On The Run By Alice Goffman Summary

The media has scrutinized the use of force even more recently. Recordings of officers using force (weather excessive or not) become uploaded to the web and many individuals quickly jump to conclusions. Police use of “force” is up to the discretion of each individual police officer, and with each action a multitude of consequences can occur. The public often gets enraged after a court justifies the use of force, but often individuals do not have the full facts or understand how the justice system works. The outcomes of some use of force cases, many individuals are asking for transparency of agencies. Policy makers are often quick to react to satisfy the public by changing police policy.

The event of the tragic murder in the favela Vigario Geral was a horrid and uneducated idea from the military police as revenge for the gunning down of four policemen. In this senseless murder of innocent civilians, 21 people were killed in their homes. Police entered random houses, and shot multiple people and families without reservation, sorrow, or evidence that these innocent people had anything to do with the drug trade within the favela.

Unlike animals, humans are able to observe past the mere monochromatic vision of survival. We have an impeccable ability to desire more than just living to breed, and breeding only to someday perish. Thus, we gradually brush this canvas with the colours of ethics, control, and knowledge. Whether the colours fade or become prominent through time, this canvas becomes our perception of normality and we allow it to justify our actions; favorable or harmful. We, as well as the narrator in the short story The Hunt by Josephine Donovan represent this. However, because of the narrator’s difference in perception, self-indulgence, and greed for power, the story introduces a feeling of infuriation to the reader.

The acts of legal corruption detailed in this novel vary widely in character and severity. On the ground level of the legal system, the police force is described as an immoral hoard that is often more concerned with taking

If you grew up in an average middle-class town in the United States you were probably raised on the premise that the police were there to protect and fight crime, however, in many of today’s urban centers throughout the country, the tension between the police and the citizens has a very different relationship. The term ‘police’ brings many images to mind, while the objective of the police is to prevent and detect crime, this is far from the way so many Americans feel. Far from the original purpose of the police, the use of brutal and sometimes lethal force has evoked questions regarding the skewed system and the relationship between both in the communities. Ta-Nehisi Coates explores the issue in the article, The Paranoid Style of American Policing, often bringing up complex issues, and effectively brings the issues to life through anecdotes. Coates presents a logical, thought out and well-executed argument surrounding the cracked police system in America. Due to the well-supported thesis, the structure of the argument, and lack of fallacies, Coates position is adequately supported through the use

In On the Run by Alice Goffman, one can see the inside perspective in a particular black community in 6th Street, Philadelphia. Goffman gives an “on-the-ground” account of the fear of being captured and the changes that fear brings upon the community in basic daily activities such as working, maintaining relationships, and seeking medical or police care when it is truly needed. Within these accounts that Goffman shares there are many connections to class readings and disscussions throughout.

In society, things are not as they seem at times. The criminal justice system was created to help deter crime and to punish those who break the law. Laws are put in place to be fair to all citizens. Your economic situation, gender, race should not become a factor for you to be given “due process”. Years have come and gone and the crime rates increases and decreases with the years. There have been many senseless killings and everyone has their point of view as to the causes. The focal point of this report will be the findings from the readings of, “The rich get richer and the poor get prison by Jeffery Reimer and Paul Livingston”. I will discuss the causes of the rise and fall of the many different types of crimes ; why the rise and fall of crime rates; what contribution has the criminal justice and or police system has contributed whether positive or negative; and lastly discuss which economic group ends up in prison and why.

In today’s society the police are harassed for supposedly abusing their power against people who commit crimes and innocent bystanders however the general public usually mix those two categories of people with each other. Officers are blamed for whatever course of action they decide to take in order to prevent a serious threat from arising. Consequently, the public is having a growing fear of the police, their own definitions of excessive force are biased, the police abuse their powers, etc. The change in how a police officer may carry out every situation may be a change that we need to protect the people.

Critics argue that legalization of certain drugs will not end the drug war and that instead, it will cause more violence and issues for the county’s well being. In the mid-1980’s the cocaine epidemic hit and a large amount of crime, deaths from overdoses and violence came with it. The result of this was laws being placed with minimum punishment for drug trafficking to attempt to control the issue. Throughout the early 1990s crime started to slowly decrease and in 2013 the amount of crime was reduced in half. One viewpoint is that once the title of being non-violent labeled drug traffickers crime started to rise anew. Some crimes included murders of innocent bystanders and more drug flow into the U.S (Cook1). William J. Bennett and John P. Walters, Boston Globe writers, complicate matters further when they write “For 25 years before President Obama, U.S policy confronted drug

The way of police preparing and job requires cops to utilize both scholarly and good capacities. Morals guideline assembles moral character in officers and at work utilization of good thinking empowers police overseers to distinguish critical issues and adjust regularly clashing laws, group desires, and there, in any case, little voices. While it has been traditional to depict the piece of police concerning social contract theory with cops as authorities blamed for the necessity of law such a definition here isn't sufficient. In a perfect world, this paper will be consolidated concerning the depiction showed up by Bittner in The Lying is productive only the length of the individual being floored recognizes, and the swindler's authenticity remains intact– open presentation of pastThe part of the police is best esteemed as an instrument for the task of non-asking for to be displayed wrong coercive drive utilized by the course of a trademark handle of situational crises. He observes that by "non-far from being true coercive constraint" it is implied that when a nominated cop chooses that compel is fundamental he [the police]isn't mindful to anyone– insofar as he acts inside the breaking points of the situation. Law necessity officers are not dedicated to informing everybody concerning everything, and a presumed

Police Brutality is an ongoing problem and should be resolved immediately. Many officers involved in misconduct cases do not stand trial, police brutality is a national crisis. The purpose of this paper is to look at what police brutality is, what the effects can be and ways to prevent it from happening. Many cases occur because of the police and there feeling of power, and others because of race, class, or sexual orientation. Changes must take place in order to stop police brutality.

When debating the issue of police use of force, the issue of what actions constitute too much force must also be addressed. Another concern is the possibility of corruption amount officers. When given such great power, the probability of corruption is high. Officers generally do not start out as corrupt, but years of work on the force can create animosity between officers and suspects and lead them to decide to use force more quickly (McEwen, 1996). Many times, officers patrol the streets alone which creates the opportunity for potential abuse of power (McEwen, 1996). Although police officers need to be permitted to exercise some discretion, they also need limits and guidelines to follow when using their powers of discretion (Manning, 1997). The decision to use force should not be taken lightly in that citizen’s lives are at stake. Police should be allowed discretion in decisions to use force; however, this discretion should be limited. In several cases in Arizona, officers have used deadly means of force. In all cases, the officers

In On The Run, Alice Goffman focuses on a particular group of young Black men living in a poor neighborhood, struggling to live a “good” and “fair” life. These boys from 6th street are segregated from resources that would be found in more economically advanced neighborhoods. A “resource” that they do run into more than often is over policing in their neighborhood. As they are disproportionately targeted for arrest to fill quotas, this constant behavior and events deemed as a norm (even little children play a game about cops catching and being overly aggressive to Black boys), hinders their process at advancing within American society. Systematic oppression against a minority group slows and puts racial tension progress at a standstill, as they are continued victims of larger forces. What truly works against them once locked up and released, is that they were not given a chance based on race, now it becomes based on race plus their criminal history. People in such situations are left with one option, in order for them to survive and provide for their families, they must do it through illegal activity. Locking people up and returning then into the same environment which had limited resources does nothing to solve larger powers at play. Laws and documents may exist that describe an “equal” and “fair” society, but without action, words seem to hold less value. The Declaration of Independence, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, are both documents meant to symbolize

This paper will describe police power and police authority. I will also talk about police discretion as for as whom gets locked up and who is allowed to go free. This paper will discuss the different use of police force. In this paper I will also talk about police attitude, police misconduct, and physical abuse among police officers.

In today's society the police, play may roles. They are the peacekeepers, law enforcement and many other jobs. However, recently they have become the subject of a very heated and large debate. Many believe that the police should give up their brute type tactics for a more civilized and humanized approach, while others feel that the police should crack down on the most insignificant of offences to type and disparage crimes that are more serious. In this paper, we will be analyzing both sides of this issue, from the look of the police administration to the public's view of it. When we mention today's police force we will be using the New York City police force as are basis of comparison, because they seem to