U.S Senator Dianne Feinstein: Gang Violence, an Environment of Fear - Essay Example

U.S Senator Dianne Feinstein: Gang Violence, an environment of fear. As a United s senator, Dianne Feinstein explains in her speech the effects of gang violence to the environment. She starts by explaining a case of a young girl who was shot point blank by a member of a gang who mistakenly thought that her father was a member of a rival gang (Feinstein,2015). Throughout her speech, Senator Dianne talks about the occurrences of gang violence and also the solutions that have been formulated to curb the gang violence. She expresses the violence as a disease that has taken hold of the cities (Feinstein,2015). She explains about the insecurities that the gang violence has led to that causes mothers not to allow their children to play outside or even the elderly to take walks in their neighborhood. This is all caused by an environment of fear created by the gang violence in the communities. Senator Dianne mostly uses pathos to deliver her message to the people, but also incorporates the use of ethos and logos to show the effects and solutions of the gang violence throughout her speech. Dianne mostly uses pathos as her theoretical strategy in her speech. Pathos are emotional appeals which means persuading an audience by appealing to their emotions. Pathos can be used to draw pity or anger from an audience in order to prompt them into action. She starts her speech off by giving an example of a child who was mistakenly shot dead by a gang. She does this to evoke a feeling of anger in the audience because of the innocence of the child and to prove the guilt of the gang. Dianne also emphasizes the threat of insecurity to children, the elderly and the community at large by the creation of an environment of fear. She also expresses her view of the violence of gang members turning on each other, the police and the community at large as being horrifying(Feinstein,2015). Dianne also gives a statistic of the danger put on law enforcement. She names the Los Angeles Police Officer Ricardo, who was killed while responding to a domestic violence call and also Merced Police Officer Stephen Gray, who was shot dead trying to catch a suspected gang member. Dianne asks her audience various questions, including how to keep the youth out of the gangs, how to protect the witnesses who are willing to testify and also what to do when the gang perpetrate violence in their communities. Dianne creates a relationship and feeling of dialogue with her audience by asking them the questions. The audience tries to get solutions to the questions hence she has won their attention and can control their answers and feelings. She continues to explain how the bill she had proposed had worked in reducing gang violence. She explains that the bill would be a balanced program. It would have new programs and funding for prosecutions and support of programs to prevent people from joining gangs. This explanation is deemed to evoke a feeling of security in people and thus many would support her bill. She also explains that the bill would also authorize money for Project Safe Neighborhood which is a program of the justice department designed to reduce gun violence in America. She further convinces the audience by stating that the bill she offered would make it a separate federal crime for any criminal street gang member to commit, conspire or attempt to commit violent crimes(Feinstein,2015). The penalties for the gang members committing such crimes would also increase considerably. She shares her contribution in ending gang violence and establishes a relationship with the audience who also want to end the violence in their communities. The use of ethos is the second most theoretical strategy used in Dianne’s speech. Ethos, which is the ethical appeal, means to convince an audience of the author’s credibility or character(Dylgjeri, 2014). It proves to the audience the author is a credible source and is worth listening to. Senator Dianne expresses this by explaining the legislation she introduced in order to curb gang violence in 1996 with the help of Senator Orrin Hatch. This proves to the audience that Dianne has full knowledge of the issue affecting them and hence they can pay attention to her. She goes on to state that the bill would be reintroduced in the early days of the next congress (Feinstein,2015). This proved to the people that she was still working on making sure gang violence was dealt with appropriately and that their communities were safe. The instances prove to the audience that Senator Dianne is knowledgeable in the field she speaks about. This is also shown by her knowledge of the specific amounts of money the bill would provide. She states that it would provide thirty million dollars to fight gangs, including two and a half million dollars in Los Angles. Throughout her speech Dianne demonstrates the use of ethos through her research, knowledge and experience. The use of logos is the last theoretical strategy that is less present in her speech. Logos is the appeal to logic, which means to convince an audience by the use of logic or reason. It means to site statistics and facts or historical events(Yamada, 2006). Dianne uses this theoretical strategy in her speech. She states that when one looks at the big picture it is seen that gangs continue to infiltrate communities (Feinstein,2015). She states that gangs are having an impact on at least two thousand five hundred communities across the nation (Feinstein,2015). This statistic given by Dianne proves that if nothing is done more violence would come and it would have an impact on more people in the community. The statistics are part of logos strategy whereby the audience is convinced of an increase in gang violence in the future if they do not come together and support Diannes bill. Dianne also gives a list of people who died due to the gang violence. The list proved the reality of the occurrence of the violence including the death of the young girl who was shot dead by gang members. The use of logos as used in the speech led the audience to realize the reality of the occurrence of the gang violence and led to their support to Dianne’s bill. Throughout the speech, Senator Dianne explains the occurrences of gang violence and the effects to the community. She explains that the gang violence creates an environment of fear, hence people do not live freely in their communities. Dianne comes up with the solution of the implementation of a bill that will help curb the gang violence. The bill includes new penalties and introduces new programs for example project safe neighborhood, which will help improve the security. Senator Dianne was able to convince her audience mainly through the use of pathos, but also with the help of ethos and logos. She should have however got more statistical examples of the damages caused by the gang violence in order to gain more emotional response from the audience. Works cited Feinstein.senate.gov,. Gang Violence: An Environment Of Fear - Speeches - News Room - United States Senator Dianne Feinstein. N.p., 2006. Web. 11 May 2015. Dylgjeri, Ardita. Logos, Ethos And Pathos In Albanian Political Discourse. Journal of Educational and Social Research (2014): n. pag. Web. Yamada, K. T Haraguchi: Logos, Ethos And Pathos. THEOLOGICAL STUDIES IN JAPAN 45 (2006): 144-148. Web. Read More