Rhetorical Analysis Of Bob Herbert's 'Jim Crow Policing'

Racial Profiling An issue that is widely debated but often is left lingering if it's correct to use racial profiling as a police tactic. Bob Herbert, wrote, ‘’Jim Crow Policing” published in 2010 in the New York City needs to be restrained. Herbert begins building his credibility by using rhetorical appeal of logos in the form of statistics to establish the incapability of the victims of racial profiling in New York City in the end of the article, he relies heavily on pathos and emotionally driven logic which weakened his credibility and argument.
In his article Herbert includes many statistics showing that the increase of people being stopped and frisked by the police are minorities. Theses statistics show that minorities being stopped are less likely to have something illegal found on them. The contraband which usually means drugs was found in only 1.6 percent of blacks and 1.5 percent in hispanics New Yorkers. On whites who are less likely to stopped, contraband was found 2.2 percent of the times.(paragraph 3)
Herbert goes on saying, ‘’ These encounters with the police are degrading and often frightening, and the real number of people harassed is undoubtedly higher than the numbers reported by the police.’’ (paragraph 8) It's interesting that Herbert would mention that there are more undocumented cases without any proof for this argument. Herberts use of pathos was clear when he used ‘’degrading’’ and ‘’often frightening’’ in order to get a rile from the audience by using the victim's adjustments and pain. Herbert using these words was a method to get the readers to relate and sympathize with the victims, it adds a deeper human connection especially if you have ever felt degraded and frighten of some who you thought was there to help