In the past decade or so, police brutality has begun to gain more recognition as a problem, especially by the black community. In reality, the majority of policemen are inherently good people trying to make the communities they live in better places, but there is a very small minority of officers that do abuse their power and are not prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Unfortunately for this majority of good officers, the media portrays all police as trigger-happy,

untrained, and power hungry men. This paints all police as bad people getting away with murder, quite literally, and is very demoralizing to the good officers working the make their communities better and protect them. As well as a great deal of hate coming from the communities the police protect, it is so hard for them to make a serious impact, no matter how hard they try. I picked this very powerful picture because of the way it depicts the way the two sides of this issue are coming together in a moving display of humanity. It shows the way the two extreme sides of the issue are framed in the media and the third group that has potential to save America needs in such dark times.

There is so much ignorance and hate on both sides of this hot topic but this picture shows a hope for a ceasefire and an active effort to fix our nation’s problems. There have been a number of news articles that tell the reality of the majority of black communities not only fearing the police, but also hating them. Unfortunately, this is because the police’s job has seemed to have become synonymous with the shootings of young African Americans and unfair, brutal arrests. There are essentially two extreme sides of this argument; those calling for the death of police officers that have committed crimes and gotten away with it, and those who think the officers were in the right and that they deserve no punishment for their actions. What is so powerful about this image that the photographer, Johnny Nguyen, was able to capture two people on opposite sides of this serious controversy coming together and embracing in a heated moment. Regardless of skin color, age, or profession, these two human beings were able to share a moment as people should do. Instead of calling for the death of other human beings, or ignoring the crimes of others, we need to meet halfway and work together in order to fix the problem at hand. All that has been accomplished through the riots and forceful police retaliation is more malice. Nguyen’s picture allows the United States to view that love can help solve the issue.

The young man’s face, the most prominent aspect of the picture really says a lot about the pain that has been plaguing the black community. He has big tears rolling down his face and looks off into the distance, possibly looking toward a better future. The young man really captures the plethora of emotions that comes with this issue, as well as shows how deeply it touches African Americans. This young man is only twelve years old and he feels so strongly about this issue he is out in the streets protesting. When this police officer shows him this small act of love, he cannot seem to contain his true and raw emotions. When looking at the officer’s face, we can see a smile forming as he embraces the young protestor. This is from the joy of actually making a difference while doing his job, as well as the small and often difficult attempt at making people see that there are a lot of good police officers in America. It is a real tragedy when people do not recognize that the majority of police who are doing great work protecting and serving in our communities and putting their lives on the line. Just a few bad apples seem to have tarnished the prestigious title of a police officer. As well as the focal point of the picture, we also need to look at what is happening in the background of this image.

In the background, there are two people who really exemplify the two contrasting sides and make for a great side by side comparison. The first person is a young lady that is standing watching the scene with her smart phone out documenting the scene. She represents the extreme anti-police movement because of the way she stands directly facing the officer and young boy taking a video or picture, always ready for a slip up from the officer. This side feels the need to keep the police under a microscope and every shooting of an African American teen or young adult makes national news because of it. While there are certainly instances when the entire nation needs to hear about a police officer taking an innocent life, this extremist side needs to realize that sometimes there is no other option in certain situations. On the other hand, the other person in this picture, a middle aged man, stands with his back to the officer hugging the young man with his head turned around just so he can see what is happening before he walks away. This represents the other extreme side of being indifferent toward police crimes because it does not affect him as directly. This is the side that sees the shootings of younger African Americans as just another day in the crime filled streets of America. Both sides have very valid stances but have very extreme solutions. What is very notable about this image is how Nguyen captured the portions of the picture these people take up.

The two people representing the extremist sides only take up a quarter of the picture, while the officer hugging the young boy takes up half of it. This is showing that the two extremist sides are the minority, and the display of love and acceptance by the officer and the boy are the majority. A majority that will eventually conquer the ignorance and hate of both sides. Going on with this theme, the people in the background are not in focus. They seem to just sit idly in the background while the viewer’s attention is drawn directly at the police officer and the boy. This also is another way to show that the love and acceptance should be the nation’s main focus, instead of the constant back and forth between the two hate fueled sides. It would really benefit the entire issue if there was an effort on both sides to work together instead of shout over the other, then there could be a real change experienced in both communities. If police were held accountable for excessive use of force, there would be no riots to be had. Conversely, there would not be as much fear from police when dealing with African Americans if we all tried to help communities affected by gang violence. Instead of trying to change one side of the problem, we need to attack both issues as one nation in order to resolve this major issue.

This is the central message of this powerful image; overcoming the hate and beating it with love and acceptance all in order to have unity. This is the third group depicted in the image by the officer and the young boy. All anyone ever wants to feel is love and acceptance, so when there seems to be such a large part of the population of American justifying the shootings of innocent young African Americans, it cuts deep into the emotions of that community leaving an even bigger racial divide. Everyday this problem gets bigger, and the divide gets deeper. It seems there are only a small few trying to mend our nation’s wounds, but in reality there is the majority of the country who really wants to change the situation for the better. It is just really hard to do when going up against these two extreme sides. There appears to be movements on both sides to further divide the country for their own personal gain. As a nation we need to recognize this and take action to stop it. We will need to act quickly and effectively in order to stop and reverse the damage that is being done. We are going backwards after all the progress we have made and no one person can make a stand to stop it. This is why we see such a large movement to change the direction America is headed. 

Nguyen did an incredible job of showing how these two sides can come together to overcome the division between these two communities, the way he showed both extremist sides in the image as well, and his overlying theme of unity, present throughout this image. This really shows that in the end, love will conquer the hate in our nation. It may not come into effect over night, but if there is a real movement in hopes to change, then this nation will become whole again. With such a large division since the founding of our country it is not going to come easily, but the strong leaders in our country from all communities will come together in order to unify our great nation. Sometimes all we need to heal our wounds, is a hug.
