LOGICAL FALLACIES
The point of an argument is to give reasons in support of some conclusion. An argument commits a fallacy when the reasons offered do not support the conclusion. In the Opinion Letters of the Boston Sunday Herald the arguments of the writes all contain fallacies. The straw man, prejudicial language, and coincidental correlation are all fallacies which appear in their arguments. In the letter, “Protests Unbecoming”, Burt Murphy argues that people of Boston who are protesting against Detective Dan Keeler’s action of firing his weapon after being shot at from the suspect first is not right. In this letter Murphy asks “What is the problem with there people?” and then states “Apparently they do not want law and order in their neighborhood; it seems to me they’d rather have violent felons running around killing their children and selling drugs.” This argument commits the straw man fallacy.