Author: n.bousaeed

Tupac as an individual seems very grounded in his thoughts towards his community. When he first started off in the eye of social media, he really preached against rich people. He never said that people shouldn’t have money, but that they shouldn’t have the right to blow it carelessly. He makes an important point that no man should have multiple houses if there are still people living on the streets , or no man should have multiple cars if there are still people starving. I think this makes so much sense, it is upsetting that people are not only selfish, but when they are drowning in money they don’t remember how it felt to have nothing at all. It was very respectable for Tupac to say stuff like that but when it came to actually following through, he fell short. He came to a point where he had a lot of money but his feud with Notorious B.I.G distracted him from the original message he was preaching. Even his rap lyrics began gradually changing as he became more involved in the feud and more known in the public eye. Its interesting the New Yorker, they talk about the older Tupac not being the “real” Tupac. He was in an out of jail, on and off probation, and in general his childhood was not only depressing but heavily impacted him as an adult and shaped the type of characteristics he held. Another aspect that led to his death was the East Cost – West Cost drama. It was originally only a verbal feud and then it turned into an aggression. I think at the end Tupac was involved in so many different events, whether it was how he was raised or what he participated in when he was older, that led to him being killed at a young age.

Reading the series of events leading up to the actual killing of the other person was quite chilling. The biggest thing for me was that there was no emotion in these little girls. It was like a robot was telling me the story and describing to me how something so horrific could be done without a shred of remorse. At first I thought that Anissa was going to be the victim considering that Morgan and Bella were friends for a longer period of time. It wasn’t even stressed in the article that the girls had issues growing up. Therefore, the fact that they would commit murder for an imaginative figure was shocking. Even the way they were arrested was interesting because they didn’t really run. They weren’t planning on escaping law enforcement, they were just wandering until the “Slender Man” was going to pick them up.

Honestly, its hard for me to react to a murder case like this because I’m shocked in general and I don’t know how I could even react. I don’t even feel bad for Morgan and Anissa because they fully believed in everything that they were doing. I’m not sure if they should’ve been tried as adults because even though they knew the difference between their imagination and real life, they might not have fully been able to process consequences. On the other hand, morally, I don’t think there is any excuse for knowing that shoving a knife in their friend is wrong and illegal. Also, not to judge a book by its cover but when I got to the part of their mugshots, they literally look like little psychopaths. These girls don’t have any emotion neither do they pretend to act like they do. Furthermore, throughout the whole interrogation process, their so bland and don’t seem to regret anything let alone care about Bella.

The McMartin preschool trial took place in the 1980s and was prosecuted by a Los Angeles District Attorney. Members of the McMartin family who were in charge of running the preschool were charged with sexual acts against a group of children who were supposed to be in their care. This was the longest and most expensive trial in American history, after six years of criminal trials no one was actually convicted and the charges were dropped. The accusations alone caused a moral panic amongst parent and people in the community. It all started with one mother saying that her son was having nightmares, and trouble sleeping at night. From that point the chargers and victims kept growing. Most of allegations were made at CII (a child abuse prevention center). Puppets were used to encourage the kids to reveal what happened. I think that it was just a confusion between emotions, facts, and lack of realization that the victims were little kids. One of the first accusations was made by a mother who was later found to be psychotic. Likewise, law enforcement later sent out a letter to parents, directing them to question their children and try and see if they come up with any evidence. This itself is worrying because if each parent is questioning their child, their emotionally involved, which means that they are speaking to their kids with an underlying tone of suggestion. As they continue to urge their children to tell them something about whats happening at the daycare, eventually any child would just break and say anything to be left alone. Even with all of this lack of hard evidence, police continued to push this case. I can’t even believe it lasted a total of six years and then the suspects were simply let off. It was as if everyone just kept going in circles and frighten for apparently no reason.

The Orenthal James Simpson Murder case was a turning point or “the crime of the century” because OJ was charged for two accounts of first degree murder. Initially, he was found innocent because the jury was convinced there was still reasonable doubt, and they should never condemn someone if there wasn’t concrete DNA evidence. It was allegedly claimed that the DNA evidence had been mishandled by the scientists. After the trial, the victims families’ filed a civil lawsuit against Simpson where he was found responsible for both deaths. Personally this case made my head spin. There were so many different aspects and perspectives to it that it was hard to make a decision solely based on the facts. I don’t know what I would have done if I was part of the jury. There was so much emotion and controversy involved throughout the whole trial. There was a celebrity aspect to OJ because no one wanted to believe that someone like him could be a murderer. Likewise, his lawyers were constantly bringing up random previous incidents about racial slurs in other situations. Its understandable to feel a certain emotion about the racism in previous court cases. Its also important to acknowledge that this type of negativity could impact a verdict especially when there is a certain level of hatred towards one side, party, or race. Personally I feel like the media didn’t even clear anything up, they just fueled more fury between both sides. Its one thing to get people thinking about the situation or urging them to voice their opinions, but its a completely different thing to spark straight up controversy and aggravate the public. As much as I’ve tried to rationalize the case myself, every time I  get convinced about OJ being guilty or not, I rethink my opinion because of the media.

By definition, a riot is a disturbance of peace between people by a crowd. Riots are rarely spontaneous, they usually have been thought about for a while before actually being carried out. In other words, its the effect of a culmination of underlying tension between people. It also doesn’t have to be from one event, but rather a common theme between many events that have been previously causing furry in society. The attention being drawn to these rioters is technically negative but civilians are meant to look at the cause of the riots, not what is physically being done. Its not a simple opportunity to vandalize, but they’re effects of genuine anger.

“All of these politicians that get completely overwhelmed and outraged from this level of chaos in their cities during these upheavals seem surprised. Yet … the origins of the upheaval are very much in their control.” Heather Ann Thompson raises a very important point because politicians shouldn’t be complaining if they’re position is specifically meant to listen to the people they represent. What could they possibly expect other than for people to react negatively when their thoughts aren’t heard. You can only suppress people for so long until they finally snap. One example in this article is Charlotte and Baltimore. It took a course of years before they finally rose up and fought back. Its simply just excessive anger towards police, the justice system, politicians, or anyone in charge who doesn’t want to make a difference or uses their power for selfish or wrong reasons. Specifically in Baltimore, locals complained to media (in hopes that their thoughts would be heard), has peaceful protests, and filed lawsuits. Their attempts were constantly leading to dead ends. What other way could they react that would be quick and straight to the point.

“Central Park Five” is a documentary that was directed by Ken Burns. This film shows society the story of 5 teenagers that were wrongfully accused, persecuted, and jailed for almost their whole adolescent to adult life. It all started in 1989 when Trisha Melli was attacked and raped in Central Park at night. When arriving to the crime scene, police didn’t find much evidence (at that specific time). Originally every case starts with a suspect list that gets narrowed down to the actual criminal. Who would’ve thought that Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, Korey Wise, and Yusef Salaam would be convicted based off of no evidence. It was as if police had no other leads and decided to pressure young, unknowledgeable boys into confessing. The confession itself was deceiving because they were under the impression that by confessing to something, anything, they individually would be released. Plant these thoughts into any wrongfully accused, unaware teenage boy, you’ll get them to sign and say anything. Im not entirely sure how they were jailed simply based on a confession that didn’t even match between the five of them. They ended up serving their full roles, until another man Matias Reyes confessed. He is a serial rapist who’s DNA matches the one at the crime scene. Its so interesting to see how media and influence plays a role in law enforcement. Its still mind boggling to see that the police force would go for a suspect that “fits the description” of a criminal instead of actually trying to make society safer and looking for the actual criminal. On top of everything, race plays a role in convicting felons because instead of leading an investigation with matching DNA to evidence, police lead with ‘instinct’ and who looks like they fit the description of the crime.

Its always interesting to watch a documentary about a trial because it feels like your trying to solve the case yourself before the documentary tells you the final verdict. Specifically in this case I was bouncing back and forth between my own opinions because I kept changing my mind. In the initial description of the crime, the 911 phone call, the pictures of the body, and the condition of the house… I was so sure that the son and his friend committed the crime. As soon as their pictures were introduced to the equation it was an instant change of opinion. I couldn’t believe (based on their looks) that they could do something so cruel.

While finding out more about the case, it was mainly a bubble of assumptions made about Rafay and Burns and why they are the perfect criminals. Instead of looking at evidence and figuring out what could’ve been a motive, they did the opposite. The detectives first made Rafay and Burns the best suspects. Following that they only paid attention to the “most important evidence” which was basically the evidence pointing to the boys. It was very hard to determine whether the boys being guilty was a mistake or not. Based on the documentary, it was as if the police through every piece of evidence at them. Likewise, they didn’t look into other possible suspects or take anyone seriously when they proposed for another investigation to be carried out.

Overall, I still wouldn’t know who committed these murders just because the trial itself was all about persuasion, who told the best story, and who appeared to have the most incentive. Even when putting myself in Rafay and Burns’ shoes, I don’t think I would’ve caved if I was innocent, but then again there was so much pressure being put on the situation that maybe they felt like they had no other choice.

By definition rape is forcibly carrying out sexual activity against an individual without their consent. It usually involves physically harming the victim in the process. Rape is almost always done to female victims and the descriptions of the reports, in my opinion, are somewhat insulting for the victim. Even though in this day and age women can “wear or act however they want” its not completely true because people still unintentionally go back to the mentality from older time periods. In most of the rape cases or stories, the description of the woman herself is included (sometimes for an underlying affect on public when it comes down to trying to figure out an incentive for the crime). It may not only be for context, but it includes her attire as if whatever her choice of clothing was, made it a reason why she was raped. In the end, the guilty party is the one at fault. People make the assumption that covering yourself, or making sure you don’t draw attention to yourself, or if you don’t wear gaudy attire… nothing would happen to you. In reality these sex offenders are just sick people who choose whoever they want. In their minds a pretty girl will always differ from case to case and we can’t stick a label on rape victims. Throughout Didion’s writing, many cases were included and the victims not only varied in looks, but also age, race, occupation…etc. How could it be justifiable for people to say that an eight year old drew attention to herself the same way a grown woman did. Overall, based on the compilation of cases the rapists end up talking about the actions they completed and how it all went down. Rarely do we get to hear why they did it and how they feel getting caught or even whether they feel guilt.

The way that this essay started quickly made me feel a connection with the writer. It was more than an initial understanding about what was being said, rather, I agreed with her perception about drawing conclusions when first meeting someone. I actually was able to visualize an instance when I underwent the same emotions and series of observations.

First impressions can’t even be truly accurate because people usually tend to show their different sides depending on whose surrounding them. The idea of ‘judging a book by its cover’ is interesting because in one aspect people can be viewed as hypocrites when they claim to fully follow this phrase. Its inevitable for us to “judge” someone or something at any given time, whether its the first time or on a different occasion. We naturally have the tendency to observe people and draw conclusions whether they are always right at first or not.

We also need to take into account whether we are judging a physical person that is in front us or if we are looking at their posts (basically what they choose to show is from their social media). In my opinion social media may be an accurate depiction of one event but not about the whole person. They usually are only showing us what they think is the best or most praise worthy or most interesting parts of their lives. Even the quantity or relevance of your followers reflects on how one would interact with them. Its very common that a large percentage of followers are acquaintances or friends of friends or maybe even strangers. Social media opens the door for people to “follow” what your doing but probably haven’t or would never come up to you in person and actually introduce themselves. Overall, there are many instances and ways that Caroll’s essay addresses the different aspects of first impressions, but ‘judging a book by its cover’ seems most relevant to me.

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