Maurice Harris Case Summary

This year’s shootings has climbed by twenty percent from 2013, there have been nearly one hundred homicides involving guns so far this year. This is an upsurge from sixty nine during the same period in both 2013 and 2014.In. In New York city officials have blamed the upsurge of homicides on deadly conflicts between career criminals and blamed gang activity in Brooklyn and the Bronx. On the other hand what’s been happening in Baltimore is different. The number of homicides has doubled while shootings has climbed more than eighty percent, and the vast majority of experts say that it is at partially connected to a averseness by police officers to aggressively do their jobs. (Sanburn, 2015)During the year of 2013 the population in New York, NY was 8,396,126 and they had 335 reported homicides, while Baltimore, MD had a population of 622,671 people and 233 reported. (Crime in te Unied States 2013,

The number of murders every year committed was about 512; some were either homicides or gang related. About 80 percent of the murders committed were done with an illegal firearm. Evidence conducted by Tracey Meares, from Yale, found the high crime areas, committing murders or possessing illegal firearms lived in indigent and isolated communities. Chicago’s Project Safe Neighborhoods developed small community programs to reach out to felons and offenders. Developing small programs for felons and offenders was a way for Law Enforcement to understand their attitude and outlook on gun violence or possessing a gun. For Law Enforcement they wanted to stress the consequences of possessing an illegal firearm and get an ex-offender to share with felons the importance of staying away from a life of crime. There is no other better way to get through to a felon than an ex-felon sharing his own tragic life experiences.

FBI statistics accumulated on a countrywide level show that in states that have strict gun control laws, there are higher crime rates. If gun control laws have any effect, it may be to increase crime! For instance, New Jersey adopted what sponsors described as “the most stringent gun law” in the nation in 1966; two years later the murder rate was up 46 percent and the reported robbery rate had nearly doubled. In 1968, Hawaii imposed a series of increasingly harsh measures, and its murder rate, then a low 2.4 per 100,000 per year, tripled to 7.2 by 1977. In opposition, states with liberal gun carry laws have much lower crime rates. In Florida the homicide rate dropped from 37 percent above the national average to 3 percent below the national average after the state changed its concealed carry law in 1987. In 1987, Florida’s murder rate was 11.4 per 100,000 compared with the national rate of 8.2. By 1992, the national rate had risen to 9.3 per 100,000 while Florida’s had dropped to 9, and in 1993, it continued to drop another .3 to 8.7 per 100,000. Between 1987 and 1992, rape increased nationally by 14.4 percent. But in Florida, it increased only 2.9 percent and in 1993 rape in Florida decreased .2 percent. Florida issued 204,108 concealed carry licenses during the first six and half years

With the popular culture providing positive images of guns, the United States has a gun prevalence that is very rare in the modern world. While many people appreciate the “gun culture”, guns are heavily involved in violence in the United States. According to U.S. Department of Justice, since 1960, more than 750,000 Americans have died under firearms, including homicides, suicides, and unintentional injuries. The figure 1 provides a comprehensive survey of U.S. violent crimes for the period from 1993 to 2011.This figure illustrates that from 1993 to 2011, about 60% to 70% of homicides were associated with a firearm. Over the same period, between 6% and 9% of all nonfatal violence, with about 20% to 30% of robberies and 22% to 32% of aggravated assaults involving a firearm.

Looking at the nightly news, many would believe violent crimes are at an all-time high. There is no longer just one on one violent crimes or gang violent crimes. There are court shootings, school shootings, church shootings, theater shootings, mall shootings, workplace shootings, and others. Most one on one crime is committed with an illegal gun; whereas most mass shootings are done with handguns that are purchased legally. Although, violent crimes reported on the nightly news is hard to hear or see. It has become very common to encounter this information on a daily basis. The numbers seem to be overwhelming; statistics share violent crimes are at an all-time low. While the numbers of crimes are decreasing, gun ownership

This case provides the story of the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald (17 years) in Chicago by Police Officer Jason Van Dyke on or about October 21, 2014. McDonald died after having been shot 16 times late on that evening by Van Dyke as he and others responded to a report of a man armed with a knife breaking into vehicles in a truck yard (CQ Research, 2016). McDonald, who had a record of juvenile arrests, allegedly refused the officers’ demands to drop his knife (CQ Research, 2016). After 400 days of the incident, the video from a police vehicle showed that McDonald, who was holding a knife was walking parallel, but away from the officers when he was shot 16 times by Van Dyke (Police Charges, 2015). The public has a right to know as much as possible about the rules governing the police and about investigations into allegations of police misconduct. Transparency holds police accountable and accountability builds trust in Police Department.

The relevance of gun violence has been on the rise today and often one cannot walk away from the news without hearing a story related to gun violence either being covered or displayed on the news ticker scrolling through the screen. This paper will analyze three sources: an article written by Dov Cohen, titled “Culture, Social Organization, and Patterns of Violence,”on the trends of violence based on location, a Ted Talk given by Dan Gross, titled “Why Gun Violence Cannot become America’s New Normal,”on the topic of gun violence and how it affected his life as well a proposition to ending violence in the U.S, and an article, “Analyzing Available Data Could Help Improve Background Checks Involving Domestic Violence Records,” written by the U.S. Government of Accountability Office(GAO) which covers the process of background checks within the sales of firearms. These three sources will be evaluated on the basis that they evoke a strong argument with the use of ethos, pathos, and logos within their pieces.

There has been a rise on the topic of gun violence. It has become a more relevant topic today and one cannot walk away from the news without hearing a story related to gun violence either being covered or displayed on the teleprompter below. This paper will analyze three sources: an article written by Dov Cohen, titled “Culture, Social Organization, and Patterns of Violence,”on the trends of violence based on location, a Ted Talk given by Dan Gross, titled “Why Gun Violence Cannot become America’s New Normal,”on the topic of gun violence and how it affected his life as well a proposition to ending violence in the U.S, and an article, “Analyzing Available Data Could Help Improve Background Checks Involving Domestic Violence Records,” written by the U.S. Government of Accountability Office(GAO) which covers the process of background checks within the sales of firearms. These three sources will be evaluated on the bases that they evoke a strong argument with the use ethos, pathos, and logos within their writings.

On 11-30-2015 at approximately 1550 hours I Officer Hildebrand, Officer Kevin Engle, Sgt Joseph Harris responded to a medical call on MRL (Montana Rail Link) property. The incident occurred on MRL property near Bennett street and Park street train trestle.

On January 17, 2017, “Surge in the Violence” was released by the Crime lab at the University of Chicago, which had combined a report on the statistics of homicides taken place in the year 2015 and 2016. The number of homicides taken place in the year of 2016 has soared by record high of 67 percent than the previous year. Chicago is one of the busiest and advanced cities in the world and getting such high numbers in the field of crime is a shame and leaves a bad impression on the rest of the world. The violence related to guns has also increased enormously and according to “Chicago Tribune”, 2,958 people have been shot dead by now this year. Though the data shows that the homicides by gun has decreased significantly but the number is still a problem. The gun violence now is a serious problem and the current situation demands strict gun laws.

It’s has been stated that most crimes are found in black neighborhoods in the South Side. However, The South Side was described in “Race & policing in Chicago” (2016) video from The National, as home to an oppressed segregated underclass. The portrayal of gun violence in the south and west of Chicago can be seen on shows like Chicago P.D. The stories in this series is told form the point of view of law enforcement. Krishaun Branch, a Chicagoan a graduate from Fisk University in Tennessee and a teacher at Urban Prep Academy, was interviewed for the Chicago Tribune to see how the show portrays Chicago. Branch, stated while they may have captured the gun violence, it didn’t felt right how quickly the case was closed. He mentions that policemen aren’t showing much interest and time into an investigation and sometimes “see it as a black-on-black crime and it doesn’t get resolved.”

The chapter goes on to overview the crime crisis happening the United States in the 1980s through the 1990s. After exploring possible causes of the problem and how bad everything has gotten, the authors go on to explore possible solutions to the crime epidemic. The solutions are quite varied, well thought out, and are supported with statistical facts. For example in talking about the effect of gun buyback programs and their effect on homicide: “Given the number of handguns in the United States and the number of homicides each year, the likelihood that a particular gun was used to kill someone that year in 1 in 10,000. The typical gun buyback program

Further, despite the fact that gun ownership in the U.S. increased enormously during the 1990’s, there was a consistent, dramatic reduction of criminal violence. In fact, homicide and violent crime have plunged over the last 15 years. Considering that 18 of 25 countries surveyed had an increase of violent crime, America’s large decline is impressive. Moreover, Norway, Finland, Germany, France, and Denmark also have a high rate of private gun ownership, and the murder rates in these countries are as low as or lower than developed nations with less gun ownership (Kates & Mauser, 2007).

Handguns were used most often in homicides, most cases being in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s before falling to a low in 2008 (Cooper, et al.). Most gun involvement occurs with gang related activity, which increased from 73% in 1980 to 92% in 2008 (Cooper, et al.). The percentage of homicide victims killed with a gun increased with age of the victim until age 17, where it peaked at 79% and declined thereafter (Cooper, et al.). The sharp increase in homicides from the mid-1980’s through the early 1990’s, and much of the subsequent decline, is attributable to gun violence by teens and young adults (Cooper, et al.). From 1980 to 2008, more

From the outlook, Chicago is among the cities that have the most stringent laws when it comes to gun control. Ironically, it is the city with the highest number of gun cases in the country. In 2016 alone, as per the statistics collected, the state registered over four thousand shootings and 762 homicides (Kurtzleben 1). This number was more than the deaths in New York and Los Angeles together. The numbers have been used to argue out that instead of curbing crime in the region, the stringent laws have significantly increased lawlessness