In “Ferguson, Uncensored”, the visual texts represent the overwhelming problem of excessive police violence.  Excessive police violence is expressed through the use of various types of riot gear, color schemes, camera angles, and camera focus.  

The riot gear represents the injustice in society due to excessive police force towards unarmed citizens.  The riot gear consists of assault rifles, bullet proof vests, gas masks, helmets, military boots, knee pads, and large zip ties.  In image 7 of the visual text, police are pointing assault rifles at an unarmed, African American man.  The police are aiming the assault rifles at him to show their dominance, because they represent lethal weapons that have been used to kill other unarmed citizens.   When citizens see a police officer with a weapon pointed towards them, they immediately become scared and powerless.  The man wearing casual clothes, holds his hands up to show that he feels powerless, along with the rest of society.  On the other hand, the police are covered in heavy duty riot gear with heavy firepower.  The police are showing that they are ready for a fight, but the unarmed man is showing that he only wants peace.  In the image, the riot gear and the metal fence work together to represent that there is no way out of police violence.  The unarmed man and society feel that there is nowhere to go to avoid excessive police violence.   

In image 5 of “Ferguson, Uncensored”, there are police officers with riot gear consisting of; batons, bullet proof vests, helmets, and shields.  Some police officers have a bullet proof vest over their uniform, and others have it under their uniform.   The uniform is more intimidating when the bullet proof vest is outside of the uniform.  There is a woman that looks like she is trying to get through the police in riot gear, but she turns around due to intimidation.  In order to increase the intimidation factor, the vests make the police officers look much bigger than they actually are.  This correlates with the weakness of the skinny, unprotected lady.  She is not protected from the police violence, because she is wearing casual attire with an innocent, young child in her hand.  The heavy duty riot gear represents the dominance and excessive force that police hold on peaceful unarmed citizens.  

Color schemes in the visual text allow the reader to correlate colors with current and previous police violence.  In image 7, vibrant colors are used to make the important factors in the image stand out.  The teal color African American mans’ shirt stands out against the army green riot gear that is worn by police.  The light blue shirt is used to represent peace because it is a cool color, while the dark green color elaborates on the dominance and negativity that comes from excessive police brutality.  The dark color green correlates with crimes and unethical things happen in the darkness.  The second major color scheme is between the green police riot gear and the red/orange storage units in the background.  The orange/red represents the bloody deaths of unarmed citizens due to previous, excessive police force.  The police in the green riot gear are walking towards the man to show that they will use excessive police force on citizens even if they want peace.  

In image 5, there is a color scheme of blue, black, and white.  The skinny woman is wearing white because it is a calm, neutral color.  The color white allows the viewer to understand that the woman is stripped down to the basics of herself so she looks harmless.  The color white correlates with the black bullet proof vests in the image to show that the black bullet proof vests are the boundary between the violent environment the lady is in and peace on the other side.  The blue sky in the background represents the final destination for the woman to find peace, instead of being stuck where there is police violence.  The white shirt and the blue sky are both calm colors to show that the lady belongs with the peaceful side of society.

The focus and angles of the images help to elaborate on the central meaning of excessive police violence in society.  In the images, the camera focuses on the most important factors that are being expressed.  In image 5, the camera clearly focuses on the woman and the young girl to correlate their attire and sad facial features with the rest of the image.  The woman’s red hair strongly stands out in the image to represent the bloodshed from unarmed citizens that have experienced police brutality.  The red hair covers up the faces of some police officers to show the great harm they have caused to society in hopes of making them feel guilty.  In image 7, the camera is focused on the police in riot gear to show the actual problem in society.   The African American man is unfocused in the image to elaborate that citizens are not the cause of violence in society, and they only want to promote peace.  Each image is viewing the entire scene of police, citizens, and background objects.  The birds’ eye view of the situation allows the viewer to understand the entirety of inequality between the police and citizens in each image.  The two images focus in on the cause of police brutality and the victims.

The various elements of the riot gear, color schemes, and camera focus all elaborate on the problem of excessive police violence in modern day society.  Without the use of riot gear, the image would not show as strong of a correlation towards excessive police force.  The heavy duty gear adds an element of dominance and fear.  Color schemes add to the image by emphasizing the police riot gear and the people in the image.  When the color schemes are surrounded by the focusing on a certain object, the viewer become more aware of the situation.  There are many details that come from the color schemes in the background and the focus of the camera to outline the key points that excessive police force is an overwhelming problem.
