This video features Cokie Roberts, a distinguished journalist
and news analyst/political commentator, discussing her views on the case of
Roman Polanski being tried for statutory rape in 1977. This is not the best
example of condoning violence, as the speaker is not attempting to persuade but
rather is simply sharing what she thinks; however, she is still a public figure
condoning violence in a television interview. She does so by making
transcendent claims, stating that the sensitive nature of raping a minor with
the use of drugs and alcohol, then fleeing the country to escape justice, is a
series of offenses that should be reacted with “just shooting him”. Her comment
also used a “last resort” tactic, stating that because Polanski fled the
country and could not be extradited back to the United States, therefore
escaping court sentencing for his crime, the only thing left to do was resort
to violence in bringing about justice.
One act of violence that can be categorized as direct
violence was the police brutality in the Occupy Wall Street protests. In
photographs from the protest, police officers use pepper spray on groups of
nonviolent protestors, which can easily be characterized as direct violence, as
it did not stop the protestors and only served to undermine and/or incapacitate
them. However, this act of violence can also be characterized as coercive
persuasion, as the officers warned the protestors to stop, lest they would take
violent action, in the hopes that the protestors would be persuaded to disband.
Unfortunately, it didn’t work, and violence was the result.
I believe that in some cases, it is. Violence is
only ever acceptable in the situation of defending one’s self from violence.
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