Race, Ethnicity, Class, and Crime in the Media Fall 2020

For the last Iblog, I am using a Frontline documentary, Marcos Doesn’t Live Here. A truly heartbreaking story of a family getting ripped apart. Marcos Perez, a father, and husband of U.S citizens were deported in 2010 from his life he loved. Children lost their dad, a wife lost her husband in a blink of an eye. Elizabeth Perez is the wife and mother of Marcos kids, she is also a Marine Veteran who has served 10 years for our country. Fighting ten years of her life for a country that is not letting her husband in the country. Marco got in trouble in the United States when he ran through a yellow light. The police called Elizabeth questioning who the man was since they could not identify him. They started to threaten to call ICE on her husband if Elizabeth did not explain who he was and her phone died at the worst time. As discussed in our class PowerPoint, “U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement is responsible for interior enforcement, detention, and removal operations” (Ewing, 2015). The officers were holding Marco on a traffic violation and the lawyer had told Elizabeth to not pay for the traffic violation because if she were to pay it off the bail ICE could come and take him at any moment. Since she did not pay the bail he was held by state authorities which is better conditions than at the ICE detention centers. As discussed in the Crimmigration Article, “ More behaviors have been categorized as criminal offenses for immigrants, but not for non‐immigrants, ultimately leading to immigrants’ surveillance, apprehension, detention, and deportation”(Menjivar, 2018). After spending fourteen days in Mayfield Heights they turned Marco into immigration and the next thing the family faced changed their life forever.

Elizabeth was surprised when Marco was calling her cellphone but even more, surprised when he was calling from the border where ICE dropped him off at. As the Perez’s are struggling to be apart from each other Marco can not come back into the United States for a minimum of ten years because of the permanent bar. The law is called a permanent bar, if somebody enters the United States and they are deported and they choose to come back and then get deported again. Another problem that comes up is that Marco committed misdemeanors in 2001 which would make it extremely difficult to bring anyone back to the United States. Elizabeth soon got a call from their lawyer saying that ICE denied the petition, that they weighed the equities, but they’re not able to grant parole at this point. However, they did not give up, HOLA set up a march to be played on media on Cinco de Mayo therefore, people can see the people who are suffering from our broken immigration system while they are celebrating their culture. Every time they would send the petition to ICE it has been denied so Marco’s lawyer told Elisabeth that Marcos can go to the US-Mexican border and present the petition to the border patrol himself. The next morning Mexican Consulate called and said if Marcos showed up at the checkpoint so that we could submit his petition, that he would be arrested and detained and held for up to two years. Even though they were told by their lawyers that they could do it. Elizabeth got tired of the wait and took her two kids to move to Mexico with Marcos. However, the problems did not stop there. Marco’s been having trouble finding a job and with another kid on the way, Marco needs to get a good job. Elizabeth and Marco are giving it one last chance for Marco’s visa interview in 2020, and if it doesn’t work, Elizabeth is just going to go back to the United States, and Marco’s staying in Mexico. If his visa interviews fail they are calling the quits since the Criminal Justice System is treating their life as a game. Elizabeth does not want to raise a family in Mexico because of the danger she could put her family in.

Overall, I believe this documentary is something that everyone should watch because I believe Immigration is a topic that citizens do not talk about. I believe it is crazy that Elizabeth has fought for our country for ten years, has four kids with Marco, and married Marco but still will not let Marco live with his family in the US. Therefore, Elizabeth and her children moved to Mexico to keep their family together. The children went from going to an American school speaking English to being put into school in Mexico school not knowing Spanish. Now the children have to learn Spanish or they will be held behind in school. It also makes them a target of being victimized. 

                                                                  References

Ewing, Walter A., Daniel E. Martinez, and Ruben Rumbaut. 2015. The Criminalization of Immigration in the United States. Washington, DC: American

Immigration Council.

Marcos Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. (2019, April 15). Retrieved December 09, 2020, from

           https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/marcos-doesnt-live-here-anymore/

Menjivar, C., Cervantes, A. G., Alvord, D. (2018). The expansion of “crimmigration,” mass detention,                   and deportation. Sociology Compass, p. 2 https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12573

For my Media Blog 3 post I have decided to do my post on The boy in the Striped Pajamas, which relates to ethnicity and crime. As most people know from watching this movie, the Jews were treated very unfairly and didn’t deserve what they had gotten just because the Nazis weren’t fond of them. This movie demonstrated and showed just how terribly the Jews were treated and what they had to go through in the concentration camps. The Nazis were not fond of anyone who didn’t have the perfect traits that they believed so they decided to treat everyone else who Hitler didn’t like terribly and to put them in concentration camps. They were treated so terribly where millions of innocent people were killed because of the harsh environments that were in the concentration camps. Hitler believed that he needed to take out everyone and he basically brainwashed his soldiers to take out millions of people because of his views. Hitler was one of the most powerful leaders to ever live and it cost so many innocent lives. This movie relates to ethnicity and crime because a person can’t just kill someone because they don’t like the ethnicity that they support so this is a great example because Hitler and his army of Nazis took out millions of Jews. This movie relates to an article that we discussed in class which was, the Crimmigration Article because the United States doesn’t agree with the fact that immigrants should be allowed in the United States. Although it’s not hate or killing against these immigrants it still relates to the fact that ethnicity plays a role in the way that people shouldn’t be allowed to come over here. After watching the Boy in the Striped Pajamas shows that certain Ethnicities are not liked by certain people. The people who do not agree with some ethnicities tend to believe that they shouldn’t be allowed to do certain things. In Hitler’s view he thought that the Jews shouldn’t be a thing and he believed that the only thing to solve this is to form his army to get rid of every single Jew. It’s terrible how people can hate on a person for having an opinion and a view about their ethnicity or even their skin color. As we discussed throughout the semester cops tend to treat African Americans differently and it shows how they are more criminalized because police tend to think they are more suspicious and it’s terrible how people think things like this. Ethnicity is also a good topic that follows this as well because if a person sees a person wearing a turban there are people that automatically believe they are a terrorist. Just because as a part of someone’s ethnicity, they wear a turban doesn’t make them a bad person. It’s the fact that people put these pictures of someone wearing something or if they dress raggedy, they’re a bad person. No, that’s not the case at all. In The Boy in the Striped Pajamas it shows all the things that Hitler and the Nazis have done wrong to the Jews. Locking them up and making them live in unsafe concentration camps is so wrong and it’s terrifying that anyone can think of doing things like they did to someone . Just imagine if there would have been this in today’s world of how much trouble they would be in because none of the things that the Nazis did to the Jews was legal. Hitler took his anger out on them and shoved them in terrible living conditions then killed them in gas chambers. Who in their right mind would ever think that this is right? This was wrong in every aspect and no one deserves this, especially not a whole ethnic group. This movie opened my eyes to what wrong views people have against people who don’t believe the same as them. It shows that when a person doesn’t agree with the views of a person they will do everything they can to make them change that view because people don’t care about others who don’t agree with them. An example of this in today’s world would be when the Jewish synagogue got shot up out of nowhere in Pittsburgh because the shooter had a view that Jews shouldn’t be. It’s people’s views who take over and their opinions are what causes them to take things to the next level and kill innocent people. If anyone has never seen this movie, it is highly recommended on my list because of how eye opening it is and it’s one of my top movies of all time because of just how much it shows what the Jews had to go through during this time period. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1H2LQ7ziRjjPWfXWvcPZ00FMO0D8zJscLXmQOVit7RWY/edit

Payton Mohney

The Trials of Darryl Hunt

For my third and final media blog post I decided to watch the 2006 documentary titled “The Trials of Darryl Hunt”. Basically, this documentary is about a brutal rape and murder that a man named Darryl Hunt was wrongfully arrested and convicted of which caused him to spend over twenty years in prison just to find out it was not actually him who had committed this horrific crime. This case took place from 1984-2004 and it was a big topic of discussion. The Innocent Project also got involved and they were the ones who helped free Darryl and help him overcome all the racial bias, judicial, and mental response that he received while going through trials and even after when being sent to prison. This man had his whole life taken from him in the matter of a second all because he was from the south, not super wealthy by no means, and African American. All three of these factors during this time period was just the tip of the iceberg for Hunt. Since being in prison for almost twenty years his redemption was hard. He was not used to the things in 2004 as he was back in the 80’s. He spent that time in prison and had no idea how the world was evolving around him. This is a great example of class and racial bias in the South and in the American Criminal Justice System.

All Americans, regardless of where they came from, how they live, and ore the color of their skin deserve to have the right of unbiased justice, but that is not always the case. There are plenty of more high-profile cases but this specific one is just the prime example how racial bias can really destroy someone’s life in many ways. Throughout the class, we had many discussions about racial bias not just with African Americans, but with other ethnic groups and even certain social class statues. Not everyone gets the right to have an unbiased trial or even gets the justice they deserve. Watching this documentary really put it into perspective on how unfair the criminal justice system is and how just being at the wrong place at the wrong time can really destroy your life in more ways than one. This poor man who was innocent in many ways, was destined to be set up from the get-go all because of the color of his skin and where he was living at the time. These individuals are more likely to get into trouble that live in poverty because they must do what they need to do in order to survive and that can put a target on their back for an opportunity to blame someone just to get the case over and done with and just have someone in prison for that crime they did not even commit.

There are a lot of questions raised by this documentary that I thought of when watching and they are the typical questions that a lot of people ask. Basically, it is just so unfair that the color of your skin can determine if you go to prison or not. Not everyone is a criminal and sometimes they are just a bystander but the second someone says an African American did it they automatically stick with that and only that instead of looking further and gathering more evidence and information that could possibly turn them in another direction. Darryl Hunt was innocent, but the justice system failed him in more ways than one. Discrimination and inequality amongst African Americans and lower-class people are something that happens all the time and it needs to stop. We need to be having more conversations and not be so racially biased when it comes to high profile cases. Prosecutors need to look at the whole picture not just two rumors they heard and decide to just go with that because that will always be a win under their belt and that is what the prosecution does. They want to put away as many people as possible but that is not the case whatsoever. A lot of these people cannot afford proper defense, and that can also play a huge part in conviction because you need more than just an appointed attorney that has more cases than anyone and yours is on the backburner.

This documentary basically describes our class in a nutshell. We talk about the hardships these people go through daily and we learned a lot about racial bias and how it effects people long-term that are in these categories of constantly receiving no justice. At the end of the day, this documentary about Darryl Hunt is a perfect example on how the justice system fails to give anyone a chance that has not only a different skin color, but those who live in lower class neighborhoods.

For today’s generation race and crime is a common topic to discuss. For many years African Americans have been the least dominant race when compared to other races. African Americans, for centuries, have endured inequality that has caused black people to feel less welcomed in today’s society. Dating back to the Civil Rights Movement, African Americans had to fight for voting rights, to end segregation, better education, and many other essential needs that should have been granted to them due to being a citizen of America. Many crime-related problems within today’s society deal with race. Race is constantly considered especially when dealing with the justice system. Prosecutors, judges, and other law officials often share common goals when trying to keep blacks oppressed. Typically, prosecutors have the most important job because they make most of the decisions that will determine the criminal proceedings of the accused. When moving through the justice system African Americans face biased decisions, harsher sentences, coerced pleas, and incompetent public defenders. Public defenders are relied upon to protect their clients to the fullest potential yet African American cases get disregarded which at that point leaves little to no time on accurately being able to defend. The many flaws in the justice system allow for maltreatment towards African Americans from society as a whole. The black community has become accustomed to dealing with daily occurrences of racial discrimination. Ava DuVernay created a documentary film known as 13th highlights how racial inequality causes the nation to disproportionately fill prisons with blacks.  

13th is a documentary film created by Ava DuVernay and released on October seventh, 2016. Throughout the documentary, Ava DuVernay explores the effects that mass incarceration has on African Americans by giving a deeper understanding of how blacks are negatively affected by other influences within their community. The film opens with a message from Barack Obama stating, “the US had 5 percent of the world’s population but 25 percent of the world’s prisoners.”. Ava DuVernay connects her central point of the documentary by looking deep into slavery times and comparing it to the mass incarceration of today’s time. DuVernay discusses the south which during that time was presumed to be dominantly racist. The south would criminalize many blacks for minor offenses. Given most blacks not being monetarily successful, they were then compelled to work if they could not afford to pay fines which are known as convict leasing. Convict leasing was created to criminalize more behavior. DuVernay then goes on to discuss the rate of imprisonment rising dramatically in the United States despite the rate of crime declining since the late 20th century. Ava DuVernay believes president Donald Trump being elected into office has heightened the fear of crime due to his outspoken nature on other races. To help the increase of incarceration many private prison contractors fulfilled the demands of arrest and sentences. In addition to mass incarnation, the documentary explores the American Legislative Exchange Council’s role in supporting the prison-industrial complex. Minorities that live in poverty dominated communities contribute to the fears of being subjected to police brutality. Ava DuVernay expresses her concern about police brutality being a major fatality for blacks. DuVernay concludes the film with graphic videos of African Americans being gruesomely shot by law officials. 

Ava DuVernay’s 13th presents viewers with a deeper understanding of some of the obstacles African Americans face daily. The racial injustices that blacks have become accustomed to are unfortunate. Throughout DuVernay’s film, she was able to explain why mass incarceration is mostly dominant for blacks. Ava DuVernay’s film connects back to class content by talking about how blacks are represented in court. They often receive cash bail which causes a negative effect than a positive one. Many blacks that are discussed throughout the film live in poverty hence not having the financial ability to pay for bail. If in the event a person cannot afford bail they are placed under arrest until trial, causes an increase in mass incarcerations. As stated in Not A Crime To Be Poor, “ In the course of a year, about 45,000 people are jailed there solely because they cannot afford bail. On any given day, 1,500 people have been there for over a year without a trial.” (Edelman 50). Edelman makes a connection between those who cannot afford bail and the effects it may cause. Sitting in jail without a trial for over a year should be unacceptable. Many are separated from their families and jobs, typically over insufficient chargers. Cash bails also provide bias to trial by some African Americans receiving excessive bails which violates their eighth amendment. According to Brennan Center.org, also mentioned in the cash bail powerpoint, “Black and Latino’s men assessed higher bail amounts than white men for similar crimes by 35 and 19 percent on average, respectively.” These statistics show how racially biased judges can be when determining bail amounts for different races. Typically, whites will receive a lesser bail for the same crime committed by other races who will receive an excessive bail amount. Cash bail being presented is another way to keep blacks oppressed and incarcerated. 

Implicit bias can apply to the mass incarceration of African Americans. In the documentary 13th, Ava DuVernay mentions the crime rate being declined however incarceration rates continue to rise. Many people within society stereotype blacks into one category in which all are violent and subjectable to committing a crime. With this, numerous law authorities continually harass blacks causing an uncomfortable inclination ending with an arrest made off the suspicion that they are committing a crime-related act. Implicit bias is the basic explanation for stereotyping in the justice system. As Russel-Brown (2018) states, “Implicit bias has emerged as the go-to explanation for racial discrimination and racial bias within the justice system. Accounting for it, some argue, will help eliminate the racial ills of the criminal justice system.” (p. 137). When any law official is implicitly biased toward a defendant it causes a blinding effect on decision making. Implicit bias is another adding factor to many blacks being incarcerated. When a prosecutor, judge, or police stereotype an African American, their chances of having true justice gets reduced. 

Overall, the 13th documentary is highly recommended when trying to understand how mass incarceration affects blacks worldwide. Ava DuVernay accurately shows the many flaws within society and the criminal justice system. African Americans are still enslaved by being imprisoned for insufficient reasons. Mass incarnation affects the black community by having those separated from their loved ones and jobs. The many let downs from the criminal justice system make it hard for the black community to feel connected to others. Hirschi’s social bond theory argues an individual who has strong attachments to society is less likely to involve themselves in deviant behavior. Hence showing another failed attempt from society to decrease the possibilities of crimes being committed. The documentary 13th  presented the world with many ways to improve the racial injustices by providing ways to end mass incarceration, showing that all blacks are not the same, and highlighting the wrongdoings many African Americans encounter. Racial injustices within the criminal justice system can simply end by others that stereotype all blacks in one category a change of heart. Unfortunately, the criminal justice system has not come close to fixing its many flaws, however, with the black community working as one to change it, nothing is impossible. 

References 

Ava Duvernay & Jason Moran. (2016) 13TH . USA

How Cash Bail Works. (2019, December 10). Brennan Center for Justice. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/how-cash-bail-works

Edelman, P. (2017). Not a Crime to Be Poor: The Criminalization of Poverty in America. New York, NY: The New Press.

Russel- Brown, K. (2018). Making Implicit Bias Explicit. In A. J. Davis, Policing the Black Man: Arrest, Prosecution, and Imprisonment (pp. 135-160). New York, NY: Vintage Books.

Say Her Name? : A Different Understanding of the Breonna Taylor Case

Aaron Hoda

Indiana University of Pennsylvania

As we all know by now, Breonna Taylor was a African American woman who was tragically caught in the crossfire in a shootout with police and her boyfriend. If you are like me you might question why you keep seeing her name pop up in the news, social media, and other media then this post may give you some insight. Are the officers involved really to blame? For some people we may think that all we know is that she was caught in a crossfire by police with her boyfriend and had tragically died. The circumstances surrounding her death are all over the place and will be noticed on some social media platforms; her name being advertised daily with posts about arresting the officers involved and having them charged. In this blog post, I will be giving a different viewpoint to this incident, in which we can analyze further whether or not justice was really sought out during this case. 

I will now be paraphrasing what I had heard in the podcast in which I used for this blog post; I made sure to list the more important aspects of this case and the details that may not be known. This incident takes place in Louisville, Kentucky where Breonna Taylor was slain in her own bed. The police entered the scene with a no knock warrant under the suspicion that Jamarcus Glover was drug dealing out of Breonna’s apartment. This at one point was a strictly Louisville story until George Floyd’s death brought this all to light. A four month investigation into her case came to the conclusion when only one of the three officers were charged for reckless endangerment in shooting into the neighboring apartment and not for the death of Breonna Taylor. The officer who was charged was also fired as well, but people everywhere question why charges were not given to the other officers involved. People do not always understand the whole situation and may only bring up small minor details in situations like this, so we must backtrack and go over some facts about her case to properly assess the situation.

The officers had a no knock warrant, allowing full access to not use any commands to alert civilians of their presence.The police raided the apartment, but both Breonna and Kenneth Walker didn’t know that police were the people knocking down their door. The self defense law of Kentucky states that if a person shoots at you first, then in turn have the right to shoot back in self defense. However both parties did not know who was shooting at who, and it would be very hard to convict officers on homicide charges. This fact is something most people leave out when posting their opinions about who is wrong in this situation. Circumstances are everything within this case especially when one of the witnesses speaking out was questioned three separate times saying he didn’t hear the police announce themselves. However on the third questioning he says he did hear police announce themselves to Mr. Walker upon raiding the apartment. 

The legal case and moral case are two different things that need to be taken into account which in turns means murder charges can’t be filed against the officers involved. Morally this is wrong and people are hurt but that doesn’t mean justice was served. The concept of resistance is an interesting concept that we face in our everyday life, and in the case of Breonna Taylor, both Mr.Walker and the officers involved demonstrated resistance. Police demonstrating resistance and avoidance has proven ineffective when policing blacks (Davis, 2018). I will ask the question of what would you do in a situation like this? Would it really be so easy to deter a man from shooting his firearm? Or even announcing to a possible drug dealer that you as a police officer are here to bring him to justice? People tend to not think from other perspectives and in the police’s point of view the smart move is to raid the apartment without shooting; whereas in Mr. Walker’s case, to grab your legal firearm and resist. The point is that we are all human including police officers, and in the moment can not always process their actions as accurately as we think they should. 

Some people have unconscious bias towards blacks in which behavior is solely based on the color of your skin. “If you are white you are alright, if you are brown stick around, and if you are black, get back”(Davis, 2018). This expression highlighted from the book “Policing the Black Man” showcases a little known saying to protect yourself in the community against racial bias. If we soley make decisions based on skin color, then we can plausibly say that is morally wrong. So in a case of Breonna Taylor her race/skin color did not determine how police acted or who would possibly be killed. Remember that this is another viewpoint in which I give a different side or angle in which we can all look at this case. The unconscious bias that we have may play a role in the decisions and words we say but that doesn’t mean it did force us to act the way we did. “Say her name”, the chant you may hear is in reference to her death and to make sure she isn’t forgotten. Furthermore, she isn’t forgotten but more or less not getting the moral justice some seem to think hasn’t been achieved through our legal system and in part due to her race which is just utterly false. 

The podcast I had listened to was called The Criminal Injustice Podcast and discussed Breonna’s case a bit more in depth than I have in my post. I highly recommend if you want a neutral opinion telling you the story. Furthermore, this podcast helped fill in some gaps in the Breonna Taylor case that I was not aware of, as well as the podcast giving myself more insight which shows how the police officers most likely won’t face drastic charges. I hope this post encourages people to think about race and certain facts about the Breonna Taylor case differently and to not say something that doesn’t back up your claim. Legal and Moral cases are different especially in the case of Breonna Taylor, in which we clearly see that the legal system follows guidelines not emotions. “Say Her Name” can’t be quantified into the legal equation in which we can use to achieve justice, while it is a tragedy she is gone from the world she won’t be forgotten. 

References 

Criminal (In)justice – Bonus: Breonna Taylor’s Death Wasn’t a Tragic Accident. (n.d.). Retrieved October 28, 2020, from https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5yZWRjaXJjbGUuY29tLzY0NWJkNzk3LTc2MTItNDI4Yy1hODZjLTdlYWMxZjg0OTA0Mg/episode/YWU3NzRhZTMtMjgzMy00NDFmLWEwZDgtODc2ZmUzOTMwY2Yx?sa=X

Davis, A. J. (2018). Policing the Black man: Arrest, prosecution, and imprisonment. New York: Vintage Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.

You Need to Trust Police Officers :  Defunding The Police Won’t Fix The Problem. 

Aaron Hoda 

Indiana University of Pennsylvania 

Police officers are the most controversial topic in today’s culture as well as the police brutality that may be present. However, I will explain how police can build better trust in the community as well as the complexities associated with this issue. It is very evident that some neighborhoods are looked over and ghettos produce more crime and injustice than the community needs. However, in the grand scope of things there will always be communities with violence, and brutality. Throughout this post, I will be discussing what methods police need to use to have better trust with the community as well as the general population trusting police to do their job. 

The podcast I will be referring and paraphrasing is called Criminal (In)-Justice and will discuss the topic of police trust. In the death of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor the demonstrations of protests are evident everywhere in the world. The trust with police is broken due to the media coverage of these demonstrations, and false narratives that “all police officers” are bad. Training, education, and better equipment can only go so far in preventing tragedies that spark riots and aim to destroy cities and not be on the side of reason. If police do not have trust with the community, then in theory the police are seen as an illegitimate means to enforce the law. Listen to that statement; the fact that people are now believing in a defunding of the police movement is not practical. 

If you defund the police, who is going to stop criminals? Defunding the police has such a disgusting and terrifying message behind it. The first message of defunding the police is to simply relocate money, and resources however police staff is effectively reduced. The other message that radical rioters and looters have is the mentality to abolish police all together through the defunding of the police movement. The argument here is that social workers are “technically” more qualified to de-escalate situations involving criminals with mental illness.  

The other alternative is to have the social worker go with police officers to handle these domestic violence calls or active shooter calls. Furthermore, if you are going to have these social workers come, they are going to need training for protecting themselves against gunfire or even assault. Social workers are not the answer to the problem and I personally know two social workers, and had explicitly told me they would “never hop in a police car to a domestic violence call”. Why? This is because they are not trained for that type of situation where there are too many dangerous variables at play. 

Community trust is what must be sought out to maintain faith in our criminal justice system. Mike Davis (director of public safety) at North Eastern University argues that every encounter with police is a chance to build trust (Harris,2020). This can involve arrests, or even in a domestic violence call. Before I speak on what interventions and programs may help build trust in police, I will be discussing how communities are affected by the racial divide that plagues them. This racial divide can be in part from the media that shoves down our throats with stories of black men being murdered by white people and police officers killing unarmed black men. According to (Davis, 2018) black men are more likely to hear experiences that have happened to other black men than actually experience the actual encounter. 

Hypothetically, when all you hear about on the news is a black man being gunned down by white supremacists or police officers, you most likely will hate the police and the system they enforce. So right off the bat, the trust for young blacks and police is broken and the animosity is through the roof when blacks have an encounter with police. You can also argue that implicit bias occurs which essentially means we as people have stereotypes or attitudes that affect our behavior. The author of Policing The Black Man by Angela Davis presents the argument that implicit bias is why some people don’t trust the police and why police don’t trust blacks (Davis,2018). It is not exactly clear if you can prove this type of thinking but this may be why police officers shoot unarmed black men. However it is possible to inquire if an officer has been exposed to multiple different types of black stereotypes that affect his/her judgement. This type of animosity blacks and other radical people have then call for the unthinkable which is defunding the police. 

Community trust is not a tough issue to solve however it is well known that people have already not trusted the police from their childhood. This stems primarily from how blacks were experiencing all the encounters with police even when they were not physically there (Davis,2018). The issue mainly lies with blacks and they seem to not be on board with trusting the police. Mike Davis who is interviewed on this podcast I am talking about argues that some blacks don’t have a positive role model in their life. Some blacks could have no parents or grandparents and grow up in foster homes without any positive influences on their life to deter themselves from the negative energy directed at police officers (Harris,2020). Mike Davis also illustrates how his vehicle back in his childhood was associated with illegal racing and would be pulled over due to this thinking. This could be said for blacks driving suspicious vehicles or acting a certain way to indicate they commit a crime. 

There is also a struggle to recruit blacks into law enforcement jobs due to the fact of the way the police showcase themselves in the community. I believe that police officers must be fair and try to be as understanding as possible when dealing with situations within a black community. It is clear there are blacks who wish to serve the community but fall short due to the misrepresentation of law enforcement in the media and how police are seen since youth. The D.A.R.E program is a great example of showcasing how police operate and how they try to prevent kids from going into criminal activities. The program was proven to be ineffective, but from personal experience the officer that came to my classroom, who was named Officer Winsock was a role model. I also remember in high school, a motivational speaker who was a former police officer came to speak to the school about his experiences and the nature of some of these crime-ridden communities. These programs may require funding, but are an excellent alternative than doing nothing at all. I recommend this podcast to anyone wanting a deeper explanation as to why some blacks have hate toward the police as well as other factors that disconnect police from the community. 

This podcast helped show me some different issues and possible explanations for why police officers may act a certain way; as well as why people are so reluctant in trusting the police. I agree with a lot of the information spoken about on this podcast episode, however the police movement needs more attention. This is because the methods presented by the rioters and looters in some demonstrations are not practical/ideal to build trust. 

References 

Davis, A. J. (2018). Policing the Black man: Arrest, prosecution, and imprisonment. New York: Vintage Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.

Harris, D. (2020, November 17). #128 How Can Police Build Trust? Retrieved from http://www.criminalinjusticepodcast.com/blog/2020/11/17/128-how-can-police-build-trust

The source of media that I chose to examine was Oprah Winfrey Presents: When They See Us Now. In this interview, Oprah talks to the men behind the Central Park Five case. The Central Park Five are five men who were falsely accused of the rape and assault of a jogger in Central Park and were prosecuted for it. These five men, who are known as the Central Park five, were eventually exonerated. In 2019, Netflix released a miniseries called When They See Us which explored the lives of the five men who were falsely accused and prosecuted in a high-profile case. Along with the miniseries, Netflix released an interview with the men who the series is based on and the actors that portrayed them.

In 1989, Patricia Meili was found in Central Park barely alive after being beaten and sexually assaulted while on a jog. The Central Park five, Raymond Santana Jr., Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam, and Korey Wise, were also in the park that night and were implicated in the case. At the time, these boys were just seventh and eighth graders. Despite having zero physical evidence linking any of them to the crime, meaning no DNA or fingerprints, the Manhattan District Attorney was adamant on pursuing these boys. Allegedly, the detectives that were handling the case were pressured by Linda Fairstein, head of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Sex Crime Unit, to coerce the five boys into signing confessions.

The five boys went on to be sentenced between five to fifteen years in prison and juvenile detention centers for crimes that they did not commit. In 2002, thirteen years later, Matias Reyes confessed to the crime and was linked to crime with DNA evidence. This proved the five men’s innocence and New York City vacated their convictions and exonerated them.

One of the first point in the interview that really stood out to me was when an actor from the series, Michael K. Williams, was explaining how he had grown up hearing about the case. When the case was in the news, he recalled being afraid of the being lumped in with the young men who had confessed to the crime. Williams went as far as to change the way he dressed out of this fear. This just goes to show the level of trauma that cases like this can affect not just those involved, but those who hear about it as well. This case and many others like this were traumatizing to young black men who saw themselves in the young men who were prosecuted. Through no fault of his own, Williams was afraid that he would be judged for the color of his skin or even for the clothes that he wore. This is the work of implicit bias in action. While some people might be outright prejudice, this would be a good example of how implicit bias can affect people. As explained by a former police officer, “we internalize repeated messages from our family, our friends, our neighbors, our community, and the stereotypes and images we see on television, and in movies, magazines, and other media” (Horace, M., & Harris, R., 2019).

Later in the interview, Oprah asked the Exonerated Five how they think the system has changed over the years in regard to racism. Kevin Richardson responded that not much has changed. The most important thing that has changed is that with social media and entertainment we are able to make stories like theirs accessible and start conversations. While Richardson is optimistic for the future, he recognizes that black men are still being disproportionately affected by the criminal justice system. However, the fact that racism in the criminal justice system has become the forefront of the conversation when talking about the system is a very important first step into seeing the changes in the system.

The series and the interview touch on something that many who critique the criminal justice system fail to recognize which is the fact that while cops contribute to inequalities within the system, they are not the most powerful. The series and interview focus on the prosecutor, Linda Fairstein, quite a bit. Angela Davis explains why there was such a heavy focus of Fairstein in our text, “police officers have the power to arrest and bring individuals to the courthouse door. But prosecutors decide whether they enter the door and what happens to them if and when they do. Through their charging and plea-bargaining powers, prosecutors control the criminal justice system and frequently predetermine the outcome of criminal cases” (Davis, 2018).

Towards the end of the interview, Oprah asked the men what their reaction were when they had heard that Matias Reyes had confessed to the crime that they were convicted of. Everyone had said how grateful they were, but Yusef Salaam’s did not quite have the same reaction. Salaam had been so let down by the system when he had heard the news, he thought that the prosecutor and media was going to turn the case into the Central Park Six, instead of clearing their names. It is hard to imagine being so burned by the system that hearing that news elicits fear rather than relief.

While the miniseries is a great series, especially to those who are unfamiliar with the case. I chose to examine the interview because it provides a unique insight to what the young men were going through during the investigation and during aftermath of their exoneration. Overall, this was a really heavy but an incredibly insightful interview that I think anyone interested in the criminal justice system or this case should watch. The interviews with the men who were convicted highlight the faults in the system and how they impacted them and continue to impact them to this day. These men really helped contextualize the material that we learned in class and how not only the system, but also the media can impact people of color.

References

Davis, A. J. (2018). Policing the Black man: Arrest, prosecution, and imprisonment. New York,

NY: Vintage Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.

Horace, M., & Harris, R. (2019). The black and the blue: A cop reveals the crimes, racism, and

injustice in America’s law enforcement. Hachette Books.

The source of media that I chose to examine was the Netflix original docuseries titled Immigration Nation. This six-part docuseries was filmed between 2017 and 2020 and shows footage from the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency’s work while under the Trump administration. Following the release of the docuseries, press secretary for ICE, Jenny L. Burke, stated that the agency is “shocked by the mischaracterizations made by the production company,” and “wholeheartedly disputes the allegations brought forward by filmmakers of this production.” Due to this criticism, before the series was released the filmmakers received legal threats and ICE unsuccessfully attempted to delay the release of the series until after the 2020 election.

Over the course of three years, filmmakers were able to show how ICE has changed under the Trump administration. By recording upper-level ICE agents rationalizing their duties, protests, arrests made by ICE agents, those who have been detained and the family of those who have been detained, families being reunited, press conferences lead by President Trump and other government officials, news segments, and lawyers explaining the impact that these changes have had – this series paints a clear picture of the agency.

The first episode of the series provides the viewers with background information that they would most likely be unfamiliar with prior to watching this series. First, it was explained that deportation officers are tasked with locating, arresting, and removing fugitive aliens. Under previous administrations ICE prioritized removing immigrants arrested for committing serious crimes. After explaining ICE agents’ basic duties, the changes the President Trump implemented were described and how they have impacted the agency. It was explained how during President Trump’s first few days in office, he signed an executive order shifting priorities to remove all immigration violators. This executive order mandated that 10,000 immigration officers were to be hired. When ICE was established in 2003 there were eight units and now, due to this executive order, there are one hundred and twenty-nine units.

For me, some of the most compelling parts of the series are when the ICE agents are talking to the camera. Many of the immigrants that are detained are known as collaterals, meaning they were not the person that ICE was seeking out, but are detained as well. One officer, Brian, was explaining that is he encounters a collateral who is being corporative, that he does not like to detain them. Especially, not for the sake of numbers. As he is explaining that he gets a call from his boss who tells him, “start taking collaterals, man. I don’t care what you do, but bring at least two people in.” Once off the phone, Brian asks the cameraman if he knew that he was with him. After the cameraman confirmed that he did, Brian says, “that’s a pretty stupid fucking thing to say,” about his boss. If they were willing to say this on camera, what is going on behind the scenes when they are not being filmed?

One of the lawyers who was filmed explained that overall, it is not the immigration officers who are morally bankrupt. They are just doing their job and from the inside, they think what they are doing is necessary because it has become so routine for them. The blame is not on them but is on the institutions that changed the policies. These policy changes and the lack of accountability are what causes the masses to distrust these institutions.

I thought that this was an important take away and a critique that I do not think many people who disagree with ICE oppositionists understand. In fact, this critique could be applied to any aspect of the criminal justice system and I believe it goes along with what we have been discussing in class. This sentiment is touched on in Policing the Black Man, “a history of unaddressed massive abuses is likely to be socially divisive, to generate mistrust between groups and in the institutions of the State, and to hamper or slow down the achievement of security and development goals” (Davis, 2018, p.41).

While we only briefly discussed the criminalization of immigration in class, this series touched on quite a few topics that we went over. In one of the articles that we reviewed for class the author stated, “in theory, the law extends ‘basic’ due process protections to non‐citizens, but in practice these can be violated” (Menjívar, Cervantes, & Alvord, 2018). I believe that what the author stated went along with how the filmmakers described deceptive tactics that ICE agents employ. It was described in the series that enforcement officers typically execute administrative warrants and are not allowed to enter a residence unless given permission. ICE agents are trained to identify themselves as the “police” unless they are specifically asked by the individual that they are interacting with.

Overall, this series was powerful, heartbreaking, disturbing, and enraging. It was a tough watch, but I believe it is absolutely a must watch. What I particularly liked about it was that the filmmakers did not tell you how you should feel as it is purely observational. However, I cannot imagine that many people watch this series finish it thinking that the agency’s duties are humane and just.

Going into this series, I did not have a favorable opinion of ICE and this series only reinforced that belief. Of course, I would recommend this to those who share similar beliefs. However, for those who have a favorable opinion of ICE, I would also recommend this to challenge your viewpoint.

References

Davis, A. J. (2018). Policing the Black man: Arrest, prosecution, and imprisonment. New York,

NY: Vintage Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.

Menjívar, C., Cervantes, A. G., & Alvord, D. (2018). The expansion of “crimmigration,” mass

detention, and deportation. Sociology Compass, 12(4). doi:10.1111/soc4.12573.

For my third and final media blog post I chose to watch the Hulu documentary, “Crime + Punishment.” This documentary is all about the corruption of the New York City police department. In New York innocent people are harassed every day by the police for doing nothing but maybe looking suspicious to the officer. In the New York City police department, even though it is illegal, have quotas that must be met, so much so that police are making arrests with no information to back them up, making up fake charges, and most arrests end up being dismissed. While it may be good temporarily that all of these innocent people’s arrests are being dismissed, at some point they are going to get stuck with something only because the judge sees how many times they were arrested and does not the that they were being bullied by police officers. In the documentary we follow NYPD officer Sandy Gonzalez, along with some other police officers, and Private Investigator Manuel Gomez as they try to expose the corrupt system that is the New York City Police department.

Sandy Gonzalez is a police officer in the NYPD who wanted to become a cop so he could bring change and help people. Unfortunately, what he found was crime and corruption. In the beginning of the documentary, we see that Sandy is being accused of not making his quotas and being talked down to by his sergeant saying, “everyone is moving ahead of you.” Sandy is a man with good intentions and did not want to be part of the corruption, and for this he was punished by his fellow officers. The NYPD essentially put him on the police version of a time out and made him do tours around the city in the freezing cold, and to add insult to injury they told him he was out of uniform because he was wearing his hat when it was 38 degrees and not 32 degrees. Sandy is working alongside ex police officers in order to give them information so they can make a change in the city. We find out that between 2007 and 2015 the NYPD issues nearly 900,000 criminal summonses that were all later dismissed because of lack of probable cause, and this is exactly the thing they are trying to stop. We are even able to see how the same situation Sandy is in is also happening to other police officers, in another case the sergeant is heard being racists towards his own officers and making their lives hell because of the way they look. A lot of the time the police desperately do want to help people but n situations like this they feel conflicted, the country needs more officers like Sandy if there is ever going to be a difference.

Manuel Gomez is an ex-military intelligence officer who once tried to be a police officer, but when he saw the corruption being done withing the agency he decided to leave and become a private investigator, in an attempt the get justice for the people of New York. Many people come to Manuel from all over New York, from people in prison under false charges to parents desperately trying to keep their family safe. Manuel goes out to the street where crimes occurred and talks to the people, he hears their stories and their experiences with police brutality and then offers them advice and teaches them their rights. He also helps those who have been arrested and had their cases dismissed make CCRB complaints. Manuel Gomez does what too many people are afraid to do, and he does it with the intent on helping and education those who do not know.

After watching this documentary my eyes really opened to just how bad the idea of the blue curtain really is. With the officers out there keeping secrets in order to protect each other and their department it is not hard to see how all of these problems keep happening. These police officers are out there breaking the law in order to meet illegal quotas and harassing the citizens of the town they swore to protect, and when confronted about it they shrug their shoulders. However, even without any confessions from officers the boat load of dismissed arrest cases is proof enough for me. We need more officers out there like Sandy and his group who are not afraid to come forward and speak the real truth, and we need more people like Manuel who are willing to fight for those less fortunate. There needs to be a change in the way police handle their business and if there is none all we are going to get is more of the same.

Sources:

Hulu documentary “Crime + Punishment”

The Media that I have chosen for the series was When They See Us. Which was about the central park five boys, and their names were Kevin Richardson 14, Korey wise 16, Raymond Santana 14, Yusef Salaam 15, Antron McCray 15. They were all falsely accused of rape and attempted murder of a woman that was jogging at night that they did not do. They were just young boys in a large group in the park. They were having fun, playing music, and talking, doing what teens do. As they were all in the park some police started to come and all the boys started running and hiding, trying to get away. When the police had caught some and started brutally beating one of the boys and took them in. They had found a white lady lying in the park that had been beaten, raped, and had several injuries to her body. While they brought the kids in, they had them sitting at their desks, and one of the ladies had asked the boys what he was doing at the park when he told her he mentioned to her a name Antron. She asks him where he lives, and she finds him. They began searching his house and took him in for questioning. They had a list, and Yusef was on that list, and because Korey was around him, but was not on the list, they took him as well. The five boys that were in questioning were being asked questions without any guardian, which they are not allowed to do. The detectives were scaring the boys into admitting that they are the ones that raped and beat the lady in the park that night. They started screaming and hitting on the boys. Their parents come in and sit with them. Their parents know that is not what they had done, but the detectives try to get them to believe that is what they did. The kids do not know each other, but the detectives made them accuse one another of doing something they did not even do and put the blame on each other. They went into the room and told them that one of the kids blamed him for doing the incident. One of the boys Korey Wise was taken to the back room, and the police officer beat him up and made him admit that he was a part of the crime. So, they all made a false confession when the boys continuously told them where they were, and what they were were doing that night, and that they did not see that lady jogging. They made them admit to something they did not do. The detectives told them that if they admit to the incident and sign the statement, then they will let them go home. They had the lady Trisha Mali put up on the stands in court, and they questioned her, but she seemed to not remember anything from that night but little stuff. The detectives had some evidence of DNA, but the evidence did not match either one of the boys. They had to do confessions on video also which they had shown in court that made decisions final. They were all guilty and had been taken to jail and been in there for years. As they had gotten older and got out, they had to sign for a sex offender, then try to find jobs, having to live in their house with their parents, and missed their teenage years being in high school not able to graduate. After all that they had found out years later that it was not either one of those boys who raped her. 

This series relates to the book Policing the Black Men Because it tells how Black boys are being treated unfairly. They relate in Away because it tells stories and what happens to them, which is being accused, beaten, or killed by a police officer. Also, the system accuses black males of whatever crime because they are black, so it is automatic to them that they did it when they didn’t. The book talks about a boy named Emilio, and he was on his way to school when he had gotten stopped by an officer because he was jaywalking. Then the police asked him to sit, but he refused to, so things started to escalate. The police officer grabbed him, pinned him, and started to beat him. Things escalated and more cops had come, and four get on top of him after he was slammed to the ground. Jaywalking isn’t anything to do that to someone. This series relates in a way to the boys being picked and beaten by the police. It is just going to show it is a race thing the color of one’s skin they make their assumptions that are based on color. 

The series is sad because they had been in jail for years for a crime that they did not commit. They lost all their teen years once they had come out of jail. They were grown men by the time they came out, everything was taken from them. Things had changed for them once they got out in the world, the type of jobs, and no diploma. They had to get straight back into the real world, and they could not live as teenage boys. The parents were worried about their kids in jail, which is a parent’s biggest fear is having their child locked up in jail, and never knowing what could happen. The things parents do tell their young black kids things to keep them out of trouble, and whenever it comes to a police officer, is to just act accordingly because you may never know what is going to happen when dealing with a police officer. Falsely accusing them just to have a person to say they caught, and because of the color of their skin, they automatically assumed it was them. To come to find out they did not do it. They had hurt the kids and took years from them the whole time the person who did the crime was still committing a crime. It’s nothing but hate. This situation is still happening today when black boys are being falsely accused of things they have not done. The fact they see the color of their skin they automatically think they did the crime or a bad person. They are either brutally beaten or they end up getting killed because they feel that they are resisting them. Today nothing has changed because black men are still getting hurt and accused. It is sad because men are the first pick of a crime, and fingers are already pointed at them. Young black males are losing years of their life or their life for crimes they are accused of. Young black boys are losing years of school and losing their learning. It is a sad thing to see the fact that it is still happening now. 

DuVernay, A. (2019, May 31). When They See Us. Retrieved December 08, 2020, from https://www.netflix.com/title/80200549

A. J. Davis, Policing the Black Man: Arrest, Prosecution, and Imprisonment (pg31-55)