Relative Guilt Through a Burkean Perspective

Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/01/police-shoot-dog_n_3530990.html

First, might I recommend that you NOT watch the video--it is quite disturbing.

My knee-jerk reaction was to assign blame to the officer who fired the shots; however, as I gave more thought to the situation, I realized that I was too caught up by the emotional argument forwarded by the video.

A Burkean analysis of the situation provides a more nuanced view with respect to assigning blame. For the uninitiated, Kenneth Burke, one of the most influential rhetoricians of the 20th century, spoke of using his pentad as way to determine the origin of motivation. The pentad, as the name suggests, consists of five parts: act, agent, scene, agency, and purpose. These five parts roughly correspond to the the journalistic questions of who, what, where, when, why, and how. Unlike the journalistic questions, Burke's pentad is not meant to simply identify; rather, Burke's pentad is used in terms of ratios to determine motivation. By using Burke's ratios with respect to the pentad, we may better see the different perspectives inherent within any given event. However, given the particular exigency of this blog post, I will only go so far as to demonstrate the possible identifications. Allow me to demonstrate through our attendant news story (please note that the identifications I offer are not definitive).

Identification 1:
Act: arrest of Leon Rosby
Agent: Hawthorn police officer
Scene: police investigation/barricading a house
Agency: hand-cuffs
Purpose: ending interference to police investigation

Identification 2:
Act: recording by Leon Rosby, approaching the police barricade, and his playing loud music
Agent: Leon Rosby
Scene: police investigation/barricading a house
Agency: the recording device, his legs, and his car
Purpose: Unclear (possibly capture perceived racism or interfere in some manner)

Identification 3:
Act: lunge at Hawthorn police officer
Agent: Max the rottweiler
Scene: arrest of Leon Rosby
Agency: strong hind legs
Purpose: save owner from police aggression

You might note that I've attempted to view the event from the perspectives of the Hawthorn Police, Leon Rosby, and Max the rottweiler, respectively. Granted, I have not utilized Burke's ratios; however, the steps I have taken thus far through identification serve to the pedagogical purpose of demonstrating the numerous possibilities inherent in any given situation. I would invite you to reconsider your initial assigning of guilt in light of these identifications.