Allen Ginsberg, a world renowned poet said “Whoever controls the media, the images, controls the culture.” Media has the ability to tell stories painting pictures for the general public. Sometimes though the stories they paint are not always based in fact or reality. For the purpose of this paper, it will compared two op-ed pieces. The first op-ed was written by Radley Balko (2015), a writer for the Washington Post on criminal justice. The second op-ed was authored by Perry Chiaramonte (2015), who is a New York journalist for Fox News. Both of the op-ed’s focus on the war on police and whether this is an actual war on the streets or a fairy tale filled with hyperboles. These op-ed pieces disagree with each other on the existence of this war, …show more content…
The Washington Post op-ed focuses mainly on the facts that deal with killings of cops and assaults on cops. In the second half of the paper Balko (2015) discusses why pushing an agenda that there is a war on police can be a very dangerous avenue to take. The consequences of this agenda is the fact that telling someone their job is more dangerous, even if it is not, will cause them to become more tense (Balko, 2015, p. 4). Which in extreme situations can lead to the death of someone who did not deserve to die (Balko, 2015, p. 4). The Washington Post op-ed comes to the conclusion that not only does the war on police not actually exist, the media spreading it has caused physical and political policy damage. On the other hand, the Fox News op-ed alleges that due to recent heightened cases in Missouri, Baltimore and New York police officers jobs are becoming more dangerous. Chiaramonte (2015) uses quotes from police chiefs and police commissioners, who assert that criminals are taking advantage of police due to new regulations police face. The piece alleges that many officers are rethinking their job because of how dangerous it has become in recent times (Chiaramonte, 2015, p. 2). Chiaramonte (2015) has taken the position that the war on police is very real, not only in the numbers but in the
Today police officers are trained to kill. Steven Rosenfeld, a journalist in civil liberties for Alternet said, “The militarization of local police has been growing...They face few consequences for making mistakes, such as maiming or killing people” (Rosenfeld). This shows that the local police officers are trained with military tactics and receive no penalty for their wrong actions. Not only is there an increase in police brutality, it seems as if they are targeting specific nationalities. Tony Brown, a writer for Raw Story agrees by saying “young black males in recent years were at far greater risk of being shot dead by police than their white counterparts”(Brown). Brown is blantly saying that the police seem to target one group to discriminate against. According to Brown it is 21 times greater chance for a black male to be killed over other
When New York City had a new leftist mayor, many foreshadowed there would be a significant rise in crime spanning over a few years. The new mayor, Bill de Blasio, was to blame. De Blasio wanted to reform city measure, but he went about it in a different way. De Blasio talked and listen more to ex-cons on this matter, putting their options and advice to the forefront of his mind. Many of them rallied for reducing police stratagems to reduce New York City’s crime rates. It was believed that de Blasio agreed with this idea because of his thoughts on some of the tactics New York City’s police officers used. De Blasio fought against “Stop and Frisk”, because of how they unjustly discriminated against young, African American males and put their safety at risk.
Flannery O’Connor grew up in the 1940s which was a time when America was rapidly changing. At this time there was a great divide in class structure. This dramatic separation of classes instilled a sense of superiority and hypocrisy in the minds of the upper class individuals. The attitudes of O’Connor’s characters in “Revelation” and “A Good Man is Hard to Find” reveal a lot about the tainted mindset of those living in the south during that time. In both stories Flannery O’Connor is able to juxtapose the superior and hippocratic attitudes of upper with the attitudes of the lower class people during this civil war period.
Network news appears to convey more stereotyped impressions, a narrower range of positive roles for blacks than for whites. Representations of whites in network news are more varied and more positive than of blacks, not because of conscious bias, but because of the way conventional journalistic norms and practices interact with political and social reality. The findings raise questions about the journalist ability to represent the reality of black America while adhering to the professional practices that currently shape network news. Mainstream news portrayed African American as criminals, homeless beggars, welfare queens, ghetto-dwelling gang members, or drug addicts in American Society. Perpetuation of young black men as dangerous has been planted in the mind of American society not only by words and images projected by journalists but also in the mainstream news especially. Television particularly the news has the least positive representation of African Americans especially young males. When television became a house-hold item in the early 1950, this was a dark time in American History because there were huge racial tensions brewing in the south. The news show African American mostly young males getting abuse, hosed by police and attack by police dogs during a peaceful protest. It gives the negative images that African American was unlawful people and need to be dealt with swift action. Most of the time African Americans weren’t resisting but the news media depicted the images that they were and police were just doing their job to keep the peace.
The documentary “Policing the Police,” by PBS, assists in providing insight into problems facing the city of Newark, New Jersey, and its police department. The documentary displays the opinions of both the police officers and the people of the communities on the most pressing crime related issues in the city and the solutions to them. The variety of perspectives that documentary provides is very informative and forces the viewer to look at the problems of police brutality in a more complex manner rather than black and white. Ultimately, the documentary exposes the failure of the Newark Police Department to work effectively and the solutions new leaders are beginning to implement.
One large factor that fuels police brutality is the media. The media is constantly showing the world what police officers are doing wrong. The book “The Politics of Force: Media and the Construction of Police Brutality”, is a book where author Regina Lawrence does an extensive study on how the media ties in with the formation of police brutality. Lawrence analyzed more than 500 incidents of police use-of-force covered by the New York Times and in the Los Angeles Times from the year 1981 to 1991. Lawrence informs readers of the structural and cultural forces that both shape the news and define when police use excessive force. Lawrence claims that police brutality incidents occur in greater numbers than those that are reported. She also explores how media is obtained to the public can see a new perspective on policing policies. Journalists decide whether one story makes it to the news if the issues and events need light shone upon them. If it were not for the media, many issues and events would go undocumented, as police and elected officials would rather leave them unexposed. Lawrence also shows how a news event involving the police can become a tool for isolated social groups to gain access to the
By teaching police officers alternatives to shooting to kill, they experience higher risks with their lives. Police Commissioner, Ray Kelly, said, “It would be "very difficult" to train officers to shoot to wound” (Jacobo, 2016). Police officers are viewed as “predators” and “an occupying army” rather than allies (Valey, 2016). This is a perception that needs to change because it counteracts the mission of police officers
The negative views of everyday people often make work hard for officers, adding more stress to their careers. The general public regularly criticizes officers for using excessive force and brutality, especially when a police officer ends up killing a suspect or criminal. Oftentimes, especially when a white police officer shoots a citizen of a minority race, the general public is quick to find faults in the officer, blaming the officer for being racist. However, cold, hard statistics show that the majority of police officers are, in fact, white, and the neighborhoods in which these officers are placed in tend to be high-crime areas with many minority citizens living there (Miller “When Cops Kill”). In addition, people might say that a citizen who was shot was not armed; however, almost anything close to the shot individual could have been turned into a deadly weapon that he or she could have used to wound or kill the officer involved. Whenever officers are in this position, the natural reaction is to defend themselves. Everyday, police officers confront the most aggressive, immoral, and sick-minded individuals of society. Officers jeopardize their own lives every time they report for work. Officers witness things that no person should ever have to encounter. They see the most horrific and gruesome scenes that the general public turns away from and
However, after reading the article the author noted that police are mandated to enforce civilian law and order, investigate crimes, and strictly follow legal procedures even when in pursuit of chronic and dangerous criminals (Kagoro, 2014). Ideally, it has been argued, there should be strict dividing lines between the police and the military; the former for domestic purposes with the latter protecting citizens from external threats (Kagoro, 2014). In his article on the anti-militarization of the police in the United States, Kurt Andrew Schlichter aptly put it that the military is designed, organized, and equipped to execute rapid, violent and efficient obliteration of the “enemy”-whoever the enemy may be ( Kagoro, 2014). However, the law enforcement is usually modeled after the military and in fact there a large number of police officers who are former military personnel. This was a new criticism of police that was unfamiliar to me in the study of criminal justice but, I found it to be a valid point. The idea of changing the focus of policing to be less of a battlefield and more of a community may be a compelling approach to make interaction with citizens less
Police shootings occur all over the world but are a huge problem within the United States. We continue to hear more and more about them. These shootings are making headlines. Front page news it seems almost weekly. All the shootings go one of two ways. Either a Police Officer has been shot or a Police Officer has shot a citizen, but either way the final result is death. Whether an Officer has been shot or an Officer has shot someone these cases seem to be related to one thing, fear. People in today’s society feel as though they can’t trust Police Officers as they are there to hurt and kill them. And Police Officers feel as though they are in danger of doing their everyday duties because people see them as the “bad guys” and want to hurt or kill them. Yes, police brutality and racism still exist, but not all cops are bad. Yes there are still bad citizens in this world that want to kill and harm others, but not all citizens are bad. People seem to react to these shootings by rioting quickly after a police officer has shot and killed someone without
Short stories are a form of literature works that authors use to communicate various themes and issues to the reader. As such, it is common for different short stories authored by different people to have a central meaning or theme that differs from each other. In addition, the way the author portrays his/her central theme or meaning would differ from the way other authors would craft their short stories to best portray their central meaning. While some would use characterization as a means of portraying the theme of their story, other authors employ the use of symbols to better communicate their theme. However, some slight similarities can always be drawn between short stories. ‘Hills like White
Some people think that if they could only change one aspect of their lives, it would be perfect. They do not realize that anything that is changed could come with unintended consequences. “The Monkey’s Paw” by W.W. Jacobs and “The Third Wish” by Joan Aiken both illustrate this theme. They demonstrate this by granting the main character three wishes, but with each wish that is granted, brings undesirable consequences. The main idea of this essay is to compare and contrast “The Monkey’s Paw” and “The Third Wish.” Although the “The Monkey’s Paw” and “The Third Wish” are both fantasies and have similar themes, they have different main characters, wishes, and resolutions.
Both of these articles were focused on the Strategy of Policing, but the author’s approaches to the ‘hot topics,’ couldn’t be more difficult. Williams and Murphy focused on the different eras of policing, and how the racial conflicts have overlapped policing efforts. Whereas, Kelling and Moore focused on how police have evolved with the eras. The articles were dramatically different, however, the policing eras: Political, Reform, and Community Orientated eras were influenced largely as the main focuses for each academic article.
News stories are covered several times and most of us do not even realize it. Although more recently many people get news in more similar mediums such as on the Internet because of the decline of newspapers. “Since 1940, the total number of daily newspapers has dropped more than 21 percent” (McIntosh and Pavlik, 119). Many times we do not realize the same story we read online was covered on our local news station and in our local newspaper, even further than that this same story is being covered in many different news stations, newspapers, and news sites all over the country and even the world. So what makes these stories different? Each time you read a news story from a different source something different happens to it. The different views and frames used by the source gives the reader a different take every time. I saw that first hand in my two stories. In my project I compared the same story of Mya Lyons, a nine year old girl who was stabbed to death.
The first concept to be critically analysed is media and the part its plays in portraying the police to the public and influencing the public’s confidence within the police. The media has always been a prominent influence in the public’s beliefs about certain issues such as crime, the police force, and institut...