The Shooting Gallery

   The The New Yorker cover titled “The Shooting Gallery” was published on Mar. 8, 1999, by Art Spiegelman. This cover features a police officer holding up a gun, pointing it at three silhouettes of civilians walking down this path, seemingly in a city within this game booth. This booth appears to be within a carnival or fair, with a rollercoaster with bright yellow flags featured behind it. The three people appeared very different; one a man with a briefcase speaking on the phone, followed by a small boy with a hat holding either ice cream or cotton candy, and the last is a lady, who appears to be elderly, walking with a cane. All three people have a large red and white target on their silhouettes. They appear to be walking on a conveyor belt contraption. When the cover is inspected closely, the officer’s handcuffs and gun holster on his waistband becomes more clear. The selection of prizes within the booth also begins to pop out. These prizes include young dolls of children, clowns, and animals ranging from a dog to a rabbit. The name at the top of the game is “The Shooting Gallery”. The price of this game booth is located under the opening, labeled “41 SHOTS FOR (either 18 or 19) ¢”. The booth is lined on the inner side with seven more guns, but they appear to be a different style of gun and leave no open slot for the gun the officer was aiming with. As depicted in the message of this cover, the typical view of The New Yorker is very left-winged when it comes to politics. Their cover art is known for being political and aimed towards agreeing with those of more liberal beliefs.

    Within the cover image, there are three red and white targets, three different people walking down the path, seven guns within the booth lined up, and three bullets on the police officer’s belt. The officer is smirking, but he is holding and aiming a gun at these people walking through the street within the booth. Going back to the publication date of March 8th, 1999; by using both the year that is given and the content on the cover, it can be discovered that “The Shooting Gallery” is about an innocent man, Amadou Diallo. Diallo was mistaken for someone else and shot and killed only a month before the cover was published. 

    The New Yorker cover does not leave you with a great amount of open room to come to an opposing conclusion due to the exact details given out within the numbers on the game booth. The 41 at the bottom of the booth represents how Diallo was fired at 41 times, and the number 19 for the 19 times he was shot. This leaves you with the idea that the officer’s smirk is no mistake. The policeman is looking at these outlines of citizens, seeing their lives as optional, and the line between life and death is nothing more than a game to this man. The targets on the citizens matching the booth colors causes them to stand out and be very easily seen, possibly representing just how often shootings of innocent people happen in the US by police officers. Overall, the purpose of this cover comes through very clearly; police officers abuse their power far too often.