In this piece, our group has tried to convey the scene of Michael Brown’s Death, and parts of the Birmingham parades that occurred in 1963. We have used details based off of articles about the two events and have added them into the scene to create a mixed setting of the two events. We created this piece because we wanted to show moments of police brutality that occurred in the history of the U.S., and to also let people know how brutal the police can be. In both events, there is police brutality, the popular event we have shown is Michael Brown’s death. There is also groups of protesting, to signify the difference of the two events, our group made one crowd seem calm and collected, while the other aggressive and full of hatred. This difference can show how protesters have changed since 1963, becoming more aggressive towards their beliefs than they were before.

            To create this piece, our group used black paper cut outs to create the silhouettes of all characters, and surrounding buildings to create a mixed scene of Birmingham and Ferguson for the setting. We also added small details around the piece that were connected to both events. For example, our group put six bullet shells on the street to represent the six bullets that were put into Michael Brown’s body, and also the fire hoses that were used to keep the Birmingham protesting to a minimum. One idea we thought would be creative was to use a fire fighter figure as a shadow of the cop that killed Michael brown. The fire fighter would represent the Birmingham protests, so having it as a shadow blends the two together well.

            To make sure that the two elements in the piece (the skeleton and the sign) fit together well, we created an overlaying space so the skeleton’s face looked like a part of the sign. The use of balance and value together in this piece are used to both make sure the piece has some life to it, and no overuse of one color. The color we found to be the most dominant was black, so using values of grey balanced it with the white. There was also much contrast within this piece. For instance, the shifts from white to black, and to even grey were examples of contrast. Our main focal point in the piece was the scene inside the poster, while using the skeleton as the path for the eye to follow to lead you to the scene inside.

              In our piece, we have made it so the two events are in the hands of death, meaning we used Michael browns death as a protesting sign being held by a skeleton. This represents the message of death being inevitable, but that it should not be a result of police brutality. To differentiate the two scenes, we used a mixed group of crowds, some people are aggressive, representing the Ferguson scene, and others calm and collected, representing the Birmingham parades. This piece has some similarities though, using both crowd types to create a mixed scene of emotions for the viewer to notice in the piece. This piece, to us, represents the violence and pain that police brutality brings to this country. We all think that the world would be better off without the killing of people based on race and social background. I also think that the U.S. has changed a lot since Birmingham, where there is not as much police brutality as there was back then. With that being said, I think that it the act of police killing U.S. citizens is an abomination and should no longer be a part of this country.

            Although Police brutality is a large problem in this day and age, it has always happened for a reason, In Michael Brown’s case, he stole some cigarettes, and when he was confronted by the police, it resulted in Michael becoming violent and assaulting the officer, which then led to his death. Ways we can resolve this conflict is by educating the public about how to avoid police brutality. We can also educate the police. Doing so will teach officers to not resort to the killing of citizens but instead try to handle the situation in a less violent fashion.