Clockers: Murder and Kid Tyrone Shorty

Little Murders written by Jules Feiffer in 1969 is unlike any other play of its’ time. Originally written as a comedy and produced on Broadway it has since then been reproduced many times with all sorts of twists. Little Murders is set in New York City in the middle of a crime spree in the 1960’s. The two main characters both are apart of a dysfunctional couple. Patsy Newquist and Alfred Chamberlin have somewhat reversed gender roles. Patsy, like her family, is eccentric. At this time in New York City people are being mugged and killed everyday, they fear for their lives. Several times throughout the play the Newquist family hears gunshots just outside their apartment.

The Killer at Thurston High, discussed a teenager named Kip who experienced psychological, emotional, and peer stress in early childhood. Violent and disturbing outburst was often a result of his actions, causing catastrophic traumas to his community and family. The film goes into depth explaining the relationship of Kip’s immediate family and his individual characteristics. The Kinkel family was well known, sophisticated and quite until violence struck.

Fifteen year old Conrad Clark just came home from basketball practice where he was absolutely exhausted. He is the best player on his undefeated school basketball team. He lives with just his mom and only sibling Thomas after his father had recently been murdered by an unknown killer. As he approached the front door of his massive three story mansion located basically in the middle of nowhere surrounded by a lake and lots of wildlife, a gut punching feeling went through his body. He was remembering what had happened before he left for practice. He got in a huge fight with his mom about his grades in school, and was regretting some of the things he said. He goes through the front door and goes up to his bedroom on the third story. He lays down on his bed and he sees a note telling him that his mom and Thomas, are at a party and will be gone all night. He puts the note down and closes his eyes. About forty five minutes later he wakes up to his alarm going off. He turns off the alarm clock reading 10:30 p.m and is wondering why his alarm went off for no reason. He lets it go past him and goes down to the first floor and turns the television on. He turns on his favorite show, Criminal Minds, when Bang! At that moment Conrad knew that something bad

This week we were asked to watch a movie called My Cousin Vinny and compare this to the actual Criminal Justice System. I want to start off by saying the portrayal of the Criminal Justice System was much different than what we see it in real life. I really enjoyed the comedy that was displayed around it. The movie was based around two teenagers who were suspected of murdering a gas station attendant. This movie takes place in Alabama.

The online documentary filmed by Frontline, The Killer at Thurston High, goes into the life of Kip Kinkel, leading up to him killing his parents, two fellow classmates and injuring 25 more. This film examines Kip Kinkel’s life, looking for clues that lead to him committing this mass murder. Areas that were explored such as his upbringing, social life, his hobbies, and events that led him to seeing a psychologist for depression. All of these areas that the documentary covered show a gradual, consistent build up in concerning behavior. This documentary shows that there were precursors leading up to these tragic events like the Thurston High shooting and the list of troubling behavior that can lead to this.

The film “Murder on a Sunday Morning” is a documentary on the murder of Mary Ann Stephens. This murder took place on May 7, 2000, in Jacksonville, Florida. Mary Anne Stephens was at the Ramada hotel with her husband when a dark male wearing a dark shirt, shorts, and a flat brim hat approached her and demanded for her purse. Within 5 seconds she was shot in the face by the bridge of her nose and killed. It was later that day hat Brenton Butler was stopped by police and identified by husband of Mary Anne Stephens. Brenton Butler was taken into custody where he remained for the next six months facing charges of murder in the first degree and armed robbery. Through evidence such as the clothes Brenton was wearing on the day of the murder, an alibi of going to blockbuster to hand in an application, and lack of forensic testing, Brenton was found not guilty in the case of Florida v. Brenton Leonard Butler after the jury convened for forty-five minutes on the twenty-first of November in 2000. The Jacksonville grand jury also decided not to file criminal charged against the three officers. After the case on March 12, 2001 the forensics department retrieved the purse to process all parts of it to find fingerprints matching to Juan Curtis who admitted to shooting Mary Ann Stephens. The Butler family planed to sue the sheriffs officers in an $8.5 million civil rights lawsuit.

The Westies were an Irish neighborhood mob based in Hell’s Kitchen. While the Westside gang developed from the criminal efforts of Mickey Spillane in the 1960s, they became the Westies under the leadership of James Coonan, who usurped the position immediately before Spillane’s murder in 1977. Under Coonan, the Westies became the brutal enforcement tool of the Gambino crime family, and began to fall apart after the members began turning on one another in the late 1980s.

Throughout our time in literature we have read poetry, short stories, and watched plays. As we did this we were able to break down the key components of each literature piece, by getting deep into the stories and poems and plays and finding the real meaning and background of them. We were able to figure out all the themes, plots , more on the character’s personalities. As we read these literature pieces i have noticed a lot of the works themes are the same. About love or death and racism. But all those themes are a real reality to today’s world.

The murder case of Lennie Smalls is currently deeply being further investigated. High speculations grow of George Milton intentionally murdering him counted as 1st degree murder or proven innocent as mercy killing. 1st degree murder is also known as unlawful,planned killing meaning a murder was committed after planning or lying in wait for the killing to begin. Mercy killing (also known as euthanasia) is when someone legally kills someone because the person that is getting killed thinks it’s their best interest to relieve their agony and to end their terminal, irremediable condition.

Since the capture of Daley and the burning of Hall's old home, Ben Hall's whereabouts were continuing to frustrate Sir Frederick Pottinger, who was throwing all of his resources into finding Ben Hall's haunts, gleaning any information, no matter how insignificant. The last report of Hall was in company with Susan Pryor, who it would seem was escorted to the Fish River district were the gang through Gilbert had friends and family and where Susan Pryor and the child could reside in the short term or may even have moved possibly further north to Wellington, as Mary's birth was believed to have been registered there in late March 1863, after which Susan returned to Lambing Flat. Pottinger undaunted was once more on the trail and sent this telegram

The first thing that caught my attention was how unprofessional the two Newark Police Officers in the patrol car were while on duty. I did not find it appropriate to be smoking cigars or cursing at the citizens they were trying to detain for absolutely no reason. Furthermore, it was a bit unsettling to hear them justify their violent attacks on innocent citizens. The officers in the film claimed these actions were done to protect themselves and “protect” the young men of color they are trying to detain. This was ironic because most victims of stop and frisk, which is essentially what these officers are doing, feel threatened. Which explains why they react in such a defensive manner. However, to some officers this behavior comes off as criminal.

When the truth seems too good to be true should people still believe it? When people explain episodes from the war or certain details the claims at times can become too crazy, which makes them unbelievable. In addition to being unbelievable, the state of being truthful can sometimes be extremely hurtful. This causes people to branch away from the truth and even make stories easier on the ears. Ultimately, most people enjoy hearing stories that sound truthful and have some kind of moral, yet the truth can be hard to accept.

Published first during the decade of the 1990s "The Boy Died in My Alley" remains a significant poem of Gwendolyn Brooks as she moves from traditional forms of poetry such as sonnets, ballads to the most unrestrictive free verse and includes the sad rhythm of the blues. This poem offers an amazing juxtaposition of dramatic poetic forms, narrative, and lyric (Guth & Rico). The story is most often simple but with the last line, they transcend the restriction of place and cover universal plight. Most often the characters of the people are memorable only due to fact that they are trying to survive the trials and tribulations of daily living. For example, in the poem, “The Boy Died in My Alley”, the author narrates an incident when a black boy is murdered in her back alley and the policeman asks her whether she has heard the shot. As she was passionate about the bad experiences of black community in the United States, her poetry is mainly about their plight in the society (Guth & Rico). The main focus of the poem, "The Boy Died in My Alley" is to study and analyze the reasons behind the violence that is associated with African-American children who live on the street.

This episode really highlights the element s of how corrupt other can be due to how easily the hospital staff was bribed to forge false medical documents. This just goes to show corruption can transcend the real of law and move into other aspects, such as medicine. The students show how much they have become desensitized by being unsympathetic toward the shooting they were involved in. They even go as far as plotting to kill the victim after finding out he is still alive. The students only show concern for themselves and the people within their group.

Paul Lisicky is an American author who bases many of his stories on human struggles, death, and anger. He is known for his fiction and his memoirs. Lisicky was born and raised in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. He earned his master’s degree in English from Rutgers. He has taught creative writing at several universities, such as New York University, Sarah Lawrence College, and Cornell University. Lisicky has received many awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the James Michener/Copernicus Society and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. Lisicky stories have become quite popular, such as “Beachtown”, “A Little Murder”, and “BUNNY”. They are all completely different stories, which do not relate to one another, but they are all equally good stories to read. Lisicky focuses on stories that have a very dark and complicated life.