Definition Rewrite-Philly321

What is fear?

Police whose lives are often at risk may fear for their safety even from suspects whose guns are unloaded or who brandish what looks like a weapon. The fact that they were not in mortal danger in no way diminishes their reasonable fear. Are police officer’s wrong to shoot “an unarmed suspect” or are they within their rights to neutralize a suspect whose intention was to harm? On the night of August 9, 2014, police officer Darren Wilson of the Ferguson Police Department was on patrol when he received a call about a robbery and physical dispute between an 18 year old male and a Ferguson Market clerk. A nationwide study conducted in 2013 by USA.com found that the average crime rate in Ferguson, Missouri, is 2,6885.38, which trumps the Missouri crime rate of 1,858.24 and the national average crime rate of 1,669.05. Officer Wilson spotted Michael Brown walking down the street wearing a hoodie, a red hat and yellow socks that matched the offenders description. Michael Brown’s hands were in his pockets, which perhaps gave the illusion (from a police officer’s perspective) that he could be holstering a weapon. The high crime rate alone was enough to justify officer Wilson’s feelings of uneasiness. Officer Wilson had to acknowledge that there was already a physical altercation with the Ferguson Market Clerk, so his defensiveness is valid. When officer Darren Wilson confronted Brown, Brown reached through the window of the police car, disrespecting the barrier that separates Brown from officer Wilson. Darren Wilson pleads that Michael Brown reached for his hosteled weapon forcing him to fire through Brown’s hand, which signifies the heightened severity of the situation. Because Brown’s physical gesture posed a direct threat to the safety of Darren Wilson, officer Wilson got out of his car to pursue Brown and shot him six times. While six shots seems inexcusable, we can relate to his heightened sense of perceived danger. Officer Wilson shot Michael Brown because Brown appeared to have an apparent intent to cause harm. The fact that he may not have a weapon in no way diminishes officer Wilson’s fear for his life. One of the central questions in the case of Michael Brown that was argued is whether officer Darren Wilson’s response to a situation that calls for instantaneous reactions could hold him accountable. The decision made by officer Wilson reflects an officer’s moral instinct to protect the public at any time and place that the peace is threatened.

As we learn from Chris Mooney in “The Science of Why Cops Shoot Young Black Men,” we are not “born with racial prejudices. We may never even have been taught them. Rather, prejudice draws on many of the same tools that help our minds figure out what’s good and what’s bad. In evolutionary terms, it’s efficient to quickly classify a grizzly bear as dangerous. The trouble comes when the brain uses similar processes to form negative views about groups of people.” A study conducted by Lewis Loflin, a former U.S. Army and military officer , in 2012 found that of the total 2,029 arrests made in Ferguson, Missouri, 558 were white/hispanic and 1,471 were black. It is entirely possible that officer Wilson reacted to many cues in addition to the race of Michael Brown. It has been argued that the six shots to Michael Brown’s body was both excessive and unnecessary. Perhaps police officers learn to be suspicious of individuals that the general public do not fear. Officer Wilson could have developed reflexes that we don’t have, causing him to react faster or with more force than we would.

Police officers lives are often threatened. They have an obligation to respect the rights of suspects. They also have a (sometimes conflicting) right to defend themselves against mortal danger. Under the Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights, American law enforcement personnel is partially protected from investigation and prosecution arising from conduct during official performance of their duties, and provides them with privileges based on due process additional to those normally provided to other citizens. But police officers are not fully protected. This leaves them vulnerable to due process for a natural instinct. Michael Brown posed a threat to officer Wilson by neglecting to respect the barrier that separates the inside of the car from the outside of the car, while attempting to retrieve officer Wilson’s gun. As we learned from Sunil Dutta, an advocate for police safety and 17-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department, in “Column defending cops in Ferguson sparks online fury,” people should  “not challenge law enforcement — save that for lodging a complaint later. Do what the officer tells you to and it will end safely for both of you.” We need to acknowledge that police officers are well trained to recognize threats and are also experts at defusing them or avoiding confrontations that might turn deadly or dangerous. If people simply cooperated with police officers, there would be fewer arrests and less violence as a result.

A study conducted by Police One showing the reaction time of a police officer when faced with different scenarios. The test subjects were 24 male volunteers recruited from an active-shooter training class at a regional SWAT conference. Each officer, equipped with a Glock training pistol, was to progress through 10 rooms in an abandoned school where an officer was to confront a suspect with a similar pistol at a distance of 10 feet. According to prior instruction, one-fifth of the suspects followed the officer’s order to surrender peacefully, whereas the rest, designated as attackers, were told to try to shoot the officer at any time they chose. Analysis showed that the suspects on average were able to fire in just 0.38 second after initial movement of their gun. Officers fired back in an average of 0.39 second after the suspect’s movement began. The officer and suspect effectively shot at similar times. Why should an officer be held responsible for a natural instinct? These numbers validate police officer’s rights to react in the way they do to certain situations. Officer Wilson shot Michael Brown’s hand out of pure response to the altercation. While the next six shots seems inexcusable, we can understand officer Wilson’s perceived sense of danger and excessive reaction to a potential violent situation. Effectively, it is either kill or be killed.

Neil Bruntrager, a lawyer for Officer McMellon, said, “According to State v. Anthony, once a defendant injects self-defense into a case, the prosecution bears the burden of disproving the defense beyond a reasonable doubt.” Self-defense is an extremely difficult burden to carry in a court of law. The fear of imminent danger in law enforcement is a reasonable defense and may outbalance the burden of proof.

Finally, police officers, as a highly scrutinized group, should not be held responsible for a potential threat to their well-being and others around them. The burden we place on police officers, to protect the safety of everyone they encounter, is incompatible with their human instinct to protect themselves from danger. When we scrutinize their actions without considering how often they place themselves in danger on our behalf, we impose an unjust burden on them. The threats they recognize, that we might not, are mitigating circumstances.

Works Cited

Cassell, Paul. “Officer Wilson under Missouri law.” The Washington Post. 26 Nov. 2014. Web. 28 Oct. 2016.

Levs, Josh. “Column defending cops in Ferguson sparks online fury.” CNN. Josh Levs. 20 Aug 2014. 28 Oct. 2016.

Lewinski, Bill. “New reaction-time study.” Police one. 26 May. 2011. 28 Oct. 2016.

Mooney, Chris. “The Science of Why Cops Shoot Young Black Men.” Mother Jones. 1 Dec. 2014. Web. 28 Oct. 2016.

“Ferguson, MO Crime Rate.” USA.com. 1 Jan. 2016. 9 Nov. 2016.

Enough About You – darnell18

Money seems to have such a big role in our society that it is extremely difficult to get very far in life without it. Money is valuable in different ways, even when it is not seen physically. To avoid feeling the need to hide away a stash of money, having faith in how banks and the government handle money is a crucial first step.  It may be seemingly impossible not to wonder how these institutions handle currency, but nevertheless, trust or no trust, it will not affect how banks and the federal government go about operations related to the handling and transferring of currency. To the naked eye, it seems as though wealthy people have a plethora of money, whereas with poor people it is just hard to come by. However, after being exposed to types of currency such as the Brazilian cruzeros, the Yap Fei, US gold, French francs, Brazilian cruzeros, the debit accounts we use in today’s society now seem similar. Direct deposits and electronic transfers of money appear to be suspicious at first, to people who are used to being paid in physical cash. Furthermore, it is just the way society is progressing, and society needs to trust the process.

Enough About You – thathawkman

Our society is driven by money; Money is valuable in many different ways, even when we don’t see the value physically. In today’s society, we must place our faith in the government and in the banking system that our hard-earned money is being handled properly; or else, we would be forced to keep ahold of the money ourselves and hid the money to keep it safe. Many people don’t understand what happens in the banks or how they take care of our money, which leaves a very daunting impression to a large number of people. We assume quite simply that either someone has money, or they don’t have money. However, after this assignment, the Yap Fei, U.S. gold, French francs, Brazilian cruzeros, and debit accounts now all seem familiar. No one actually sees their money being transferred. When we get paid, we are not handed tangible payment like money or checks. Instead, the money we assume we earned transfers into a bank account and we just have to trust that we earned the money.

Robust Verbs – thathawkman

Vancouver now faces a new epidemic where heroin addicts commit a multitude of crimes in order to support their self-destructive addiction. The “free heroin for addicts” program attempts to address the problem and provide services to prevent addicts from committing further crimes. However, the issue is that this one organization can’t possibly permanently prevent the massive amount of crime that these heroin addicts contribute to. For a heroin addicts, living the normal day to day life is already a difficult task. However, adding the pure need and addiction to heroin causes even more stress and agony for the addicts. As heroin addicts primary goal now becomes to simply get more money to get more heroin, heroin addicts does whatever is necessary to sate, and thus fuel, their addiction. The issue with the “free heroin for addicts” program is that the program doesn’t get rid of the addicts’ addiction. Instead, the program brings heroin addict a place to go, which negates their reason to commit crimes in the first place. Also even though the program does help, it only helps temporarily solves the problem as heroin addicts will wreak havoc again once the program is ended.  This program is a start to a very unwieldy problem, but a better solution must be found eventually for the problem to be solved.

Robust Verbs — socrateslee13

Vancouver has run into an ongoing problem 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. By having an addiction, it has made the addicts lives very hard to deal with. Daily activities such as jobs, interactions, and relationships are hard to maintain because of their addiction. By heroin users being addicted, they will do whatever they have to do to get their hands on the drug. Burglary is one of the crimes committed by heroin addicts. 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. However their sole purpose is to try 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. Having hospitals deal with people that make poor decisions and find themselves unable to deal with the repercussions seems pointless.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.

Robust Verbs – aaspiringwriter

Vancouver has been battling against the crimes committed by addicts who would go to any extent to take hold of the drug. Obsession of drugs prevents the addicts from maintaining steady jobs, interactions and relationships. The “free heroin for addicts” program stops the addicts from committing crimes such as breaking, entering and stealing. While the program doesn’t end addiction, it does reduce crime rates in the city by providing the addicts free heroin in the cleanest possible way and thus keeping them off the streets. Such arrangement might save the city but the addicts will still be dependent on heroin.

 

Enough About You- lmj20

Money plays such a big role in our society that not much can get done without it. Money is valuable even in ways that are not seen physically. It is tough to know exactly how banks operate or how they take care of every individual’s money. On the surface, the concept of money seems simple, the rich have it and the poor do not.  However, after being introduced to other forms of currency such as the Brazilian cruzeiros, the Yap Fei, US gold, and French francs, the debit accounts we use today seem very similar. Getting paid now means receiving numbers directly transferred to a bank account without actually seeing the money being given. In order to prevent distrusting people from hiding money under mattresses, faith in the government and the banking system must exist.

Robust Verbs- lmj20

In Vancouver, the crime rate is large because heroin addicts are committing crimes to support their habits. These addicts are having a hard time completing daily activities such as maintaining jobs, interactions, and relationships. The users often have no limits when it comes to getting their hands on heroin which has led a lot of theft. The “Free Heroin for Addicts” program is attempting to lower the crime rate of the city by providing heroin easily so that addicts do not have to commit crimes to get the drug. The program will also keep heroin users out of the hospital by reducing the use of laced drugs and unsanitary needles. The downfall to the program is that it will not help addicts move towards recovery.

Enough About You – aaspiringwriter

Money seems to have a big role in our society; we can’t do much or get far if we don’t have any money. Money is valuable in different ways, even when it isn’t visible physically. In today’s society we must have faith in the government and in the banking system that our money is being handled in the proper manner, if not then we would have to hide all of our money under our mattress or around the house. We have no clue what happens in the banks, or how they take care of our money. We always thought money was simple; we either have money or we 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 we get paid, we aren’t handed cash or a physical check, instead it’s directly transferred to our bank account and we just have to trust that we got more money.

Robust Verbs- thesilentbutdeadlycineman

Heroin addicts in Vancouver are stealing money to buy more of the drug. The “free heroin for addicts” program works hard to stop these addicts from committing crimes, which is an uphill battle, to say the least.Heroin users are addicted, and they will do anything to secure more of it, which in turn prevents them from maintaining steady  jobs, interactions, and relationships.  Unfortunately, the program won’t help these users in ending their addiction, as it is only focused on trying to save the city from the rising crime rates . The program does this by instead actually giving free heroin to the addicts in the cleanest way possible. With this action, the users are kept out of the hospitals, where the medical personnel would have trouble dealing with them. While the addicts will unfortunately remain dependent on heroin, the city will have the opportunity to thrive.