MARFINAL
- 2. The cover of the December 8,
2014 issue of The New Yorker magazine features a drawing
of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis–the arch that for fifty years has welcomed people to the city
west of the Mississippi. The drawing, titled “Broken Arch,” depicts the landmark in a disturbing
light: One side of the arch is black and the other is white, divided at the top. The city behind is
also split by color, a striking visual depiction not only of racial partition but also the growing
chasm of trust separating citizens from law enforcement since the police shooting of Michael
Brown in the nearby suburb of Ferguson. While responding to a call about a convenience store
robbery, white officer Darren Wilson killed unarmed, teenage Brown on August 9 outside St.
Louis, Missouri (Buchanan). According to Saint Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch,
“Almost immediately, anger began brewing because of the various descriptions of what had
happened and because of the underlying tensions between the police department and a significant
part of the neighborhood” (“Ferguson, Missouri Grand Jury Decision Announcement”). The hazy
details surrounding the actual interactions between Brown and Wilson sparked national uproar
about racial profiling, police brutality, and the biased rhetorical framing of the two men as both
victims and aggressors.
Tensions climaxed at nightfall on the evening of November 24, 2014, as the streets filled
with anxious protesters waiting to hear whether or not a grand jury would indict Wilson for the
shooting of Brown. McCulloch made the announcement at an 8:00 PM press conference in
Ferguson, first extending his sympathies to the Brown family, and then continuing: “After their
exhaustive review, the grand jury deliberated and made their final decision. They determined that
no probable cause exists to file any charges against Officer Wilson and return a not true on each
of the five indictments.” The questionable timing of the press conference perfectly positioned the
- 3. impatient audience to erupt at the announcement of the indictment. As angry crowds grew in the
background, law enforcement officers equipped themselves for a confrontation. Instantly,
reporters who had flocked to Missouri to cover the anticipated unrest began to provide live
updates online and on television. The SLPD also took to Twitter to comment through its own
voice as events rapidly unfolded following the grand jury decision.
These policeissued communications will be the subject of our examination as we analyze
and evaluate their content, intent, and outcomes on a community, a city, a nation, and
individuals. We will study the SLPD’s press releases, press conferences, and Twitter feed with
the intent of discovering how the department attempts to portray the situation under the constant
scrutiny of the media.
A rhetorical analysis of police communications is useful because of the emerging media
spotlight on law enforcement especially as it pertains to race relations. On social media, the
same spotlight simultaneously provides a public platform on which to defend these actions.
Public concern about police brutality is not a new conceptin fact, it is undeniably repetitive.
Within the past 20 years, similar incidents ignited upset in large cities such as Los Angeles
(Rodney King), New York (Eric Garner), Milwaukee (Derrick Williams), North Charleston
(Walter Scott) and Baltimore (Freddie Gray). We believe this pattern is significant enough to
merit a deeper look at the way police forces use new media’s rhetorical space. The SLPD’s use
of social mediaparticularly Twitterchanged how an authoritative body can employ rhetorical
persuasion and interact with its audience to create credibility. Furthermore, McCulloch
reprimanded social media communities for becoming too involved in the impending indictment
- 4. of Officer Wilson. These traditional and unconventional tactics of saving face raise relevant
questions about crisis communication and the representation of truth.
We intend to explore how police departments use rhetorical leverage through public
communication channels. This essay will explore public law enforcement communications
through the lens of the SLPD, with careful consideration of word choice as it pertains to clusters
and deictic positioning. We will reach a conclusion about the embedded rhetorical persuasion by
examining historical context with a modern media perspective, and apply Burkean terms
including identification and guilt. In a racial landscape that continues to divide black Americans
and police officers, this analysis aims to illuminate subtle ideological agendas in Ferguson and
similar rhetorical situations.
We will begin by closely examining official SLPD output to more critically analyze the
purpose, intended audience, and strategies of their targeted messages.To narrow our analytical
focus, we chose to examine two forms of public communication put forth by the SLPDpress
conferences and tweets. Although press conferences appear to be more formal in presentation,
we believe that in a digital information landscape, tweets from the verified @stlcountypd
account constitute official statements. Although they employ different delivery styles, the
primary messages from these channels are the same. The SLPD aims to encourage peaceful
assembly, discourage displays of violence, and justify intervention in the name of safety and the
protection of property. The voice of the SLPD praises law enforcement officials and places
blame on protesters for instigating the use of crowd control tactics. These measures attempt to
garner public support by painting the department in a morally upstanding light; the officers are
presented as keeping the peace, and protesters are depicted as acting out of bounds and
- 5. disobeying explicit instruction. Given the national spotlight on Ferguson throughout the
aftermath of Brown’s death, the SLPD had ample reasons to present their own narrative to the
public.
The newsworthiness of the shooting and its aftermath placed Ferguson and the SLPD at
the center of media attention throughout the fall of 2014. We use the term “media” broadly,
however. Because the Internet was the main forum for public discourse, reporters and
newscasters were not the only ones talking about the SLPD. Citizen journalism ran rampant, and
Twitter was inundated with individual opinions and accounts of #Ferguson. Audiences struggled
to know which sources provided credible information, and authoritative voices fought to be
heard over the chatter. McCulloch issued a preemptive press release to the grand jury decision
that cautioned, “Until that notice comes directly from this Office, ANY AND ALL claims of an
announcement date or time, from any source, especially social media, are rank speculation and
should be ignored” (“For Immediately [sic] Release”). This press release is evidence that the
SLPD was trying to reach a national, social audience, one that was attempting to cocreate the
message. To meet this audience where it was, the SLPD was essentially forced into using social
channels to promote its messages.
The SLPD’s Twitter presence was authoritative. The ethos it channeled came from the
implied clout of a law enforcement agency discussing both criminal and legal issues. Moreover,
when faced with cries of injustice from protesters and civilians, the SLPD implied righteousness
in its actions by justifying any retaliation as necessary for crowdcontrol. In terms of press
conference messaging, McCulloch outright condemned the public for interfering with the
- 6. perception of police and the details of the case itself, demonstrating the department’s view of its
own rights (“For Immediately [sic] Release”).
The SLPD’s tone was another contributing factor to its authoritative ethos. In a newsy,
matteroffact succinctness, it adopted the credibility of an impartial observera dangerous
subtlety for a deeply invested entity. In the relatively new social information sphere, audiences
are accustomed to receiving this voice from news media, and we believe the SLPD imitated this
tone as a form of persuasion. For example, one tweet from the evening of November 24th read:
@stlcountypd Police are making numerous announcements to leave the roadway and are
being ignored. Tactical opts being deployed
In this case, the SLPD implied objectivitywhich was impossible given its role. The SLPD’s
evidence invites the public to hold a particular view toward those protesting in the streets of
Ferguson. As the narrative of the Ferguson protests transpired in real time, the SLPD issued
statements to justify its intervention in times of public uproar and distress.
While the SLPD’s statements varied by channel among the artifacts in our set, each asked
the overarching question of how to assert authority when issuing crisis communications. Thanks
to Twitter’s format, not only is the story told in a chronological order, but it is also occurs in real
time. The platform’s brief and immediate nature offers the SLPD a selfaware voice that asserts
itself as immersed within the story. In more formulated statements, such as the official press
conference and the formal press releases, the structure is less conversational; its impersonal
format discourages dialogue. In this way, the SLPD could strategically assert its strength and
authority over the protesters in Ferguson. The SLPD tried to establish its own power by taking
tweets and information from other credible sources and publishing them as support for its
- 7. interpretation of events. Thus, the SLPD’s communication strategies siphoned power from other
authority figures and manipulated the context. For example, the police retweeted ABCNews’
tweet citing President Barack Obama’s quote and featuring his picture, urging people not to use
Ferguson as an excuse for violence. In doing so, the police assumed the credibility of both the
President of the United States and a nationally recognized news source. In the case of the press
conference, the prosecution acted as the sole representation of authority and offered no room for
rebuttal, further demonstrating its strategic power.
Given the rhetorical situation and historical background of SLPD communications, we
will next consult existing scholarship pertaining to several facets of new and social media, news
dissemination, and how credibility is established online.
Review of Literature
Considering the many important elements that comprise social media and their
relationship to police public relations, it is practical to draw upon the scholarly research that has
critically analyzed communication themes in this relationship. Before we examine how the
SLPD structured its messages, we will review important communication theories regarding
credibility and social media as they apply to police messaging. Research has explored how
credibility is expressed differently depending on the message’s vehicle, including online
platforms. Furthermore, scholars have also studied the concepts of gatekeeping and authority in
new media. Later, this theoretical approach will help us to analyze the motives of the SLPD as a
message sender, and the relationship between authoritative bodies and their audience.
Credibility and Social Media
- 8. Social media have become immersed in everyday life as a resource for entertainment,
news, interpersonal, and professional communication. However, credibility on social media is
largely based on whether the receiver of the message perceives the source to be competent and
trustworthy (Christians et al. 3; Kang 3). Furthermore, audience members will choose to
participate in platforms that share information tailored to their personal views; because of this,
people will deem a particular medium to be more credible if it aligns with their ideologies (Kang
6). “New and social media present opportunities for individuals in target audiences to create
likeminded communities that offer support and reinforcement to one another through
information empowerment” (Hall et al. 2). How, then, do authoritative bodies establish
credibility on Twitter? There are three elements that comprise source credibility: goodwill, trust,
and competence (Westerman et al. 172). Twitter users create meaning by collaboration (Obar et
al. 8), which accomplishes goodwill by creating a virtual dialogue; it is more participatory than
onesided messaging. In this context, trust is defined as “the degree to which a perceiver believes
a sender will tell the truth as he or she knows it” (Westerman et al. 172). On Twitter, truth telling
is represented in a few ways. Handles usually identify the message sender by name. For official
accounts, the handle is accompanied by a blue checkmark, signifying that the account is owned
by the entity it represents. The checkmark, however, has nothing to do with the factual
verification of information presented. Competence, “the degree to which a perceiver believes the
sender to know the truth” (Westerman et al. 172), is “strongly influenced by stylerelated
attributes” (Castillo et al. 675). In the case of Barack Obama’s 2012 presidential campaign,
social media content was written by “seasoned campaigners” (Johnson 55); these tweets convey
competence with expertise and professionalism.
- 9. Social media are open forums where individuals can voice, construct, debate and
scrutinize opinions (Chen 75). And, “although Twitter is an effective tool to organize and rally
people, it is also an effective persuasive tool” (Johnson 58). Because of the way credibility is
established, we know that digital dialogue has the power to influence other users’ perceptions
(Chen 76). However, in a heavily opinionated sphere, it can be difficult to determine which
accounts are publishing factually accurate information. Because “the nature of social media
provides the possibility for manipulation and the construction of public opinion” (Chen 76),
individuals who have significant clout on social media may have the power to control the
resulting conversation. In using Twitter to express objectives, any authoritative body can create a
seemingly intimate relationship with the public. Hall et al. call for research to analyze potential
stakeholders in a technologically advanced era that readily allows users “to construct and widely
disseminate competing rhetoric quickly and convincingly” (6). This rhetorical situation provides
evidence to answer that question; In the absence of gatekeepers, Twitter allows audiences and
authoritative bodies to engage in unsupervised dialogue that may overshadow weaker parties
(Clift 673; Johnston and McGovern 1679). Given what we know about the formation of
credibility, Twitter is an accessible tool by which the police are able to influence public opinion.
Through social media, the police are afforded another vehicle to shape outside opinions
and views by exercising “control over their information” (Johnston and McGovern 1674). In an
examination of political campaign rhetoric, Janet Johnson asserts a similar ideal: “As Twitter is
becoming an effective tool for rhetoric, tweets are becoming the new “sound bite,” allowing
candidates to control more of the coverage of their public images and their campaigns” (55). In
this respect, Twitter is a constant flow of unfiltered sound bites that construct the user’s identity.
- 10. Twitter allows users more control over their persona, and thus seeps into the traditional structure
of information flow.
Gatekeeping and Social Media
Traditionally, gatekeepers are responsible for filtering the news and suggesting how the
public should understand information. Gatekeepers target specific audiences and in doing so,
news distributors may create a reality that conforms to personal their own agenda (Xu and Feng
421).
However, social media threaten these traditional roles. Social media allow for the direct
distribution of perspectives and ideas, sidestepping the gatekeeping process (Himelboim et al.
156). Penney and Dadas support this; the accessibility of smartphones empower anyone with a
connection “to become peertopeer citizen journalists, sharing updates, photos, and video of
protests with worldwide audiences in real time” (80). Because social media channels lack
traditional gatekeepers, the receiver has to determine if the source is credible and reliable
(Westerman et al. 173). Gatekeepers also vet information and perform fact checking; now
viewers themselves have to monitor the content for accuracy (Westerman et al. 173).
Because Twitter permits anyone to interact with information and its associated
gatekeepers, it allows participants to establish a particular relationship that is not otherwise
achievable through other means of communication (Xu and Feng 421). Twitter and other social
media sites are designed to facilitate rather than restrict communication and interaction (Obar et
al. 6). Twitter requires that all users abide by the same 140character count, limiting the
information that can be projected and absorbed by both senders and receivers (Xu and Feng 424).
- 11. Although there is some research concerning social media and their relationship with
credibility, there are many unexplored areas. In our research, we did not come across any
examination of tones, frequencies, or styles of messages in credible online news communication.
Current research fails to explain and identify how authoritative presence on social media
dominates and influences public discourse. Additionally, it should be discussed whether the
legitimacy of information on social media has been compromised without traditional gatekeeper
roles.
Our research addresses social media and their impact on the communication between
authoritative bodies and message receivers. We have discussed the establishment of credibility
on Twitter, and the concept of gatekeeping and how it can restrict or facilitate the flow of
information. Now, we will review the history and context of police brutality leading up to
Brown’s death and the Ferguson protests.
Historical and Contextual Analysis
The history and context are key to this exploration due to the relative recency in terms of
American history and communication strategies. This section begins by addressing the role of the
SLPD followed by the chain of events beginning in August 2014. Then, we discuss the exigence
and wider audience of the rhetorical situation, concluding with the constraints of press statements
and tweets.
The Rhetor
First, we will distinguish how the SLPD represented itself throughout the protests. The
SLPD website has an extensive “About Us” section, profiling aspects of the department ranging
from a biography about the police chief to the department’s philosophy—including a code of
- 12. ethics. In this code, the department holds its officers accountable to protect and serve the
county’s constituents, stating:
As a law enforcement officer, my fundamental duty is to serve the
community; to safeguard lives and property; to protect the innocent
against deception, the weak against oppression or intimidation and the
peaceful against violence or disorder; and to respect the constitutional
rights of all to liberty, equality and justice. (“Our Philosophy”)
Preceding this section, the code also details the appropriate use of deadly force,
specifying that such force should not be “condoned as a routine response” and
maintaining that officers “exercise the highest degree of care” should the consideration
arise. The department has dealt with public relations scandals regarding its use of force
in the past. In 1991, for example, the thenchief of the department told the St. Louis
PostDispatch that a study claiming the SLPD shoots people at a higher rate than most
cities should not be “alarming” (Bryan).
The department maintained a cohesive voice, but some members chose to speak
on their own terms. Police Chief Tom Jackson published an apologetic twominute
video explaining the circumstances of Brown’s death, the timing of police responses,
and a defense of the department against allegations that it infringed upon protesters’
rights to free speech and peaceful assembly (Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson's
Urgent Announcement). It should be noted, however, that Jackson does not apologize
for police behavior, but instead rationalizes it. This attitude is part of a greater pattern; in
ABC News’ exclusive interview with Wilson, Wilson reaffirms that fear motivated his
- 13. fatal shots and that killing people is an unfortunate part of his duty as an officer
(Exclusive Interview with Ferguson, Mo., Officer Darren Wilson). Thus, the department
views itself as a body of justice as a collective unit and on an individual basis.
However, federal investigation conflicts with the police department’s altruistic claims.
The Department of Justice’s examination found the Ferguson Police Department rooted in
“implicit and explicit racial bias,” according to Attorney General Eric Holder (Kaplan). Although
the DOJ cleared Wilson of any charges, the investigation lead to the termination of at least one
officer and further investigation of two more department employees (Diamond and Bruer). The
report also stated that Ferguson authorities consistently treated AfricanAmerican residents as a
“means of revenue” instead of as people to protect and serve (Kaplan), creating further animosity
between the residents and police. Holder compared the area to a “powder keg” of racial tension
that was set off after Brown’s death (Kaplan).
Occasion
Brown’s death initiated the first unrest in Ferguson, and elements of the situation
resonated nationwide. The “hands up, don’t shoot” mantra—a reference to Brown’s alleged
gesture to surrender to Wilson—quickly circulated through social media platforms, generating
the general public’s interest in the case. It is unclear how the physical dispute between Brown
and Wilson began, but Wilson entered the scene in response to a robbery that Brown committed.
Witnesses dispute the interactions that caused Wilson to shoot Brown, such as distance from the
car and any perceived physical threat, but Brown’s body laid in the street for four hours after the
incident occurred (“Tracking The Events”). Outcry surrounding these suspicious circumstances
quickly captured the public’s attention, and constant discourse became undeniably intertwined in
- 14. the rhetorical occasion. Police officers exacerbated feelings of animosity between authorities and
community members the next day; officers allowed patrol dogs to urinate on the impromptu
memorial that marked where Brown had been shot. His bloodstains were still on the pavement
(Follman). Within the next three days, the Federal Bureau of Investigation launched a civil rights
investigation, and Missouri Governor Jay Nixon deployed state troopers with the ability to use
military tactics to control mounting crowds. Eight days after Brown’s death, his autopsy reported
that he had been shot six times. Nixon then called in the National Guard (“Tracking the Events”)
to support local law enforcement. The particular set of messages we are examining was a direct
response to the Ferguson protests after the announcement of the grand jury’s decision to clear
Wilson on November 24, 2014.
The night the grand jury refused to indict Wilson, more than 80 people were arrested, and
many of the detained were charged with trespassing and burglary (“Ferguson Riots: Ruling
Sparks Night Of Violence”). Photos of burnt cars, smoke explosions, and thousands of protesters
dominated all forms of media, which, in turn, lead to a national response to either defend or
condemn such behavior. In response to the protests, the SLPD turned to Twitter to explain the
protests from its perspective. In short, police joined the conversation in an attempt to justify the
shooting and their decision to use military tactics to abate rioters.
Exigencies
We believe it is crucial to examine the exigencies surrounding these artifacts because, as
proved in the cases of Rodney King, Eric Garner, Derrick Williams, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray,
and countless others, the extent of police brutality against black males has been routinely
justified. (Brown; Chaney and Robertson; Hayes and Long; Puente; Schmidt and Apuzzo). Eric
- 15. Garner was killed in July 2014, just one month before Brown was shot. After Garner refused
handcuffs, an officer used a chokehold to bring the 43yearold to the ground. Video of the scene
shows him gasping for air, and saying “I can’t breathe” several times. Amidst accusations of
excessive force, “the police union mounted a counternarrative: that Garner would still be alive if
he had obeyed orders, and that his poor health was the main cause of his death” (Hayes and
Long). The exigencies do not only concern brutality, however. Issues of race relations and law
enforcement go beyond physical violence; bias affects departments in the forms of citations,
traffic stops, and stopandsearch procedures (Glass). In February 2015, National Public Radio’s
This American Life probed the relationship between police and communitieslargely due to the
attention that Ferguson brought to the subject—and found enough material about the
complexities of police abuse to produce two hourlong shows. In these segments, titled “Cops
See It Differently,” the show explores similar displays of police bias and questions whether
officers genuinely frame situations in a different context than civilians (Glass). In this respect,
the way in which police communicate their perspective about bias and brutality tends to justify
their actions as upholding their duty and the law.
Audience
While the department’s communication channels typically target the population of St.
Louis County, the Ferguson riots piqued the interest and attention of national news outlets;
reporters representing sources from CNN to Buzzfeed were on the scene, and thus the SLPD’s
messages were tailored to national and global audiences.The audience response, however, played
an intricate role throughout the investigation. In McCulloch’s November 24 press conference, he
condemned the way the public used online social forums to speculate about the incidents
- 17. with key Burkean concepts, we seek to uncover potential hidden agendas in the SLPD’s
portrayal of itself. In The Philosophy of Literary Form, Burke says, “You may, by
examining...find ‘what goes with what’ in these clusterswhat kinds of acts and images and
personalities and situations go with...notions of heroism, villainy, consolation, despair, etc.” (qtd.
in Foss 65) To analyze the rhetor’s view, the critic must first identify key terms that share a
common theme or contradict each other (Foss 66). This analysis determines the patterns of terms
and, thus, the true motives of the source’s message. “Often, the terms that are key for rhetors
function as god and devil terms. God terms are ultimate terms that represent the ideal for a
rhetor, while devil terms represent the ultimate negative or evil” (Foss 67). Social media
communication employs a clear and brief message structure, allowing for easy analysis of
clusters. Careful examination reveals both the implicit and explicit intentions expressed by the
source of the message (Foss 67). For example, emerging patterns of negativeor ‘devil’terms
associated with individuals or groups may indicate bias.
Through dialogue, the audience forms a relationship with the communicator. Burke’s
identification theory explains that a rhetor can persuade someone by using the same language
and adopting the same attitudes and beliefs; “you persuade a man only insofar as you can talk his
language by speech, gesture, tonality, order, image, attitude, idea, identifying your ways with
his” (qtd in Foss 64). Not only is a message’s language a powerful tool for persuading an
audience of similarities and differences, but it can also be used to identify a scapegoat, which
allows the rhetor to absolve itself of guilt through the victimage of another party. In each of these
Burkean concepts, we encounter ways in which the SLPD distinguished righteous parties from
the unrighteous ones.
- 18. Deictic Criticism
In Language as Discourse: Perspectives for Language Teaching, Michael McCarthy and
Ronald Carter define deixis as “the way speakers orient themselves and their listeners in terms of
person, time and space in relation to the immediate situation of speaking” (qtd. in Sousa and
Ivanova 48). Methodologically, an examination of pronoun use can provide further insight into
how the rhetor sees itself in space and time. For example, deictic expressions such as “we,”
“they,” “now,” and “today” do not automatically provide context, “but instead depend on the
context of utterance in order to ‘anchor’ the meaning” (Mulderrig 708). In Constructing Digital
Rhetorical Spaces in Twitter: A Case Study of @BarackObama, Alcina Sousa and Anna Ivanova
continue to link linguistic and rhetorical studies, arguing that examining patterns of deictic
expressions in a body of text may shed light on hidden “intentions in the construction of special
rhetorical space on Twitter” (47). Similarly, deictic analysis of the SLPD’s Twitter feed along
with Burke’s concept of form will help us to unearth any potential agendas in police
communication.
In conjunction with Burke’s cluster criticism, we will use this symbiotic approach to
more closely examine the SLPD’s agenda through word choice and sentence structure, looking
specifically at god vs. devil terms, identification, guilt, and the rhetor’s created ‘situation’
through the use of ‘we’ and active and passive voice.
Analysis
Now, we will employ the theories, methods, and scholarship used to examine texts that
pertain to authoritative credibility and agendasetting on new and social media. We will justify
- 19. our conclusions by applying these concepts to the SLPD’s formal communications during the
Ferguson protests and attempt to unearth ideological agendas present in police public relations.
Cluster Criticism
A cluster criticism of the SLPD’s Twitter and press statements helped us to discover the
department’s deeper ideologiesthe “kinds of acts and images and personalities and situations
that go with [its] notions of heroism, villainy, consolation, despair, etc.” (Foss 65). After
Brown’s death in Ferguson, protesters and police were pitted against each other in a war of
righteousness; each side claimed justification for their actions and cried foul on the other. For
example:
@stlcountypd Rioters continue to throw rocks and bottles at officers at W. Florissant
and Solway. Officers are obligated to protect life and property.
While the SLPD chose to refer to demonstrators as “protestors [sic]” most frequently ("St. Louis,
MO Police Twitter Feed"), the use of “rioters” in this case casts a criminal element upon the
individuals in question, rather than the word “protestors [sic]” which implies that the group in
question is exercising its first amendment rights. In many cases, the SLPD justified its use of
force by first addressing the protesters’ transgressions.
@stlcountypd A Molotov cocktail thrown at police. Officers on scene deployed pepper
spray and smoke in an effort to disperse unruly crowd. #Ferguson
These causeandeffect style clusters reveal that the SLPD saw itself as upholding its duty to
society, and that any of its tactical responses were not unprovoked.
Furthermore, these clusters allow us to see the god and devil terms, or what the SLPD
saw as the ultimate good and the ultimate evil. As presented on Twitter as well as in press
- 20. statements, the SLPD saw itself as an agent of justice (“For Immediately [sic] Release”;
"Exclusive Interview with Ferguson, Mo., Officer Darren Wilson.") Thus, upholding the law was
seen as the ultimate good, and those who challenged authority or impeded justice were seen as
the ultimate evil. This was demonstrated in a few ways; in County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch’s
announcement of the Grand Jury decision, he commended the SLPD for conducting “an
extensive investigation of the crime scene under very trying circumstances” despite being
“interrupted at least once by random gunfire.” During the riots, the SLPD tweeted,
@stlcountypd Anyone who would like to donate items for police officers working
aroundtheclock shifts, please call…
Following the November demonstrations, Saint Louis County faced national criticism for its
tactical responses, including the heavy National Guard presence (Star and Bruer). Additionally,
sporadic protests erupted in Ferguson throughout the spring. In an attempt to combat the bad
press, the SLPD increased its use of the hashtag #engagedstl to demonstrate ways officers were
positively impacting the community. One such tweet included the following picture of white
officers eating lunch with black children on a visit to Townsend Elementary:
- 22. Additionally, a Freedom of Information Act inquiry that publicized National Guard
mission briefings several months after the November unrest demonstrated the prevalent
devil terms associated with protesters that law enforcement used to more clearly define
their objectives. Terms included “Friendly Forces,” “Enemy Forces,” and “Adversaries”
(Star and Bruer). While the mission briefings came from the National Guard, they reflect
the attitude of law enforcement agencies and how authorities viewed upset citizens as
opposition.
Identification
Burke’s identification theory says that persuasion happens when the rhetor mimics the
audience’s language, which is made up of “speech, gesture, tonality, order, [and] image” (Foss
64). Because we found that credibility is comprised in part by a combination of shared ideologies
and “strongly influenced by stylerelated attributes (Castillo et al. 675), we examined these
elements of the SLPD’s tweets and press statements and found significant similarities between
the department and news media. For example:
@stlcountypd Protestors [sic] enter lanes of traffic on S. Florrisant again. Officers have
used PA system to warn of arrests if streets are not cleared.
And from Raf Sanchez, Washington, D.C. correspondent for the Telegraph:
@rafsanchez Police warning protesters on W. Florissant they’ll be arrested if they
impede traffic. Cops are blocking the entire street. #Ferguson
The detached, observational tone that the SLPD uses in this case implies an objective
impartiality that is impossible to achieve when disseminating a personal narrative. This element
of rhetorical persuasionimplied, newsy objectivityis further evident when the SLPD actually
- 23. tags several news outlets in their updates. In March, when tensions flared again in Ferguson and
two officers were shot, the SLPD posted:
@stlcountypd Update: one #slcpd officer, one Webster Groves officer shot. No
condition report. #Ferguson #stl @FOX2NOW @ksdknews @KMOV @CNN
@stltoday
Furthermore, they retweeted another instance when KMOV retweeted them, as if to prove that
their accounts were, in fact, credible and impartial news. While we do not disagree that updates
like the one above are truly news, the larger problem lies in the fact that the SLPD adopts the
credibility of a news source’s style and tone and uses it persuasively in more subjective
contexts. For example, when Saint Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar told media that the
shooter was “embedded” in the protesters (Roberts and Schankman), it was rapidly challenged
on Twitter by observers. Activist Deray McKesson retorted with the following:
@deray #Belmar just said he was sure the shooter was in the midst of protestors [sic] &
shot cops point blank although he hadn’t talked to witnesses
According to Bill Chappell, Belmar later recounted; “At one point, he acknowledged that there
was ‘an unfortunate association’ between whoever fired the shots and the protesters. This subtle
persuasion becomes troublesome considering how social media sidestep traditional gatekeeping
practices. Because professional news organizations are increasingly using content from witnesses
at newsworthy events who are posting about their experiences on Twitter (Chen 90), it is now a
leading platform for the distribution of new information in highrisk and emergency situations, as
users can provide personal testimonies or direct crisis instructions immediately from the scene to
the audience (Castillo et al. 675). This undefined authority over breaking news provided the
- 25. causing bodily harmprovoking a visceral response that called attention away from the Michael
Brown case.
We also note the interesting visual framing of a caucasian individual as “peaceful,”
which, given the racial tension at the center of the Ferguson conversation, was a curious choice.
This post may have created subtle associations of skin color as it corresponded to peace and
violence. These implications further the notion that race aggravates “us” against “them,”
especially when the SLPD’s officers are primarily white (Sanders). This prompts another layer of
linguistic analysis that explores the rhetorical, deictic ‘we’ and its inclusionary and exclusionary
elements.
Deictic Analysis and Form
Deictic words or phrases are those which specify contextual relationships of time and
location.While typically used in grammar or linguistics, the limitations associated with a
140character message implore a more semantic approach. We feel that an intersectional analysis
complements the rhetorical situation found in new and social media, and specifically examine the
pronoun ‘we’ as it positions audiences relative to the rhetor.
Jane Mulderrig asserts that there are three principal uses of the pronoun we; exclusive,
inclusive, and strategically ambiguous (710). She cites John Wilson in Politically Speaking: The
Pragmatic Analysis of Political Language:
Precisely because of its deictic flexibility, this pronoun is a particularly useful
rhetorical tool. Its use is well documented in political discourse, where the
politician can use it to indicate, accept, deny, or distance themselves from
responsibility for political action; to reveal ideological bias, to encourage
- 26. solidarity, to designate and identify those who are supporters (with us) as well as
those who are enemies (against us). (qtd. in Mulderrig 710)
Although the SLPD’s primary tone was newsy and objective, a few tweets demonstrate
implicit and explicit uses of the inclusionary ‘we.’
@stlcountypd At this time, many protestors [sic] have moved onto the sidewalks
and out of the road. We’d like to thank them for their cooperation.
@stlcountypd An arrest has been made in connection with the shooting of two
police officers in #Ferguson. Thank you for your help. #saferstl
In a nod to the aforementioned god and devil terms, the SLPD rhetorically included
supporters in the body of justicethe god sideby addressing them directly in contexts of
cooperation and assistance.
Moreover, a sentencebysentence examination of press conference
communications revealed a noteworthy pattern. On several occasions, McCulloch
referred to law enforcement actions in the passive voice. For example, “Many witnesses
to the shooting of Michael Brown”; “During the altercation, two shots were fired by
Officer Wilson...several more shots were fired by the officer and Michael Brown was
fatally wounded” ("Ferguson, Missouri Grand Jury Decision Announcement.") This
language choice reflects one of Wilson’s key points: “indicating selfreference by means
other than I or we is said to represent a distancing strategy on the part of the speaker” (qtd
in Mulderrig 706). On the contrary, the SLPD used the active voice when two officers
were shot in March:
- 27. @stlcountypd Two @SaintLouCo police officers were shot outside the
#Ferguson PD shortly after midnight. Gathering more info. Conditions not
known.
This juxtaposition of distance, found on the semantic and grammatical level, is a
significant element of the SLPD’s rhetorical persuasion; in conjunction with the deictic
‘we,’ it invited the audience to take part in the narrative from one perspective, and
perhaps guide the audience to certain conclusions.
Kenneth Burke’s concept of form supplements our analysis. Burke claims that for the
audience of a message, form is not just receiving but “creatively participating in the.... speaker’s
assertion’ (qtd in Darr 39). Furthermore,
“Burke contended that participation is present even when the audience resists the
proposition being advanced, because it invites audiences to collaborate and thus to
be more active in the completion of the utterance. This collaboration is not
necessarily a conscious process. Indeed, for Burke, audiences may identify
themselves with speakers without fully realizing they are doing so.” (Darr 39)
Thus, the SLPD’s use of the inclusive ‘we’ reflected the god termslawfulness and
righteousnessonto the audience. The police also employed grammatical distancing,
scapegoating, and devil terms to assert that protesters are deviant and disrespectful. Used
in tandem with an objective tone, these elements discreetly lead audiences to accept
specific versions of events.
Conclusion
- 28. By applying communication theories and concepts that pertain to credibility and social
media, we analyzed the way that the SLPD exercised rhetorical persuasion by scapegoating,
distancing, implying objectivity, and including audiences in their narrative through the deictic
“we.” The implications of this study reach even further when we consider that traditional bodies
of authority are translating power structures through language onto platforms that were originally
thought to eliminate hierarchy from public discourse.
Specifically, the need for studying police communications is substantiated by repetition.
While Twitter diminishes gatekeeper roles and theoretically offers a more equal platform for
dialogue, “democratized discourse can simply be a means of disguising power asymmetries,
rather than removing them” (Mulderrig 708).
In March of 2015, the city of Baltimore, Maryland similarly erupted into protests
spurred by racial tension when a black man named Freddie Gray died in police custody
after sustaining a severe spinal cord injury (Ortiz). The Baltimore Police Department also
took to Twitter, and employed similar rhetorical methods:
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officers are using fire extinguishers to put out small fires in the area.
@baltimorepolice Groups of violent individuals are continuing to throw bricks,
bottles, and other dangerous items at police cars WITH officers inside them.
@baltimorepolice We have been able to get our injured officers out of the area
and they are now receiving medical treatment.
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