Author: yankeeskid6

Annotated Bibliography- yankeeskid6

  1. Bandler, Aaron. “5 Statistics You Need To Know About Cops Killing Blacks.”Daily Wire. N.p., 07 July 2016. Web. 07 Dec. 2016.

Background: This article from The Daily Wire mostly discusses the common misconceptions with police officers and black civilians. The 5 points that are presented have to do with black civilians, Hispanic civilians, white/black/Hispanic cops as well as death rate and crime. The author proves with accurate statistics his argument on black hate crime.

How I Used It: I used this article to show case that what we see on the media isn’t the whole truth. I used statistics to show that in fact black civilians aren’t getting shot as much as we are led to believe and that cops are being targeted as well.

  1. “Is Biased Media Coverage of Police Shootings of Blacks Creating a False Narrative of an Epidemic of White Racist Cops Murdering Innocent Blacks?” Is Biased Media Coverage of Police Shootings of Blacks Creating a False Narrative of an Epidemic of White Racist Cops Murdering Innocent Blacks? – Quora. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Dec. 2016.

Background: This article talks about the media and its role in coverage of racist white cops and how they heighten the issue. It talks bout biased media especially African American run media. Finally, it brings up a new concept of justified arrests or killings even from technically innocent people. The article proves that killings by officers in certain situations have been going on for years but have been recently heightened by the news media to direct it in a racism way. It also proves that even with  low population more than half the officers killed have been by African Americans and that most black kills have been on murders and rapists.

How I Used It:  I used this article to back up my concept of media coverage blinding us from the real truth. I also used the article to help explain why people get shot and that it isn’t just “innocent” all the time.

  1. “Philando Castile Shooting: What Happened When Filming Stopped?”CNN. Cable News Network, n.d. Web. 07 Dec. 2016.

Background: This article talks about 2 cases in which police are being scrutinized for using excessive force, that is the Sterling case as well as the Castile case. The article talks about what happened after the Castile case when the cameras cut and later that night. We also hear the side of the officers in the Sterling case.

How I Used It: The chose this article because it proves that cops do whatever they can to save victims and help families. Once the cameras cut the officers performed CPR on the victim and tried to save his life, and later that night comforted the family and daughter. This shows they aren’t animals. It also expresses the biggest concern in all of these cases, was the victim truly innocent. It proves in the Sterling case the officers tried many different ways to take him down, but he gave no response and reached for a gun they had no choice but to fire.

  1. “Media & Racism.”Media & Racism. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Dec. 2016.

Background: This article chronicles the case of Zachory Hammond an unarmed white male that was shot to death by police officers.

How I Used It: The main reason I chose this article is to show that a case like that of Hammond isn’t publicized enough because it doesn’t fit the racial standard. Many people don’t know about it because it’s a white death. It is easy to create tension and stir things up if the victim is of a different race. Therefore, it’s just another way of how the media manipulates the public into thinking just African Americans are being killed by officers.

  1. “Police Shootings and Race.”The Washington Post. WP Company, n.d. Web. 07 Dec. 2016.

Background: Article gives substantial statistics of police shootings and racial involvement as well as the crime rate of races that are being killed.

How I Used It: I used this article to help argue that measurements should be made off of crime rate rather than race because crime rate is the deciding factor to where and how many officers are stationed in certain places Statistics show that most crime ridden places are towns with large minority classes. This helped me make my case that police aren’t trying to racially profile African Americans. It is not their fault they are stationed in crime ridden areas that happen to be mostly African American.

 

  1. Staff-, TNO. “New FBI Crime Figures Confirm: Black Towns Most Dangerous, White Areas Safest – The New Observer.”The New Observer. N.p., 04 Dec. 2014. Web. 07 Dec. 2016.

Background: This article gives us a lot of statistics about inner cities, crime rate, poverty and arrests. The article is from FBI records as well.

How I Used It: I used the statistics in the article to prove my point further that in fact minority neighborhoods have the highest crime rate and most arrests. I used it to once again show that officers are stationed there against their will and that they are there just to do their job. Finally, I used this article to showcase another problem that is a catalysts for the race tensions and that is the struggle of poverty.

  1. Definitions.com

Background: A website to get definitions of terms.

How I Used It: I used it to make sure I had the right definitions for the vast amount of terms I was using that I was not 100% familiar with.

  1. French, David. “The Numbers Are In: Black Lives Matter Is Wrong about Police.” National Review. National Review, 28 Jan. 2016. Web. 07 Nov. 2016.

Background: This article talks about Movements such as “Black Lives Matter” and how their reasons behind protesting are false. Also talks about how police use force mainly for protection or to protect others.

How I Used It: I used the article to back up my claim that these protesters are irrational and ill-informed. Also used some of the statistics to show how rare a police shooting on an unarmed victim really is.

9. http://www.pbs.org/race/000_About/002_04-background-03-08.htm

Background: Talks about poverty and where race lives in the inner city.

How I Used It: I used this to help prove my point that racism, and police brutality isn’t the only problem out there. Poverty is a huge reason why crime is committed just to stay alive. Helps prove my point that we as a society need to look at the larger picture to why things happen rather than pointing fingers and yelling.

  1. Bruer, Wesley. “Violent Crime Rising in US Cities, Study Finds.”CNN. Cable News Network, n.d. Web. 22 Nov. 2016.

Background: This article talks about crime rising in inner-cities for the past couple of years. Also talks about the African American communities struggle with crime and homicide.

How I Used It: Used the article to help me explain how dangerous the inner-cities are. Also to showcase how much crime actually goes on and how many people are killing each other. This helps justify the reasons behind such high arrests and shootings from cops.

Research Position Paper- yankeeskid6

The Truth Behind Police Brutality

Racial profiling and police brutality in America is viewed right now as an old issue that has resurfaced with a little extra kick to it; however statistics prove that the claims made by the media and protesters are in fact wrong. The “Black Lives Matter Movement” has taken the country by storm being the reason for countless protests and violence. A belief in America is that police and other forms of law officials racially profile individuals, in turn leading to unfair treatment and sometimes death. Claims have been made by countless media outlets and leaders of such groups like BLM that right now is the worst time to be a regular everyday African American citizen. Although, when we look at statistical evidence it is clear that those claims are misconceptions. With an issue involving crime, race, and death it is easy to point fingers at who is wrong and who is right, but the best way to solve the issue is to examine the broader picture. We must look at all outside factors that may give reasoning for a common misconception. The news and social media paint their own picture for us to be interested and play their games. The media cannot always be trusted. Evidence proves that in fact African Americans being targeted by police.

Police brutality is falsely represented in media and therefore gives officers a bad reputation. Statistics show that police brutality in retrospect to racial profiling actually has very minimal correlation to each other. Racial profiling and police brutality has been an issue for all races for decades. In the last couple of years we have seen a large spike in coverage about this issue, specifically with the African American community. Race tensions have always been around and made out to be something larger than what it is, however modern day social media and the internet have made it much easier and more accessible to everyone around the world. When we begin to scroll through social media such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook we are bound to see a story involving race. Most recently the main stories involving race have also been involving police and shootings. Therefore, naturally as human beings we will begin to sympathize with these individuals and believe people of their culture may possibly be getting targeted.  The truth however is these people aren’t getting racially profiled. The media loves to stir things up in the public to create more stories to cover. When we look at the definition of racial profiling it is said to be, “the discriminatory practice by law enforcement officials of targeting individuals for suspicion of crime based on the individual’s race, ethnicity, religion or national origin.” The definition proposes the argument that officers arrest or kill certain citizens purely based off of the color of their skin or beliefs. However, we can’t jump right to conclusions without looking at the evidence and a larger cultural issue we have at hand. Think of it this way, yes most police departments are dominantly Caucasian with a small percentage being another ethnic group. Although, then look at the areas with the most crime and you get a dominantly African American community. Therefore it is hard to say an officer that is white is always racially profiling a certain group when that group makes up the majority of the crime in your area. When we begin to look deeper into the arrests and killings involved with police officers some interesting statistics show up. First, let’s look at where the common everyday African American citizen lives. According to pbs.org, since 1999 it has been recorded that close to 70 percent of black families or individuals live in the cities or inner-ring suburbs of America. Next, when we begin to look at crime rate in America we find out that most of the United States crime takes place in the Cities of the United States.  According to the “New Observer” the worst murder rates take place in Detroit , New Orleans, Newark, St. Louis, and Baltimore; these all being majority black communities at an average of 62%. Crime has been rising for years and even in the past year crimes such as homicides, rapes, assaults and shootings has substantially grown. So naturally when more felony’s are committed in an area it’s safe to say law enforcement will appear in those areas. The officers will be on higher alert and will most likely engage in more action if crime has risen. In an article written by the National Review they used statistics from the Post that said American police had fatally shot 965 people in 2015, 564 of those killed were armed with a gun, 281 were armed with another weapon, and 90 were unarmed. This means that 70% plus cases involving fatal shootings are after an officer is put into danger, defending himself or defending someone else. Unfortunately, these communities with high crime rates tend to reside in the inner-city. The most dominate race in inner-cities happens to be African American and Latinos. According to pbs.org “Across the nation, four out of five whites live outside of the cities and 86% of whites live in neighborhoods where minorities make up less than 1% of the population.” In contrast, 70% of Blacks and Latinos live in the cities or inner-ring suburbs.” With these factors connecting one another we can see now why it seems to be that more and more African American men and women as well as Latinos are being arrested more often. A major misconception is that African American men are fatally shot the most, when in fact only 4% of all fatal shootings performed by officers each year are on African American males.  And the reason mostly black males are fatally shot is simply because general areas with large black populations tend to have high crime/death rates. In the National Review article written by David French, he said blacks “commit homicide at close to eight times the rate of whites and Hispanics combined….among males between the ages of 14 and 17, the interracial homicide commission gap is nearly tenfold.” French went on to say  “In 2014, for example, while black Americans constituted only about 13 percent of the population, they represented a majority of the homicide and robbery arrests. 82 percent of all gun deaths in the black community are from homicide. For whites, 77 percent of gun deaths are suicides.” Therefore, it is fair to agree that cops aren’t trying to racially profile anyone; they are in fact doing their job. The most interesting fact that comes up is actually in the arrests themselves. Even though these communities are dominantly African American, statistics presented by the FBI say, “In 2013, 68.9 percent of all individuals arrested were “white,” 28.3 percent were black, and 2.9 percent were of other races.” Furthermore, the FBI report claimed, “white” individuals were arrested more often for violent crimes than individuals of any other race and accounted for 58.4 percent of those arrests. The article goes on to say that whites account for the most juveniles as well. Although, even with statistics proving that cops are simply just doing their job and trying to protect the non-vigilantes; black communities are still in an uproar over the death toll. Thus, movements such as “Black Lives Matter,” have stemmed from this. The protests have progressively gotten more violent. Law enforcement is now under attack, the best example coming from the protest in Texas where six cops were fatally shot.

A main issue however that is always brought up last is that these statistics may be true, but why is there so much crime to begin with inside the inner cities? The real answer stems from poverty and gross income for individuals living in those areas. On the website Definitions.com they define Gentrification as a trend in urban neighborhoods, which results in increased property values and the displacing of lower-income families and small businesses. The reason this method is controversial is that it essentially puts all the poor people together, thus making new opportunities harder and keeping them in poverty. When anyone is desperate to make money we tend to make questionable choices to help our families and ourselves. Therefore, crimes in those areas are more prevalent. The magnitude of the overall issue in America today has to do with much more than race. But the main topic of conversation is always race and that falls on the media.

The media loves to cover stories involving race. The perception of the public is highly influenced by the media. If the media is always showing the wrong from officers or stories involving a white cop and a black criminal, of course the public will grow a perception of racist police officers. Public perception is everything. This was imminent in the financial crisis of 2008. The public perception began to dwindle as more media coverage bashed the banks for losing money. People began to get scared and pulled out of their shares out of pure fear presented by negative coverage. According to Salvatore Colleluori and Daniel Angster, over 70 percent of crime coverage is based around African American arrests or killings. Like the famous actor Morgan Freeman said in an interview on 60 Minutes, “the reason there is still racism is because we keep talking about it.” Think about that, if we simply stop talking about racism it will slowly go away. African Americans have the same rights as whites; they are recognized as everyday citizens. This doesn’t mean there isn’t racism in the world, but we need to stop blaming a group of people based off an incident by one person. Cops are there to do their job and not to start race tensions. People make individual choices to break the law it has nothing to do with race. A white man is just as dangerous as a black man and we should still understand that. We should also understand law enforcement is here to protect us. Not everyone is a criminal and if we simply listen to the law no one will be a criminal.

Works Cited

  • French, David. “The Numbers Are In: Black Lives Matter Is Wrong about Police.” National Review. National Review, 28 Jan. 2016. Web. 07 Nov. 2016.
  • http://www.nationalreview.com/article/429094/black-lives-matter-wrong-police-shootings
  • Bruer, Wesley. “Violent Crime Rising in US Cities, Study Finds.”CNN. Cable News Network, n.d. Web. 22 Nov. 2016.
  • Bandler, Aaron. “5 Statistics You Need To Know About Cops Killing Blacks.”Daily Wire. N.p., 07 July 2016. Web. 07 Dec. 2016.
  • “Is Biased Media Coverage of Police Shootings of Blacks Creating a False Narrative of an Epidemic of White Racist Cops Murdering Innocent Blacks?”Is Biased Media Coverage of Police Shootings of Blacks Creating a False Narrative of an Epidemic of White Racist Cops Murdering Innocent Blacks? – Quora. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Dec. 2016.
  • “Philando Castile Shooting: What Happened When Filming Stopped?”CNN. Cable News Network, n.d. Web. 07 Dec. 2016.
  • “Police Shootings and Race.”The Washington Post. WP Company, n.d. Web. 07 Dec. 2016.
  • “Media & Racism.”Media & Racism. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Dec. 2016.
  • Staff-, TNO. “New FBI Crime Figures Confirm: Black Towns Most Dangerous, White Areas Safest – The New Observer.”The New Observer. N.p., 04 Dec. 2014. Web. 07 Dec. 2016.
  • Definitions.com

Reflective- yankeeskid6

Core Value I. My work demonstrates that I used a variety of social and interactive practices that involve recursive stages of exploration, discovery, conceptualization, and development.

In College Comp II professor Hodges reintroduced an idea that has been fed to me for years. However, because of Professor Hodges I have thoroughly listened and taken this advice to heart. The idea that was presented is simply proofreading and correcting. We as students and writers are advised to constantly check and fix our work because it can only get better. However, most students such as my old self would take an assignment as a one and done deal. That is the definition of content. Although, as Professor Hodges stated in class no one should be content, we should always want better.  I achieved this goal by always asking for feedback on all my work. Aside from just posting on the website I also talked to Professor Hodges during class about work, topics and ideas for writing. Feedback from others is the most important starting point for your revision because more than one opinion opens doors for different ideas. I feel my best representation of taking feedback and correcting is in my Causal Argument Rewrite.

Core Value II. My work demonstrates that I placed texts into conversation with one another to create meaning by synthesizing ideas from various discourse communities. 

When writing about any topic you should be well educated before you even think about typing anything. Therefore, gathering information through critical research is key. You cannot develop an opinion or create an argument on a topic you know nothing about. I feel I accomplished this goal in my Proposal +5 because I gathered many sources I felt sided with my argument for my essay as well as other sources that gave light on the issue I was presenting. I gathered articles with opinions, statistics and case studies. The material I gathered helped my writing flow better, become clearer and establish a definite argument. We as writers need other source material to amplify our own stance; it is crucial.

https://rowancounterintuitive.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=8396&action=edit

Core Value III. My work demonstrates that I rhetorically analyzed the purpose, audience, and contexts of my own writing and other texts and visual arguments.

When it comes to writing a position paper and especially an argumentative piece, we must take into consideration which audience we are writing to. Professor Hodges made sure we understood the importance of having a purpose to writing for a specific audience. I feel I accomplished this goal in my Definition Argument Rewrite because I used valid evidence in my work along with appropriate wording to relate to the audience. The topic that is presented has a certain demographic it reaches out to. Once I realized how prevalent the topic was and took the advice of Professor Hodges as well as classmates I changed certain wording and source material. This was done because In my first draft I was quite naïve towards my audience and a bit irrational. Once I thought of them more my work became better.  

Core Value IV: My work demonstrates that I have met the expectations of academic writing by locating, evaluating, and incorporating illustrations and evidence to support my own ideas and interpretations.

Once again, it is important to gather information to back up our claims as writers. We cannot simply state our opinions as fact, we need research to back up our claims. In my Definition rewrite I accomplished this goal as well. I went out and searched for scholarly articles to back up my claims. I then used statistics to make those claims valid and substantial. Sometimes the audience agrees more with statistics and other times its more opinion related, therefore you must have sources that accomplish both. Real evidence supporting a writers argument is the best way to persuade a reader in agreeing with us.

Core Value V. My work demonstrates that I respect my ethical responsibility to represent complex ideas fairly and to the sources of my information with appropriate citation. 

For a paper to be viewed as successful and fair you must treat all material in proper way. This involves providing evidence for your stance on an issue and doing so in an appropriate manner. You must cite every piece of work that is not yours. A writer cannot take anothers opinion and evidence and deem it his own. This would be the epitome of unethical. Finally, it is only fair to not be one sides and look at the opinion of your opposing side. Take into consideration the opinions and facts they have and it will not only challenge us as writers, but help us dig deeper into our research to prove our points. My personal example of how I accomplished this goal is in my Rebuttal Rewrite . In the rewrite I present the opposing side of my arguments common view points and present this in a manner in which is fair and concrete. The data that was used was scholarly and properly cited. The rewrite was ethically sound.

Rebuttal Rewrite- yankeeskid6

Races of different color aren’t protected by law enforcement but are targeted by them. Police using fire arms in a routine arrest has become more prevalent. It seems that instead of using their TAZE guns which according to Tim Dees an officer since 1979, “Few people can resist the stun of a TASER–I’d say far less than 1%.” Therefore, why do law enforcement officials use the deadliest technique more often than none? Reality is that many of these shootings actually turn out deadly for the non-officer which is most likely unarmed. Some crazy statistics show just how much cops abuse their privileges to hold a fire arm. It is said that officers killed nearly 102 unarmed African American civilians in 2015. That is nearly 2 each week. About 1 and 3 black people killed were identified later as unarmed. Out of all the unarmed people killed in 2015 37% were African American and that is despite the fact that African Americans only make up 13% of the entire population. Unarmed frican Americans were killed at a rate 5x faster than their white counter parts. With all the loss and carnage involved in these cases, rarely were officers arrested or charged of  crime. In fact only 10 of the 102 cases in 2015 resulted in an officer being charged. Only two of those 10 officers were convicted, and only one received jail time. The officer arrested cut a deal and got to serve his jail time for his full year sentence only on the weekends. We understand what justice is and this is not justice. The families of all those victims must now live without their son, daughter, father or mother. They have lost so much and the police have lost nothing. News reporting has opened our eyes to corruption and its our turn to act now. Protest groups such as “Black Lives Matters,” are so important to have to raise awareness. The corruption needs to stop, the evidence is there now it is up to us to convert change into society.

 

“Police Killed More than 100 Unarmed Black People in 2015.” Mapping Police Violence. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Nov. 2016.

https://www.quora.com/Why-dont-police-use-stun-guns-first-lethal-force-second-when-dealing-with-criminals-Why-dont-the-police-use-stun-guns-for-just-about-everything

 

 

Causal Argument Rewrite- yankeeskid6

It seems we have always been accustomed to violence and crime inside U.S cities. It makes sense, more people more crime.However crime has been rising for years and even in the past year crimes such as homicides, rapes, assaults and shootings have risen. So naturally when more felony’s are committed in an area its safe to say law enforcement will appear in those areas. The officers will be on higher alert now and will most likely engage in more action if crime has risen. In an article written by the National Review they used statistics from the Post that said American police had fatally shot 965 people in 2015, 564 of those killed were armed with a gun, 281 were armed with another weapon, and 90 were unarmed. This means that 70% or more cases involving fatal shootings are after an officer is put into danger, defending himself or defending someone else. Unfortunately, these communities with high crime rates tend to reside in the inner-city. The most dominate race in inner-cities happens to be African American and Latinos. According to pbs.org “Across the nation, four out of five whites live outside of the cities and 86% of whites live in neighborhoods where minorities make up less than 1% of the population. In contrast, 70% of Blacks and Latinos live in the cities or inner-ring suburbs.” With these factors connecting one another we can see now why it seems to be that more and more African American men and women as well as Latinos are being arrested. When it comes to race the common view is that these fatal shootings on the black communities by white law enforcement is normal. However, its only 4% of all fatal shootings performed by officers each year.  And the reason most African Americans are fatally shot in these areas is simply because general areas with large black populations tend to have high crime/death rates. In the National Review article by David French he says blacks “commit homicide at close to eight times the rate of whites and Hispanics combined….among males between the ages of 14 and 17, the interracial homicide commission gap is nearly tenfold.” French goes on further to say  “In 2014, for example, while black Americans constituted only about 13 percent of the population, they represented a majority of the homicide and robbery arrests. 82 percent of all gun deaths in the black community are from homicide. For whites, 77 percent of gun deaths are suicides.” Although, even with statistics proving that cops are simply just doing their job and trying to protect the non-vigilantes; black communities are still in an uproar over the death toll. Thus, movements such as “Black Lives Matter,” have come about over this issue. Then, a domino effect starts. We see one protest turn violent, which leads to another, which then leads to an attack on officers. We should try and steer away from media analysis and rather understand the data because it paints a different picture. The real issue is poverty and the construction of these neighborhoods. If we can move and help minorities in the inner-cities move out or help these areas grow towards success, then crime and violence would go down. Cops are there to do their job and not to start some form of a race war. People make individual choices to break the law it has nothing to do with race. A white man is just as dangerous as a black man and we should still understand that.

French, David. “The Numbers Are In: Black Lives Matter Is Wrong about Police.” National Review. National Review, 28 Jan. 2016. Web. 07 Nov. 2016.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/429094/black-lives-matter-wrong-police-shootings

Bruer, Wesley. “Violent Crime Rising in US Cities, Study Finds.” CNN. Cable News Network, n.d. Web. 22 Nov. 2016.

A11: Definition Rewrite- yankeeskid6

Racial profiling and police brutality has been an issue for African Americans as well as other races for decades. In the last couple of years we have seen a large spike in coverage about this issue. Race tensions have always been around and made out to be something larger than what it is, however modern day social media and the internet have made it much easier and accessible to everyone around the world. When we sit down and look at our devices and immediately see a new case of police brutality on a person of difference race we begin to believe that maybe these other races are being targeted. Is this all true? The simple fact is when you look at the statistics of these cases and the definitions of the acts those officers are being held accountable for, we can see the media just may in fact be stirring the pot on purpose.  When we look at the definition of racial profiling it is said to be, “the discriminatory practice by law enforcement officials of targeting individuals for suspicion of crime based on the individual’s race, ethnicity, religion or national origin.” The definition proposes the argument that officers arrest and/or kill certain citizens purely based off the color of their skin and beliefs. However, it is hard to single out a pure racial profiling case, and I believe if their is one it will be so blatant there shouldn’t be room for argument. Think of it this way, yes most police departments are dominantly Caucasian with a small percentage being another ethnic group. Although, then look at the areas with the most crime and you get a dominantly African American community. Therefore it is hard to say an officer that is white is always racially profiling a certain group when that group makes up the majority of the crime and majority of the areas population. When we begin to look deeper into the arrests and killings involved with police officers some interesting statistics show up. First, lets look at where the common everyday African American citizen lives. According to pbs.org, since 1999 it has been recorded that close to 70 percent of black families or individuals live in the cities or inner-ring suburbs of America. Next, when we begin to look at crime rate in America we find out that most of the United States crime takes place in the Cities of the United States. According to the “New Observer” the worst murder rates take place in Detroit , New Orleans, Newark, St. Louis, and Baltimore; these all being majority black communities at an average of 62%. Therefore, is it fair to say that cops are racially profiling these areas because of race, or are these people just looking at the facts and doing their job? The most interesting fact is that of the arrests themselves. Even though these communities are dominantly black statistics presented by the FBI say, “In 2013, 68.9 percent of all individuals arrested were “white,” 28.3 percent were black, and 2.9 percent were of other races. Furthermore, the FBI report claimed, “white” individuals were arrested more often for violent crimes than individuals of any other race and accounted for 58.4 percent of those arrests.” The article goes on to say that whites account for the most juveniles as well. So if more non-African Americans are being arrested each day how is discrimination, racism and racial profiling such immense topics of conversation? The answer is the media.

The media loves to cover stories involving race.  The perception of the public is highly influenced by the media. If the media is always showing the wrong from officers or stories involving a white cop and a black criminal, of course the public will grow a an image of racist police officers. Public perception is everything. This was imminent in the financial crisis of 2008. The public perception began to dwindle as more media coverage bashed the banks for losing money. People began to get scared and pulled out of their shares based off pure fear presented by negative coverage. According to Salvatore Colleluori and Daniel Angster,   over 70 percent of crime coverage is based around African American arrests or killings. Like the famous actor Morgan Freeman said in an interview on 60 Minutes, “the reason there is still racism is because we keep talking about it.” Think about that, if we simply stop talking about racism it will slowly go away. African Americans have the same rights as whites, they are recognized as everyday citizens with the same opportunities. So when we go back to thinking about racial profiling and discrimination, is it the police that are targeting black or is it the media itself looking for stories and ratings?

Works Cited:

https://mediapromotesracism.wordpress.com/

http://newobserveronline.com/new-fbi-crime-figures-confirm-black-towns-dangerous-white-areas-safest/

Robust Verbs- yankeeskid6

Original- There is a huge problem in Vancouver with heroin addicts committing crimes to support their habits. The “free heroin for addicts” program is doing everything they can to stop the addicts. The problem is that there is a large crime rate due to the addicts. It is obvious that addicts have a hard time getting through their day to day lives. Daily activities such as jobs, interactions, and relationships are hard to maintain because of the fact that they are using. By heroin users being addicted, they will do whatever they have to do to get their hands on the drug. The types of crimes committed are those of breaking and entering as well as stealing. There are no limits to where they will go to retrieve this drug so that they can feed their addiction. The problem with this program is that it won’t help to ween these addicts off using heroin. It is only trying to save the city from rising crime rates that they’re up to. By providing the drug, these addicts will be off the streets, which in turn will prevent them from committing minor street crimes. This will also keep the heroin users out of the hospital. It is pointless that the hospitals have to deal with people that want to use bad drugs or unsanitary needles and find themselves being unable to afford hospital bills and hard to cope without the drug. This program gives people free heroin in the cleanest way possible. This will in turn fix the city  but not the addiction that these people face.

 

New-  Vancouver has an issue with crime involving heroine addicts. The “free heroin for addicts” is providing service to stop the addicts. The Vancouver crime rate is affected by the addicts. Heroine addicts struggle to live normal day-today lives. Due to their addiction daily activities such as jobs, interactions, and relationships are hard to maintain. Any addict of any drug will do whatever they can to keep obtaining that drug. Breaking and entering as well as stealing are the most common crimes committed by these addicts. Actions for retrieval are limitless.  The program is meant to lower crime rates in the city not help the addicts become clean. Heroine is provided to the individual hoping they will be off the streets and not committing minor street crimes. Providing clean needles and correct amount of heroine should keep Hospital visits down. The program gives addicts free heroin in the cleanest way possible. Vancouver will benefit legally and financially, but the addicts will not be cured.

But Enough About You- yankeeskid6

Original- Money, without which nothing gets done, drives  our society. Money is valuable in different ways, even when you don’t see it physically. In today’s society you must have faith in the government and in the banking system that your money is being handled with in the proper manner, if not then you would have to hide all of your money under your mattress or around your house. I have no clue what happens in the banks, or how they take care of your money. I always thought money was simple; you either have some or you don’t—that’s it. However, being introduced to this assignment, the Yap Fei, US gold, French francs, Brazilian cruzeros, and debit accounts now seem similar. No one actually sees their money being transferred. When you get paid, you aren’t handed cash, you don’t receive a physical check, the money’s all directly transferred to your bank account, and you just have to trust that you got more money.

 

New-Money, without which nothing gets done, drives our society.  Money is valuable in different ways, even when we don’t see it physically. In today’s society, faith is all we have in trusting that our money is being handled with in the proper manner, if not then we would have to hide all of our money. We have no clue what happens in the banks, or how they take care of our money. We think money is simple; we either have it or we don’t—that’s it. However, the Yap Fei, US gold, French francs, Brazilian cruzeros, and debit are similar. We don’t see our money being transferred. When we get paid, we aren’t handed cash nor receive a physical check, money is transferred directly to our bank account, and we just have to trust it.

Causal Argument-yankeeskid6

Since the Treyvon Martin case opened up to the public some odd years ago, the public has heard of more and more “innocent” African American men being killed. This has led to the racial protests and anarchy we are used to today. Although, it is self evident when you look into the statistics that these police officers are not only non-racist but are doing their job at a high level. In an article written by the National Review they used statistics from the Post that said American police had fatally shot 965 people in 2015, 564 of those killed were armed with a gun, 281 were armed with another weapon, and 90 were unarmed. This means that 70% plus cases involving fatal shootings are after an officer is put into danger, defending himself or defending someone else. When it comes to race the common view is that these fatal shootings on the black communities by white law enforcement is normal. However, its only 4% of all fatal shootings performed by officers each year. Then the next most common argument these “Black Lives Matter” protesters us his that though black males only make up 6% of the United States population they make up 40% of unarmed men shot by police each year. the misleading statistics is used to hypnotize the general public without giving out all the facts. Young African American deaths really have nothing to do with race; in fact they sort of bring up a more plausible issue in police force. Everyone talks about racism but never sexism. Those that are classified as criminals or threats are usually primarily male. Police officers rarely ever fire their gun at a female. And the reason mostly black males are fatally shot is simply because general areas with large black populations tend to have high crime/death rates. In the National Review article they said blacks “commit homicide at close to eight times the rate of whites and Hispanics combined….among males between the ages of 14 and 17, the interracial homicide commission gap is nearly tenfold.”(French pg. 1) Also they said “In 2014, for example, while black Americans constituted only about 13 percent of the population, they represented a majority of the homicide and robbery arrests. 82 percent of all gun deaths in the black community are from homicide. For whites, 77 percent of gun deaths are suicides.”(French pg. 1) Therefore, with years of data and the elements presented it is evident that these cops aren’t out here to target a specific demographic but instead base their watches off the data they are given and unfortunately sometimes the incidents result in death. People make individual choices to break the law it has nothing to do with race. A white man is just as dangerous as a black man.

French, David. “The Numbers Are In: Black Lives Matter Is Wrong about Police.” National Review. National Review, 28 Jan. 2016. Web. 07 Nov. 2016.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/429094/black-lives-matter-wrong-police-shootings

 

Definition Argument- yankeeskid6

For the past couple of years all we have been accustomed to is watching Television and seeing a story about an unarmed black being killed by a cop. This has stirred itself into a movement, or a as I view it a civil war. Race tensions are almost as high as those from the 1960’s. The war between cops and black Americans has grown into a world epidemic. When we look at the definition of racial profiling it is said to be, “the discriminatory practice by law enforcement officials of targeting individuals for suspicion of crime based on the individual’s race, ethnicity, religion or national origin.” The definition proposes the argument that white officers arrest and/or kill African American citizens purely based off of the color of their skins and no actions. I find it hard to ever prove that a cop is racial profiling anyone. A law enforcement officer must have a reason for an arrest and must have a valid reason for firing their gun otherwise it would simply be murdering. This issue must be looked at not as a whole but as a singular person to person psychological issue. Racism is a noun, it describes either a person, place, or thing. So when a person describes an entire police department as racist it is just silly. Racism distinguishes one whole races from another whole race, grading the worth of each one to another. Therefore, when a police department holds staff with more than one race, by definition it is nearly impossible to title it as “racist”. When we move to the statistics and facts of police killings it is pretty clear that these two terms are no where present and easily misconstrued.

When we begin to look deeper into the arrests and killings involved with police officers some interesting statistics show up. First, lets look at where the common everyday African American citizen lives. According to pbs.org, since 1999 it has been recorded that close to 70 percent of black families or individuals live in the cities or inner-ring suburbs of America. Next, when we begin to look at crime rate in America we find out that most of the United States crime takes place in the Cities of the United States. According to the “New Observer” the worst murder rates take place in Detroit, New Orleans, Newark, St. Louis, and Baltimore; these all being majority black communities. Therefore, is it fair to say that cops are racially profiling these areas because of race, or are these people just looking at the facts and doing their job? The most interesting fact is that of the arrests themselves. Even though these communities are dominantly black statistics presented by the FBI say, “In 2013, 68.9 percent of all individuals arrested were “white,” 28.3 percent were black, and 2.9 percent were of other races. Furthermore, the FBI report claimed, “white” individuals were arrested more often for violent crimes than individuals of any other race and accounted for 58.4 percent of those arrests.” (newobserveronline.com) The article goes on to say that whites account for the most juveniles as well. So if more non-African Americans are being arrested each day in dominantly black communities how is discrimination, racism and racial profiling such immense topics of conversation? The answer is within itself, the media.

The media coverage of crimes involving African Americans has increased immensely over the past 2-3 years. Though it has been statistically shown that more whites are arrested throughout the year, the coverage of African American arrests and assault from police have overlapped the facts. The perception of the public is highly influenced by the media. If the media is always showing the wrong from officers or stories involving a white cop and a black criminal of course the public will grow a an image of racist police officers. Public perception is everything. This was imminent in the financial crisis of 2008. The public perception began to dwindle as more media coverage bashed the banks for losing money. People began to get scared and pulled out of their shares out of pure fear presented by negative coverage. Over 70 percent of crime coverage is based around African American arrests or killings. (Colleluori and Angster) The media deceives our perception and makes an issue out of nothing because it produces rating and controversy. Like the famous actor Morgan Freeman said in an interview on a news station, the reason there is still racism is because we keep talking about it. Think about that, if we simply stop talking about racism it will slowly go away. African Americans have the same rights as whites, they are recognized as everyday citizens with the same opportunities. It isn’t the 1950’s anymore and it will never be like that again. So when we go back to thinking about racial profiling and discrimination, is it the police that are targeting black or is it the media itself for commerce?

Works Cited:

https://mediapromotesracism.wordpress.com/

http://newobserveronline.com/new-fbi-crime-figures-confirm-black-towns-dangerous-white-areas-safest/