Put the Guns Down

Chicago is a beautiful and busy city. There is much to do and see in the city of Chicago. People are usually attracted to the food and the beautiful architecture. There are many positive upsides to this beautiful city but, the gun violence overlooks all of those upsides. Gun violence has been a major problem in Chicago for many years. Year after year, the violence in the streets of Chicago only seem to get worse.

There are too many illegal guns in the streets of Chicago. Majority of the guns used to commit these crimes are not registered. If gun laws were enforced, the percentage of murders and shootings in Chicago will most likely decrease. If guns become harder to retrieve, the amount of crimes committed with them will decrease. Because of the easy access to guns, they fall into the wrong hands. There have been multiple incidents where children of young ages have found guns in their households. Some of these children play with guns as if they were toys and have been killed because of the carelessness of some gun owners.

In order to fix America, people must begin with their own communities. If they do not try to better their surroundings first, they will make no progress with America. Gun control must be enforced in America. If this streak of gun violence continues, there will be no hope of bettering our environments.

"Tips" for Being An Unarmed Black Teen

Very recently, I read a short but profound article titled "Tips For Being An Unarmed Black Teen." The article was published by "The Onion," an American News Source. The title seems very straightforward, however, has a deeper meaning to racism in America.

The article begins by addressing riots raged in Ferguson,MO after the shooting death by police of an unarmed African-American. The article sarcastically gives tips on being an unarmed African-American in America that provide insight to the real problems America is facing with racism.

"Be sure not to pick up any object that could be perceived by a police officer as a firearm, such as a cell phone, food item, or nothing." This point in the article had me evaluate every Afrian-American shooting situation I could think of and reflect. Treyvon Martin had Skittles and was shot to death. Micheal Brown was unarmed when he was shot to death. The Onion's sarcastic argument "or nothing" should be taken literal today.

As the recent shootings in America have proved, there continues to be injustice done involving Americans of color. How can America be "the land of the free" when unarmed black boys are continuing to lose their lives?

Order v. Freedom

In our society, I believe that Arthur Miller was correct in stating that it is impossible to achieve a balance between the two paradoxical forces of order and freedom.  In our present day society, it can be seen clearly that freedom is valued more by individuals, while the government places heavy weight on the value of order.

A good example of the presence of the value of order in our society would be from some of the police conflicts that have appeared during the past year.  Even though many law enforcement altercations have provoked many civil disobediences in the past month, the conflicts actually exemplify the extent to which the government is willing to encroach on the freedoms of society and essentially the government's strong values of order.  These conflicts have led to the public's general distrust of our national government, which then leads to more civil disobedience and, in turn, a harsher instillation of order on the citizens of the country.

An illustration of how freedom is valued in our society could simply be the reaction to all the police brutality cases occurring right now.  In Ferguson, MO, people began looting and rioting in their town (which I personally believe gets their case nowhere), and others began protesting the acts of Officer Darren Wilson.  These are all signs that our society believes heavily in the value of freedom despite the opposing view of our government today.

In conclusion, Arthur Miller was correct in his statement, however I think he left out that although both of the paradoxical forces will never achieve a balance, they are still diametrically opposed and will have an ongoing conflict to achieve a greater presence in our society.

Insincere Apologies Mean Nothing

While I was scrolling through the New York Times Op-Ed page, I came across an article about some new developments in the Ferguson, MO case where the unarmed African American teenager Michael Brown was shot. This Op-Ed featured a video of the Chief of Police, Tom Jackson, making some type of apology to multiple people. There has been a lot of controversy around this case because some people think that this was a case of racism demonstrated by the white Ferguson police, much like the Zimmerman case in Florida a few years ago.

In the article that followed, Rosenthal (the author) brought up many good points about the abundance of flaws in the apology. I agreed with the majority of them. He talked about how weird the setting of the video was. It was filmed in front of an American Flag, and Jackson was wearing a golf shirt instead of his police uniform. I think that because he was not wearing his uniform the message felt more as if it was coming from a normal citizen which is not as powerful as coming from the police unit, where he could have acted as a representative of all the officers who did not properly handle the case. Another odd part of the apology which the author brought up was the timing of when he made the video. Brown was shot in early August of this year, and the apology is just happening. I think that this is an unreasonable amount of time to wait before apologizing for killing somebody and it gives the message a sense of insincerity.

I saw many aspects of the video which I thought he could have improved on, at least enough to make the message seem meaningful. He stood in front of the camera, looking almost bored the whole time and clearly had written out notes about what he was going to say. He held a paper in his hand and looked at it constantly, adding to the phony sense of his speech. I assume that this apology video is merely what he is forced to do to keep his job, and if he really wants to make anything better, he should make a genuine statement of regret, rather than an unfelt one which hardly makes the situation any better.

Who's Policing the Police?

In light of recent events in Ferguson and New York, it is impossible to go on without addressing the current state that America is in, and more specifically the state of our police. Last month, in a small town named Ferguson in the state of Missouri, we, as the American people, witnessed one of our own towns turn into a police state and put under martial law.

Understand the gravity of this: we are in 2014, the average teenager carries a device more powerful than things that the US has sent into space, we are observing possibilities of human life on other planets; and innocent citizens are being tear-gassed by the police that are paid to protect them. Do not be confused, this is not an essay on what happened in Ferguson, it is much bigger than that. It is an essay on trying to prevent what happened in Ferguson from ever happening again.

Eric Garner, a 43 year old father living in New York, was murdered by the police on July 17, 2014; exactly 2 months before this essay was written. I am not using the word murder lightly, there is no bias here, the death of Eric Garner was ruled a homicide by the city medical examiner. On this fateful summer day, Eric Garner was put into a chokehold by the NYPD, which would eventually render him unable to breathe and therefore causing his death. Not to mention the use of the chokehold by NYPD officers has been banned for over twenty years, yet no criminal charges have been brought against the officer involved. As a part of the general American public, I can say with almost complete certainty that we would have not known about this happening had it not been for those in the crowd who quickly thought to reach for their camera phones.

Ferguson, the hashtag literally heard around the world, is the town where 18 year old Michael Brown was killed this summer. From the start, the details surrounding the killing of Michael Brown are hazy. The story told by the police officer who shot Brown, Darren Wilson, has almost no congruences to the story told by the only eyewitness, who was a friend of Michael and was involved in the altercation. The results determined by medical examiners went completely against what the officer reported as of happening, but in court I guess it’s only the cop’s word against a pile of evidence, an eyewitness account, and the laws of physics. The murder of this innocent teen lead to protests in Ferguson the very next day, and soon after cops absolutely filled the streets for the following days. During one of the protests  a small percentage of people saw this as an opportunity for personal gain. There were short bursts of looting that were in contrast to the large number of peaceful protests that had been held before and were still being held at the time. Also, a local gas station named the Quik-Trip was burned down. This is the gas station that Brown had been accused of robbing by the resident Chief of Police days after Michael Brown’s death. A claim that was incredibly soon after disproved by the limitations of the human body and the speeds it is capable of reaching.  Then the SWAT team was sent in and an American town was officially occupied. Citizens were tear-gassed and shot with projectiles non-lethal projectiles ranging from large wooden bullets to bean bags, people were unjustly arrested, and amendments were stripped away without any sanction to do so (a sanction that does not exist seeing as these are amendments).  Yet even still, Darren Wilson walks as a free man. Our country cannot continue going on with a police force that is policing itself, and doling out the most tender of wrist slaps to their own bad behavior.

The solution is simple and became painfully apparent after the events in Ferguson a few weeks ago: film the police. Get police to wear body cameras, but not just regular police, but SWAT, state troopers, and any other enforcer of the law with the power to carry a weapon. If the government won’t step in and better watch over our nation’s police force, then someone has to. Police being forced to wear body cameras eliminates so much of the ambiguity in such instances and provides hard evidence of what actually occurred in any case. There is nothing we can do to undo the murders of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Oscar Grant, John Crawford III, Sean Bell, Ezell Ford, and too many others, but what we can do is try to prevent it from happening again.  Know your rights and work for change.

Racial Discrimination is Still Alive and Well

When many of us, including myself at times, think of racial discrimination, we tend to think back to the Civil Rights movement when Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. We like to think of the Civil Rights Movement of 1964 when racial discrimination was “outlawed” (whatever that means). Many people look at this momentous occasion and view it as a major achievement for colored people. Although I will not disagree with the previous statement, the fact is simply that the different forms of discrimination (social, economic, institutional, etc.) are all psychological issues, and therefore, cannot be easily resolved by a mere piece of legislation. Several recent events that have occurred in the United States over the last few years have led me to this conclusion.

The most recent event that most of us have at least heard about are the events that are still occurring in Ferguson, MO. To sum it up for those who have not heard, recently, a young black teeneger named Michael Brown was shot and killed by Darren Wilson, a local law enforcement officer. The significance of this event is that Brown was unarmed at the time of the shooting and many are questioning Wilson’s rationale behind shooting the young man. The event has sparked riots, protest, and looting throughout the local area and many are calling for justice in the situation. To be fair, I have no idea if Wilson was actually using selective profiling and shot Brown simply because he was African-American. Maybe there was justification for shooting Brown, however, even the fact that a large portion of the community believes that Wilson should be charged as a criminal shows that racial discrimination is still quite visible in the world today.

In addition to the events that occurred in Ferguson, MO, there was another incident that occurred a little over two years ago that most have heard of by now. The case of Trayvon Martin is still very much controversial today, mainly due to the outcome of the case itself. On February 26, 2012, Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by George Zimmerman in the gated community that Martin was living in at the time. Like Brown, Martin was unarmed. The details in this case are a little more well known due to the amount of time that has passed since the incident. George Zimmerman was acquitted of all charges because of Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law, however many believe this was the right decision as it does follow the passed legislation.

It’s obvious that the two incidents shared many different aspects, which makes it easier to see that racial discrimination could have played a factor in the outcomes of the events. Clearly, racial discrimination has not been eradicated by the Civil Rights Movement or even by time, it just exists in different and generally more subtle forms.

The Truth About Cop Comedies

The role of the American Police System is pertinent to modern day America as pressing issues involving our society often get crossed with Police intervention. The movie trailer, “Let’s Be Cops” is about two ordinary young men who take a Halloween costume and turn it into an occupation. The trailer “Let’s Be Cops” breaks down stereotypes that society has of the Police, by showcasing what society wants the Police to look like. For example, the “Cops” in the movie engage in smoking and the consumption of alcohol, which can lead to legal trouble. They also address the stereotype that the Police are lazy, and contribute nothing by depicted scenes where the Cops are always on the job. Another stereotype about the Police is that they act in accordance to their own personal interests or under their own motives. This is shown in the movie trailer as the Cops choose only to respond to emergency calls that particularly interest them, such as helping a damsel in distress. The way that Cops are portrayed in the movie trailer for the film, “Let’s Be Cops”, exposes the stereotypes of the American Police system by showing what society desires the system to be. Another example of the way that society views the Police system is the movie 21 Jump Street. The cops in that movie are undercover high school students trying to bust a covert drug ring. They, as well as the "cops" in "Let's Be Cops" consume drugs in an "attempt" to take down the ring. These repeating occurrences show that society does not want the Police to intervene with the use of drugs and or alcohol. Comedies about the American Police department satirize the system of Police established in our country today by exposing false truths and promoting other ideologies.

Crash is the ugly truth

Crash is a movie about racism in modern LA. It shows the truth about how we all think about someones past, true or not to judge how we are going to communicate. The movie is about many different people of different races and class, all show how they are affected by racism and all show how they play into the racist without even meaning to. It plays into all the racist stereotypes; Hispanic maid, African American criminal, white racist cop, Indian convenient store owner and many more. They all have conflicts between each other, first half of the movie you'll like half of them and hate the others but then you will change your mind about both.



The truth to it is that many people have racism put upon then but wont do anything about it or will go to the extreme about it. Peoples best intentions are to have everything ok, but there is a long chain of revenge that carries over to the next person to act a certain way to someone. Its always best for people to remember that everyone has a story and to be mindful of it or respect it. I am sure that most cruel or horrifying stories of racist crimes were showing how a racist cop killed or beat a black man but what stories wont tell you is why he may of done it. That cop may have had something on his mind or something that happened to him for his mind to tell him that this man is the reasoning for that. If its the other way around such as a man shooting a cop you would here that he was trying to get away with something but there is probably more than that. Like a man having on his mind that one cop has murdered my friend or family member and this cop must be like that one cop and I am next. The whole point of this movie was to show everyone that all races could live together and all be safe.