
T.I.’s music video “Warzone” reverses the roles on police brutality - black officers are killing white men. The meaning behind “Warzone” is about the injustice with our police departments and the truth about black men in America just trying to survive without being discriminated against. In this music video, the skin colors of the characters are inverted – black officers and white victims. The color scheme used here is a split complementary which are two colors directly opposite on the color wheel including black and white. These are real life events that occurred and allude to the real stories of Tamir Rice, Philando Castile, and Eric Garner, except with white actors. The actual videos of their murders are gruesome and the quality of footage is lower than the quality in T.I.’s music video. The videos taken of Rice, Castile, and Garner were captured by bystanders with what appear to be cell phone cameras. T.I.’s video was professionally filmed – angles and shots were taken into consideration while they were filming and they had the ability to shoot multiple times. Because the videos taken on the cell phones were actual footage they leave the viewer with intense feelings of pain. T.I.’s music video was staged with actors and a production team but the viewer still has a strong reaction towards the police brutality in the video. In both cases the viewer is left feeling uncomfortable and possibly angry, even though one of the videos is real and the other is staged. Although T.I.’s video is of higher quality the snippets still are similar to the real videos of Rice, Castile, and Garner getting violently assaulted and killed by police officers. 

Tamir Rice was a young boy shot and killed by two police officers while playing on a playground with a fake gun. The quality of video is extremely poor and taken from a birds-eye view because it was captured with a surveillance camera. He was at a table under the gazebo, and as the officers approached in their vehicle, he walked towards them and moved his right hand to his waist which moves his jacket up. The officers fired two shots and his body fell to the ground. In T.I.’s music video, “Warzone,” the picture quality is much clearer. A similar scene of Tamir Rice’s murder was recreated but by using a young white boy and black cops. It is important that T.I. flips the script because he shows the corruption among police by using white males in the video to act like typical Americans. In this scenario Tamir Rice was playing on the playground, a normal thing a kid his age would do. However, it is not so normal when the situation is met with police violence. In this shot, the cop car is pulling up in the foreground; the boy is standing in the midground; and the gazebo, tables, and trees are in the background. This is called a long shot. Another shot is taken of the police officer holding the gun, the black officer is the only one in this shot and it is taken slightly from bugs-eye view to make him look bigger and scarier. An extreme close-up shot of the young white male is taken, and the fear is apparent in his face. The gun is fired and the next scene is a long shot where his whole body is seen lying on the ground with the gun right next to his hand. In this video, the gun is obviously fake because it has an orange tip; in the real video of Tamir Rice it is not clear enough to see whether or not the orange cap was present on the gun. T.I recreated Tamir Rice’s murder, but he flips the script by using a white boy and black cops.

Philando Castile was a black man that was pulled over by the police for a broken taillight. His four-year-old child was in the back seat and his girlfriend was sitting next to him in the passenger seat. Castile was asked for his license and registration. He told the police he had a licensed armed weapon on him and began to reach for his wallet. The police officer proceeded to shoot him four times. Lavish Reynolds, Castile’s girlfriend quickly pulled out her phone and began video recording moments after her boyfriend was shot. In the real video, Castile’s white shirt is soaked in blood and he is limped over on the console between the seats. Most of the video is an extreme close up shot because it is mainly shot between the head and shoulder. This type of shot intensifies the experience because the only thing on the panel is Castile’s bloody arm and his girlfriend talking loudly into the camera. At one point you can see the officer through the car window still pointing the gun; this shot is most similar to an over-the-shoulder shot. T.I.’s video begins with a close-up shot outside the vehicle, looking in on the white male that is playing the role of Philando Castile. It is clear he is telling the black officer that he is armed. An extreme close up is taken of the officer, but then it transitions to a medium shot. The black officer looks panic and pulls the gun on the white male in the car. In this video, the viewer sees shots of a young child and in the real video we know a child is present but she is never seen. There are close up shots of the white woman acting as Lavish Reynolds using a cell phone camera to record what happened to the white male, her boyfriend. Similar to the real video of Castile, the white male is wearing a white shirt with blood all over the left side. 

Eric Garner was a middle aged black man that was wrongly killed by an NYPD officer. According to the voice in the video, Garner was approached by the officers because he broke up a fight. Garner told the police he was tired of being harassed, and then he was wrestled to the ground and put in a chokehold. On video he was heard gasping, “I can’t breathe”. T.I. alludes to this when he repeatedly says the lyrics, “hands up, can’t breathe” throughout his song, “Warzone.” Garner’s body went limp and he was left on the sidewalk to die - CPR was not even attempted at being performed. In the real footage of Eric Garner, it is filmed with a cell phone camera by a bystander. A long, over-the-shoulder shot is taken. one can see the backside of the first police officer in the foreground, a side view of Garner in the midground, and the second police officer in the background with his body facing towards the camera. In T.I.’s music video, he recreated Garner’s death but using a white male to play his role. The scene starts with a long shot that is taken with a direct frontal view of Garner. Garner is in the middle of two officers with his body towards the camera and you can see a side view of both black officers on either side of him. Also, in this video they are standing near the side of a building and in the real video it happens right in front of a store window. Extreme close ups are taken on the white males face as he cried out for help after being taken down into a choke hold. T.I.’s video and the real footage express the same message but differ when talking about camera angles.

There are many differences between the actual filming and TI’s version but they portray the same message. T.I.’s music video, “Warzone” is politically-charged by completely flipping the roles on police brutality. The injustice is evident in these scenarios when the roles are reversed when recreating these events that hit national news. The stories of Tamir Rice, Philando Castile, and Eric Garner are just a few out of a large list of black males that have been wrongly killed by an officer. The officers who killed Rice, Castile, and Garner did not face any punishment and in some cases got rewarded for their actions. It is truly disgusting knowing that a police, someone that is supposed to protect us from harm and enforce the law somehow gets to rise above it. Although the quality and angles of the shots are not the same as the real life footage the message about police brutality is the same – it is NOT okay. 
