Wednesday, March 25, 2009
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Be thankful for two things: These women fought for your right to vote, and you don't have to dress like this.
Blog Archive
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2009
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March
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- Women in politics
- Kids and cops
- Hey Maeve,
- The President's budget
- The credit crisis explained
- The Supreme Court and schools
- My friend is working on this case
- Iraq vs. Afghanistan
- The new fireside chat?
- What's going to happen to the Guantanamo detainees?
- AIG
- Pictures from investigation of drug murders
- The military-industrial complex
- Particularly for Maeve
- Especially for Dania
- Kids and homelessness
- Do you know who Warren Buffet is?
- You are all depressing me.
- Blowing up the Senate
- It's finally here!
- Obama's interpretation of signing statements
- Prop 8 hearing
- New executive order
- It's looking good for Prop 8
- California courts deciding on Prop 8
- Obama's FEMA nominee
- Sandra Day O'Connor
- Hillary Clinton's world tour
- Frances Perkins
- An increased bureaucracy?
- How the economic downturn happened
- Op-Ed about filibusters
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March
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4 comments:
I had heard on the news that four Oakland police officers had been killed. What I hadn't heard was how or why they were killed. I agree with the blogger's thesis that children learn to respect the police through how their parents perceive cops. My parents taught me to respect the police at a young age. In class we learned that our political ideologies are shaped by our family. Family can also influence at how we look at other things or people. I agree with this theory. I know of many teenagers that have a negative stance towards cops. Since I also know that their parents share the same feelings I agree with the blogger's thesis. Respect for police is important because they help protect our rights. The social contract refers to the idea in which we gain civil rights in return for subjecting ourselves to civil law or to political authority. I believe that people should respect the police. Especially since they work to make sure our rights are protected. Of course, there are people who do bad things and that doesn't leave out police officers. I understand that no one is perfect. I believe parents should teach their children to respect the police. The police risk their lives to protect our rights. I agree with the blogger in that kids should be informed about what cops do. I was in the Youth Community Police Academy. The experience helped me learn a lot about the police department. The class could clear many misconceptions children/teenagers have about cops.
Police are very important to society, making sure that people are safe. However, there are arguements that the police tend to be nicer to certain types of people. One of these groups that seems to claim to be treated unfairly by the police is teenagers. To provent this, the author of the blog suggested that programs be created to get children more involved with their local police force. I however don't think that is a completely neccessary thing to do. I don't think it would hurt anything, but I think that things can be alright with out it as well.
Perhaps the idea of the social contract should be taught to children at an earlier age. It can be brought up in just general talks about respecting others. People need to show respect to the police because the police are there to help protect us. If they arrest you, it's not because they are being bad people. It is because we have made a deal with the police to punish those who hurt others so that we may be protected. So, if we're harming anyone else, we have the potential of being arrested.
I think teaching that idea to young kids just in the class room is a good way to let them know that police are neccessary to our society and that they deserve respect. Also, parents should already be teaching their children this same idea.
Sort of like the blogger, my family has never really expressed anti-police sentiments. Over the past few years, I've noticed some of my peers expressing these kinds of feelings, and I didn't completely understand why, because I've been raised to think that the police are good, they keep order, they are necessary to our society, etc., etc. Partly because of that, I've started to realize that, while most cops have good intentions, some of them do treat citizens unfairly because of prejudice or whatever. Maybe I'm being overly optimistic, but I think there are more good cops than bad cops.
Hopefully, the Oakland police shootings has made people realize how much police officers really risk to protect people. Sometimes, they have to face really difficult situations and get them under control so that people are safe. I think that ultimately, police officers are necessary to keep order and safety in society, so I think that people should respect them and listen to them. Also, it's important for people to remember the social contract - they gave up some rights in order to be protected by society. According to that, the laws should be obeyed, and if people break the law, it's their responsibility, not the police's. But then again, they have the right to be protected by society, and the police doesn't always do an effective job with that.
I know there are a lot of police officers that make a lot of assumptions and generalizations before they know all of the facts of a case, and I have heard of a lot of them who let the power get to them and punish people unnecessarily. (My sister knows one cop who makes a lot of negative racial comments, but I don't know if or how he lets that affect his job.) . But people who aren't cops don't know what it's like, and therefore shouldn't make generalizations like "all cops are bad." I, personally, highly doubt that every single police officer in the SFPD is corrupt. I agree with the blogger in that children should be taught to respect police, like all people of authority, but I think that when the children get older, they should be taught that there are "good cops and bad cops" (as someone said in the comments section) and to recognize when they are being treated unfairly.
I believe that respect for police is very important. It is, essentially, the foundation of their power because often times policemen use their authority to uphold and enforce the law. They often derive their power from intimidating people into behaving well by using their roles as protectors and punishers. Without reverence from the public, the police force would be utterly ineffective and crime would consequently increase dramatically. Obviously, without respect for the police force, a society would have no order; we would have no incentive to follow the law because there would be no one there to enforce it. I must say that I agree with the point the blogger is trying to make. It definitely is important to teach children, at an early age, that the police is something to be respected. It fosters reverence for policemen, ensuring that if this is taught during the formative years, this view will stay with children throughout their lives. I can see this manifesting itself in the obedience of citizens because if they respect policemen, they respect the laws they stand for and enforce. One must be willing to give up some rights in order to have his or hers protected. This, fundamentally, is the social contract which we discussed in class recently. However, I think that our rights are unjustly encroached upon, and at times completely ignored or violated, by corrupt policemen. This is definitely a breach of the social contract fueled often times by prejudice and lack of procedure. An example of this is the Rodney King scandal in 1992. In this case, policemen unjustly beat a man because he was African-American, thus violating his rights. Here, when the social contract was broken, the public became outraged and retaliated in its own form. Riots broke out and there was mass chaos, looting, and violence. All of this occurred, on the part of the people, because confidence was broken between them an their police force, the LAPD. There was no mutual respect, and therefore a serious lack of order resulted. I believe that respect for police is important, because it keeps order in a society. Yet, honestly, I personally do not respect policemen too much myself. There have been instances when I have been followed or stopped because of my appearance. I have been disrespected by officers who were power-tripping off their "high" positions. Worst of all is that I have been hit on by officers and security guards, so I do not feel like my rights are protected in an environment such as this, where they seem to be violated. Because of these things, I do not feel safe even around those whose job it is to protect us. I have even come to hold most of them in contempt because I feel like some sort of target. Personally, I hope that others do not feel this way because it just a real-life illustration of how mutual respect for citizens, police, and one's rights in general affect the functionality and social dynamics of a community. Sociologically speaking, this persisting negative relationship between minorities and law enforcement may stem from breaking the social contract we discussed. This emphasizes the importance of teaching children, from an early age, not to be suspicious of police, but to trust in them for protection.
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