"COPS"

For this blog I watched a video named “COPS” which was satirically portraying the life of a cop, or in this case two cops. These two cops are first of all not dressed as cops but have sunglasses and are trying to remain a stereotypical cop, which goes around doing what people imagine cops are doing, arresting innocent people (or the same person) for “crimes” which aren't really crimes at all. Drinking a monster energy drink, or because that person was at the wrong place at the wrong time. Arrested for being caught near the crime, not really doing it. The video was told in what seemed to be the point of view of the student, although for some part he was narrating. This switch in point of view might have been a bystander view, which allowed us to be there to witness the life of these cops. As they drove around campus, although they didn't have a police vehicle, they pretended to walk to one and transitioned smoothly inside of their own, this display of the videos persuasive power shows how they are capable of lying through effects. One noticeable attribute to the video was that the student himself was just observing it all. Logically the video used these effects to persuade us of the ethos that cops present, the vehicle and arresting power. Pathos was used more heavily as the satire and humor made the video interesting, and most definitely watchable. A key rhetorical device used was the audiences opinions to fuel the satire, what do we imagine that cops do and then portrays those opinions. One observation that I immediately had was that cops seemed to just do bad in arresting the same person, and the videos argument must have been that the police force must be doing the opposite of their job, arresting the innocent and leaving the bad people free.