This work of creative nonfiction is a hybrid of memoir, essay, cultural critique, and, to a lesser extent, literary journalism. The central autobiographical thread is my brother's shocking and violent murder at the hands of law enforcement, its handling by the media and subsequent trip through the American criminal justice system, and the spiraling effect of such trauma on family and friends. However, the text goes beyond a personal account of loss to illuminate the intersection between the personal and the universal: the way that the individual political subject embodies our cultural and systemic atmosphere of grief, alienation, confusion, powerlessness, violence, and corruption. This examination also necessarily raises questions about the social and personal consequences of individual and systemic decisions, as well as the role of rhetoric in attempts to justify such decisions and discourage activism. / Department of English