Prison Systems and How They Fail

This video is about a man who has spent over 12 years in prison to now become homeless. The hard part for him was getting out of prison and trying to be apart of society again. It's hard for them to find jobs, ex convicts. It's sad that there is no support system for when they get out. I believe that they are set up to fail again at life and end up back behind bars. If you look up Norwegian prisons you dont get the type of images you do here. They set them up to succeed and not be arrested again. They have a 20% of people to be back behind bars again. I find that crazy. We have a 76% of them to be back behind bars within 5 years. I find these numbers crazy. I believe we have to set up a better rehabilitate system.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfU8TUZRtZg

Ignorant People In the World

Please watch this video. The link will be at the bottom. In this video it shows an ignorant lady being disrespectful to someone who has fought for our country. She believes its rude that he asked if they had a military discount and thinks that every veteran thinks they are entitled to it and that they think they deserve all these special privileges. Im sorry but if it wasn't for men and women like him none of us would be able to have the freedom we do. These are the people that keep our country save. It disgusts me that people like her are able to say these things to someone who goes and fights for our country. She has no idea of what a person in a military has to see every day. They see their best friends die at war. Most of them come home with a lot of mental issues. The military can not teach someone how to cope with everything that they see.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfuKIOSgPa0

What this semester has taught me

Signing up for global I was really nervous about it. I didn't know if I would like having 2 class periods. It turned out great to be honest. I have learned this semester to accept myself more. I have more self-confidence then I had before. I have changed how I thought about myself. I use to care what people thought about me but not I have a f**k it mentality. I don't care what people think about me. What really matters is to be happy with yourself, it starts with that, if you love yourself that's all that matters. I am happy that something this class has taught me is something that I have have always tried to overcome.

Ferguson Presentations

After listening to an overwhelming amount of presentations taking us through the whole State of Missouri V Darren Wilson questioning, it is easy to say that the jury got it wrong. Since the witness testimonies were so different, it is hard to know exactly what happened between Michael Brown and Darren Wilson that day. However, their were enough testimonies and questionable actions to at least qualify a trial against Darren Wilson. Did he have his hands up or did he have his hands down? Was he charging officer Wilson like a football player or was he limping towards him? Was the Monte Carlo blue or was it white? There were too many unanswered questions that the jury seemed to disregard with ease. Looking into my case for example, there were huge questionable actions done by the Crime Scene Detective. When examining Darren Wilson's weapon, he had the choice between checking the weapon for fingerprints or swabbing it for DNA. He chose to swab for DNA, now eliminating the option of fingerprinting which could answer the question "did Michael Brown ever touch Darren Wilson's weapon?" With so many, for lack of better words, weird things coming to light there needs to be a trial.

Different Shootings, Same Outcome

Oscar Grant, Trayvon Martin, Micheal Brown, Anthony Nunez, Pedro Villanueva, etc. All these guys had in common were that they were young, colored, and a perceived "threat". None of these guys had to die, people have to stop seeing individuals of color as threat and immediately put them down as if they were a sick dog. These are just a few of the hundreds maybe even thousands of killings of a colored individual in recent memory. It doesn't help out also when the media portray these individuals as bad people. We need change, but it might be too late already, it feels like there is a split and I am on the losing side

Turn Down For What

When we watch the documentary of what had happens to Jordan Davis it is really hard to believe that someone life ended because they were playing music too loud in their own car. When I think about why did he see Jordan and his friends as a threat what is because they were black or was it because of the music they were playing? I wonder if you didn't like the music why didn't you park someone else or I wonder could he not stand listing to the music for at most 5 minutes all his wife was doing was getting a bottle of wine and he could have drove away and nothing would have happened. Could he not stand listening to the music for 5 minutes or did he have to try to make a point by pulling the gun out because he felt threaten by some thugs". If Michael saw them as a threat couldn't he have told his wife to get in the car and leave why would he try to take on 4 teens he was outnumbered why pick a fight. If it were me and someone were to ask me to turn it down I would react depending on how I was asked but if someone was to do it in a rude way I would be less likely to do it.

Global

When I chose to take Global I never really though on how much I would have liked the class. From day one I was interested in the class because on how we were talking about recent issues like the Brock Turner incidence which was better to talk about then taking regular English have to read a long boring old book. When I talk to people that are in regular English they always tell me how boring it is which makes me so glad that I take Global because every single day that I go to class I am never board because everyday we talk interesting things. All the things that we talk about aren't things that regular English classes do which makes it better because were doing something different and not sticking to the same old boring routines of just reading book and doing reading assessments which I don't enjoy doing. I do enjoy talking about the LA riots, OJ Simpson, and about Michael Brown.

Collecting thoughts about Kitty Genovese

The day we learned about the case, I tried to make a point that I didn't really have prepared at the time.  But I've collected those thoughts, and I'm going to try to make it now.

Kitty Genovese was fairly openly lesbian, which was a dangerous thing to be in the 1960's.  Police officers could, and frequently did, beat gay people.  Several states mandated that people wear a certain number of clothing items that conformed to the gender on their birth certificate (usually between three and five).   Essentially, it was terrifying, and her mere existence was an act of resistance.  (How's that on a tombstone?  "Survived as a gay person in the 1960's without pretending to be straight.")  Remember, this is when the Stonewall Riots happened.  I cannot emphasize enough how dangerous her life was.

Anyway, I had a point here.  Let's get to it.

On the night of the murder, several people considered, or even did, calling the police.  Here's an article on it.  One of Kitty's friends, Karl Ross, saw what was happening, then called a friend to ask for advice.  Ross was gay, and here's why this is important.  Any calls to the police put both himself and Kitty at risk.  Again, being gay was illegal, and the police (and most about everyone else) didn't like gay people, at all.  There was a decent chance that, even if the police responded, they would simply leave, or worse, and Ross wasn't the only person who knew that.

I mentioned that several people considered or called the police.  As it turns out, there were two calls to the police, both of which were ignored.  The image of Kitty Genovese dying alone is inaccurate, too.  She actually died in the arms of a close friend.  Essentially, our modern idea of the case is a result of bad initial reporting and a lack of information at the time of the case.  By the time we had correct information, it was too late, and the idea was solidified in people's minds.

Labels

In the beginning of the year when we went through the ladder of inference and labels I was able to see that when I do look at someone I go through the ladder of inference. When I realized that I do go through the ladder of inference that made think that I probably am not the only one that does that which means that every single time that we look at someone we are quick to judge a person which sucks because people don't really get a fair chance to make a first impression because we already have our thoughts of the person in our head. With learning this it has taught me not to be so quick to judge a person and give everyone a fair chance before judging someone.

Rodney King Beating

At the beginning of the year one of the major moments in American history that we looked at was the beating of  Rodney King an African American male who was nearly beat to death by several police officers. What had made this stand out in particular was that this was the first time that they had actually video footage of police brutality and the police treating people wrong. Throughout this, with all that had happened, none of those officers were even convicted of any charges or anything. In the black community of LA this did not set well and made them wonder how something this big could happen and nothing happen to the officers that were involved. As a result, this had let to the LA riots which was just whole who minority group in LA saying that they had enough of this discrimination  with the police and that they were just going to let this keep happening. Stores, malls and all those sorts just got ran through and people started to just loose it and there was nothing that the police could do about it. I think that this case would probably stand out with me the most just because of how my parents were growing up around that time and how the stories that they experienced and what was going on in America around that time.

Joining Global

At the end of my junior year when I had to pick what english class that I wanted to take for my senior year I had first ended up choosing regular english class. But, I then had heard about global and thought it would be a good class to take because I heard that Ms.B would be teaching it because I had her for english freshman year and I loved it. So for about the first week of the new school year I stuck with regular english and suddenly thought to myself  do I really want another boring year of english where we are just reading books and writing essay on them throughout the whole year. So I then switched to global which I am glad that I did so. One of the reasons why I really like global is that it really is more of a "free class'' in which we talk about stuff where it is current things or even things that could have happened a while ago but are still relevant till this day, instead of reading a book that is so old that no one really even cares about. This class is also a fun environment  to learn in because everyones opinion is heard on whatever is being talked about at the time.

"Bad Samaritan" David Cash

When David Cash had seen his best friend rapping a little innocent girl that was not even half his size in the women's bathroom stall he decides to do nothing but instead "go on a walk". Cash had a chance to save the little girls life and even prevent the incident from happening but instead he just ignored it and walked away. One thing that stood out to me about Cashes reaction afterwards during interviews was that he really didn't have a reaction. He never said anything that he felt sorry for what had happened or that he would have gone back and handled the situation differently. This was really the deal breaker for me on how his reaction didn't change and not even for the family of the little girl.

Los Altos Police Department

Today during global two officers from the Los Altos police department had come in and visited with us. One of the things that stood out to me is when both of the officers had talked about how they are people just like us and have real lives too besides work. This made me realize that just because they are the police something bad doesn't always have to happen or go on for them to be around. Like for example one of the officers who's name was Darren M. said that there has been times when he is just walking on foot downtown Los Altos where he is just roaming a round the city getting some fresh air and there was many people who thought something was wrong just because he walked into there store. He also said that the reason why he thinks that this is because most of the time police are usually only around when something bad goes on so now they are trying to change the picture of that.

being foreign

As we would know I'm not from this country, and just came to this new environment one and a half years ago. Everything was new to me when I fist got here, from culture to food to customs, but things started to settle in as I got into senior year. There are certain struggles of being a non-native speaker, yet one cool thing of being foreign is you could look the US from the outside. I was able to compare US with my own country, and found out race plays a huge role in this society. Before I came here there were no concept of race since my country's majority was a single race, and when I came here I just saw people with different colors. Having little knowledge of race and the influence on society I thought it was just a label to differentiate one from another; however my thoughts took a turn when I took this class, and I realized race was everything in this society. From social hierarchy to economical advantages and how to be treated, critical race theory was heavily enforced on this society. No matter which state we are in we have to face some kind of racial circumstances, and to cut off this aspect is impossible.

Alabama v Miller Case

In the essay assignment the case that I was assigned a case Miller v Alabama. My case was based on a 14 year old boy Evan Miller who killed his neighbor along with one of his friends by beating him up with a baseball bat, and then burning down his trailer while the guy was still alive inside as a result, the guy ended up dying. After all of this, they sentenced the 14 year old to a term of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Of course, Miller had an appeal and he argued that this was cruel and unusual punishment for someone that was his age and that it violated his Eight amendment rights. Throughout the whole case, the "big question" was on deciding if the sentencing a young boy to a life sentence in prison was cruel and unusual punishment for someone his age". While doing the paper another case that had caught my eye which was kind of similar was a case with another 14 year old boy by the name of Kentrell Jackson who along with his two 14 year old friends were going to rob a local movie store and one of his friends ended up shooting the store clerk which then they fled the scene. This young 14 year old was also sentenced to a life sentence in prison. But the one thing that separated this from the Miller v Alabama case was they he was not really the one who killed the store clerk, his friend did, so how could he serve such a sentence. The reason why I think he served such a sentence was because he did sort of just left the guy there to die.

officers

Today we had a valuable opportunity to hear the story of two police officers from Los Altos Police Department, and get to know their duty and its role in the community. They were being real with us by explaining their concerns as being officers, such as people being protective when being talked by them despite they just want to have a conversation, and explained one of their main goals is to make the community better. Sharing their personal stories and how they were like us when they were little made the gap between us small, and I felt I could relate to them.

Now as for use of force they explained they utilize different force in different situations: such when the suspect is holding a knife the officers are likely to combat with a gun, and when the suspect is far away from them they use guns instead of tasers. They explained they do not combat with the same weapon the suspect is holding, and will use a better alternative force than them. So as I looked back at the Mike Brown case officer Wilson used the gun to suppress the situation and I personally think it was inevitable for him to use the gun since that was the only force he could've used. Of course if he had the taser that would be the best options, and I do not agree on Wilson actually shooting Brown and should've used as a warning tool.

Another fact I learned is the use of language by the officers. They explained each police department had different provisions on use of language, however pointed out most of the department overall has a light punishment/warning when if it becomes concerning. Now in the Ferguson case I remember Wilson saying "get the f on the sidewalk" and that resulted the altercation, yet this was legal for Wilson to do. It was interesting since some officers(I know it's not the officers around here) apply force when they face trash talks, yet when the position is the opposite, when the officers provoke an individual the person cannot take a jab at them.  

the power of authority on individuals

The takeaway from the human experiments were: there are huge influence on human behavior when authority applies force. For the Stanley Milgrim Experiments people transferred their responsibility to the authority to output stronger shocks to the learners, in the Kitty Genovese case peoples’ relativeness to the case decreased as they noticed other spectators where also in the same situation, and for the Stanford prison experiment it showed the escalated behavior of people in charge of the prisoners by permission guaranteed by the authority. The accountability was taken away when the person knew the authority was present, and it certainly explained their irrational behavior. We could relate to this phenomenon with the daily situations we experience; like the moment when everyone submits their homework late then you also submit your work late too. In this case the individual's feeling of guilty is fades as they know other people hasn't submitted, and the individual's accountability and the responsibility transfers to it's compatriots and paralyze it's duty to submit their work. I'm not saying it's acceptable to submit work, yet I found it interesting it's relevance to the human experiments.

"The Juice" loose

Throughout multiple documentaries that we watched in global concerning the OJ Simpson case in him killing his ex wife. At first I wasn't really sure if I thought that OJ had actually killed Nicole brown Simpson. But then, we had got into more detail about the evidence that they found which to me kind of made it more clear to me that he might of actually killed her. Some of the evidence that made me think that he did it was that some of his blood was actually found at the scene, ands that there was also some blood on the side of his white bronco and on the dashboard. Throughout all of the evidence that was showed one of the things that caught my eye in a weird way was the foot prints that they found at the scene which just happened to be the same shoe size that OJ Simpson was. Once they found out what kind of shoe it was and told OJ about it, he described the shoes as some "Ugly ass" shoes and that he would never wear those. But then sometime later, he was seen wearing the shoes out in public. This had made me think that he was trying to send a message or something which was kind of weird. At the end of the trail when they had announced that OJ Simpson was not guilty the reactions from across America were obscured. The African American community in LA described it as payback for the Rodney King incident that happened not too long before this trial, which I think played a major role in the grand jury's decision  on this case.

Los Altos Police

With the two officers coming in today to talk about how they handle certain situation allowed me to get a better understanding of who they. When the officers said that they handle very situation different depending on how much respect you show does show me that they are human and that not everything that they do is how based on how we respond they arent robots that are supposed to keep the same tone with you even though you are not complying. They also said that they were trained on how to keep clam  so sometimes they do get angry. They said the that the way they approach people is based on your history so if you have a bad history and they approach you in a mean way that only because they see as a threat but that on you for having a bad history in the first place. The visit made me realize that everyone has emotion and they can't always be controlled.

bad smaritan

Is being a bystander is formed because of that person's morals and ethics or is it the nature of human? David Cash decided not to help out the girl despite being in the position to prevent the incident from happening, and I don't necessarily consider it's all because of his morals and ethics but it was his human nature that also contributed to his action. He left the scene to not put himself into trouble and be out of the picture; I consider this as the animal's crisis prevention ability, yet it was still selfish of him to commit such act. There are conversations where we consider human nature as our morals and ethics, but I think they differ and independent among each other, and it was the human nature side that came strong out of David Cash.  

David Cash decision

David cash had the responsibility to tell a security or something in that casino about his friend actions upon that girl. David cash could of saved that poor little girl's life by stopping Jeremy and taking him in rather than just looking and "tapped him on the head" and walked away. If I was in that situation I will totally help someone that is physically being beaten. Whatever morals or value David cash lives by isn't the way to go in my book. To be honest, if I could talk to David Cash in person I would in mind imagine to beat him. I believe that David cash should be charge with something rather than nothing because he saw the incident and didn't report it to anyone. If Cash told someone about situation Iverson, the little girl, would be alive and doing something great for her life. However that didn't happen, not even sympathy for the girl, Cash didn't express. Im sicken for person that lives by that. Also disgusted for the actions he decided to do. Its just disgusting and disturbing.

global

English has always been a class where im forced to go, and try to pass it, its so boring to me, but Global has been so much fun, and its such an easy way to make friends and get to know everyone. I love how everyone can say their opinion in class, and we all respect each other, I also love how we are both getting history credit and english credits, since I am not good at history. Its great how we talk about so many things, and if we don't understand something everyone is always down to explain over and over again until everyone knows exactly whats going on, its a class i would definitely advice someone to take when they are in senior year.

Global Connections Reaction

Last year while selecting my English course for the semester I had several friends who took Global Connections and they had told me about how much fun the class was. Kyle Gounod was one of my best friends, and he explained how someone who isn't always interested in school could be very interested in this class because it doesn't act as a regular English class. I was intrigued by this and the fact that we could use it as our civics credit, so it led to me choosing to take Global. I fell in love with this class when we started learning about things that I had always been very one sided about, for example steroids, racial injustices and many other ideas. When we discussed the issues of the Rodney King incidents, I was so astonished as to learning more about the artists whose music I listened to as a kid, because I had never known that some of their songs had very serious meanings, and had actually started and helped out the movements of their generations. I really think Global helped me open up my thinking, and viewing of situations in this world, because I felt that I was very one sided prior to listening to all the ideas given to me while a part of Global. I think Global is an amazing class, and I would recommend to anyone that this is the class to take, while in your senior year, as long as you can manage your time a little bit better then I did throughout my first semester.

Global

I honestly didn't like English until this year. Global is a very unique course because we learn very significant case studies and discuss about it. Also give our perspective about what we think. Which is what I also like about global because everyone respects their opinion but also argue their reason too. Basically their is no right or wrong answer. This class made me learn so much because it has changed how I see things and  not assume things. I have a lot of fun in global and i'm looking forward for next semester

Bad Samaritan

Words haven't been invented to describe my hatred towards David Cash. The fact that he thinks he couldn't have done anything to help Sherrice Iverson gets me infuriated. Usually when people let something bad happen to another person, they tend to feel bad and apologize. Cash didn't feel any remorse for just letting the girl get raped. Nor did he apologize to the family of Ms. Iverson. Everything that happened in the casino that night was neither morally or ethically correct and I believe David should have been given a sentence for just walking away.

Michael Brown

Reading the volumes of Michael Brown and taking notes. I feel like Michael Brown did steal something from the store, but how the altercation began there was no use of shot being fired from the gun. When Michael Brown started running, he got shot, then he turned and around I believe that he had his hands up. The volumes that we have seen, multiple witnesses were unreliable. The other "action" he did that was recognized by witness he ran at a charging motion, I don't think thats true because like Dorian he was trying to run off from the cop. Running to get away not tackle the cop. Other evidence that shows Michael Brown was not threatening, he didn't have anything in his hands or didn't want to harm anyone. This case still is significant to many and still has arguments to this day, but the way I see it, Darren should of been charge for murder and Michael had his hands up with a nonthreatening vibe.

Rodney King and race

One thing this Rodney King case exposed is the strategies the LAPD used against the African-Americans. They were containing them in South Central LA, and not to let them out of their neighborhood. I would consider this as segregation, and racially separating blacks from the white neighborhood. We all have different races and it's hard to say someone is not judged by their color of skin, and also we never know what other race experience. So it would be hard for me to understand the true feeling of black people, and it's thoughts on this cowardly policy applied by the LAPD. Yet this policy is unfair considering and infringing the basic rights as a human being. Although it had been nearly 30 years since the Jim Craw Laws were abolished, this policy had the same weight as a legal segregation. As a result blacks were restrained in the area struggling with limited resources and getting less opportunities than white people, and suffering less economically advantages. This resulted the blacks to get out from their less fortunate situation and the LAPD had committed a huge crime.

Cash

The incident that happened where Cash's friend both abused and then killed the young girl, really pisses me off, but the fact that Cash knew that was the girl was in danger and just looked the other way, is just disgusting. I believe Cash should have also been punished, and should have been kicked out of the school he was attending. Even though many people said he was already being punished, due to all the people around him like at school and such where treating him very different, in a bad way, and where protesting for him to be removed from the school he was attending, I think he should have also done some jail time.

young ones react

I was on Facebook a couple days after the election of Donald Trump becoming president and I someone stumbled upon a video of a group of kids who happened to be hispanic, and the host asked them simple questions, and the kids answers really made me upset. Not only that but the kids themselves were super upset and scared because they know they themselves couldn't do anything if their parents where to get deported, one kid said "this is worse than a divorce, I wouldn't have my mom or dad around, i'd be with someone I don't know" That video really opened my eyes to understand that in a way Trumps presidency is worrying kids and teenagers more than adults

Darren Wilson Pissed

When we sat and listened to all the Ferguson cases and there were many witness calming that Michael Brown were up when he was shot I believed that it was actually truth. I believe that Darren Wilson lost his temper from those punches that he took from Michael Brown so when he got out the car he lost his temper and he was so pissed off that he didnt care that Michael had his hands up and he just shot him because of all the anger he felt he didnt care about anything else other then getting Michael for what he did. When something like this happens while you are in a fight or on the football field you always try to get someone back if they either got a good punch at you or a good hit on you. You always want to get the person back.

Bystander Thought

Before we began studying and viewing the different videos about the Human Case Studies, it reminded me of something that happened to me a while ago, while in class we were trying to define bystander and if someone has the need to act. I remember when I was in the sixth grade, a group of my friends and I went into Target and were just screwing around. As we were leaving and paying for our stuff, one of my friends slips a pretty good sized bag of chips into his bag and keeps walking without paying for them. I notice and try to tell him to just pay for the bag of chips but he kept saying nah and just walked out of the store with them and didn't get caught. Since he walked out and no one tried stopping him to have him pay for the food he took, I just felt like it was something not worth to go back and rat on my friend. But as time went on, my friend started to steal more and more and eventually began to get caught almost regularly for shop lifting, not the best thing to have on a record. Looking back on the whole situation, I feel like I did a disservice to him and hugely let him down by not effectively "telling on him", because maybe if he had learned from his mistake early in his life, then maybe he wouldn't have tried doing it more and more. Since I was kind of like a bystander in this situation, I feel now as if I had a responsibility for stopping him from doing this illegal activity before, instead of letting him get sucked into this habit. I've regretted this so much and I just hope he's doing better now, but it really got me thinking about the responsibility of a bystander.

Global

In the past three years, taking regular english didn't interest me. There was no purpose behind taking a class that you read, wrote an essay,  talked about books in seminar, and took reading assessments that judged how you wrote and/or how you know the book. Whether it was about the theme or connection. When senior year came around, my counselor interest me in a credit class that covered both english and civics in a two period segment. I marked it as part of my schedule and was anxious about whether the class with be worth my time or useless like the other 3 years. For the first month, I was super glad I took this class. Not that we had minimum of work to do but we actually talked about reasonable and significant events that are happening in our society today. Stuff that actually mattered rather than a stupid book. This class has changed how I see things, like I try not to assume things. Overall this class is really fun and very helpful, and can't wait what next semester is going to bring.

More about LAPD

Having officers from the Los Altos Police Department come in and talk to us was probably one of the best visitors to have. As we all know in Global, we hear all these stories about police abuse and how bad cops are. Not only that, but in our social media and just talk among our friends, we just become surrounded by this stigma that police are corrupt as well as the worst people ever in the world. I'm certainly not saying that there aren't cops in the world that fit that picture, but it's important for us to know that most of the cops in the United States are here to protect us and keep us safe. Getting to know these guys and where they come from really just gives the police a better rep. I really think that's the key for us to get a better sense of what the Police stand for. Knowing that these men and women are just like us, have the same interest, and people we can connect with on a level the same as you and I would connect. The police shouldn't be feared, we should be weary of them, but not to the point where their power is so strong that the only thing we can do is fear them.

True Value of Global

When taking Global, it makes me wonder why other classes at Los Altos High School aren't like this one in particular. Everyone knows I transferred in late to this class, and it was by far one of the best decisions I have made this year. Not only does Global give the opportunity to learn things that are more than relevant to our lives now and what is to come in our future, but it also gives us the privilege to speak about real issues and real things that bother us. I can guarantee that in other classes it's not the same case. Being in the regular English curriculum for the first couple weeks of school, everything was just so planned out, censored, and if you didn't agree with the teacher then your answer would most likely be wrong. In Global however, getting the chance to bring a different type of answer to the discussion, which may be different from the instructor, is something that's more than helpful and important. I feel like in the regular curriculum, like the English class I was in, it teaches one-dimensional thinking. Something that produces ignorant youths from high school out into the world and just learning that one person's way is the right way. That's just wrong to me and I also feel as if that's the number one cause for many of these huge events that are portrayed everywhere. Ignorance is something that regular classes teach, but the mission for Global is to stomp out the ignorance that can be created by our school. I truly believe that's the true value of taking Global Connections.

Bad Teacher

Sometimes we do read on the news on how a teacher gets involved with a student, but never have I seen someone do it so that they can murder their husband. In the case of Pamela Smart I believe that you was a mastermind in all of this because of what she did. She was smart enough to be get a young teenager who she knew she could brainwash to get him to do what every she wanted him to do. Pamela Smart said things to Billy so that he would believe that if he got rid of Greg they could be together. For Pamela this was smart let someone else get their hands dirty for her and all she had to do was get out the house for a few hours. It could have all have worked out but the kids were sloppy and if only Pamela acted like she was actually hurt that her husband got killed.

Jordan David and Michael Dunn

Jordan Davis was shot and killed by a middle aged white male Michael Dunn near Jacksonville Florida after getting into an oral argument. This case covered one of the most important issues in US, race, and stand your ground rights and there were a lot of lessons I took out from this document. As we know Dunn was holding racial biases and defined Jordan as a "thug" from the way he looks, and also assumes he carried a gun: which evidence wasn't found. For this Dunn draws and fires the gun resulting the killing. Now as the court proceeded the defendant used the stand your ground laws to justify Dunn's shooting as self-defense. I completely agree on the court decision to not acknowledge Dunn's self-defense rights since no weapons were found from the boy's car nor Jordan's cloth, and Dunn's statement of seeing a weapon from Jordan is not credible. In addition Jordan didn't apply any force on Dunn, including physical combat, and thus he couldn't be perceived as a threat. It is simply shocking to find out Dunn's decision makings, and I think the juries in this case made the right decision.

How did Jordan Davis impact society?

A young kid enjoying a time with his friends at place, playing music, talking, having a good time. But he didn't accept someone to come out of nowhere and yell for no reason. Michael Dunn the person that started the altercation with young kid, was fed up with the music they were playing and asked if they can turn it down, but they didn't listen. The young kid, Jordan Davis, told his friend to turn the music up. The next thing you know, Michael Dunn brought a gun to the situation. Lets pause, what if you were Jordan Davis. I know some of us including me play our music super loud for anyone to hear. What if this situation happened to you. What would you do? In my opinion, I shouldn't care about what others think about my music if its too loud or has cursing inside. It is my freedom of speech. Jordan Davis and his friends had the ability to play there music as much as they want, and I don't think that Michael Dunn had the power to or the privilege to tell them to stop. And Michael Dunn's excuse for pulling out the gun is that Davis was threatening toward him.  Or even pull a gun out to make them stop, which isn't a good way to end things. This privilege that some people have isn't fair and shouldn't be involved in society. Everyone shouldn't  assume things by how things look, or appear. "Everyone is created equal" is used a lot in American society and based on this case and other cases in the past that dealt with racial situations, its not about people becoming equal, its about people accepting that people are different and unique in there own ways. We should accept each other for who we are not how we look or what "race background" we come from.

GLObal

Prior to senior year, I had little knowledge about the class called "Global." My friend in algebra would tell me to take it senior year, but I never really listened or payed attention to her explanation about it. In the beginning of the year I was enrolled in regular english. After the first day, I was already feeling like I needed to change. I wanted something different then just learning about literature and the basic stuff that's taught in regular english class. Switching into Global was probably the best decision I made this year. The class was exactly what I wanted. The lessons taught in that class are so different from any other class and that is what so unique about it. It really challenges your beliefs and ideas on life. Global is by far my favorite class at the moment and I'm more than glad to have switched into it. I highly recomend this class to anyone who wants to learn more about the law and broaden their knowledge about morals and ethics.

LAPD: Friends, Not Foes

Today we had two police officers come visit us during Global, and they gave us a huge insight on who police officers are, when they are and aren't on duty. From this experience today I think that most people including myself got a new view on how the police officers around our homes navigate. We got to see through Officer Ryan and Officer Darren that some cops aren't all we think they are. These officers sat down with us for two periods, if you had global B fourth period, and answered all the questions that we had today that ranged from their childhood to how they felt about the recent movements including the #BlackLivesMatter movement. What was cool to see was how that stuff affected them, even here in Los Altos. Officer Ryan mentioned how he immediately felt that the Michael Brown case would change everything about the relationship dynamic between citizens and officers of the law. I found this very interesting because even in Los Altos he felt he and his fellow officers would feel the shift in the relationships with the public. He explained how at parties people say don't shoot and things like that, when really he's trying to ensure that everyone gets home safe. I felt Officers Ryan and Darren were super cool and fun to meet, I got insight on two cops, and it changed my mind on how cops should be treated because the only other cops I've ever met were fairly mean. Meeting these two officers today was really cool and I felt they were very helpful when explaining things like their weapons, when we talked about Ferguson.

OJ

My thoughts on the OJ case is that he was guilty and that he was able to get away with it because of how the defense team pulled on the race card and question the LAPD on how they handle things in the past. I feel that there was enough evidence to convict OJ because I don't believe that the police was able to take one of the murder gloves and leave it at OJ house and I also don't believe that they were able to take some of OJ blood and spread it around the murder scene in enough time. I don't see how OJ past abuse of Nicole also didn't help the jury believe that it was OJ. I feel that if the defense used a different strategy they would have not been able to win the case. What ultimately won the case for OJ was the time that this case took place in which was a couple years after the Rodney King beating which left many people angered and it was also at the time that many minorities would get mistreated by the LAPD which lead them to have a bad reputation.

Los Altos Police Department

Today, two police officers came into our class to talk about their job. I myself, am not a fan of cops. That's just my personal opinion on them. Coming into class I wasn't really looking forward into anything they had to say. As they started to talk, my attitude shifted and within five minutes I was kind of interested and intrigued. These two cops were actually pretty cool. They talked about their background and their overall thoughts about being a cop. Something funny and cool that one of them said was the story about him fighting a drug addict. The cop had history with this druggie; every time he'd visit him, he would run into his house and start teasing the officer. Finally, the drug addict came out one day and they both started fighting. But it was the way the officer explained the incident is what made it super funny and cool. By the end of the talk we had with the cops I thought of them almost as those cool teachers you always want to talk to and laugh with.

Los Altos Police Officers

Through both periods, 3rd and 4th I enjoyed listening to Ryan and Darren speak about there experiences of being a officer in the city of Los Altos. As well as hearing how they became officers and how they spent there career patrolling through the Bay area. I was interested about there perspective of the Ferguson case, by stating that it is different to how Missouri police departments train there officers and overall how other departments train. It also depends on the state about how much time a officer should be train to become acquaint for a job that purposely tries to keep people safe. By how the Ferguson case was addressed, now every officer in the state of California has a body camera attached to there uniform. Ryan was saying that when he first received it was stupid, but as time goes on, the camera became part of him and sometimes he forgets its there. Also Ryan says that the body camera actually helped him clean up his language and has cleaner conversation. Overall, I felt as though the discussions we had with officers were interesting, some points funny, and important to know how they react or approach different situations. Hopefully we can do this again.

Rodney King

In "Uprising: Hip Hop and the L.A Riots" it was very interesting how the Rodney King case had such a impact in the United States and even till this day. In which it was the first hard evidence of police brutality being filmed. Then the video went from locally to nationwide. From this the frustration and anger from minorities(African american community) in L.A had enough and were tired of the police profiling them. For which what pulled the trigger was when the officers weren't found guilty for nearly taking away Mr. King's life. 

Mental Illness being cured?

During our independent reading segment of Global, I stumbled upon this book called Finding Fish. This is the story of Navy service member Antoine Fisher as he goes through his childhood, to time in the service, then life as a veteran. This novel was later adapted to a movie, staring Denziel Washington, which is one of his very notable movies. Unfortunately, I did not get a chance to finish the book, but a part in the beginning had really struck me. In the first couple chapters, we learn about Antoine's life as a child. Father is in the service, living with his aunt, mother is in a psych ward. When reading about the reaction between his mother and Antoine, it was something like the both of them didn't know who each other were, other than that they were family. It really got me thinking on whether or not hospitals for mental illnesses are really doing the job. Is separating a mother from her young son the right thing, and if it is, is it actually doing any good? That brought me to my next thought, like with Andrea Yates, is the mental institution she's in actually helping her? Since the last facilities she was in didn't help and lead to her killing her children, who's to say that the mental institution she was sent to know is doing her any favors. Just a thought.

Another post about OJ Simpson

Although the OJ Simpson case was huge and broadcast across America, some of us didn't know much about it until we went over it in class.  The case happened before we were even born, so there was no reason for us to have felt its impact.  Because of that, I think we bring an interesting perspective to the table. On the one hand, we don't get the emotional arguments.  We shrug our shoulders and say, "Okay, a football player killed someone.  He was a celebrity.  It was a big deal," but we have a hard time really feeling why people were so upset.  On the other hand, we can be far more neutral about the evidence presented to us.  We didn't grow up worshiping OJ Simpson, so we didn't find the murder hard to believe.  We didn't know Nicole Brown, either, so we didn't want revenge for her.  And we certainly weren't living in the immediate aftermath of the Rodney King riots, or any other major, multi-day riot.

Even now, although I intellectually understand why the case was such a big deal and why it was so divisive, I still can't entirely get why people were so mad at the jury, or why people were willing to watch only that case all day every day.  It sounds boring.  And that generation gap makes it hard for us to understand a major reference point in our society, even today.

McDonald's Hot Coffee

It was very shocking hearing about the woman that sued McDonald's after buying a cup of coffee and spilling it all over her. I couldn’t believe that someone would sue a big company for dropping coffee on herself but after shown the pictures of the injuries she had gotten from the coffee it seemed reasonable. The coffee that they were serving was way too hot that could've caused the burn injuries she got. At the end of the case, Stella Liebeck, the woman that got burn, got nearly $3 million for the burns she had suffered.

Kitty Genovesa

If you are ever in a situation in where you or someone else is being attack and there is people seeing it happening it, you would assume that they would call for help. Yet for the 38 year old, Kitty Genovesa, this wasn’t the case. It was shocking learning about how she was stabbed continuous of times outside her apartments where there were about 33 people witness it happening. You would expect someone to call 911 for help but when finally someone did it was too late for her. At first, I thought bad about the 33 people that witness it because they could've saved her life but after then seeing the experiment about how there is a better chance for someone who is alone to be able to handle a situation of chaos better than a group of people. At first judgement you think see the 33 people as bad but if anyone were in their situation they would think that someone else had already called for help.

Bad Samaritan

It was sad reading about the 7 year old girl that was raped and killed by Jeremy Strohmeyer in a bathroom stall especially because his friend, David Cash, could've done something to stop him. He saw what Jeremy was doing to the poor girl and the only thing he did to “tried” to stop Jeremy was to hit his hat. In that moment, he could've called security or called the police or even try to get the door of the stall open but instead he just went out for a walk. He has said that it wasn’t his problem and that he doesn’t even feel any remorse about what happen to her. Even after Jeremy had confess to him of killing the little girl he didn’t care to turn him into the police because he felt a sense of responsibility to his best friend. I felt that it was unfair that he was not held responsible for what happen to the girl, his actions didn’t even affect him at all.

Bad Samaritan

When the world heard about the case it angered so many people because of what David Cash decided to do by walking away. When I read about this I was shocked about what I had read because how is it possible that someone was able to walk away from seeing a little girl from getting raped in the bathroom. When I think about what happens I think about how the little girl was someone daughter,sister, and granddaughter and I wonder how they feel about what happens and then I think about how I would feel if that was my sister. When I think about that I feel really pissed about what David Cash did how was he able to do that what is that what his little sister? I don't understand how someone was able to walk away from that.

Affluenza

The case study about affluenza was about Ethan Couch, 16 year old, who was driving drunk with seven of his friends and killed four people in a car accident. On the day of the accident him and his friends started drinking around 6 p.m. and when they had ran out of alcohol they went  to the store to buy some which they ended stealing it . At the time of the accident, Ethan had left the crime scene and tried bribing someone who he thought was part of the accident. I personally thought it was wrong and unfair that he was only sentence for 10 year probation and therapy. This case showed the idea that if you come from a high income family you can get away from anything.

Modern Officers and Past Issues

While the officers were also visiting, they mentioned in a comment about different events that have changed a lot of things about the police department in general. One thing that had me wondering was during training at the Police Academy, do they learn about these different events that change police policy? When taking exams at the Academy, do they take them about the Rodney King Riots? Or the Watts Riots? And if so, what do they learn about them? Like how to diffuse a situation or just what about them has changed the way officers act and are trained.

OJ Simpson

After watching the documentary of OJ Simpson’s trial  I came to the conclusion that OJ was the one responsible for Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman murder. The evidence presented in the trial showed facets of guilt being: means, motive, and opportunity but the way the defense handle it made it difficult to prove that he was the one guilty.

One piece of evidence that helped me build my conclusion about the case was the findings of his and Nicole’s blood in the gloves that were found in his house. I don’t personally believe that the police would of plant the gloves at his house because there was no reason or benefit of why they would of wanted to plant evidence in his house. Also the fact that he was in a car chase and there was money and guns in the car  reflected that he felt guilty of what he did so he was just trying to run away. It was also very suspicious that he didn’t really had an alibi on the day of the murder and that his driver saw a man going into the house when he had been waiting for OJ to take him to the airport.

$3llebrity

I have always thought of the paparazzi as a burden to the human population. Especially to celebrities. However, it wasn't until this documentary, I realized how much of a pain of an ass they are. They would literally invade everyone's privacy and space without caring at all. The most irritating thing about it is that, their job is to get photos. So they will do anything in their power to capture something worth giving to the media. It doesn't matter if you're getting married, or taking a shower, or sunbathing naked; they will disrespect you're private life because they need that photograph to pay the bills. People will say they don't morals because of their actions, but it's what they have to do in order to get by. So, you could say ethically, they need to do what they do. My views on them will still remain the same.

Wrong Driver

So recently I had required a car along with my license and there are some peculiar things about this vehicle. This Acura I'm driving has tinted purple windows, a loud sound system with insane base, fast acceleration, and one of the most wanted cars for stealing in the Bay Area. One night, I'm driving home from the gym, and as usual, I have the sound ripped up and the base straight rocking the suspension. On the way back, I see a cop drive up behind me, not with sirens on, and continues to follow me. After seeing him follow me a couple of blocks, I pull into my old elementary school parking lot and roll down the window to ask the officer if there was a problem. The light inside my car turns on and I turn and look out the window to question the officer and see what's up, but the officer's car slows down and then speeds up in front of me and then leaves me alone by driving off. The only reason I can assume he drove away was because he saw my skin color, which could have been the opposite of who he was expecting to see driving the type of car I do. I really don't want to call out any officers on stereotypes or racism, but it just kind of reminds me of our identity and labels, like how that relates to stereotypes.

Celebrity privacy still a thing or a concern of the past?

Looking on Instagram, I see all of these celebrities, actors, rappers, and big stars posting their daily lives for the whole world to see. Going back to the $ellebrity documentary, it seems possible that as time goes on, most, if not all celebrities, just don't care too much about privacy. If they're willing to put their whole lives on such social media websites, don't they kinda seem to be forfeiting their privacy? I'm not saying that we shouldn't let famous people be in peace, but it just seems kind of pointless arguing their privacy. But I also get the sense that celebrities that were in the documentary from years ago, social media has gotten a lot more popular with these famous people, and they necessarily don't care as much as celebrities from a couple years ago. So as the years go on, concern about personal privacy goes away?

Officer Morales and Ethics

When listening to the police officers who came to class, they mentioned that sometimes they will "let off" some people because the crime they are doing really isn't a huge thing, they want to give him a warning, or it's just not too huge of a problem. So what came to my mind was if the idea of morals and ethics come into play when they are deciding whether or not to let others off the hook. I know that the department gives them rules and guidelines on whether or not they should arrest someone or let them go, but do police officers have their own moral or ethical code they stand by. If someone is on parole, getting in trouble for something that's a misdemeanor which could result in him going back to prison, would the officer let him off because he thinks its morally or ethically right?

Presidential Elections Reaction

When Donald Trump was elected as our next president the first word that came out of my mouth was "SHIT". Then started thinking how blessed I was that I'm living in liberal area and where discrimination,racism, and prejudice is hardly to be seen or talked about. Especially coming from a young Latino who's a "minority" i'm truly blessed that i'm not in some other place being racially profiled and being treated like shit. Moments after I started to tear up because I have family members,friends, and people across the country who are undocumented and scared for what's going to happen to them when Donald Trump becomes president.

Strange Defense: Affluenza Defense

While we were covering the case studies we were introduced to strange defense used by the defendants, and showed there were loopholes in this justice system. All the cases were eye opening but especially the affluenza defense stood out to me. The whole concept of the affluenza defense was that his lack of moral and ethics was based on the lavish life provided by his wealthy parents, and thus couldn't differentiate the right and wrong when killing the people while driving his vehicle with DUI. Considering DUI factor Couch would've been easily charged with at least an involuntary manslaughter, however the verdict was Couch being hospitalized in a mental hospital not facing any criminal charges. This disappointed the majority of people including myself since Couch had got away with the felony, and should've faced the charges. Moreover after the incident happened Couch acknowledges the fact he committed something bad, and admits his accountability to the incident while he was walking down the road from the scene. Therefore I believe the affluenza couldn't have been applied, and the court had made a terrible decision. What are your guys thoughts?  

Why Our Society Needs Help

Although I did not hear what police are like in our community I did have the opportunity to talk to one a while back. This was in the beginning of the school year and I don't think I fully realized what our society was like and I knew there was a lot of police brutality but I didn't think most officers were bad. After talking to this man about what is was like to be a police officer I realized even in one of the most laid back communities, like Santa cruz where most crimes are for drugs and a lot of people get off the hook, that most police officers are incompetent. I asked him what would happen if a police officer was pulled over for speeding and he told me that if you show the other officer your badge they usually let you off the hook. So these people who are supposed to be role models for communities are getting away with braking a law and today many officers have this problem with larger crimes like getting away with beating an innocent man to death because he looked suspicious. Although I know there are good cops out there I think our police system needs a huge remodel as so many problems keep arising and there is not much done about it.

A Battle of Worlds

For my free reading book I choose to read Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children. A young boys Grandfather used to tell him stories about a magical world where everyone had powers and magic. One day some bad people came and caused him to leave this magical world. As he grew older he stopped believing, but when he saw his grandfather die he was convinced he saw a monster and didn't know what to believe. He grew into a depression and found clues that were left behind which led him to an island where he was able to find this magical world. This book deals with a lot of things teenagers do like loss and depression. Through hope he is able to find happiness and deal with the loss of his grandfather. Even though somethings might not seem to always be going your way there is always another "world" that can show you everything you don't believe.

Free reading reflection:)

The Secret Life of Bees is narrated by a 14 year old white girl named Lily who lives on a peach farm with her father, T-Ray. Her relationship with her father is strained due to the fact that he still holds resentment over her mother’s death. When Lily was just a baby she accidentally pulled the trigger on a gun that killed her mother. T-Ray is abusive towards her and will often make her kneel on grit for hours as punishment. This will end up scraping and bruising her knees so badly she can barely walk.
The book begins with Lily in her room watching as the bees emerge from the walls.  Excited, she wakes T-Ray only to anger him. Lily works on her father’s peach farm in the hot sun almost everyday. T-Ray refuses to let her really have her childhood or participate in any school activities. T-Ray also barely talks to Lily about her mother, forcing Lily to hide the few items of her mother she has. She keeps them buried under a tree in their farm. One night she is lying out there with her mother’s possessions and T-Ray comes out and assumes she is with a boy and calls her a slut. He punishes her by making her kneel on the grits. Her black housekeeper and nanny, Rosaleen, decides that she wants to register to vote. She has to learn how to write her name in perfect cursive in order to register. She also has to walk miles into town to go to the black church to register. Lily’s knees are bruised from the night before and its very hot so they take a rest inside the church T-Ray and Lily used to go to. Rosaleen steals two fans to keep her and Lilly cool in the Georgia heat. Once they get to town they see some white men hanging out by a gas station. They start giving Rosaleen a hard time and Rosaleen empties her spit jar on to their feet. The men proceed to attack Rosaleen beating her while Lilly has to just stand and watch. They then proceed to call the police and the police arrest ROSALEEN.

OJ "The Juice"

The case study about Orenthal James "O.J." Simpson was one of the biggest trials we have studied in global. From the start of the case, my mind was set and persuaded that OJ was the killer of Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend. Almost all evidence collected by perpetrators almost gave us every reason to think he was guilty. If you think about it you kind of have to be delusional to think he was innocent. There was a lot of evidence going against OJ; Oj's blood was at the crime scene, the footprint from the scene and his car is the same shoe he has many pictures in, the missing glove from the scene was found at his house, he had a history of domestic violence against Nicole. However, as the case went on, I knew that Oj was going to be innocent somehow. James played this entire case very smart and took advantage of the time it took place in. At the time, the people of the African American community had a very complicated relationship with the police. People in Los Angeles were still recovering from the Rodney King incident. So he turned his case into a hate crime and ultimately got back at the white community and LAPD for Mr. King.

Good or Evil? Reflection

In this documentary, the theory I most agree with is the Oxytocin Bonding Hormone. I agree with this one the most because it gives a sufficient amount of evidence concerning the group of rugby players. It tested them in such a way that they didn’t know each other. They also wanted to see if they could even work well together. It  strictly demonstrated whether or not they would have empathy towards each other. Overall, it ended up showing how successful the theory was and it established the fact that Oxytocin is a positive thing within a human being. The theory I most disagree with is the experiment that involved the babies. To me, it just seemed a tad absurd to test whether a baby’s natural instincts are good or evil. I find this theory really inaccurate because these children are too young and their brains are barely starting to develop. Also, the probability of them knowing what's going on is quite minimal. Although, it wasn’t surprising to me that 70% of the babies liked the good doll because babies are typically drawn to good characters.

Human Behavior Experiments

In the case of Stanley Milgrams Experiment, human behavior is witnessed because in order to do something out of our human rationale, you have to be able to shed some responsibility to an authority figure. The relationship between power and authority plays a huge role in this because when you have both, you tend to abuse it. Likewise in the case of McDonalds, humans tend to take orders from authority figures because they fear that if they don’t obey, there will be serious consequences. For a lot of us, authority figures impose fear on us which make us take directions from them. Lastly, in the Kitty Genovese Experiment, if you are the only person involved you’re much more likely to act in order to help. When other people are involved, you follow their judgment because if not then you will feel like the odd one out.

Ferguson Documentary

The most compelling aspects that connect judgments is the fact that so much animosity has been building up from both the LA riots and Ferguson riots as a result of the way that White policemen conduct themselves. White police officers tend to believe that they have an upper hand on all races except for their own. It's crazy to believe how superior they feel and just because they are "the authority", they feel like they can abuse their power. Minorities are just simply tired of being dehumanized. Burning cars and burning down the cities around is a way to get their point across and it also takes out frustration that has been building up for numerous years. Overall, all of the built up frustration is a way to inform the authorities that they NEED to conduct themselves a whole lot better.

$ellebrity Reflection

Celebrities carry many advantages and disadvantages that come with their fame. High stress, paparazzi jumping over fences, kids being bombarded with cameras is simply just unbearable for celebrities. On the other hand, they did sign up for this and they benefit off of it by receiving lots of money for what they do. In other words, they asked for this life so now they deal with it. Ethics, morals, and privileges all tie in together because it monitors a celebrity's behavior whether they're on camera or not. Celebrities disadvantages definitely outweigh the advantages and I honestly feel bad for them because being a celebrity is really hard and super stressful.

3 1/2 Minutes and Ten Bullets

For some reason, this documentary was quite different from other documentaries that I've watched before. In other documentaries, there almost never seems to be justice for minorities. When I heard the final verdict for Michael Dunn, I'm not going to lie, I was glad that justice finally ruled in favor of minorities. I think the verdict that Dunn received was pretty accurate and it not only served justice for Jordan Davis but for the rest of his friends as well. Throughout the documentary, Jordan Davis' mother said something so profound that really resonated with me. That was, "As a minority it's just like another slap to the face -- telling a certain race that they don't matter". What she says is 100% true because minorities have been looked down upon ever since I can remember and are simply judged based off a skin color. It seems to be that any race that isn't White is less respected. One would hope that by now everyone could get along, but that's just not possible because people choose to only see skin colors. All in all, I just can't wrap my head around the fact that this world is so racist and miserable that minorities have to fear for their lives.

Celebrities

In the documentary we watched, it's interesting how the life style of being famous is not fun. Seeing how the paparazzi interferes in their lives in a daily basis, yet keeping themselves professional. I know for a fact that if I was being bothered everyday by cameras and people saying bullshit. I would break every single camera and cuss them out so badly. It's also irritating how the paparazzi  don't care about privacy and just take pictures to make money. I understand that's their job to take pictures but honestly they should respect and not provoke them to act out.

Paparazzi: pals or problems?

Looking back at the $ellebrity video we watched I think that the paparazzi debate is a serious issue that gets over looked a lot by most people. The thought of random people hopping your fence to take a simple photo on their phone strikes a bit of doubt and fear into my mind when I think about how I feel when paparazzi harass celebrities over anything possible. it surprised me a lot, when JLo mentioned that she asked everyone to respect her privacy because she wanted to have her own private wedding, and then people still tried to sneak into her house and get pictures so they could try and sell them. I understand why someone would do it, but the fact that she asked for her privacy for a moment she felt was very intimate is sad, because someone just wanted to make some easy cash at the cost of her happiness. I think that people overlook the fact that celebrities are people too, and that they should be treated the same as anyone else should. Even though they are celebrities, I believe that if they ask for the privacy and respect that they try to give everyone that it should be granted the way anyone else would want. I also think that if someone has events in a public manner, such as the incidents to Jessica Simpson, or Lindsey Lohan consisting of mental or emotional breakdowns, I believe it could be documented although it is not morally or ethically right to.

Case Studies

Throughout the year in global we have been exposed to many complicated cases. Some of these cases shown to us make us think about every single detail that is given. The cool thing about these documentaries is that it makes everyone think differently. In the videos, evidence about the case is documented to us and the answer of whether the suspect is guilty or not varies between the students in the class. I think it's good to learn about these case studies because it introduces us to a new way of thinking. A more broader way of thinking, I should say. It's not easy to decide whether some of these people or innocent or not because the factual evidence that's given to us; it kind of alters our minds and make us contemplate about what is what's not morally correct.

Did he do it?

In the beginning I really believed OJ Simpson did not murder his ex wife or her friend, but over time and as evidence kept coming in, I thought well, theres no way he did it with all these cops tampering with the evidence, or because when he did the glove demonstration the glove did not fit Oj's hands at all. During the middle of the case I started to feel as if he was innocent due to lack of evidence and reasonable doubt, even though we knew nicole had been beaten and abused by OJ in the past. Now I believe he did do it, since he had a cut on his finger he couldn't explain, or him saying he disliked the shoes he happened to owned and that were super limited edition, and as well as not having someone with him during the time, he claimed to be taking a shower and not hearing his driver outside ringing the bell, but in my perspective we'll never know if he actually did it or not, because they never did find the murder weapon or did anyone see OJ himself in her house, only way we'll be able to find out if he did do it or not would be if he openly admitted to doing it.

Dropbox nudes

http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Police-investigating-South-Bay-students-10788465.php

Recently it has been publicly announced that there is an active investigation going on at Mountain View High School (and possibly other nearby schools) regarding a Dropbox library that stores a large number of girl's nudes. All students involved are under 18. No arrests have been made at this point but it is likely there will be several coming within the near future. I have several thoughts regarding this situation but I think I will start out with my sheer disgust. The fact that these students have such disrespect for their fellow classmates blows my mind. I can not imagine being so violated and exposed. My heart goes out to all the girls on the site. My second issue is with Mountain View High School itself. MVHS alerted the authorities about the situation way back on August 28. MVHS administration made no effort to reach out to teachers, parents, or students during the time that has passed since that date. Students were left to suffer in silence. The lack of action taken by MVHS shows the disregard for student's mental health and focus on maintaining a pristine reputation for their school. The teachers were left in the dark and had no idea what was going on in a large amount of their students' lives. They had no way of supporting these children. It's important to maintain communication during a time like this. Brendesha Tynes, an associate professor of education and psychology at the University of Southern California, was quoted saying, "...officials ideally should have let teachers, parents and counselors know in general what was going on, without disclosing the identities of anyone involved. The message should have offered them tips for conversation, and advised them on how to recognize signs of depression in students,". I believe the administration at MVHS needs to rethink their priorities, and at the top of that list should be the students health, not only physical but mental as well.

"Hot for Teacher"

Pamela Smart used lust to manipulate a teenage boy into killing her husband. When she “fell in love” with her sophomore student Bill, she took his virginity then shortly after gave him an ultimatum: either kill her husband or she would leave him. Being a sophomore boy who just lost his virginity to his beautiful 20 something teacher, Mrs.Smart knew she had Bill wrapped around her finger and could get him to do anything she pleased. Pam deserves to be sentenced to imprisonment for life; manipulating a young boy into committing a horrible crime. It's still very difficult for me to wrap my head around a teacher acting in such a childish way. First she sparks a romantic affair with a child, then proceeds to not want to do the adult thing and leave her husband (so killing him is obviously the only option.) Bill on the other hand deserves to deal with the repercussions of killing someone but should not have the rest of his life be affected because it wasn’t an act of hate. He was old enough to know that what he was doing was very wrong, but young enough to be easily manipulated into doing something he didn't want to.

Sane and Insane

Andrea Yates was obviously a troubled mother with a lot of mental issues, but I can't pity her because in my book she was "sane." When Andrea drowned her four kids in their bathroom and placed them on her bed one by one when she was done with hem, these actions had to come to be by someone who was meticulously planning it out. She claims that she was influenced by the teachings of a pasture that emphasized on the idea that everyone is going to hell when they're born, and you have to earn our spot in heaven by not sinning. Andrea became convinced she was a horrible person and became obsessed with the idea that her kids were going to hell for being disobedient rather than just being kids. Convincing herself that the only way her kids would be able to go to heaven is if she killed them. She knew the act of murder was a "sin," but she decided to make that sacrifice. This was a mother with serious mental health problems, but she knew her actions were wrong and knew she had to deal with the repercussions of her actions.

Dupree

Thinking back to when we learned about Marcus Dupree, we had a lot of discussions in class about morality. Analyzing what happened to Dupree, the only rational anyone can truly use is their own morality and looking at the ethics of the situation as a whole. When looking at each group of people, you not only had to look at the facts, but you had to look at the context around it. When I was determining if someone was morally positive or negative, I was looking at whether or not their motives were pure or for self benefit. Take Uncle Curlee for example; he seemed like the father figure in Dupree’s life that would always look out for him, especially with his money, when in reality he was capitalizing off of his “investment.” When looking at a group ethically, it is less black and white, giving us a lot more grey area to deal with. When we think about bribes or offering people money for something we usually think that is morally wrong, but when say colleges are throwing offers and money at a talented football player suddenly that idea doesn’t seem so wrong anymore. When looking at morals vs. ethics one rationale is way more cut and dry than the other. As bad as it sounds, it's easier for me to judge one person's decisions vs. a corporation or group as a whole mentality.

Very late Bigger, Faster, Stronger Thoughts

This documentary made me realize how easy it is to have pre accessed notions about something with having little to no knowledge on the topic. I believe it is our human nature to judge other people's morals based off of our own, but this documentary has made me step back and take a second to absorb all the facts before making a snap decision. Whenever I’ve heard “steroids” in the past I instantly think about huge body builders trying to get bigger. My eyes were opened to the fears of child use of steroids and actually their beneficial factors. I would have never thought of steroids as helping people who have AIDs/HIV. This documentary made me realize that no matter how immoral you believe someone's actions are, until you have gained full knowledge on the situation there's no way you can judge. Before watching this documentary I didn’t have any true opinion about steroids and whether or not they were moral or immoral. I believe the use of steroids in kids is absolutely wrong, because it is teaching them that drugs are the only way to get as big as you want. But by no means does that justify lying to them if you do so yourself; kids are smarter and able to handle more than adults think. I don’t see an issue with an adult using steroids if he or she is that concerned with their body image.

My Reactions to the Election Reactions

Growing up in the Silicon Valley, in such an openly Liberal area, it was natural to think everyone would have a negative reaction to Donald Trump winning the recent presidential election. As I woke up on the morning after the election, everything that I expected to happen did. Scrolling through my Facebook feed before I even stepped out of bed, I was bombarded with posts expressing the shock and disgust with the election results. As I read the only think I could think to myself was "wow I wonder how different these Facebook feeds must look in various parts of the United States?" In my very small world of very Liberal friends, it was easy to believe the misconception that everyone else felt the same way the majority of our area did. Global has taught me to look at any topic of interest with a compassionate eye, and to consider that there are more points of view than your own.

Bad Samaritan

In the "Bad Samaritan",  we learned that David Cash was disliked for his actions and not intervening when a little girl who was being rapped and then killed by his friend. I was really shocked for I watched because again he didn't do anything and then walking out and didn't ask for help to stop his friend. Honestly  that's Fuc*** up! If I was in his shoes I would interfere because anyone's life is important especially a little innocent girl.

Celebrities vs. Paparazzi

Based on the documentary we saw about celebrities, it was interesting to see how their stardom has changed to what it is now. Back then, they were honored and praised; whenever a paparazzi wanted a picture of them, they’d asked respectfully. Now everyone is only trying to expose them, provoke them to show their bad side to the point of invading their privacy. Back then during recognition events, there would be at least 5 photographers taking pictures of the celebrities and that would be enough but now the number increased to more than 10 that are trying to take pictures of celebrities causing chaos.

People would say that’s their job, that’s what they signed up for and wanted. When you become a celebrity you sign up to become part of a brand and in order to keep it popular you need give people what they want. Then there’s others that blame the paparazzi and media enterprises for all the embarrassing things celebrities do. Personally, I think that it is immoral to invade their privacy especially at their house or to provoke them to act out. I understand it’s the photographer’s job to  get pictures and the latest news but there are ways to do it more respectfully. I also think that celebrities shouldn’t treat them so bad they are basically just doing their job, that's what they are paid for.

Glossip vs. Gross

For my research paper I choose Glossip vs Gross. This case was about the morality of the use of Midazolam in executions. Prisoners felt that this drug caused cruel and unusual pain during the executions as it didn't render someone unconscious for enough time for two other drugs to kill them. This left the person susceptible to the pain that the next two drugs caused. These prisoners wanted a change to the protocol in how and what drugs were used. However they failed to present another method that could cause less pain during the execution and ensure that the person remain unconscious. Since these are prisoners I don't think they have the right to not feel any pain because in order to be on death row you had to have caused a lot of pain to someone else. With that said I agree with the Judges decision that the use of the drug did not violate the eighth amendment.

After hearing almost all of the witness testimonies, I'm still having trouble understanding why the grand jury wouldn't want Darren Wilson to go on trial for the death of Michael Brown. A lot of the witness testimonies varied, it was very difficult to figure out what really happened. However, if the true story of what happened was still in question than I don't think Darren Wilson would have been able to walk away. He should have been put on trial so, hopefully, the truth about what happened could be revealed and justice could be served. But since they decided that he was not guilty of anything, it was assumed that he was innocent. I understand that everyone is "innocent until proven guilty", however based on a majority of the witness testimonies Darren Wilson did not seem innocent at all. If there was even the slightest chance that he did it, I think that the jury should have voted to put him on trial so there could be justice for Michael Brown.

Minorities and preformance

I have read a few studies that say that minorities, specifically african americans and hispanics, preform worse academically, but I take issue with that statement. Although as a whole that may be true, the reasons that the researchers sight as why minorities preform worse is that they do not have the access to resources or the same home environment as Caucasians or Asians. To me, that seems, not a symptom of being of a low economic status. I am sure if you had two wealthy kids of different races and two poor children of different races and compared their test scores, the wealthier children would preform about the same and the poor children would preform about the same. Often times race is a large part of the american conversation and I often don't fee that it needs to be as prevalent a topic as some people make it out to be. Because if you tell minority kids that they will preform better, they will experience learnt helplessness and actually preform worse when they may very well have succeeded.

Ricci V Destefano

In the Case I studied for my paper, Ricci V Destefano, a case where White firefighters were not promoted because their black counterparts were unable to pass the preliminary multiple choice test required for the promotions. As the lead plaintiff, Frank Ricci believed that he had been discriminated against and his civil rights been violated because of his race. We have been talking so much about racism towards African Americans, and I am not at all saying that racial discrimination against whites is nearly as relevant as African American racism, but the supreme court's decision that it was in fact a violation of civil rights to deny the men their promotions because of their race proves that systemic racism can exist towards anyone.

Something to keep in mind for Socratic seminar coming up

Now this post is less about the content of the Ferguson trials and more about the classes attitude. In a week we are gonna have a Socratic seminar and especially when discussing topics as sensitive as the trails lets keep in mind that its a discussion not a verbal massacre. I enjoy Socratic seminars but it discourages people from talking if everyone is just interrupting and not respecting other peoples opinions. I just wanted to make sure its not a bloodbath next week and for everyone to keep an open mind and have a conversation. Anyways i'm sure this will be an interesting Socratic due to the difference of opinions and the controversy of the topic.

Civil Trials for Ferguson

We learned about civil and criminals trials this year.  To be declared guilty in a criminal trial, all 12 jurors need to agree, while in a civil trial there only needs to be reasonable doubt.  From many witness testimonies, we know that Darren Wilson did kill Michael Brown, but Wilson could have shot in self-defense.  Brown's family filed for a civil trial against Darren Wilson.  I think that civil trials are good because they allow the family/victim to receive compensation for their injuries or in this case the death of their family member. This trial will be interesting because they only need reasonable doubt from the jury that he shot Brown on purpose. Here's more information on the civil trial: http://fox2now.com/2015/09/08/2016-trial-set-for-brown-familys-suit-against-ferguson/

Coming to a Conclusion

I was pretty clear on the fact that I thought Darren Wilson used an excessive amount of force that lead to Michael Browns death until the most recent testimonies. Up until the most recent testimonies, I had only heard that Micheal Brown was charging Darren Wilson  a couple times. One of those was Wilson's testimony where he would obviously say that Michael Brown was a threat. 

I had only heard that Michael Brown was walking to the officer and was not posing any serious threats. In the past few presentation, I had heard a lot more witnesses saying that he was charging Officer Wilson. One said he looked like a football player ready to tackle. In this case, I would see why Wilson would feel threatened. In the end, its so hard for me to form an opinion when it feels like I can't get a good understanding of what really happened that day.

I feel that it would be important to touch on the fact that what you believe, may affect the way you perceive something. For the people who hate the police and see them as the bad guys will look at this event differently than people who think Police and good and so the person on the other side of his gun is bad.  One person might see Michael Brown as an innocent kid not doing anything, when the officer, unprovoked, shot him several times and killed him. Someone else will see an officer saving the community from a dangerous man.  There were so many witnesses looking at the exact same thing, yet it is hard to find consistencies.  

Lionel Tate

I do not know how others felt but to me it was sad to see Lionel Tate go to prison with such a severe sentence. It is clear to me that the injuries Tiffany Eunick received were horrible and that it why he received such a hard sentence. At the same time it is hard to see someone lose their freedom so young.

I know that when you are younger it is hard to understand boundaries and to know when you are going to far. I understand how this could have happened, not the extent to which it happened, but how something like this could occur. I remember in class when we were learning abut this class, people were sharing how they had experiences(obviously on a smaller scale)  where something like this occurred. As a kid, you are strongly influenced by your environment, so anything you see around you may make you think those actions are okay.

At the age of 12, Tate was sentenced to a life in prison without chance of parole. For some reason, I find it really hard to believe that it was his intent to kill Tiffany but instead more of a horrible mistake. Tiffany lost her life that day which is terrible, but it was still hard to see Lionel Tate lose his freedom as well.

3 1/2 minutes ten bullets

In the Jordan Davis case, I believe that it was never really about Micheal Dunn feeling that his life was ever in danger and that Jordan Davis and along with the other teenagers were after him. I feel like it was more so the idea that he saw 4 BLACK teenagers all in a car playing some loud "Gangster" music that he really didn't like. Especially with the idea that Micheal Dunn said that he saw a Jordan Davis with a gun but, there was actually never a gun anywhere to be found. Also, I think that something that really played a big factor of why Micheal Dunn shot at the 4 teenagers in the first place is how us as a society till this day still fall into the stereotypes and labels on each other. Micheal Dunn could have looked at Jordan Davis and his friends and probably thought that they could be up to no good while in fact he didn't know anything about them. Therefore I believe that in this case the decisions that they made to put Micheal Dunn behind bars was a wise one.

Conclusion to Darren Wilson Case

I have found that even after hearing 23 of the 24 volumes I am still having a hard time deciding whether or not Darren Wilson should have faced charges. After re-looking over my notes it seems to be that there are roughly two stories about what happened between Wilson and Brown. The first story can be boiled down to the idea that Brown was holding Darren Wilson inside the car while repeatedly punching him. Then after Brown stops running away, he turns without his hands up and charges back toward officer Brown in a manner that seems like he is a threat to Wilson. Some of the other small aspects to this story that change between every witness are whether or not Brown was reaching for a weapon. Among the witnesses that all seem to give testimonies similar to the story I just gave, most of these people believe that Wilson told Brown to stop and put his hands up repeatedly.
The other story that I seem to hear the most is that Brown was only putting his hands into the police car in an attempt to get away from Darren Wilson was holding him near the car. Then jumping forward to when Brown stops running, he turns around with his hands up and slowly walked toward Officer Darren Wilson. With Witness testimonies most similar to this, many of them believe that Wilson somehow started the altercation and never gave Brown verbal warning to stop. I am struggling to choose which story to believe. If Brown did in fact charge Wilson, never had his hands up, and repeatedly punched the police officer than I think that Wilson was in the right to shoot Mike Brown. But if in fact the other story is true than I do not think that Wilson had any justification to shoot Brown and should have faced charges.
If at this very moment in time I had to choose a story to side with I think I would side with the second story. I would side with the second story for two major reasons. The first being that I felt there were more inconsistencies and unreliable witnesses in the first story. The second is that after reading the Physicians Assistants testimony from my volume and learning that Wilson did not have any noticeable bruising to his face, I don't think that Brown could have been punching him that hard. This leads me to believe instead that the read marks on Wilson's face where from Brown pushing him to try to get away.

The Bad Samaritan

Although we haven't discussed Ethan Couch in a while, I think his involvement in the murder of Sharice Iverson (or lack there of) contributed a significant amount. If he had tried to intervene, Sharice Iverson would still be alive. Since he claims he is Jeremy’s best friend, Cash could have pulled him off of her and potentially stopped the crime. He was completely selfish, he didn’t want to get involved or deal with it so he wouldn’t get in trouble. There were signs of what was going to happen, when an 18 year old boy is muffling the screams of a 7 year old girl, nothing good can come of it. Because he did nothing, a little girl lost her life.

Peoples reactions are circumstantial, Ethan Couch obviously was scared and his instinct wasn't to help someone in need. As horrible as it might be, there's no way to convict him for what he didn't do. I understand that there isn't really a way to legislate morality, a law can't force someone to do the right thing. I think it is definitely easier to punish someone for NOT doing something than it is to force someone to do it. An example of a law that tried to legislate morality was the prohibition, the government tried to ban alcohol because of alarming drinking behaviors. However, it didn’t really work because people still did it anyways, if not more.

Case Studies

For the past couple of weeks, we have been watching many different films. These films have been on case studies from some individuals and their incidents in the past. This unit was very interesting because of the amount of different views that we got too look at for each case. Each case was different in its own way either because of the age of the victim or suspect, the crime committed, the final sentence for the suspect, or just the overall crime. In each case it was very noticeable that each suspect would try and use an alibi or an excuse for the reasoning of the crime that was committed. This unit defiantly taught me a lot about different sentences that are given to people who are proven guilty.

play time with Lionel

Play time with Lionel Tate?

Tiffany was only six years old, like usual just hanging out with tate while being babysat by his mother, its not clear or known if the babysitter always left them two alone while she was doing something else. But this time, she wasn't there, she was upstairs in her room sleeping, while tate and tiffany were "playing" or should I say Lionel was playing.
I believe it was justified for Lionel to do time, but the thought of him being charged and seen as an adult at the age of only 12 years old wasn't as okay to me.
Although he did end up showing remorse in the end, once he was around the age of 16, I still wonder how he was able to hurt Tiffany so violently to the point where he killed her.
I also believed the mother of Lionel Tate should have had some kind of responsibility for what had happened to Tiffany, since she was not doing what she was suppose to, taking care of young tiffany.