice. This provides a tone of dedication and compassion because Skaggs honors his work as a detective and he is committed to solving all these unsolved murders.
I would characterize my author's writing style as passionately expressing her opinions on topics that no one talks about, and using her character, Skaggs, as an representation of how Leovy shows her passion when discussing the unsolved murders that are happening in America. As stated on page 7, "John Skaggs stood in opposition to this inheritance. His whole working life was devoted to one end: making black lives expensive. Expensive, and worth answering for, with all the force and persistence the state could muster. Skaggs had treated the murder of Dovon Harris like the hottest celebrity crime in town. He had applied every resource he possessed, worked every angle of the system, and solved it swiftly, unequivocally" (Leovy 7). Leovy uses diction to portray Skaggs determination to want to see change with the empedemic that's happening in America to black boys and men. This helps conveys Leovy's tone represented through Skaggs as determined because he believes that any and all crime should be taken seriously, regardless of race.
In the non-fiction novel Ghettoside by Jill Leovy, Leovy's writing style can be characterized as depressed since Leovy's use of imagery through the specific cases helps convey the horrible murders that occur to the African-American community mainly by African-Americans all over Los Angeles, California. In the beginning of the novel, Det. John Skaggs brings some of the evidence from the case of the murder of Dovon Harris to Barbara Harris, Dovon's mother. "[Barbara] stared at the shoes, choked and speechless." (Leovy 4). Barbara is "choked" up since the shoes belonged to her late son Dovon and the word choice in this part of the novel set the tone of how heavy a death of a close family member bare on another family member. When Barbara stares at her son's shoe, Skaggs just attempts to "[get] right to the point." (Leovy 4). Leovy's choice to quickly change the subject instead of focusing on the mother thinking of her son reveals the heaviness of murder even though it is seen and known of daily in this type of environment. While he was talking to Barbara, Skaggs "jingled his keys, swung his arms, or bounced on the balls of his feet." (Leovy 4). The imagery used to describe his movements help convey the importance of the situation at hand. Though he makes these movements, Leovy notes that they "were not fidgety" but "rhythmic and relaxed like those of a runner warming up." (Leovy 4). Leovy captures this as though the murder of Dovon Harris was another cold case, but it does not mean that breaking the news to family members of the victim is any easier since his movements can just be a way to cope through telling the deaths of the victims to their family members. In all, Leovy's gloomy writing style persuades the audience that people should never be forgotten, and the people a part of the African-American community should be proud of who they are and everyone should appreciate life since it cannot be determined when someone is supposed to die or murdered.
In the novel Ghettoside by Jill Leovy, Leovy's writing style can be characterized as mournful with the use of imagery in the beginning scene between Skagg and Barbara. In the beginning of the novel, deputy John Skagg carried with him a box containing a "pair of high-top sneakers"(Leovy 3) owned by Dovon Harris. Dovon "had been murdered the previous June, and the shoes had been sitting in an evidence locker for nearly a year"(Leovy 3) Skaggs "turned down a narrow walkway...and approached a heavy-duty steel 'ghetto door'; Skaggs knocked on the door and "walked in and placed the open shoebox in her hands[Barbaras] hands"(Leovy 3). Barbara "starred at the shoes, choked and speechless"(Leovy 4) as she starred at her late son's shoes. The word choice such as "choked" and "speechless" sets the tone of the novel as somber as Barbara and many other African-American women are or have been dealing with the death of their sons at the hands of another African-American. All in all, Leovy's mournful diction in the beginning of the novel forshadowes the rest of the novel for the African-American culture and persuades the readers to enjoy the time everyone has with their family and love who you are and where your roots are from.
The author’s motivation in writing the novel, Ghettoside, was to inform the public of the extreme homicide rates that occurred in the South Los Angeles area in the 2000s, after the murder of Bryant Tennelle in 2007. These insane homicide rates were mainly from African-Americans killing one another: gang violence, drug deals, or simply to protect themselves from the violence that occurs in their neighborhoods or “communities”. Leovy believes that the amount of work that the police put into these “black-on-black crimes” is the main reason for the homicide rates to increase since the police treated these cases as if they were small pity crimes when the families of the victims were grieving for the death of their loved ones knowing that it will be the last time they will see their loved one’s face. Leovy wants the reader to understand how awful the police system was just a decade was, and how unjust people of color were treated even in recent history which encourages the reader to not judge people by their appearances. The police during this time did not put a lot of effort on the cases because they still had the mindset of African-Americans were not equal to the white police officers or detectives. The author also wants people to realize how the families of the victims were handling the situations as the police sort of set the cases aside since the detectives seemed to not want to solve the cases since they were hard cases to solve, a cold case. Many reader’s takeaway from this novel would be that justice is not served to every crime committed; however, when it does, there is no satisfaction since the crime could still be affecting many people for many years. Leovy wrote this novel to convey the reader’s understanding to the situations taken place during a homicide case and how many are not solved due to the unwillingness of the detectives to work the case.
Jill Leovy’s exigency for writing this book, Ghettoside is to advise us, the audience, of the unpleasant statistics about life in the United States. This is that African-American males are a minority of the country’s population but African-American males are the majority of those who are murdered in the country. Jill Leovy is demonstrating to us all these statistics from especially African-American males in Los Angeles, California. She is trying to inform us how police officers and others don’t talk about as much as it truly happens. Jill Leovy is telling us that just because they are minority’s doesn’t mean that these are minor problems. All these African-American male deaths are a major problem in the country and people need to be aware of this situation. Jill leovy wants to tell us about the problems because if not her, then who? Since officers and news media are not telling us everything that is happening when they need to tell us, it’s becoming a major problem and it will only increase if people are not informed and don’t talk about it. That is why Jill Leovy is the one telling us through her writing. She is building her argument that more officers need to solve these cases faster and need to help prevent this from happening as often as it does. Jill leovy talks about how barely any officers care about finding justice in these cases from gang shootings, robberies and drug deals. No matter what the circumstance is, they need justice for the murders and need to help not prevent these from happening. As a reader I feel like I should take away that African-American male deaths are a huge problem in this country no matter if it’s from gang violence, drug deals, or robberies. I need to be aware of this and need to realize it’s a big deal and help spread knowledge of it to those who don’t know and help prevent it from happening as often.
The author's exigency for writing Ghettoside is to inform and educate us on the problems that exist within America. Ghettoside was written to shed light and bring about the battle between races when it comes to police officers and black people. It was also written to show how cases that involve the deaths of black men are handled and how they are treated by white cops with representation through historical facts and present situations that have accrued. The main argument that Leovy is trying to build is that there is a problem in america that has been accruing for to long and it needs to be addressed. The amount of bodies of innocent black men laying around by the hands of white cops for so many years, has become to big of an issue to be silent about. A takeaway would be that I now have a better understanding of the mindset of a cop and how they see these crimes through their point of view. Also, the empedemic that's in America and how we need to make changes and do better as a country. By having everyone have access to Ghettoside, will hopefully be the start of change that we need.
The book written by Jill Leovy, Ghettoside, Leovy's motivation for writing the book is to show how unfair the criminal justice systems is when it comes to murder cases involving a "black on black" crime. On page 9, Leovy states, "Many critics today complain that the criminal justice system is heavy-handed and unfair to minorities. We hear a great deal about capital punishment, excessively punitive drug laws, supposed misuse of eyewitness evidence, troubling high levels of black male incarceration, and so forth" (Leovy 9). Leovy also states, "Mysteriously, in modern-day Los Angeles, young black men are murdered two to four times more frequently than young Hispanic men, though Hispanics live in the same neighborhoods" (Leovy 10). Although minority races such as African Americas and Hispanics live in the same neighborhood, statistically, young African American men are killed on average "two to four times" as much as young Hispanic men and Leovy writes this book to expose how the criminal justice system, the LAPD, and even the African American people do to influence these high numbers of deceased African American young men. In the poorer neighborhoods of Los Angeles, many people are without jobs and struggling to put food on the table, yet they spend most of their days "hanging out together, confined to a few blocks" (Leovy 64). In wealthier neighborhoods, the atmosphere is completely different, most people worked "day jobs and neighbors knew each other in passing or not all"; although these people are living a good life and living comfortably, they aren't close to their neighbors, but in the poorer neighborhoods oh L.A., the communities "'come together' a touch of absurdity" (Leovy 64). These communities come close with every single family and anyone would believe that they would do anything to help the LAPD to solve a crime, even if it meant to "snitch" on someone, but its not that at all. These families are afraid of their own lives and the lives of their loved ones if they were to "snitch" because of the power gangs had over everyone and the threats they would receive, it would scare anyone. There's a difference between a good cop and a bad cop in these types of districts, bad cops blamed the African American people killed by gangs because it served as a "satisfying distance mechanism, officers ended by blaming not just suspects but victims for the 'choices' they'd made" (Leovy 65). The cops distance themselves from a murder case because they believe the young African American community are the ones to blame for the violence ravaging the poor communities in L.A., they even blame the victims for the violence spreading throughout L.A.; this makes the LAPD officers feel better about themselves when so much violence corrupts Los Angeles and they cant do nothing about it. As a reader and anyone else who will read this book, they will see into Deputy John Skaggs point of view, officer Tanelle, La Barbera and many more people working in the criminal justice system that there are still good cops in the powerful system, they are putting other people in front of their own lives, sacrificing so much to defend the innocent, but they cant do it alone. One witness, only one witness away from a case being closed and solved and put away, that's all it is, everyone must trust the criminal justice system because they're putting their lives at stake for you and if you can't trust them with their protection, they won't be able to help the community become safer. That's what everyone reading this book should take away, trust the system because rules are out in place to separate the good and bad people, trust the hard working cops because they're doing everything for you and appreciate them for the hard work they put in their jobs because at the end of the day, through the bullets they dodge and escape, they're humans just like us.
12 comments:
I would characterize my author's writing style by informative because she always provides plenty of data on the specific issue that she is currently writing about. As stated on page 27, "Most of all, it captured his internal ethos about policing which allowed him to decide that real success was not defined by is police department, the public, society at large. To other cops, ghettoside was where patrol cars were dinged, computer keyboards sticky, workdays long, and staph infections antibiotic-resistant. To work down there was to feel sense of futility, forgo promotions, and deal with all the stressful, dreary, depressing problems poor black people had. But to Skaggs, ghettoside was the place to be, the place where there was real work to be done."(page 27, paragraph 2) She uses diction to describe how other officers see ghettoside as just hard work and boring. It's not a big deal to solve the cases. However, to Skaggs, it is more than that. Skaggs cares about every single unsolved murder and to seeks to find justice. This provides a tone of dedication and compassion because Skaggs honors his work as a detective and he is committed to solving all these unsolved murders.
I would characterize my author's writing style as passionately expressing her opinions on topics that no one talks about, and using her character, Skaggs, as an representation of how Leovy shows her passion when discussing the unsolved murders that are happening in America. As stated on page 7, "John Skaggs stood in opposition to this inheritance. His whole working life was devoted to one end: making black lives expensive. Expensive, and worth answering for, with all the force and persistence the state could muster. Skaggs had treated the murder of Dovon Harris like the hottest celebrity crime in town. He had applied every resource he possessed, worked every angle of the system, and solved it swiftly, unequivocally" (Leovy 7). Leovy uses diction to portray Skaggs determination to want to see change with the empedemic that's happening in America to black boys and men. This helps conveys Leovy's tone represented through Skaggs as determined because he believes that any and all crime should be taken seriously, regardless of race.
Drewann Thomas🔝
In the non-fiction novel Ghettoside by Jill Leovy, Leovy's writing style can be characterized as depressed since Leovy's use of imagery through the specific cases helps convey the horrible murders that occur to the African-American community mainly by African-Americans all over Los Angeles, California. In the beginning of the novel, Det. John Skaggs brings some of the evidence from the case of the murder of Dovon Harris to Barbara Harris, Dovon's mother. "[Barbara] stared at the shoes, choked and speechless." (Leovy 4). Barbara is "choked" up since the shoes belonged to her late son Dovon and the word choice in this part of the novel set the tone of how heavy a death of a close family member bare on another family member. When Barbara stares at her son's shoe, Skaggs just attempts to "[get] right to the point." (Leovy 4). Leovy's choice to quickly change the subject instead of focusing on the mother thinking of her son reveals the heaviness of murder even though it is seen and known of daily in this type of environment. While he was talking to Barbara, Skaggs "jingled his keys, swung his arms, or bounced on the balls of his feet." (Leovy 4). The imagery used to describe his movements help convey the importance of the situation at hand. Though he makes these movements, Leovy notes that they "were not fidgety" but "rhythmic and relaxed like those of a runner warming up." (Leovy 4). Leovy captures this as though the murder of Dovon Harris was another cold case, but it does not mean that breaking the news to family members of the victim is any easier since his movements can just be a way to cope through telling the deaths of the victims to their family members. In all, Leovy's gloomy writing style persuades the audience that people should never be forgotten, and the people a part of the African-American community should be proud of who they are and everyone should appreciate life since it cannot be determined when someone is supposed to die or murdered.
In the novel Ghettoside by Jill Leovy, Leovy's writing style can be characterized as mournful with the use of imagery in the beginning scene between Skagg and Barbara. In the beginning of the novel, deputy John Skagg carried with him a box containing a "pair of high-top sneakers"(Leovy 3) owned by Dovon Harris. Dovon "had been murdered the previous June, and the shoes had been sitting in an evidence locker for nearly a year"(Leovy 3) Skaggs "turned down a narrow walkway...and approached a heavy-duty steel 'ghetto door'; Skaggs knocked on the door and "walked in and placed the open shoebox in her hands[Barbaras] hands"(Leovy 3). Barbara "starred at the shoes, choked and speechless"(Leovy 4) as she starred at her late son's shoes. The word choice such as "choked" and "speechless" sets the tone of the novel as somber as Barbara and many other African-American women are or have been dealing with the death of their sons at the hands of another African-American. All in all, Leovy's mournful diction in the beginning of the novel forshadowes the rest of the novel for the African-American culture and persuades the readers to enjoy the time everyone has with their family and love who you are and where your roots are from.
Jose Garza⬆️
The author’s motivation in writing the novel, Ghettoside, was to inform the public of the extreme homicide rates that occurred in the South Los Angeles area in the 2000s, after the murder of Bryant Tennelle in 2007. These insane homicide rates were mainly from African-Americans killing one another: gang violence, drug deals, or simply to protect themselves from the violence that occurs in their neighborhoods or “communities”. Leovy believes that the amount of work that the police put into these “black-on-black crimes” is the main reason for the homicide rates to increase since the police treated these cases as if they were small pity crimes when the families of the victims were grieving for the death of their loved ones knowing that it will be the last time they will see their loved one’s face. Leovy wants the reader to understand how awful the police system was just a decade was, and how unjust people of color were treated even in recent history which encourages the reader to not judge people by their appearances. The police during this time did not put a lot of effort on the cases because they still had the mindset of African-Americans were not equal to the white police officers or detectives. The author also wants people to realize how the families of the victims were handling the situations as the police sort of set the cases aside since the detectives seemed to not want to solve the cases since they were hard cases to solve, a cold case. Many reader’s takeaway from this novel would be that justice is not served to every crime committed; however, when it does, there is no satisfaction since the crime could still be affecting many people for many years. Leovy wrote this novel to convey the reader’s understanding to the situations taken place during a homicide case and how many are not solved due to the unwillingness of the detectives to work the case.
Jill Leovy’s exigency for writing this book, Ghettoside is to advise us, the audience, of the unpleasant statistics about life in the United States. This is that African-American males are a minority of the country’s population but African-American males are the majority of those who are murdered in the country. Jill Leovy is demonstrating to us all these statistics from especially African-American males in Los Angeles, California. She is trying to inform us how police officers and others don’t talk about as much as it truly happens. Jill Leovy is telling us that just because they are minority’s doesn’t mean that these are minor problems. All these African-American male deaths are a major problem in the country and people need to be aware of this situation. Jill leovy wants to tell us about the problems because if not her, then who? Since officers and news media are not telling us everything that is happening when they need to tell us, it’s becoming a major problem and it will only increase if people are not informed and don’t talk about it. That is why Jill Leovy is the one telling us through her writing. She is building her argument that more officers need to solve these cases faster and need to help prevent this from happening as often as it does. Jill leovy talks about how barely any officers care about finding justice in these cases from gang shootings, robberies and drug deals. No matter what the circumstance is, they need justice for the murders and need to help not prevent these from happening. As a reader I feel like I should take away that African-American male deaths are a huge problem in this country no matter if it’s from gang violence, drug deals, or robberies. I need to be aware of this and need to realize it’s a big deal and help spread knowledge of it to those who don’t know and help prevent it from happening as often.
The author's exigency for writing Ghettoside is to inform and educate us on the problems that exist within America. Ghettoside was written to shed light and bring about the battle between races when it comes to police officers and black people. It was also written to show how cases that involve the deaths of black men are handled and how they are treated by white cops with representation through historical facts and present situations that have accrued. The main argument that Leovy is trying to build is that there is a problem in america that has been accruing for to long and it needs to be addressed. The amount of bodies of innocent black men laying around by the hands of white cops for so many years, has become to big of an issue to be silent about. A takeaway would be that I now have a better understanding of the mindset of a cop and how they see these crimes through their point of view. Also, the empedemic that's in America and how we need to make changes and do better as a country. By having everyone have access to Ghettoside, will hopefully be the start of change that we need.
Drewann Thomas ⬆️
The book written by Jill Leovy, Ghettoside, Leovy's motivation for writing the book is to show how unfair the criminal justice systems is when it comes to murder cases involving a "black on black" crime. On page 9, Leovy states, "Many critics today complain that the criminal justice system is heavy-handed and unfair to minorities. We hear a great deal about capital punishment, excessively punitive drug laws, supposed misuse of eyewitness evidence, troubling high levels of black male incarceration, and so forth" (Leovy 9). Leovy also states, "Mysteriously, in modern-day Los Angeles, young black men are murdered two to four times more frequently than young Hispanic men, though Hispanics live in the same neighborhoods" (Leovy 10). Although minority races such as African Americas and Hispanics live in the same neighborhood, statistically, young African American men are killed on average "two to four times" as much as young Hispanic men and Leovy writes this book to expose how the criminal justice system, the LAPD, and even the African American people do to influence these high numbers of deceased African American young men. In the poorer neighborhoods of Los Angeles, many people are without jobs and struggling to put food on the table, yet they spend most of their days "hanging out together, confined to a few blocks" (Leovy 64). In wealthier neighborhoods, the atmosphere is completely different, most people worked "day jobs and neighbors knew each other in passing or not all"; although these people are living a good life and living comfortably, they aren't close to their neighbors, but in the poorer neighborhoods oh L.A., the communities "'come together' a touch of absurdity" (Leovy 64). These communities come close with every single family and anyone would believe that they would do anything to help the LAPD to solve a crime, even if it meant to "snitch" on someone, but its not that at all. These families are afraid of their own lives and the lives of their loved ones if they were to "snitch" because of the power gangs had over everyone and the threats they would receive, it would scare anyone. There's a difference between a good cop and a bad cop in these types of districts, bad cops blamed the African American people killed by gangs because it served as a "satisfying distance mechanism, officers ended by blaming not just suspects but victims for the 'choices' they'd made" (Leovy 65). The cops distance themselves from a murder case because they believe the young African American community are the ones to blame for the violence ravaging the poor communities in L.A., they even blame the victims for the violence spreading throughout L.A.; this makes the LAPD officers feel better about themselves when so much violence corrupts Los Angeles and they cant do nothing about it. As a reader and anyone else who will read this book, they will see into Deputy John Skaggs point of view, officer Tanelle, La Barbera and many more people working in the criminal justice system that there are still good cops in the powerful system, they are putting other people in front of their own lives, sacrificing so much to defend the innocent, but they cant do it alone. One witness, only one witness away from a case being closed and solved and put away, that's all it is, everyone must trust the criminal justice system because they're putting their lives at stake for you and if you can't trust them with their protection, they won't be able to help the community become safer. That's what everyone reading this book should take away, trust the system because rules are out in place to separate the good and bad people, trust the hard working cops because they're doing everything for you and appreciate them for the hard work they put in their jobs because at the end of the day, through the bullets they dodge and escape, they're humans just like us.
Jose Garza⬆️
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