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Category Archives: Assignment 5
Hero turned Mobster
A man that was a war hero in World War II now become a mobster that was involved in man slaughter and gang related crimes. It is not easy to tell who has deviance inside him, you can never tell until that person actually commits a crime. It’s a clear example with Sam Volpendesto, a veteran War hero that saved lives and earned several medals now will spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Due to this convicted Sam might not even be able to be buried at the Arlington National Cemetry outside of Washington D.C. for war veterans. Sam still denies any claims that he was part of any gang related activity and that he never made a dime from these crimes.
This shows the deviance can take over anybody, even a person that was brought up in the military and was taught ethic and moral judgment. But unfortunately Sam learned how to assist in murder and crime during the years of service. Wars can bring up trained killers inside of respectfully humble individuals. Its a disgrace not only for himself but also for his family that was proud of his service in WWII. Now the remaining years of his life he will look at them behind bars…just like the men he put away. As the article stated,”War service is not a license to commit crimes.” I believe that some people believe they can get away with anything if they serviced in the army, and it is not unusually because US give a lot of power to those in the forces.
Dishonest police agendas.
I found this video online which is somewhat of a reiteration of the Village Voice articles we read. The most shocking statistic was that 51% of summonses which were handed out by the NYPD were dismissed. This statistic is plainly ridiculous. Regardless of whether or not Police officers are given quotas, this enormous issuance of tickets is a blatant waste of time. Not only does it waste both officers’ and citizens’ time, but it breeds distrust and resentment toward police in general.
The Voice article also highlights the fact that police from the 81st precinct were forced to basically clear the streets of people. Whether people were given summons, or simply brought to the station and later let go, these wrongfully treated citizens are, again, building resentment for the police force as a whole.
If citizens can’t look to police for stability, then who can they look to? While leaving class, I overheard students discussing their acceptance and trust in relation to Firefighters. I believe this is due to the fact that Firefighters are generally thought of as protectors of the community as opposed to enforcers.
I found this article about the usage of Firefighters to help patrol high crime areas. There are differing points of view concerning this arrangement. It can be said that Firefighters are untrained and ill-equipped to deal with crime prevention. On the other hand, the mere presence of Firefighters can help to prevent crime. Problems are often exacerbated by a Police presence, whereas a Firefighter presence may be advantageous in preventing problems.
Government’s new mechanism of surveillance
Few days ago a friend of mine added this article on Facebook. It talks about the new legislation that makes internet providers to create and store users’ profiles, that include information like credit card numbers and browsing history.
The bill was passed under disguise of protection children from internet pornography, but in reality it is a way of policing internet users. Just the way foot patrol was introduced into neighborhoods for the good reason of protecting community, but ended up to be a surveillance mechanism.
This bill is extension of our debates on how much surveillance is appropriate and on how much we allow government to interfere in our private life. It seems like government takes more and more steps towards tracking individuals. It resonates with the argument of societies of control. Control, unlike discipline, doesn’t require enclosed buildings to limit people’s ability to move in space, in fact, it doesn’t need to to do that, instead it only needs to know where every given individual is at the given time.
The bill discussed above, gives government opportunity to track our location in internet space. State acquires precious tracking mechanism of the space that becomes increasingly important in our society. Many of us spend as much time in online world as in the physical one and many do so because they can escape mechanisms of control. Well, I guess there are less chances to do so now.
Searching For Illness
It may not be brain scans, but it seems just as ridiculous. Jared Loughner, the man behind the January 8th shootings in Arizona that left 6 dead and 13 injured, is seeking the insanity plea in order to avoid trial. In May, he was ruled mentally incompetent to stand trial and was placed in a psych ward, and now his lawyers are seeking a similar decision. In order to establish this, they have taken to digging deep into the lives of Mr. Loughner’s ancestors. They have subpoenaed the records of 22 of his relatives, dating back to 1893. Although two psychiatrists have diagnosed Mr. Loughner with schizophrenia, it would help the insanity plea if it could be established that mental illness runs in the Loughner family.
I have no issues with someone using the insanity plea. If someone is suffering from mental illness, a distinction should be made in their sentencing (ie. psych ward vs. prison). It seems to be a fact that Mr. Loughner has a troubled past, and from the media coverage it seems that he does in fact suffer from schizophrenia. However, I completely disagree with the use of deceased people’s medical records to prove mental illness in the family. It just seems too farfetched. I understand that mental illness is a viable defense in a criminal case but this just seems unnecessary and a violation of privacy. In the article, a law professor from Vanderbilt actually mentions that this is the most effective way of proving mental illness aside from having a “brain scan showing mental defect.” I think this is quite ironic being that both these options, in my opinion, are anything but effective.
The Dangers of Using High Tech Facial Recognition Software to Catch Criminals
In light of the rioting in London, British police have been using CCTV in combination with facial-recognition software footage in order to identify and separate the criminal elements in the crowd. The article goes on to speculates on the need of creating a database for “confirmed” faces (primarily faces that can be linked to an identity). The article even illuminates the issue of quality control and some of the problems that lighting, distance, and clarity plays in distorting and inevitably making it harder to match. With facial recognition technology commonly found in television and movies unavailable, combined with the likely chance to misidentify individual (which could also be used to benefit criminals); it seems that British officials have the daunting task ahead of them. Also police fear that people who resemble rioters (solely the images) may be in danger by vigilante groups (which introduces certain notions of stigma).In the end the article alludes to the social media such as Facebook (750 million users) and its database, and the potential it may have for law enforcement if they were to be exploited.
Its relevance speaks to me in the article we read called “A means of Surveillance: The photograph as evidence in law”. It describes the insertion of the photograph gradually into institutions such as the police apparatus and its connection to power. The photograph or surveillance footage in the article’s case has the power (in conjunction with police power) to incriminate, or identify to the jury a person to the site of a “crime” or act of deviancy.
