George Orwell Applied To Police Brutality

In the essay Politics in the English Language by George Orwell, he discusses the idea that, "language is a natural growth and not an instrument which we shape for our own purposes." Throughout the entire piece he explains two main issues that writing has evolved to: unnecessary disruptive words and lack of precision. The quote above explains that we can not warp words to mean what we want them to. We can directly relate this to modern day controversial issues. For example, police brutality is a widely written debate. 

Incidences of excessive force by the police seem to pop up every week sparking movements, such as Black Lives Matter. An article in the New York Times about a shooting in Chicago is a good example of Orwell's argument. The article states, "Ms. Alvarez said the array of material provided clear evidence that Mr. Johnson had been armed with a gun, resisted arrest and posed a potential threat to pursuing officers." Key words in the passage that are often manipulated are resist, potential, and pursuing. Throughout many police brutality cases, such as the murder of Michael Brown, the defining factors of the conviction involve these words. 

Different media outlets might define them differently. One person might say that pursuing is simply a law enforcement at the scene of the crime while someone else might say a pursing police officer is one that is actively trying to arrest the suspect. Because this word is so widely used throughout media to describe the same situation but through different perspectives, the court might have a hard time learning the real story. 

This is the case with many words. Because writers, especially political writers, use words to their advantage and slowly warp them over time, it causes chaos throughout all aspects of language. In the case of police brutality, words that have been written about can be used in court that changes the case entirely.

We use words to describe everything around us. When they are manipulated by the media chaos is pushed upon everything. The challenge of writers and speakers is to use words in a considerate way that does not forcibly direct the audience through manipulation.

 Click here to read NYT article