...Melissa Wilson Professor Donovan SOC 104 14 November 2014 Tale of Two Fergusons The tragic shooting of Michael Brown occurred on August 9th, 2014, in a St. Louis suburb, Ferguson. Michael Brown, Darren Wilson, a 28-year-old white police officer, shot down an 18-year-old African American boy. Brown and his friend were walking down the street when Wilson drove up and ordered them to move onto the sidewalk. Brown was leaning through the window of the patrol car, and Darren Wilsons gun went off inside the car. As Brown ran away, the officer got out of his car. Wilson shot at Brown six times, killing him, and igniting more than a week of protest and outrage on all media outlets. The police say that Michael Brown was shot during a fight for...
Words: 658 - Pages: 3
...Adjustment Case Study Dennis Puliah PSY 1000 – Psychology of Adjustment Professor Clinton Gortney November 30, 2015 There are so many situations and circumstances that require everyday people to deal with adjustments. This paper will be based on evidence-based strategies to help with adjustments. The first article is about two men, one African American and the other Caucasian, who come together to co-author a book on a subject that is headlining the news today; white police officers shooting or beating black boys. The second article is about the age difference of people who get the influenza vaccine and those that do not. Karen Bates is, the author of the article, “All American Boys’: A Young Adult Book about Police Beating and A Hard Choice, (2015).” In her article, she discusses the authors’ reason behind the publication of this book. The co-authors Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely, decide to write this book after two shootings which took place here in the United States. The first instance that sparked the writing of the book took place in the state of Florida; where George Zimmerman (a Caucasian man) was acquitted of murdering Trayvon Martin (an African-American boy). In this case, Zimmerman never denied shooting Martin, but said he did it in self-defense (Greg Botelho and Holly Yan, CNN, 2013). The second instance took place in Missouri; when Michael Brown (an African American) was killed in Ferguson by Darren Wilson (a Caucasian police officer). In this...
Words: 1406 - Pages: 6
...Police brutality in America is an everyday truth of life. The issue posed by the illegal exercise of police power is a current reality for individuals of color and class. Like the Patrick Lee case, a twenty-one-year-old who was allegedly acting in a strange manner, the officers decided to tasered him nineteen times, spray him with pepper spray and beaten with batons to death for resisting arrest. The jury found that the police did not use excessive force in this case and lawyers said that they (police officers) had done their best with the tools they were given. Another victim was Sean Bell; he was killed by the NYPD when his car was shot at fifty times because they saw a gun inside the car. These two men that were shot at by the police have...
Words: 1929 - Pages: 8
...RRacism is a topic of discussion that will always bring out a debate. Many events have occurred that one would find horrifying just based off racism. Simply being judged or opposed by the color of your skin or ethnic features, something one has simply no control of. All humans are under one race, the human race, yet some still discriminate against others of different backgrounds. “Is racism a permanent feature of American society?” is the matter at hand though. In this article, this question is answered and given many points to view when answering this question. The debate of this question in this article begins with two different viewpoints. There is case that someone who goes by the name Derrick Bell, says yes to racism being a permanent feature in American society and then there is Dinnesh D’Souza who thinks otherwise. The article then goes to show what people believe racism is and ways to end it in American society. Derrick Bell feels that racism is a permanent feature in American society. He feels this way because there are whites that truly won’t let go of the past racial discrimination and will only stand for their color. He gives examples such as lower class whites will stand with upper class white; who don’t have a real interest in helping the lower class, rather join blacks who share the same needs as them. He also says that whites only view blacks as being lower than they are that’s why blacks don’t stand a chance in competing with whites in society. He...
Words: 1262 - Pages: 6
...In today’s world there is a big controversy on police brutality and whether or not police officers are being too violent. In the last couple of years mostly, starting with the Michael Brown case, people have started to be against officers. There are ways officers can get training for de-escalating situations, wearing body cameras, and getting enough training. Money needs to be set aside for police training and all stations should get the same amount no matter how poor or rich the community is. More violence in communities that require police force. Many violent situations require force to be desculated. “If we ask people instead of telling them, and if we give them a reason for why we’re doing something, we get much less resistance,” said Gary T. Klugiewicz, a retired Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office...
Words: 1006 - Pages: 5
...The social inequalities and discriminations in the Civil Rights Movement have been connected through different citizens and their backgrounds. The Race Beat examines the significant descriptions of the Civil Rights Movement and how many of these descriptions have changed the way individuals view things and the lives of people that live in America. The press being able to follow the Civil Rights Movement has set a standard. For quite some time the black press had nearly limited access to the civil rights stories because the white press and newspapers did not think that their story was worth reporting. In The Race Beat, a Swedish scholar and economist Gunnar Myrdal came to United States while working on a study of race relations. As the book moved forward by time it trailed the movement of the post-World War II completely through the civil rights issues and obstacles in the South. Myrdal said that until the press came and saw what was occurring, the troubles of the blacks in...
Words: 1101 - Pages: 5
...The criminal Justice System operates as a system and affects people’s lives throughout the shape of the system. To gain more understanding about the system, it is imperial to be familiar about the goals, resources, and the decisions making process which involves decisions made by polices, prosecutors and judges. In fact, in the criminal justice system, the defendants charged will go through the stage of the justice system from arrest to pretrial hearings, to resolution of their case through a plea negotiation or trials which is a part of the criminal justice system....
Words: 1917 - Pages: 8
...years, there have been huge strides in the technological advances in surveillance. Police Departments are one of these groups who have seen an increase in surveillance technology like dashboard mounted cameras, and now law enforcement agencies are looking to equip their officers with body cameras that can be worn on an officer’s lapel, glasses, and on their chest. The idea of equipping officers with these body cameras has been a hot topic of debate in light of recent past events, such as the unarmed shooting of Michael Brown by Officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson Missouri Mandatory use of body cameras should be put into place because it will protect civilians from the use of excessive force and hold officers responsible for their actions, not invade the privacy of both the public and police officers with the proper guidelines in place, and lower the rates of police use of excessive force, while lowering the rates of false claims against officers. With more and more cases of use of excessive force against civilians, people across America are becoming outraged by the actions of police officers and feel that taking the word of an officer is no longer good enough to explain their actions. Americans across the nation want answers of why an officer resorted to the use of excessive force and body cameras can provide Americans with those answers. In the 2015 article “Considering Police Body Cameras,” In the summer of 2012 Marcus Jeter was arrested and charged with eluding police, resisting...
Words: 1972 - Pages: 8
...generate headlines more than two decades after the 1992 Los Angeles riots brought the issue to mass public attention and spurred some law enforcement reforms. On Staten Island, N.Y., the July 2014 death of Eric Garner because of the apparent use of a “chokehold” by an officer sparked outrage. A month later in Ferguson, Mo., the fatal shooting of teenager Michael Brown by officer Darren Wilson ignited protests, and a grand jury’s decision not to indict Wilson triggered further unrest. In November, Tamir Rice was shot by police in Cleveland, Ohio. He was 12 years old and playing with a toy pistol. On April 4, 2015, Walter L. Scott was shot by a police officer after a routine traffic stop in North Charleston, S.C. The same month, Freddie Gray died while in police custody in Baltimore, setting off widespread unrest. The policeman in the South Carolina case, Michael T. Slager, was charged with murder based on a cellphone video. In Baltimore, the driver of the police van in which Gray died, Caesar Goodson, was charged with second-degree murder, with lesser charges for five other officers. There have been no indictments in the earlier cases. These follow other recent incidents and controversies, including an April 2014 finding by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), following a two-year investigation, that the Albuquerque, N.M., police department “engages in a pattern or practice of use of excessive force, including deadly force, in violation of the Fourth Amendment,” and a similar DOJ...
Words: 2121 - Pages: 9
...Police Officers Wear Body Cameras: Pro or Con? Should police officers wear cameras while on duty to document their activities? The body camera is intended to provide an accurate, objective view of every event with a civilian. In an ideal situation, the camera would provide evidence of or discourage police misconduct while protecting officers against unfounded complaints of brutality or corruption. When unnamed black teenager Michael Brown was fatally shot by police, there was no body camera footage available. His death was followed by weeks of riots in the streets of Ferguson, Missouri and started the national debate about police conduct particularly when it involved Africa-Americans. While some witnesses to the events that evening support the officers account of self-defense, others argue that Michael...
Words: 1167 - Pages: 5
...specifically for this class and has not been submitted, in whole or in part, to any other class in this University or elsewhere, or used for any purpose other than satisfying the requirements of this class, except that I am allowed to submit the paper or presentation to a professional publication, peer reviewed journal, or professional conference. This is not a draft, and is submitted for grading to satisfy in part the requirements for this course and the program(s) in which I am enrolled. In typing my name following the word 'Signature', I intend that this certification will have the same authority and authenticity as a document executed with my hand-written signature. Type Signature: MICHAEL E. BARTELS TABLE OF CONTENTS Page...
Words: 3725 - Pages: 15
...United Church of Christ: The Church affirms individual freedom and responsibility. It has not asserted that hastened dying is the Christian position, but the right to choose is a legitimate Christian decision. Mainline and Liberal Christian denominations: Pro-choice statements have been made by the United Church of Christ, and the Methodist Church on the US West coast. The 'Episcopalian (Anglican) Unitarian, Methodist, Presbyterian and Quaker movements are amongst the most liberal, allowing at least individual decision making in cases of active euthanasia The BBC wrote in an Aug. 3, 2009 online article titled "Religion & Ethics - Christianity: Euthanasia - the Christian View" on www.bbc.co.uk: "Christians are mostly against euthanasia. The arguments are usually based on the beliefs that life is given by God, and that human beings are made in God's image. Some churches also emphasise the importance of not interfering with the natural process of death... Christians believe that the intrinsic dignity and value of human lives means that the value of each human life is identical. They don't think that human dignity and value are measured by mobility, intelligence, or any achievements in life. Valuing human beings as equal just because they are human beings has clear implications for thinking about euthanasia: • patients in a persistent vegetative state, although seriously damaged, remain living human beings, and so their intrinsic value remains the same as anyone...
Words: 7225 - Pages: 29
...Racism in the Criminal Justice System Racism in police treatment of minorities has created great disparities in incarceration amongst the races. Blatant cases of racist law enforcement that are covered in the news are a testament to the fact that racism within police departments exists from coast to coast. However, these are only the cases that people find out about; there are countless other cases of police racism and brutality that are not reported. A series of reports that have been published in the last few years have shown that young black men are being incarcerated at a rate far greater than their number in the overall population. In the fall of 1995, Vincent Schiraldi, executive director of the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice in San Francisco, released a study that found that nationally 33% of the black men in their 20~s were under the control of the criminal justice system in some way, shape or form. This shows an increase from 1991, when 25% of the black men nationwide ages 20 to 29 were incarcerated, on probation, or on parole (Butterfield 1996). Schiraldi, attributed the higher incarceration rates for black men to tougher punishment for the use of crack cocaine than for other drugs; harsh new sentencing laws; the prison construction boom; and poverty, lack of good jobs and poor education in inner cities. We will address how tougher punishments have resulted in worse treatment for minorities in the criminal justice system. The tougher punishment for the...
Words: 6993 - Pages: 28
...The Use of the Death Penalty A Paper Presented by the National Policy Committee to The American Society of Criminology National Policy Committee James Austin, Chair Kitty Calavita Roland Chilton Jeffrey Fagan Calvin C. Johnson Delores Jones-Brown Mark Moore Ira Schwartz Linda Teplin Franklin Zimring November 2001 The findings and opinions contained herein are those of the National Policy Committee and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the American Society of Criminology. Ronald Weitzer, Professor of Sociology, Dana Coleman, Research Assistant, and Sarah Benatar, Graduate Research Assistant at the Institute on Crime, Justice, and Corrections at George Washington University provided substantial assistance in the preparation of this document. Introduction Capital punishment is among the most hotly debated issues in American politics. Passions run high for both those who want the death penalty abolished and those who seek to preserve or expand its use. What follows is a summary of key issues in the death penalty debate, research findings on the application of capital punishment, and a discussion of policy considerations. The American Society of Criminology (ASC) is greatly concerned with the death penalty and its application in the United States. This year, ASC President Ronald Huff and the ASC Executive Board authorized the ASC’s National Policy Committee (NPC) to develop a policy paper that would focus on...
Words: 6090 - Pages: 25
...the American Taxation Association Journal of Legal Tax Research. 1 PERCEPTION OF A WHITE-COLLAR CRIME: TAX EVASION Hughlene Burton, Stewart Karlinsky and Cindy Blanthorne ABSTRACT The current study was designed to investigate U.S. taxpayers’ perception of the severity of tax evasion relative to other offences in general and white-collar crimes in particular. We compared the perception of tax evasion to twenty other offences, including violent crimes such as rape and murder and relatively minor offences such as jaywalking. Due to the recent focus by lawmakers and the media on white-collar scandals and the lack of comparisons in prior literature, we also included six white-collar crimes. Overall, the results indicate that tax evasion was viewed as only somewhat serious. When comparing tax evasion to other white-collar offences, we found that tax evasion was perceived as equal in severity to minimum wage law violations and rated less serious than the other four white-collar crimes investigated. Most demographic factors (age, gender, education or income level, political affiliation, etc.) did not seem to be related to perceptions of tax evasion. However, location of taxpayers did have some effect. These findings differ from several previous studies. 2 Table of Contents INTRODUCTION 4 DESCRIPTION OF THE SURVEY 5 DESCRIPTION OF RESPONDENTS 6 DISCUSSION OF PRIOR LITERATURE AND RESULTS OF SURVEY 6 RESULTS OF THE SURVEY...
Words: 6656 - Pages: 27
