Tuesday, December 4, 2012

A new crime prevention policy is being used in NYC and causing some controversy

Exploring the Stop and Frisk Law
The stop and frisk law is one of the most controversial police procedures in the modern crime prevention world today. This law was created to try to reduce crime on the streets and try to catch people with concealed weapons before they are used. What I am going to explore is whether or not this procedure violates the 4th amendment of unreasonable search and seizures as well as examine statistics to prove this procedure effective or not.

How the law is enforced
The way this law is enforced is that policemen or women will patrol an area of his or her choice, usually by car, and look out for anything that he or she believes to be suspicious. According to huffingtonpost.com, the officers can even stop and frisk someone inside a building if they have permission from the landlord. When he or she does find something suspicious they will stop that person and proceed to do a brief pat down of the outer garments. If nothing is found then that person will be released. If a weapon or any other illegal substance is found, that person will be arrested and brought into police custody for questioning. The main complaint that people have is that this search goes against their constitutional rights because they are being searched without a warrant. It is also a hassle and an inconvenience to have policemen stopping you to pat you down. According to HP, in a 2009 report by the New York Civil Liberties Union, 93 out of 100 residents in Brownsville, Brooklyn were stopped by the NYPD for a stop and frisk procedure. Another statistic also shows that force is used more often in stops with Latinos and blacks than there is with whites, which goes along with people accusing cops of being more aggressive with certain races.


Violation of the 4th Amendment?
According to Findlaw, The fourth amendment is defined as the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. Basically, it protects citizens from police officers or any other member of law enforcement trying to search or take anything from you without a warrant or reasonable suspicion. The reasonable suspicion part is where there is a very thin line that causes a lot of dispute. Statistics show that blacks and Latinos have been stopped way more than whites. This instigates an argument of racism. In my interview with Mr. Bittinger, he explains why despite all of the complaints of policemen needing probable cause to search someone, this policy, in fact, does not violate the fourth amendment. Even though the policy is constituional, the stops sometimes are not. There are very strict rules that NYPD have not been following that make the stops unconstitutional. According to HP, 30% of all stops are unconstitutional.





Pros and cons to the stop and frisk law
The argument goes both ways in this case. Most people say that this is a good idea and will be successful in reducing crime, but many people complain about being stopped for no reason and waste time being searched. In my mind and in the law enforcer’s minds, it is worth stopping and searching innocent people some of the time in order to catch the real criminals before crimes are committed. I asked another expert the same two questions that I asked Mr. Bittinger and got more interesting input. I asked: Does this policy violate the 4th amendment and is there data proving this effective.

How is it working so far? 
Studies show that the stop and frisk policy is an effective crime deterrence and has reduced crime in many cities. The bottom line is that this is a great way to prevent crime before it happens, but what I am researching and we have to make sure of is that citizens rights are not being violated. The stop and frisk policy has not really been as effective as people thought it may be. According to HP, since 2003, stops have increased by over 524,000 and there have only been an additional 176 guns found. I thought this policy started to sound pointless so I asked Mr. B if he thought this was an effective deterrence to crime and if he thought it would continue to be used. Here is what he had to say:



Will we continue to use this crime prevention tactic?
With the minimal effectiveness of this crime prevention policy, many think that this will not last much longer and the stop and frisk policy will be put to an end in the coming years. One reason is that the NYPD has faced way to many lawsuits involving this policy and it is not worth it. Another thing is the most people stopped are innocent. According to HP, in 2011, 9 out of 10 stopped were neither arrested nor given summonses. You can find more statistics and useful information on this topic on this website.

After all, the policy that started a lot of controversy ends up not working out
After doing all of my research and talking to a couple of experts about this topic, my belief is that the toll this is taking on the citizens and police force of NYC both physically and mentally is not worth the minimal amount of crime prevention that the stop and frisk policy is doing. Here is one last opinion from a non-expert on the Stop and Frisk Policy.

Sunday, November 25, 2012

final project audioboo

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Exploring the Stop and Frisk Law


A Controversial Procedure in NYC May Be an Effective Way to Prevent Crime
The stop and frisk law is one of the most controversial police procedures. This law was created to try to reduce crime on the streets and try to catch people with concealed weapons before they are used. What I am going to explore is whether or not this procedure violates the 4th amendment of unreasonable search and seizures. I will also examine statistics to prove this procedure effective or not.

How the law is enforced
The way this law is enforced is that a policemen will patrol an area of his or her choice, usually by car, and look out for anything that he or she believes to be suspicious and when he or she does find something suspicious they will stop that person and proceed to do a brief pat down of the outer garments. If nothing is found then that person will be released, but if a weapon or any other illegal substance is found, that person will be arrested and brought into police custody for questioning. The main complaint that people have is that this search goes against their constitutional rights because they are being searched without a warrant. It is also a hassle and an inconvenience to have policemen stopping you to pat you down.

Pros and cons to the stop and frisk law
The argument goes both ways in this case. Most people say that this is a good idea and will be successful in reducing crime, but many people complain about being stopped for no reason and waste time being searched. In my mind and in the law enforcer’s minds, it is worth stopping and searching innocent people some of the time in order to catch the real criminals before crimes are committed.

How is it working so far?
Studies show that the stop and frisk policy is an effective crime deterrence and has reduced crime in many cities. The bottom line is that this is a great way to prevent crime before it happens, but what I am researching and we have to make sure of is that citizens rights are not being violated.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

iPad interview

Technology and class interview

Friday, October 26, 2012

Syrian Cease-Fire Controversy


Syria Agrees to a short-term cease-fire
President Assad and organizer of cease-fire, Brahimi
I chose to read about a story where Syria agreed to have a 4-day cease-fire over a religious Muslim holiday called Eid al-Adha. During this cease-fire, the Syrian government still made it known that they still had the right to respond to rebel attacks and bombings during the holiday. The reason this cease-fire was planned by Lakhdar Brahimi, an International envoy representing the Arab League and the U.N., was to try to stop violence that has been going on in Syria for 19 months. He was hoping that maybe this short term cease fire would lead to a longer cease fire and maybe the Syrian government and the rebels would negotiate and end this terrible violence that has been killing many people in the area for over a year and a half. The reaction of the rebels against Syria was diverse. Some were a little worried that maybe the Syrian government would not keep their promise and would still attack, while others flat out refused agreement to a cease fire. As part of the agreement, rebel fighters said they would commit to the truce if opposition prisoners were released on Friday. The cease-fire was supposed to take effect starting the morning of Friday, October 26th 2012 and end on Monday, October 29th.
CNN:http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/25/world/meast/syria-civil-war/index.html

Will the rebels trust the government? Will the truce last?
Car bombing in Syria on the first day of Eid al-Adha
The answer to both of those questions is an emphatic, no. It took no longer than a few hours for the truce to be broken. Evidently, there was a car bombing in the capital, Damascus, on Friday, so the truce has already been broken. There has been a lot of accusing going on between the two sides where each side is saying that they were responding to an attack from the other side. State television that was being broadcasted on Friday was saying that they were terrorist car bombings that killed 5 people and wounded 32 others. While this car bombing was going on, apparently there was also clashing going on between rebels and government troops in the rebel run neighborhoods in Aleppo. According to activists, the violence was much less intense in these clashes than they were before the truce, so maybe it has some effect on the intensity. This isn’t what Lakhdar Brahimi was aiming for though. He wanted a complete cease-fire and negotiation. It doesn’t look promising right now, but maybe over the next few days the violence settles and the Syrian government and rebels can come to a temporary agreement at least.
FOX: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/10/26/car-bomb-explodes-in-syrian-capital-despite-truce/?test=latestnews
Aljazeera: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/10/2012102615101701470.html 

Do the two stories match up?
I covered this story to compare two different news agencies covering the same exact story and try to tell what their views are based on the way they report on this story. The first website I accessed was Fox News.com. The title of their article was, “Car bomb explodes in Syrian capital despite truce.” My initial reaction on the way they covered this story was that they were extremely biased by supporting the US and criticizing the Syrian government on not being able to maintain the peace, but once I read it over a couple more times I noticed that most of the story matched up with the other website that I referred to to research this story. Most of what the fox news cite was saying was from second hand sources and didn’t seem to be very reliable. Most of the quotes and reporting was coming from The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and other activist groups. This activist group is clearly opposed to the Syrian government and could be exaggerating some of these stories to make it look like the Syrian army is instigating these attacks and bombings when really it could be all the rebels. Overall, the Fox News article seems more like an overview and basic report on a current event, rather than a breaking news story or article with direct quotes from witnesses or victims.
The next website I accessed was Aljazeera.com. This is a Qatar based website that reports on stories from around the world and has had a reputation of having some biased articles. Although Aljazeera also seems to have a lot of reports from activist groups, it does have specific direct quotes from protestors as well.

One Event, Two Stories
This investigation of two different websites reporting on the same event really shows us how stories can be skewed and how sources really do matter. In the end both articles are available to everybody and it is up to you to chose which one is more reliable, based on the sources and author.