Rogue Cops and Health Care: What Do We Want from Public Writing?

Abstract

On February 24, 1991, Arthur Colbert, a Temple University criminal justice major, was stopped by two Philadelphia police officers as he looked for his date's address. They accused Colbert of running a crack house under the name Hakim, and took him to a deserted building. He was beaten; a gun was pointed at his head. Colbert spent the rest of the night at the 39th District Headquarters on Hunting Park Avenue, being questioned, slapped around, and threatened. They let him go in the morning, warning him to stay out of the area. next day, Colbert returned to the headquarters and filled out a Citizen's Complaint form. He wrote the story of his night, filling three sheets of paper, printing in capitals, and concluding, The above events happened violently and brutally.... I am a Temple student and will be around that area quite frequently it seems as though the people who are supposed to be protecting my civil rights are the ones who are violating them. I can't say this for every police officer, but this is the case with these two cops (Bowden and Fazlollah). officer in charge was impressed: unlike other complaints against these policemen, Colbert's was coherent and concise, loaded with details. subsequent investigation uncovered (eventually) a pattern of frameups, bribes, and abuses of power by the Philadelphia police; it led to charges, suspensions, transfers, and other reforms. I was fascinated by this story in the September 10, 1995 Philadelphia Inquirer. As a citizen, I was angry; as a teacher, I was upset that a student had been brutalized. But as a writing teacher, I was triumphant. Colbert had probably learned to write strong narrative in our program; his complaint sounded like a successful basic writing assignment-good sequential order,

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