Why I Distrust the Police.
A previous post about the tasering of a University of Florida student got me thinking about all of the police abuse I’ve witnessed or heard about growing up in Gainesville. To be honest this incident is only remarkable because it actually made the news. From causing minor annoyances to killing innocent people I can’t really think of a time where there wasn’t anything other then hatred for the UFPD and its citywide counterpart GPD. I was pleasantly surprised when arriving at AU I found out how kind and gentle our public safety officers were, and for that matter the DC metro police as a whole.
Since the seventh grade it had been standard practice for our teachers to tell their students at least once a year to never talk to a police officer without a lawyer, even if you didn’t do anything wrong. My first personal experience with UFPD came on July 27, 2004. I remember it well because it just happened to be the very first day I had my driver’s license. After playing pool at the university rec center I was driving home with a friend of mine when I was pulled over on campus for what I would later find out was suspicion of a stolen vehicle. After being spread eagled on the front of the officer’s patrol car, patted down and having my car searched for almost an hour the officer laughed at me for being pulled over on my first day and sent me on my way. This was the first of seven such incidents. Each time I was let off without so much as a warning. I have been pulled over by Gainesville police for everything from suspicion of illegal U-turn to having out of date tags on my license when in fact they were in date. Each time I was verbally abused and patted down. After the first time I wised up and no longer permitted any kind of attempt to search my car. If I added all of my friend’s stories this blog would run on forever.
These are only petty grievances, something to complain about to your friends but nothing worst then a sprained wrist or a weekend in jail. The reason I wrote this post was for two incidents far more serious then even last weeks tazing.
The first is a 2003 incident that sadly was never given its full day in the media spotlight because the victim was far too ashamed to come forward. A nineteen year old University of Florida student was raped in the Alachua County Jail by his fellow inmate. While prison rape is not uncommon, this particular incident stood out for several reasons. The kid was serving his first of four weekend sentences for attempting to distribute marijuana. He was placed in a cell with Randolph Jackson, a thirty-five year old convicted rapist who had also been accused of raping three previous cellmates. After placing him in his cell the cops simply walked away, having to know what was going to happen. Jackson, who is HIV positive, quickly forced a ballpoint pen to the kid’s throat. In the aftermath the kid required several stitches in his rectum. Of course nothing ever happened to the officer’s involved as the whole episode was said to have been a simple fault of jail overcrowding.
Corey Rice is a name some of you may foggily remember hearing about several years ago. This happened on one of my favorite streets in Gainesville, known for countless late night adventures. Around 1 am on June 30, 2001 thirty year old Corey Rice, an architecture grad student, was pulled over for failing to stop at a stop sign by Officer Jimmy Hecksel. As the officer approached his window Rice slowly backed up, and then began pulling away. Claiming Rice was trying to run him over, Officer Hecksel unleashes seven shots with his forty caliber, hitting Rice three times. Rice would die several hours later in the hospital. While I could not find the video itself, stills from the video show that it looked like at no point was Officer Hecksel in danger.
While countless pages have been given to the tasing, little was made about these previous incidents. As a result I was only able to find small press releases about this incident. Police Brutality Prison Rape Corey Rice
Ahmadinejad visits America
Something that has been in the news recently is Iranian president Ahmadinejad’s visit to America. People are upset about this because Ahmadinejad has been pretty vocal about his negative feelings toward the West and America.
Leave it to John Stewart on the Daily Show to put a comic spin on this:
http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/the_daily_show/index.jhtml
Personally, I don’t understand why Ahmadinejad would want to come here. His entire visit here has incited so much anger and hurt, especially because he wants to visit Ground Zero and he is scheduled to speak at Columbia University. It makes me sad because I know many Iranians who do not feel the same way Ahmadinejad does. His extreme views of the world are highlighted because they are different, but the majority of Muslims do not believe in killing all Americans or wiping out Israel. I think that his visit here is only going to cause more problems and more people to be angry and upset.
A woman president?
As discussed in a previous blog post, the topic of a woman president is something that many journalists and media talkingheads have taken a liking to. Recently, I ran across a magazine that really pissed me off. In the September 17 issue of Newsweek, the front page reads “What kind of Decider would she be?” After reading the article, I became less infuriated, but the headline still irked me. Hillary Clinton has been in politics longer than George Bush, Barack Obama, or most of the other politicians out there. The only reason her ‘decision-making’ is being called into question is because she’s a woman. And isn’t indecisiveness one of the most stereotypical traits of being a woman? God knows what will happen if you let a woman make important decisions–I mean what if she’s on her period? It’s not like women are rational, thoughtful people. The media unknowingly reinforces the sexist ideology that has made its way into the very fabric of our society and, through doing so, holds us back. Maybe Ameria isn’t ready for a woman president.
Western Maryland Scenic Railroad
The old steam engine train is visible from the deck of our house. The 32-mile roundtrip from Cumberland to Frostburg is especially pretty in the fall and it’s a good idea to make reservations. There also is a special Christmas train.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVuDSPon1MU
Western Maryland Scenic Railroad: www.wmsr.com.
Weekend getaways
PBS Debate being Ducked by GOP Candidates
Fred Thompson has recently stated that he will not take part in a PBS debate schedualed to be held at Morgan State University, a historically black college, later this month. Thompson is the fourth candidate in the GOP field to say “no” to the debate, according to an article by Sam Stein at The Huffington Post. Apparently the debate will still take place, despite its limited participants, on Sept 27th. The poor GOP showing at Morgan State University continues a trend by Republican candidates, who have had frequent absense at minority voter forums. If you’d like to know more, here’s the link to The Hunffington Post’s article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/09/17/thompson-refuses-to-debat_n_64744.html
Wikipedia’s in the Mix
As I was reading the newspapers this week, I came across several articles discussing wikipedia.org‘s role in the 2008 Election.
“Everyone who logs on to wikipedia.org can be an editor, prompting thousands of political junkies, including more than a few campaign aides, to lock swords over whether the real name of Fred Thompson, 65, is “Freddie” and whether John McCain is a liberal, moderate or conservative Republican,” according to an article from The Telegraph. This news disheartened me, why are voters arguing about such details as whether or not Fred Thompson’s real name is Freddie or about John Edwards $400 haircuts? I understand people want to know the most they can about candidates before making a decision in the 2008 Election, but arguing over things like that seems trivial. They should be more concerned with what the candidates’ positions are on issues like the War in Iraq or health care.
A little behind
So I’m a little behind-this is my first blog post-ever. It’s probably strange ,but for some reason this project has given me anxiety. I’ve never been one to keep a journal and I only speak up in class when I have something that I feel is important to say. I’m part of the group of the Lincoln-Douglas debates, which I researched online like the rest of my group. I was having trouble figuring out what to write about, however, so I decided to look at yahoo’s news to see if there was any inspiration to be found. The first article I saw was about a German politcian, Gabriele Pauli, who has suggested that marriage should automatically dissolve after 7 years. The article described her as a radical politician who is trying to stir-up the traditionally male dominated, Catholic politics in Bavaria. I found this topic very interesting and wanted to see what people’s views of it are. Whether or not people would every support it, do you think it would be beneficial for women?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070921/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_germany_politics_marriage
It’s ‘just’ politics.
“What must be made absolutely clear … is that politics is not somehow unreal or false because it is freighted with symbols and visualized in images. We cannot somehow dismiss showmanship, political ritual, speeches, and televised debates as ‘mere politics.’ Politics, after all, is a human or social activity.” Arthur Miller & Bruce Gronbeck, 1994*.
For the past two weeks, our Dissident Media class has been throwing around one particularly hard-to-pronounce word: hegemony**. Partly, this is because we’d been assigned to read Stephen Brookfield’s “The Power of Critical Theory,”*** a treatise with an apparent fondness for particularly hard-to-pronounce words.
More importantly, it’s because our eyes are being opened to the fact that there are many presumptions and suppositions we make in life that we simply take for granted as the results of a natural course of thinking. Turns out, more often than not, that these natural conclusions are the results of sub-conscious manipulation. We’re socialized to perceive normally illogical or intolerable ideas as acceptable, even ideal, to uphold the social, civil, and financial interests of the ruling group- i.e., the hegemon.
Is it much of a stretch then to wonder if we’re also being socialized to uphold the political interests of the hegemon? Political apathy runs rampant in this country. It wouldn’t take much for me to convince you of that. The prevailing sentiment seems to be that politicians can’t be trusted, and neither can the game. ‘It’s just politics,’ many say.
Just politics. Why is it that instead of demanding more, we decide to expect less from the process? Who made the decision that lowering our expectations was the way to go, and why are so many buying into it?
Is America ‘just’ a land of pessimists? No. Apathists? Doubt it. Americans are frustrated. That’s a given… but that’s no excuse to give up. We need to channel our frustration into revamping the political process in this country; we need to take it back from the consultants, the corporations, and the PR personnel.
It’s time we step up and assume a bigger role in the show.
* http://www.wfu.edu/~louden/Political%20Communication/poltitle.html
** http://www.webster.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=Hegemony&x=0&y=0
*** http://www.amazon.com/Power-Critical-Theory-Liberating-Learning/dp/0787956015
Noam Chomsky on the Media
After reading Stephen Brookefield’s Critical Learning Theoryfor class I decided to look up some videos (Part I and Part II) of Noam Chomsky and his thoughts on the media. He seemed to be in support of alternative forms of press and explained that technology and the cheaper printing options of today have made it easier for these kinds of publications to exist rather than forty years ago. Chomsky who wrote a book on the idea of Manufacturing Consent spoke of the censorship even he, as a media critic, has received in the American media. One of the most deliberate examples he cites happened with the National Public Radio. Being a American University student I found this very interesting, particularly considering the liberal reputation of the station. I personally, am skeptical of the “liberal” media, anyway. I just thought these videos would be of interest to others, in the class as well. Also if anyone is interested, another less dense criticism of the media by Chomsky is Media Control:The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda. It’s only about one-hundred pages, and its pretty quick read.
M. Appeal (Mass Appeal) 