Reacting to Violence

Have you ever been in a uncomfortable situation ? Have you ever reacted in violence? For many people, when they are in a uncomfortable situation violence occur. Violence is a behavior involving physical force intended to hurt , damage , or kill someone or something. Uncomfortable situations or fear can turn into turned into an ugly situation with someone getting hurt or killed. This is a everyday thing that happens in our world and nothing is changing. Innocent victims (mostly young black males) are dying and none of them are getting justice. In the united states, U.S police officers killed 776 people in 2015 .  161 of them were men who were unarmed. ”When people encounter a new and dangerous situation, they often aren't sure how to react so they resort to violence”.

The book I read was ‘’Lord of the Flies” by William Golding. Lord of the flies is about a group of young boys who were in a plane crash and landed on a  mysterious island. They went through a tough time trying to look for food and stay together as a team. Unfortunately that doesn't last the group split up because they wanted good leaders. Eventually, they get saved but not all the boys survive . While the boys are on the island they see pigs and they are frighten. So being uncomfortable with pigs roaming around they react to fear by killing the pigs and putting their head on sticks.  ‘’ Kill the pig! Cut his throat ! Kill the pig ! Bash him in!’’. (74-76). This quote is referring to when the boys were on the island and they saw pigs running around, at this point they didn't know what to do. When they said kill the pig and bash him in etc. they picked up the pig and start stabbing it until death occurs.When they were stabbing the pigs, the young boys were yelling and screaming  with the pig's head in their head.  An example of this behavior also takes place in the real world with police officers killing young teens.

Mike brown was a young black man who lived in Ferguson. The police officer that shot brown was Darren Wilson. Darren said he was afraid of Brown because Brown hit him. Darren reacted by pulling his gun out and firing a couple shots at Brown.’’ At this point I'm like why isn't this working this guy is going to kill me so I pulled a third time’’. Darren pulled more than one trigger and that one last trigger was Michael Brown life. According to the news article about Darren testimony  Darren said he didn't mean to kill Mike Brown it was just self defense and he was scared he thought his life would be over if he didn't do what he had to do. . ‘’ I felt that another one of those punches in my face could knock me out or worse,” Wilson said. “I mean it was, he’s obviously bigger than I was and stronger and the, I’ve already taken two to the face and I didn’t think he would, the third one could be fatal if he hit me right ...Or at least unconscious and then who knows what would happen to me after that’’. Darren said he was carrying a mace a baton and a flashlight. He didn't use none of items to attack brown because he said those items would have not saved him from Brown. Ferguson had massive attacks bombing up buildings and attacking police officers.  This real world example is similar to when the boys killed the pigs.

Trayvon Martin was a black man who was shot by a neighborhood watch in Florida. The cause of the shooting was that Zimmerman was suspicious that Martin was doing something suspicious so he followed him. Zimmerman letting his fear get to him he shot him and Martin died at the scene. Zimmerman would not testify because Martin was the aggressor and he was the victim. ‘’ I was trying to save my own life , Martin was the aggressor I was the victim’’. Zimmerman followed Martin in the neighborhood because he was a black young man with a hoodie on coming out of 7/11. According to the news article Zimmerman did not want to testify because he said it's not his fault for Martin to look so suspicious for him to go follow him. Trayvon Martin family wanted justice for their son because he didn't live his life it was to short. Zimmerman had no right to follow their son and automatically put out a weapon.  There was no testimony because Zimmerman did not testify to say he was guilty of killing the 17 year old. People all around the world made rallies and protest for the 17 year old back in 2013.  Zimmerman was charged for manslaughter and aggravated assault.  Zimmerman had no right to follow Martin but he did and Trayvon is now gone and Zimmerman is now roaming  as a free guy.  In the book the boys are free they are not in trouble or anything because they are alone with no supervision.

I compared the lord of the flies to police brutality. Police brutality has gotten out of hand throughout the last couple of years. Lord of the flies is a fiction book but some aspects from the book relates to my thesis. Police officers are in uncomfortable situations and they react with violence and fear.  Lord of the flies was a very funny and interesting book. The reader connected the fear the boys had toward the pigs and the reaction the boys had to some real world problems that occur in our society today , not with pigs but with human beings. Its very hard to get justice for victims because they always use the card self defense. The self defense excuse helps all the murders who killed people. Comparing both of these ideas together they were very similar because they had the same topic about being in uncomfortable situations. Sometimes fear can get out of hand because we don't know what to do so we use violence to make us less scared. I chose this topic because humans react to different things but police brutality is very popular. Humans reactions to different subjects can be different but to police brutality everyone has the same reaction.