American Gangster

One of my all time favorite movies is American Gangster. For those of you who don't know what the film is about ill give you a little background information. Denzel Washington plays a man by the name of Frank Lucas, who after his employer dies, establishes himself as the number one importer of heroin in the Harlem district of Manhattan. And this movie is based on a true story. If you haven't seen the film, i'd highly recommend it because its very gripping from the minute you put it on. This movie has many different justice issues in it. First is the issue of importing 100% pure heroin from the source in Bangkok by using military planes. This is a huge justice issue because during this time, drugs were running the city streets and Frank Lucas wanted to get ahead by importing the drug directly from the source and selling it for cheaper then the other heroin products on the street. He enlists the help of his cousin in the army to transport the herion using military planes so Frank can pick the drugs up once the plane landed. Obviously, this is a huge issue becuase it is extremely illegal not only to purchase and sell drugs, but to use the United States Military to do so. Another justice issue in the film is that Frank uses his brothers as the drug dealers on the street so he never has to get his hands dirty. This is not right becasue he calls up all his brothers from down south, and moves the whole family into a big mansion and in turn has his brothers and cousins sell his drugs at different locations throughout New York City and New Jersey. Frank'sfamily knows that he is the one providing their new fancy lifestyle for them and that they must comply if they want to keep up with the new clothes and fancy parties.  This movie is filled with Justice Issue. The other issue, is that not only the cops but the military are using drugs and in the end of the film when Frank Lucas finally gets caught, he works with the police to name over some hundred bad cops who have been buying his "blue magic" product and have been bad cops. And finally the last justice issue in the film is that in the beginning we see that these bad cops are the ones arresting the citizens for drugs, putting the drugs into evidence, and then taking the drugs out from evidence and using them for cash. This shows how corrupt our legal system was and how the majority of people, even the cops, were involved in drugs one way or another.

Colleen

Date Rape by Sublime

The song that I chose was Date Rape by Sublime

For those of you who arent familiar with the song, Its a really fast paced song that talks about how a guy got a girl drunk, and rapes her in his car, and then he gets thrown in jail. The song is actually very upbeat in rhythm but what it actually is about and says is not a topic that should be sung so lightly in my opinion because its such a serious issue. But the way this song is sung, kind of takes away the shock value of it being about rape and you kind of lose sight of what your singing about when youre listening to this song.

Here are the lyrics:

Let me tell you about a girl I know
Had a drink about a hour ago
Sitting in a corner by herself
In a bar in downtown Hell
She heard a noise and she looked through the door
And saw a man she'd never seen before
Light skin, light blue eyes
A double-chin and a plastic smile
Well, her heart raced as he walked through the door
And took an empty seat next to her at the bar
'My brand new car is parked right outside
How'd ya like to go for a ride?'
And she said, 'Wait a minute I have to think'
He said, 'That's fine, may I please buy you a drink'
One drink turned into 3 or 4
And they left and got into his car
And drove away someplace real far
Now babe the time has come
How'd ya like to have a little fun?
And she said
'If we could only please be on our way, I will not run'

That's when things got out of control
She didn't want to, he had his way
She said, 'Let's Go'
he said, 'No Way!'
'Come on babe it's your lucky day
Shut your mouth, were gonna do it my way
Come on baby don't be afraid
If it wasn't for date rape I'd never get laid'

He finished up and started the car
He turned around and drove back to the bar
He said 'Now baby don't be sad
In my opinion you weren't half-bad'
She picked up a rock
Threw it at the car
Hit him in the head
Now he's got a big scar
Come on party people won't you listen to me
Date rape stylee

The next day she went to her drawer
Look up her local attorney at law
Went to the phone and filed the police report
And then she took the guy's ass to court
Well, the day he stood in front of the judge he screamed
'She lies that little slut!'
The judge knew that he was full of shit
And he gave him 25 years
And now his heart is filled with tears

That night in jail it was getting late
He was butt-raped by a large inmate, and he screamed
But the guards paid no attention to his cries

That's when things got out of control
The moral of the date rape story
It does not pay to be drunk and horny
But that's the way it had to be
They locked him up and threw away the key
Well, I can't take pity on men of his kind
even though he now takes it in the behind
Date rape!

She didn't want to
She didn't want to
She didn't want to
She didn't want to take it!
Colleen

Reflection on Suicide

I thought the guest speaker's sucide presentation was very nicely done. She did a good job of introducing who she was and what she was tying to accomplish by giving the presentation. She seemed like she had really done some extensive research on the topic and had a lot of really mind blowing fact. I was really taken back when I read on her powerpoint that every 2 hours and 11 minutes a person commits suicide. That was extremely shocking to hear and really put the number of people commiting suicide into perspective. Also, I thought it was pretty interesting to hear that about 80 % of people have had suicide cross their mind at some point or another. I think that it was a relevant topic to give a presentation on because of the recent events that have occured with students commiting suicide because they feel that they are trapped and that taking their owns by suicide is their only option. I think it is important that all students, regardless if they are in college, highschool, middleschool, etc., should be educated and no what to do if someone they know is showing the signs of commitin suicide or they themselves are considering it. I think that the more people are educated about the subject, the more beneficial it will be in preventing people from using suicide as the way to deal with their problems. I know that I personally was effected by the presentation, having my friend commit suicide, and really took a lot away from her presentation and really learned alot. Suicide is not an issue that can be ignored and by taking the time out to educate yourself and others on the topic, I think we can really make an impact on creating a solution.

Colleen

Kids Costume makes him an Internet Sensation!

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/11/01/kids-texas-rangers-costume-makes-him-internet-sensation/?iref=allsearch

I thought this article was really cute and it was interesting to see how fast someone can become an internet sensation these days, even little kids. Seven year old Liam Roybal of Texas and his parents managed to make him a costume that made him look like a mini version of the Texas Ranger's manager Ron Washington. This costume wasn't originally what the seven year old planned on being for Halloween but the costume definitely worked out in his favor. He even managed to get a picture with the full-size Ron Washington before the Texas Rangers played their game last night!

Colleen

Skeletal remains found in a convicted murder's backyard

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/10/26/texas.body.in.barrel/index.html

I was on CNN.com and came across this bizarre article that really caught my attention. Apparently Harris County Sherrif's Office was tipped off by CrimeStoppers about there being skeletal remains in convicted murder's, Dennis Anderson, backyard. The 64 male was not home when the police went to search the property, but his roomate let the police in to check the backyard. They found an old rusted barrel in the mans backyard and when the pried it open, they found remains of an unidentified person. The police determined that the body was female and had been wrapped in bedsheets and trashbags and her legs had been tied together as well as her neck. Dennis Anderson was not home when the police searched his home, but has been missing ever since. According to forensics, the person had been dead for several months due to the decomposition. According to court documents, the tipster who led the Harris County police to the body said Anderson had told him he had strangled a person and placed the body in the barrel. The tipster also said Anderson had told him he takes the barrel with him when he moves from state to state. Anderson is now wanted for questioning by the police.

I thought this was a really sick article that a person would stash a body in a barrel and carry it with them from state to state and the police should be doing more to catch this guy who had been convicted for double murder in the past.

Colleen

Bill Curtis Movie

Reflect on that awesome DVD from 1998 that we watched in class. What do you think about some of the copycat examples given in the movie? Where do you stand on the copycat phenomenon and why?
I actually really liked watching the movie from 1998 about copycating, but it would have been interesting to see one that had been made recently and see examples of people still using copycating to get out of their crimes today. I mean the film did use a lot of examples that I never heard about, probably because i was seven when this film came out, so that was insightful for me to hear. I think that some of the examples in the movie were pretty messed up. Like the two boys who just killed that guy and girl on the beach and tried to flee to mexico. Like did they honestly think that it was going to work? And that boy who killed his mom (or maybe it was his step mom, I cant remember) to reenact a scene from Scream, that was just disturbing. But when it comes to the whole copycat phenomenon, I'm sort of torn. On one hand, I think that people who are in trouble sometimes use it as a cop out, like "oh scream made me kill my mom", but then on the other hand, after watching the film in class, I realized that people get pretty obsessed with the movies and watch them over and over again and get reality and fantasy mixed up in their heads and feel so inclined to murder other people. But I do agree with the movie producers, that they should not be blamed for the killings because as the one woman producer said in the film, they just make the movies, they dont put a gun or knife in anyones hand.

Colleen

Copy Cat

What did you copy and why? Where did the idea come from? Were others copying the same thing?
I remember last year, one of the biggest trends/ copycatting that went around my school was rockin the poof that Snooki made infamous on Jersey Shore. And of course, being from New Jersey, everyone seemed to have a poof in their hair, whether it be a little one or a huge one like Snooki had. It literally seemed like everywhere you turned in my highschool, all the girls had some form of a poof with either a hair clip or bobbypins. I will admit then when I used to have long hair in highschool, I used to copy the poof from Snooki from time to time, and no one really thought anything of it or that it was weird or anything becasue all the girls seemed to have it, especially one of my bestfriends Sarah. That girl always had one in her hair. But one thing I did notice is that the poof is more accepted in Jersey then it is in VA here at JMU. I honestly can't remember seeing anyone rocking the poof here at JMU and I think everyone would think it was weird here and not do it. But whatever, I used to rock it and so did my friends and I thank Snooki for that.

Colleen

Facebook Privacy Leak

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/social.media/10/18/facebook.apps.privacy/index.html?hpt=T2

I was on CNN and looking at the most recent articles and came across one about facebook, which I thought would be relevant and interesting for everyone to read, considering most of us in the class, if not all have a facebook account. Apparently, some applications, including one of the very popular apps, Farmville, has been reportedly sharing identifying information about users. I thought this was a huge problem because I know for myself personally, it never really crosses my mind that people could be stealing my information via facebook, but it is important for everyone to realize that there are risks out there. I think many of us tend to not associate risk with facebook because it has become so popularized in our society. Facebook addressed the issue saying the content has been exaggerated about can be, and has been shared with third parties. This is also relavent to our course because it is not uncommon that the media tends to exaggerate stories to make them more interesting and especially something like Facebook leaking information, could cause widespread public panic. Nevertheless, Facebook addressed the issue by adding two new security tools that seem extremely necessary. The first tool, allows a person to use a temporary password while accessing the site from a public computer. The second tool allows a user to check whether their account is being accessed somewhere else.  I think both of these tools are beneficial to increasing the saftey of  users information.
I know that I would most likely delete my Facebook account if I found out people were hacking into my account and stealing my information.

-Colleen

Misinformation

I thought this was a very interesting article, considering we had talked previously in prior class periods about how the news can spread false information and shape what we believe. I agree with the author in the sense that much of the information out there today is tainted by people's view's and personal beliefs. All of these concepts discussed in the beginning of the article are very relevant to most individuals in today's society because people are either believing what they want to or because everyone else is believing it to so it must have some depth and truth to it. But that is not always the case. 
In my household, I was always brought up to believe what I wanted to believe based on what I thought was right. My parent's never really instilled in me their own personal beliefs because they did not want me to believe something just because they did. But for the longest time I believed for the longest time that people from Virginia had really strong southern accents and talked extremely slow because of where I grew up. I grew up in New Jersey and my family is all from Long Island and I have just always believed when I got to college here that everyone was going to talk with strong southern accents. This was definitely due to the Bandwagon effect where all of my friends had told me that and we all believed it and all of my realitives always said people spoke like that in the South. But when I got to JMU I was completely wrong and most people sound like me and have  the same misconception about people from Jersey and New York having extremely strong accents and talking really fast. 
I think that having a Department of Facts could potentially be a great idea because it would help distinguish the nonsense from the credible source. But then again it comes down to, who is this person to tell me what is right and wrong? I think that it would make a lot of mad and upset but would be very useful to sort out and get rid of all the crappy information there is out there. 


--Colleen

Dad arrested for smoking weed with his 6 & 7 year old daughters

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/10/08/colorado.dad.pot.arrest/index.htmla

When I was scrolling through the CNN justice section online, this article's headline immediately grabbed my attention. A 27 year old dad in Colorado was arrested for allegdly smoking weed with his two daughters, ages six and seven.This whole incident came about when the little girl was caught trying to start a fire in the bathroom of her elementary school and when she was questioned by school administrators, she talked about smoking weed with her dad and officials were called to investigate. One of the daughters told the authorities that her dad smokes weed in front of them all of the time and blows the smoke directly in her face when she doesn't feel well. Authorities were blown away when the little girl began to explain in detail how to smoke weed and were shocked by how much she knew about it, saying that she knew more about weed then most adults. When officials investigated the home they found a digital scale, pipes, bongs, and baggies of weed.
I dont think its right  for a father to expose his children to drugs especially at such a young age. If he wants to smoke weed, go ahead, but dont put your children into the mix of your drug habit.

Colleen

Steven Hayes convicted of capital murder in Conneticut family killing

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/10/05/connecticut.murder.trial/index.html?npt=NP1

On July 23rd 2007, 47 year old Steven Hayes and his accomplice Komisarjevsky went into the house of Dr. William Petit in the middle of the night with the full intentions to commit a very violent crime. They tied William Petit in the basement of his home and beat him bloody. The two men then went upstairs into the master bedroom and found his wife, Jennifer and tied her to her bed. Her youngest daughter, 11 year old Michaela was also sleep in the bed, so the two men led the young girl into her bedroom, tied her to her bed, and suffocated her with a pillow. They then went into the bedroom of the eldest daughter, 17 year old Hayley and did the same. The men then took the mother to the bank and withdraw money in the morning and once she returned, the men set the house on fire and fled the scene. The police found evidence that the mother had been raped and strangled, and that one of the daughters had been sexually assaulted and died of smoke inhalation. As for the father, Dr. William Petit, he was able to escape to a neighbor's home and make it out alive.
In the Media and CJ Policy article, it states, "When the justic system is explicity referred to, it is usually the courts that are portrayed, not as institutions but as backdrops to present information about individual cases." (203) I believe that this statement is true for what was being explained in the article. The media used the ruling of capitol murder in the court room was used as the backdrop in order to present information about the case and allowed the media to go into specific details about the case.In my opion, this crime can be seen as entertainment. The media spins this story in an appealing manner to the reader because it is a case that will play off the readers emotions because it is an sensitive and devestating issue when a person's family is murdered and will be able to gain sympathy from the reader. 

Colleen

US Soldiers charged with Murder

http://afghanistan.blogs.cnn.com/2010/09/27/background-u-s-soldiers-charged-with-murder/
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/06/16/soldiers-fort-lewis-stryker-brigade-wash-charged-afghan-civilian-slayings/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39380805/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/

The article I chose to blog about was that five US soldiers are being charged with the premeditated murder of three Afghan civilans. The hearing will be in Washington DC and these are only the first five soliders being tried. Over the summer, CNN reports that 12 soldiers were charged with a variety of crimes in what the military believes to be a conspiracy to murder these poor Afghan civlians and cover it up. According to military documents, the soldiers are alleged to have kept body parts of the civilians such as a skull or finger and are being charged with taking pictures of the corpses, and even stabbing a corpse. Fox News also had an article about the soliders being charged with slaying the Afghan civlians and also gave information about how much time the men could face for premeditated murder. The MSNBC article gives a great deal of information. The article focuses on how the body parts were kept by the soldiers as trophies and how the photos taken of the corpses are being used in court. There were no huge differences in any of the articles and the information reported is in all of the articles. I think this is a very important story that the public should be informed about becuase it gives a whole new perspective and insight as to what is REALLY going on over in Afghanistan and makes you question all of the soldiers integrity.

--Colleen

Wisconsin DA accused of "Sexting"

The Calumet County District Attorney Kenneth Kratz has been accused by three women of sexual harrasment via text messages. The first accusation against the DA came about when the Associated Press published a series of text messages from the DA to a woman who was a victim of a domestic violence case that Kratz was trying in 2009. In the messages, he called her things like a "hot nymph" and "tail" and asked her how she felt about having contact with a married older DA. Kratz owned up to these accusations at a news conference last friday and said he was undergoing physcotherapy to address his behaviors and said hew as sincerly sorry. The second woman who came forward said that Kratz had invited her to go with him to an autospy and had told her information about a murder investigation on a date. However, Kratz attorney denied that they ever went on a date. The third woman came forward and said that after meeting Kratz about a drug case, she later recieved several texts from him that have escalated into sexual harrassment. Personally, I dont know why an older married man feels the need to send dirty and sexual text messages to other women when he has a wife at home! This case reminds me exactly of the Tiger Woods Case when he sent all those dirty text messages to other women and People Magazine published them and you were able to read their conversations. It is just vile and gross. And secondly, these women don't know what to even do about the texts because he is a man of "authority" and "power". People who are in the public eye, whether they be celebrities, althletes, or governors, need to just stop with the sexting because its out of control!

--Colleen

THE BOX CUTTER

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/08/31/california.serial.slashing.case/index.html?iref=allsearch

Charles Juan Proctor, was nicknamed "the box cutter" by police in 2008 during his terror spree in California. The box cutter would attack women at their place of business, whether they be the shop owner or an employee, and hold them at knife point during his robberies. The box cutter in total had six female victims and the DA's office even reported in the article, "One of the most brutal of the attacks was the slashing of a woman who sustained a four-inch wound to the neck, plus stab wounds to her face and head." In late August, a judge sentenced The Box Cutter to serve 400 years in prision and pay $58,000 in restitution to the two women whose throats he slashed. This article focuses more on the serial killer's case and what his sentence was rather than discussing explicit details of every crime he commited. CNN gave a very broad description in this article about The Box Cutter. All it says is that the crimes occurred in California and that there were six female victims. There are no names of the victims or locations of the crimes stated.

-Colleen

Gunman

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2010/09/gunman-who-shot-a-doctor-at-johns-hopkins-hospital-still-at-large/1
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/09/16/maryland.hospital.shooting/index.html?hpt=T1&iref=BN1
http://abcnews.go.com/US/shooting-inside-baltimores-johns-hopkins-hospital/story?id=11654462


The story I decided to track is actually a breaking news story that has been blowing up on the internet. The story is of a Gunman who shot and killed himself, a relative, and a doctor at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Maryland. On the USA Today Website, the article states a timeline of what times throughout the day events were occuring in order to keep the public informed. The earliest post said that the man who shot the doctor was still armed and was not contained, and throughout the day the police gave updates and finally the last update said the gunman shot and killed himself  and a relative and the doctor who had been shot was going to be okay. In the CNN report makes the note to explain that the doctor was rushed to surgery and identified the man to be African American and in his 30's. The article corrects its previous statement that earlier the police said that officers shot and killed the man but that this was later incorrect. The ABC news website says that the doctor will also be okay and both CNN and ABC news both quoted the chief of public affairs for the Baltimore Police Department saying, "The doctor is going to be OK – he's in the best place in the world" ABC news also issued a statement in their article that Johns Hopkins had issued to the press. There were some differences, two of the websites said that the man was of African American descent and in his thirties. ABC news stated that the doctor was shot in his abdomen. ABC News also reported that the reasoning behind the shooting was that the gunman was upset about the treatment of his mother and was threatening to jump out the window. The ABC website defintely gave the most detailed report of the story. None of the websites have severe differences in their stories. The facts are all the same and due to the intensity of the story and that updates have been given throughout the course of the day, all of these cites gave good descriptions of the event.

--Colleen

Deviant Behavior

http://www.bmezine.com/

The site I found is Called Body Modification Ezine. This site is one of the largest and most well-known body modification sites on the internet. I first found out what body modification was when I was watching TV and a show came on where this girl wanted to split her tongue and have surgical implants implanted in her forehead that would look like antennas. Then another girl on the show wanted to have bone like implants placed in her forearm so it would look like there was a fish skeleton under her skin. These people all called themselves body modifiers. The site contains a media blog, thousands of videos of procedures being done, and thousands of stories from people who have had different procedures done. On this site, you can also ask questions and have them answered from community members. This site is definitely about social deviance because body modifiers want to stray the farthest away from society by changing their bodies in order to look different. Body modifiers get satisfaction from changing the way their bodies look. The purpose of the site is for people to view pictures and videos, ask questions, and potentially gain users who either have an interest, or are body modifiers to create a growing community. In my opinion, I think the site is deviant because these individuals who consider themselves body modifiers are the ones who are going to extremes to drastically alter their physical appearance and are considered outcasts by society. It is also important that you realize that these extreme procedures are done WITHOUT any type of pain killers or anesthesia so they feel all of the pain while choosing to change their appearance. Personally, I do not think I could take the pain of splitting my tongue in half, or putting "bone-like" implants underneath my skin with no pain medications. But hey, if you're into that, go for it!

--Colleen

Jersey Shore is NOT New Jersey

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/2009-12-10-jersey-shore-mtv_N.htm

In this article from USA today, Jersey Shore Tourism officials are outraged by the way MTV's new hit reality show Jeresy Shore is portraying the shore to be. These eight individuals are people who are all about drinking, clubbing, the infamous "GTL" and causing a scene everywhere the go. Forms of media like Dominos and American Family Insurance have even pulled ads, which in turn has caused the tourism groups of the Jersey Shore to make a statement critizing the show as being "one-dimensional". The tourism bureau is also very critical of the show because people are only associating the Jersey Shore with the show. People in other parts of the country think that everyone from Jersey is like this, and being from Jersey myself, its extremely irratating. No, not every girl wants a juicehead guido that is tans on the regular. Although the Tourism people from the Jersey Shore have every right to critize the TV show for the way these eight castmembers are portraying the shore to be, Seaside Heights is defintely taking in big business. Over the summer when I went down the shore, you would see people flocking around the cast, following them down the boardwalk, and even back to the beach. The hotels, restaurants, and beaches are all making insane amounts of cash from the publicity they are getting from show. People are coming from all over the country just to see these people because lets be real, even though these people are trashy, they are entertaining to watch!

Colleen

Media Fast

Hey Guys!

I decided to do my media fast from Thursday morning until Friday morning. I figured that this would be the best time to get the fast over with because a) I had just written down all of the times I use media throughout the day on Wednesday so I knew what kinds of things I would need to give up and b) I wanted to get it done before the weekend obviously! Fasting from all of the types of media I use in my daily life was challenging, not going to lie. The hardest thing to give up during the media fast for me was not texting. Throughout the course of the day i'm constantly texting my friends, so to refrain from that was really difficult. Instead of watching TV in between classes, I read for my upcoming classes. Giving up facebook was not that big of deal because I will usually only check it once a day so that was not that hard for me. I also spent more time with the girls in my house after classes and before bed so the temptation would not be there to turn on the TV out of habit. The e-fast really made me pay more attention to the amount of media I use every day. I realized that a majority of the times where I'm on the internet or watching TV, I could be doing more productive things with my time. Watching tv or texting is just out habit and/or boredom. It was really an interesting thing to do and i'm glad I stuck with it for the full 24 hours. But I will say, by friday morning I was dying to send a text! :)

--Colleen

Media Log

Hey Everyone,

I decided to do my media log on Wednesday of last week. When I wake up in the morning before class, I turn on my tv while im eating breakfast. I also realized that I turn on my music while getting for my first class. The next time i realized that I would be using media was in between classes when I didnt have any work to do. I would normally either check my facebook, or watch tv. Then later in the day, I use media when I work out at my house through dvd's. I also am constantly texting throughout the day. At night, after I'm done with all my homework, I will call my parents to talk and then turn on the TV at night to fall asleep.

--Colleen