Please grade my Argument Task, thank you :)

[Valery K.]

Prompt: 

The following is a petition to the city council of Centerville:

"Over the past three years, there has been a marked increase in cases of 'sidewalk rage,' similar to the irrational anger drivers experience on the road, but instead among sidewalk walkers. The result is an increase in assaults, property damage, and disruptions of normal pedestrian traffic. In order to address this growing problem, the council must ban cell phone use on sidewalks. Not only do people texting or using their phones slow down pedestrian traffic, but they are also more likely to walk into the road or bump into other walkers. Children are especially vulnerable because they are too short to be easily seen. Middletown passed such a ban and not only have they heard no complaints, but the reported incidents of sidewalk crime has gone down significantly."

Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.

My Response:

The petition presented, at best ambitious, fails to acknowledge how complex a situation can be when there is an increase in crime. The prompt is not wrong in acknowledging cellphones as a potential problem but it problematically compares Centerville to Middletown when little information on their similarities or differences is expressed, no attention is paid to potential third variables involved in the increase in crime, and makes the grand assumption that a cellphone ban will be effective. To begin, this petition falsely assumes that Centerville is similar enough to Middletown to achieve the same result when it comes to banning cell phones on side walks. The petition generalizes Centerville, assuming that it shares enough similarties to Middletown to garner the same result when there are numerous aspects to Centerville that could result in a different effect. For example, Centerville could be far more populated that Middletown, potentially resulting in less people following the ban on cellphones as there would have to be an extensive campaign to warn everyone that cell phones are prohibited on side walks. Simply having a different population makeup (e.g., high senior population versus high millenial population) can affect outcomes in such campaigns. This is merely the tip of the iceberg when it comes to potential differences between two cities, underlining how problematic it is to assume parallel results in a campaign involving an outright ban on a device that nearly everyone uses. Furthermore, the petition makes the ambitious assumption that cellphones are the primary cause of the increase in assaults, property damage, and disruptions of normal life. There is a large generalization that all of these issues are attributable to cellphone use on side walks when other issues could be leading to this increase in crime. Perhaps there is more drug use in Centerville, a denser urban population, or a lack of employment that has resulted in a larger homeless population on their side walks or simply larger gang activity. There are a myriad of factors that could also be involved in the increase in crime, emphasizing how the blame on cellphone use is faulty. This is not to say that cellphone use is not contributing to this issue though. It is very likely that the distraction that comes with cellphone use could contribute to hostile behaviours (e.g., bumping into others) but we cannot assume that the cellphone use is 90-100% responsible for the crime. As for how effective this cellphone ban would be, the petition makes the overzealous assumption that a cellphone ban would drastically and effectively decrease the crimes outlined in the prompt. Cellphone use has become heavily engrained in our daily routines, providing us with communication and directions. Therefore, a ban on cellphone use is likely to spur more anger amongst a population. Furthermore, cellphones allow to automatic contact with emergency services and police, something that is extremely useful when within a high crime area. Aside from being somewhat dictatorial in its orders, this ban would require a lot of money to run an informational campaign so that citizens are informed of the ban. If such an expensive campaign isn't run, the citizens cannot be charged for not following a rule that they were unaware of. Consequently, the prompt is potentially assuming a strong inverse relationship between cellphones and crime. Altogether, the prompt assumes that Middletown and Centerville share enough similar characteristics to garner a similar result, it problematically assumes that the sidewallk rage is due primarily to cellphone use, and makes the ambitious assumption that a cellphone ban would be accepted and easy to achieve. Instead, Centerville should focus on a variety of variables, cellphone still included, when assessing an uptick in crime as cellphones, objects that have been used for a decade now, cannot logically be the sole factor involved here.