The Story of a Snitch

Jeremy Kahn in his excerpt The Story of a Snitch makes the point that witness protection in our country is lacking and is causing people to be afraid to come fourth with the truth in many serious cases murder and drug cases. In order to build his argument he uses stories of people who have been killed, raped, threatened, had family members killed, their houses set on fire and other examples of witnesses. He starts off by telling the story of John Dowery who was shot 6 times when he was trying to come fourth about a murder to lessen his own jail sentence. Dowery had finally turned his life around by becoming clean off drugs and getting a steady job. This was stopped short when he came fourth about a murder he had witnessed. One night as he walking home he was shot by 2 masked men who claimed that he had gotten what he deserved. Kahn uses the story of John Dowery to build his pathos appeal to his audience. The reader feels bad that a man had finally turned his life around but was now being hunted because of it. Kahn also builds his pathos by using other examples of people who have had their family members killed or black mailed. Kahn then builds his ethos by giving statistics of murder rates and also by giving things that he claims he had received from police and FBI officers. Overall Kahn did an effective job at communicating his message. I was drawn in by the beginning story of John Dowery and Kahn kept my interest throughout the entire excerpt. I could see how this is a problem in our nation especially in those inner cities where gang activity is at high risk.