YOU`LL NEVER DINNER THE SAME WAY! FOOC INC

Posted on August 19, 2011 by chongping.zhao

http://www.foodincmovie.com/

Food, Inc. is a documentary about the state of the food industry within the United States. Food is cheaper and more abundant than it has ever been, we could buy one-dollar-burger from fast food restaurant while the food, espectially vegetable in the supermarket are cost far more than a burger We have detached ourselves from how food ends up on our plates. Food is marketed to us as if it comes from a little farm with a white fence and rolling hills, but this is simply an illusion. The food actually comes from mega factory farms: It is no longer feed cattle but produce it. Our society has cheaper food but there have been more E. coli outbreaks in the past twenty years than ever before ,and obesity and the rate of diabetes are through the roof.

It is impressive that one of the walmart manager says “we sell what comsumer want”, if comsumers want cheap food, the corporation would”produce” food in cheap ways, and it is true today. Although comsumer pay much less for food, they are also paying for the hidden price tage which could cost them more.

Posted in Uncategorized | 16 Comments

Swastika Branding

Posted on August 19, 2011 by robert.rahmanian

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/08/new-mexico-hate-crime-guilty-pleas.html

Two men have been charged with branding an individual with a Swastika sign and now face up to 8 years in federal prison. Back in 2009, Paul Beebe and Jesse Sanford, decided it would be a good idea to go to New Mexico and assault a disabled man of Navajo decent. They then went ahead and used a hanger to brand the disabled man with a Swastika. At this point they have pleaded guilty and are rightfully on there way to jail.

I find this topic to be very disturbing and feel an example should be made of these guys. I have many family members and friends that are Holocaust survivors and I don’t take any Nazi activity lightly. Being of Jewish decent, and learning about the Holocaust has lead me to believe these men are monsters and branding is the least you have to worry about when there on the streets. The part that bothers me the most is that other Neo-Nazi’s and racist will look at these 2 guys as hero’s and it may be the catalyst to the next racially influenced attack. It makes me sick that there are still ignorant assholes like these guys in the world and I hope they get assaulted in jail.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged racism | 12 Comments

Is Race to Blame?

Posted on August 19, 2011 by robert.rahmanian

The Australian government has come out with a report that claims racism is NOT the main motive in the ever increasing attacks on foreign students. Australia’s Institute of Criminology believe the attacks are solely related to “opportunistic criminals” who prey on foreign students who work late hours and take public transportation when getting out of work. However, critics strongly believe racism is the driving factor in these violent attacks.

If you ask me, I believe these incidents are occurring because of both racism and factors such as being in the wrong place most of the time. Students from India seem to be targeted the hardest and Australian government attributes this to hours they take public transportation. Here’s an excerpt from the article that summarizes their view:

‘“A lot of the robberies that we have seen that have contributed to their over-representation appear to be linked to the fact that they are working in industries that are trading late at night, that potentially have lower levels of security, which arguably are those that are traditionally targeted by robbers irrespective of racial motivation,” said Jason Payne, the research manager at the Violence and Serious Crime Monitoring Program at the Institute of Criminology in Canberra. “There was also a double in the rate of robberies against students from an Indian background that occurred in locations like service stations, late-night trading convenience stores and in taxis or in and around taxi ranks.”’

While some of these facts are indisputable I would argue that race still plays a role. Jesse Marshall, the president of Australia’s National Union of Students, makes a great argument by saying:

“When you have got Indian international students three times more likely than American international students to be assaulted on or near public transport, how can you say the color of that student’s skin has not had anything to do with the fact that they have been assaulted.”

I find this argument the strongest and believe racism is the stronger driving force.

Posted in Assignment 4 | Comments Off

Graffiti: A democratic art form

Posted on August 19, 2011 by laura.szymanski

I found the discussion in class yesterday about graffiti and its relation to the “Broken Windows Theory” interesting, so I decided to do some research on the topic. I found an extremely interesting article from The New York Times called “A Sociologist’s Look at Graffiti” by Sewell Chan.

George Snyder, a Baruch Sociologist basically acts as a cultural anthropologist and does some ethnography on graffiti writers, hanging out with them, getting to know them and understand them. Snyder believes “graffiti writers are a subculture that use their own experiences to build legitimate careers and are not practitioners of vandalism and social disorder”.

However, Rudolph Giuliani and police commissioner, Raymond Kelly would disagree with Snyder. Giuliani had embraced the idea of the “Broken Windows Theory” and created the “Quality of Life” campaign in order to try and gain urban stability in the 1990’s. The “Quality of Life” was designed to threaten and bully people with massive police force. Giuliani and Kelly sought to fight petty crimes and issue things like “C summonses” which we have seen still occurs today from “The NYPD Tapes”. Graffiti was a sign of disorder to Giuliani and the police force that must be dealt with and controlled.

However, Snyder points out that “unlike other “Quality of Life” crimes, graffiti does not tend to be focused in poor neighborhoods with high rates of violent crime”. He explains that graffiti writers want to write in places that will be seen like in the Lower East Side and SoHo. He says that these are the places that have the most graffiti and they are not poor areas with a lot of crime.

Snyder met with graffiti writer, Espo in 1996 who created a billboard in Williamsburg, Brooklyn aimed at Giuliani which reads, “Greetings from EspoLand, Where the Quality of Life is Offensive”.

Espo whose real name is Stephen Powers, became well known and store owners would ask him to paint their store fronts. He also worked with The New York Times and eventually was arrested by the Giuliani administration for previous illegal writings. I also found a short documentary of Espo and other writers, and Espo states that he painted commercial gates and he considered it to be “an active public service”. I found that interesting because he did honestly make the gates look better and store owners did eventually recognize that.

Synder says, “In its purest form graffiti is a democratic art form that revels in the American Dream”. I agree with this statement because graffiti is truly freedom of one’s expression and is not regulated by the government or corporate. I believe this is why Giuliani and many others despise graffiti because it scares them and they don’t want radical ideas floating around into the masses head or they simply just cant recognize and enjoy the natural beauty of an urban art. I believe graffiti artists are extremely talented, genuine and sincere and I believe most of these drawings and paintings scream the truth about politics and freedom in America.

If interested in graffiti and art in general, I recommend watching these two documentaries: “Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child” and “Exit Through the Gift Shop”.

Posted in Assignment 5 | Tagged Broken Windows Theory, Graffiti, The Quality of Life Campaign | 17 Comments

Brain scans reveal the criminal mind

Posted on August 19, 2011 by ricardo.ledan

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41896386/ns/health-mental_health/t/brain-scans-reveal-criminal-mind/

The article starts off by stating that there is a difference (that can be seen in physical terms) between “normal” human brains and that of the illusive “Criminal Mind”. Illusive in the sense that since Lombroso, criminal theorists have tried time again, to find the necessary difference in biology that creates the propensities and recidivism in some, as well as the apparent absence in the majority (deviancy). The article uses the example of people who are diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder and specifically the size and growth patterns of their amygdala. It also states that there is also differences in behavior between deviants and normal people through measuring fear response. It even goes into the ethical issues that arise, such questions as:”What to do with at-risk children and by what method”. It also affects the law, because one can easily argue that since they are compromised individuals (elements of Goffman’s stigma) they are not responsible for their actions; but we can relegate this argument to a slippery slope argument.

In the article “The Brain on the Stand” that we discussed in class, we again revisit some of Lombroso’s legacy the same search for the biological criminality, but by different methods; that of the f.M.R.I. and neuroscience. And like the article above it also ponders the question of the problem of holding people accountable for their predispositions (if the criminal biology exists in a somewhat meaningful form) rather then their actions, as codified by the Anglo-American principles of jurisprudence. Both articles echo each other in content but, the article in class gives us a much more complementary experience (incorporating Lombroso into the discussion).

Posted in Assignment 4 | Tagged brain, criminal mind, Lombroso | 105 Comments

Can new technology predict and prevent crimes?

Posted on August 19, 2011 by nancy.murphy

New technology, seen here, is allowing police precincts to use computers in order to predict, where and when crime will occur in certain neighborhoods. The Santa Cruz police department recently invested in software that uses a complicated algorithm that has all the data of crime from the last eight years. This technology is able to pinpoint crime hotspots, since it also takes into account the time of year, the time of day and even the weather. The program was created by a mathematician and an anthropologist (not a criminologist interestingly) and based it on earthquake shock waves. According to the article “A specific crime is broken down to the two most likely chunks of time it will probably occur, say noon to 1 p.m. or 4 to 5 p.m., so if an officer is working during that time, he or she knows to check that area” . This new piece of equipment may be very helpful for precincts that are strapped for cash and lacking policing staff. Apparently, the crime tracking data seems to be working and the algorithm has already correctly predicted 40 percent of crimes and had led to five arrests. Furthermore, Police said burglaries were down 27 percent in July compared to the same month last year. The technology also has led to officers questioning people merely for being in a hot spot. While I think this is a good idea, it definitely seems to have its flaws. No technology can truly predict what a person is going to do. I also would question if these statistics were manipulated to justify the cost of inputting the system.

Posted in Assignment 5 | Tagged crime prevention, policing | 137 Comments

Border States Deal With More Illegal Immigrant Crime Than Most, Data Suggest Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/04/29/border-states-dealing-illegal-immigrant-crime-data-suggests/#ixzz1VROX5drR

Posted on August 18, 2011 by ricardo.ledan

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/04/29/border-states-dealing-illegal-immigrant-crime-data-suggests/

Racist, intolerance, and downright unconstitutional, Arizona lawmakers have heard it all but they are sticking to their guns. Their new immigration enforcement law has been put in place to protect the border state of Arizona, from the rampant criminal activity that looms just over its border. Backed by studies and statistics they have come to the logical conclusion that a high number of criminals are actually in fact the illegal immigrants, bent on extending their operations. Critics argue that there is no significant correlation (or even possible to quantify accurately/beyond doubt) between criminal activity and illegal immigrants. In Illinois they found that the found illegal immigrants actually underrepresented in prison populations, but did find a significant number in Arizona and Texas (don’t even get me started on the many speculations as to why this occurs in these states). Despite the lack of evidence of a “crime wave” lawmakers are rallying behind their beliefs and waging war on the threat that illegals present. It is by no surprise that this article comes from Fox New’s brand, of “Fair and Balanced news” (I mean it in the most cynical and sarcastic way possible).

Bringing it back to our weekly discussions, we can connect this with the article “Why Homicide Has Increased in the United States” by Cesare Lombroso, and his beliefs on immigrants and their predisposition to degration, recidivism, and violence. Lombroso also presents “the State” as a guiding force that examines (identifies), and distribute their bodies (deportations, imprisonment) and we can connect that with some of the strategies that lawmakers use to aid in manipulating this group of people.

Posted in Assignment 1 | Tagged Arizona, immigration, Lombroso | 46 Comments

Hero turned Mobster

Posted on August 18, 2011 by ngolubin

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.

Posted in Assignment 5, Uncategorized | Tagged crime, Deviance | Comments Off

Punishing children

Posted on August 18, 2011 by ngolubin

After reading this article it was funny to me how the mother punished the little boy. All the little kid did was lie about misbehaving in school. I understand the mother is trying to implement the right morals and conduct on the boy but with hot sauce and a cold shower. Come on is the boy actually going to learn anything from that, I really doubt it. The boy is from Russia, your not going to teach this boy anything by squeezing hot sauce in his month and making him tell you that you lied. Coming from a Russia, you better have something better than that, that little kid is not going to learn anything. You got to come up with something better than that.

Funny thing is this story made Dr.Phil and now the mother is on trial. Yeah it is kinda harsh to do that to a little kid but putting somebody on trial for that, I wonder what kind of punishment the court is going to give her. You got all these lunatics on the lose in US and their worried about a mother that punishes her kid with hot sauce and a cold shower. Cold shower probably helped since his mouth was burning a bit. When this kid is going to grow up, he will definitely laugh about this. This just shows how some small deviance is taking out of proportion. I think US just tries to show how good their justice system is but it just shows how ridiculous it is.

Posted in Assignment 4, Uncategorized | Tagged Deviance | Comments Off

The Geneaology of Criminology