Power In Studs Terkel's Work

L. (2014). Shift work and police officers. Master's Capstone Theses, Paper 18. Retrieved January 2017

Michael Dowd, dubbed the name “Dirtiest Cop in New York City”, prospered enough than any US President’s annual salary, calculating by the amount of money he stole in robberies he and his partner, Kenny Eurell, planned in their patrol car to the eight grand a week they were paid from a drug gang leader. He and his fellow partners-in-crime would use police tactics to rob dealers. Certainly, Dowd was not only intelligent in his mischievous ways, but he had balls and didn’t rat out on his partners, which made him fearless of the consequences that might follow. He may be nervous at times, but was never feared of being caught. He was determined, demanding, obnoxious, greedy individual, and would go after anyone that threatened him and owed him money.

The violence that some officers exude to minorities should only be used in extreme, desperate situations not when a teen steals some cigars or is walking home with a hood on. Besides showing an interest in racial justice and issues of race helps to break down barriers, exposed as false perceived misunderstandings, and shed light on commonly held perceptions of a race-infused

Those who are in power are not accountable to constituencies and public policy does not derive from social consent. Within sociology and political science, particularly within comparative politics, authoritarianism has been understood as a modern type of political regime. Therefore, the concept focuses on the way of accessing, exercising, and organizing power, on the nature of the belief system, and the role of citizens in the political

A number of problems arise from race and ethnicity issues in policing practices. From the department’s perspective, issues with race and ethnicity, create negative consequences. For example, if a police department fails properly to resolve situational conflicts, this can cause loss of productivity, tension among officers of different race and backgrounds, enhanced suspicion of other officers, and increased isolation of staff member. The department will suffer tremendously if it fails

Our societies, countries and the world at large are not enjoying the best of leaders and leadership today because bad leadership style such as authoritarian leadership style. In this type of leadership styles, citizen especially in the under developed and developing countries such as in leader and a where the leader believes that all power resides in him, an donly him has the power to make decision and exercise control, reward and publish instead of a democratic management style. Such organisations or countries is always a failure.

Law enforcement is meant to protect and help all people. But, at this time, law enforcement took sides and many times supported white racism violence. In most cases, “local authorities usually did little to restrain white mobs from seizing African Americans” (Kyvig 170) but, if it was a black mob seizing a white person, the black mob would be arrested immediately. For instance, police arrested two white women and nine black men for riding a train. The two women claimed rape and were set free while the men were convicted and sentenced to death in a one day trial (Kyvig 172).

Recruiting minorities in the police field can be very difficult for many different reasons. For the African-Americans minorities they already have problems, and that was being slaves. African-American's were not seen to be able to hold power and to give authority rule, but have it told to them. These men in the early 1940's could be police officers, but could not arrest whites and only worked in the black neighborhoods. They gave the men jobs, because of the 14th amendment but stripped them of all police powers, other than arresting their own kind.

Although the negative treatment of African Americans outweighs the positive treatment, neither should go unrecognized. It was a shock to learn that there were African American police officers during this period. This newspaper article is captivating because it demonstrates a positive part of history that most may not know existed in this era. Ultimately, this article relates the class discussion about the silences found in history because it reveals a silence of African American

Myrdal asserts that police professionalism is not only necessary with the rise of urbanization, but also essential to protect the rights of blacks living in the rural South. In 1962, the same year as Hall’s death, The Negro Digest published a letter by E.C. Hale, Chief of Police in Lexington, Kentucky. The letter, titled “Why Racism Hurts Law Enforcement,” expressed the white Chief’s thoughts on what makes for a good police officer. Among other things, Hale emphasizes the importance of “fairness, firmness, and impartiality,” diligent record keeping, and sensitivity towards minority groups in policing. Most importantly, Hale writes, “the experience of minority groups with police authorities has not always been a happy one. Indeed, the Negro has had good reason to look with suspicion and fear upon the uniformed officer. … The idea that race, creed, or nationality are extenuating factors, permitting different applications of the law, must be abandoned.” Hale goes so far as to strongly advise against using racial slurs and warns that one officer’s negative reputation within a community will impact that community’s impression of the entire department.

This reaction paper is based on a black police officer, Edward Raymond serving in the N.Y.P.D. whom from an early age had a rough upcoming. Being part of the minority Raymond experienced firsthand the difficulties growing up with gang violence around him, drug selling and even frequent killings. Although being around all these activities Raymond never chose to partake in any of them but rather focused on working and attending school. Raymond at his young age was described as having a powerful, rigid sense of morality, despite the fact of always talking about the troubles of gang violence and drugs, he was frequently stopped by the police at least once a week.

Authoritarianism is a form of government in which the leader or leaders have exclusive power concerning matters of the state. Although these

The article, “The Authoritarian Personality,” written by Erich Fromm discusses the common and different characteristics between the two forms of an authoritarian personality. He starts to explain how one becomes a mature person. He states that to become a mature person, said person needs to have developed love and reason. He then states that an authoritarian character has not reached maturity, and therefore, has not developed love or reason. Erich Fromm continues to explain that the difference between the ruler and the ruled is how they start to feel “greater.” The way the ruled feels “greater” is by depending on their ruler for guidance and by following the ruler to become a part of the larger group. The way the ruler feels “greater” is by depending on the ruled to continue to look at them as strong and powerful. He then points out that one person can hold both the ruler and the ruled characteristics. Erich Fromm continues to explain the differences between rational and irrational authority and where these two forms of authority are found. He ends by saying that the understanding of love and reason, and developing said characteristics is the foundation to a person’s own authority and political democracy. While reading this article, it brought me back to all the times I have dealt with people who have authoritative personalities and how it affected me. As stated by Erich Fromm, all people with authority personalities contain components of both the ruler and the ruled.

In these systems, the regimes possess some of these characteristics but have found ways to manipulate the system to consolidate their power. “Rather than openly violating democratic rules (for example, by banning or repressing the opposition and the media), incumbents are more likely to use bribery, co-optation, and more subtle forms of persecution, such as the use of tax authorities, compliant judiciaries, and other state agencies to ‘legally’ harass, persecute, or extort cooperative behavior from critics” . While it is apparent that these regimes are not fully democratic, it would be unfair to label them as fully authoritarian either. Unlike traditional totalitarian governments, the persistence of true democratic institutions in competitive authoritarian regimes allows the opposition to contest, weaken and occasionally even defeat autocratic incumbents. While these situations are generally uncommon, these situations are possible in competitive authoritarianism due to four independent means, the electoral arena, the legislature, the judiciary and the media. These four branches are virtually independent of the executive control however, unlike in democracies, the competitive authoritarian regimes use its power to undermine their independence. “In regards to the electoral arena, large-scale abuses of state power, biased media coverage, harassment of opposition candidates and activists are widespread, legislatures tend to be relatively weak, the

Under an authoritarian regime, specifically a dictatorship, the ruler has the political and executive power to persecute an individual or group for political reasons, which demonstrates a form of political oppression.