Effects of Police Misconduct

Effects of Police Misconduct What is police misconduct and how does it affect police and community relations? Police misconduct includes a comprehensive range, reflecting the high standards we expect of police officers. Police misconduct can apply to off-duty behavior as well as conduct on the job. Any conduct that is disgraceful, improper or unbecoming a police officer, or shows unfitness to be or continue as a police officer, or does not meet the requirements the community reasonably expects of a police officer. Examples of on-the-job police misconduct would be: Failure to provide medical treatment to a detainee. Assaulting another individual in a night club would be an example of off-duty police misconduct. The violation of state and federal laws or the violation of individuals constitutional rights by police officers; also when police commit crimes for personal gain. Police misconduct terms refer to a wide range of procedural, criminal, and civil violations. Misconduct is the broadest category. Misconduct is procedural when it refers to police who go against police department rules and regulations; criminal when it refers to police who defy state and federal laws; unconstitutional when it refers to police who abuse a citizens Civil Rights; or any combination thereof. Common forms of misconduct are: Excessive use of physical or deadly force, Discriminatory arrest, Physical or verbal harassment Selective enforcement of the law. Profit or another type of material benefit gained illegally as a result of the officers authority is considered misconduct. Forms of police misconduct include bribery, extortion, receiving or fencing stolen goods, and selling drugs. The term also refers to patterns of misconduct within a given police department or special unit, particularly where offenses are repeated with the consent of superiors. Police departments establish codes of conduct, train new recruits, and investigate and discipline officers, sometimes in cooperation with civilian complaint review boards which are intended to provide independent evaluative and remedial advice. Protections are also found in state law, which permits victims to sue police for damages in civil actions. Excessive force- police brutality, false arrest and imprisonment, malicious prosecution, and wrongful death are examples of actions brought for claims. State actions may be brought at the same time with additional claims for constitutional viol ations. Federal law specifically targets police misconduct through both criminal and civil statutes, Federal law is applicable to all state, county, and local officers, including those who work in correctional facilities. The key federal criminal statute makes it unlawful for anyone acting with police authority to deprive another person of any right protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States (Section 18 U.S.C. ÂÂ § 241 [2000]). Another statute, commonly referred to as the police misconduct provision, makes it unlawful for state or local police to engage in a pattern or practice of conduct that deprives persons of their rights (42 U.S.C.A. 14141 [2000]). Federal law prohibits discrimination in police work. police departments receiving federal funding is covered by Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. ÂÂ § 2000d) and the Office of Justice Programs statute (42 U.S.C. ÂÂ § 3789d[c]), which prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, and religion. These laws prohibit conduct from racial slurs and unjustified arrests to the refusal of departments to respond to discrimination complaints. In the 1990s, the New York City Police Department began a community policing approach to crime fighting. Some major cities in which community policing and other community relations strategies have been used report increased public confidence in police, a reduction in crime, and the easing of racial tensions. The goal of community policing is for community residents and police to work together addressing crime in the neighborhood. Effective police-community relations initiates community members learn about policing and how to prevent crime, and a police department can learn about neighborhood members and their policing needs. Community policing allows neighborhood residents and police departments to come together to fight crime. Community policing effort can ruin the relations between the police and the community that it is designed to protect. As the NYPD has recognized, if the price is the trust and respect of the community we serve whatever gains we have achieved in fighting crime is minimized. If members of the community are reluctant to approach police for fear of a negative encounter, then we have not met our obligations to the public even if crime levels decline. Abner Louima was assaulted and sodomized by officers inside Brooklyns 70th Police Precinct; Mayor Giuliani created the Task Force on Police/Community Relations on August 19, 1997, 10 days after Haitian immigrant was assaulted. The goal was to give better communication among members of the police department and residents of the City of New York. The New York City Police Department began to put in place a program in June 1996, called the Courtesy, Professionalism and Respect (CPR) program. The CPR program encourages professionalism within the department, including the constant display of courtesy and respect toward the citizens of New York City. The NYPD initiated the program in response to a rise in the number of complaints against the NYPD. The mayor believes there is a problem in the relationship between the New York Police Department and the communities of color in New York, which must be addressed from both sides of the problem. Many of the complaints concerned discourteous conduct by members of the NYPD. To improve the situation it is critical that officers understand the need for respectful treatment of the people of New York. We train them to refer to people as Mr. and Ms, to try to explain to people why theyre doing what they do and to go out of their way to be respectful. According to the NYPD, the ultimate goals of the CPR program include: A more productive relationship between the NYPD and residents Improved officer safety through increased public support More success for all crime strategies An image of members of the NYPD as law enforcement professionals. To accomplish these goals, the NYPD provides its officers with in-service training as well as training at the Police Academy. The twentieth century saw multiple legal, administrative, and scholarly approaches to the problem. The passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, gave new protections to citizens who had long suffered discriminatory policing. A string of landmark Supreme Court decisions highly influenced cases resulting in the strengthening of Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable Search and Seizure, evidentiary rules forbidding the use at trial of evidence tainted by unconstitutional police actions, and the establishment of the so-called Miranda Warning requiring officers to advise detained suspects of their constitutional rights. Traditional views were based on the assumption that police abuse reflected the moral failings of individual officers-the so-called bad cop. The Knapp Commission was organized to hold hearings on the extent of corruption in the citys police department. Testimony against fellow officers not only revealed systemic corruption but highlighted an obstacle to investigate these abuses: the understanding among police officers known variously as the Code of Silence and the Blue Curtain under which officers regard testimony against a fellow officer as betrayal. The work of criminologists and others, police departments sought to improve organizational rules, training, and prevention and control mechanisms. The publication of a code of police conduct by the International Association of Chiefs of Police, reflect more hard training for officers, and experimented with so-called community policing programs to improve relationships between officers and the community. Several cities established joint police and civilian complaint review boards to give citizens a larger role in what traditionally had been a closed, internal process by police departments. Among the most dramatic examples of system-wide reform is New York Citys response to long-standing brutality, discrimination, and corruption within the New York City Police Department. After reviewing civilian complaints against police in the 1960s, the city committed to it after public outcry over the videotaping of officers beating citizens who violated curfew in 1988. The Civilian Complaint Review Board, which became an all-civilian agency in 1993. In 1992, responding to new complaints, the Mayor appointed the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Police Corruption and the Anti-Corruption Procedures of the Police Department, known as the Mollen Commission. Two years later, the commission concluded that the city had alternated between cycles of corruption and reform. The full-time Commission to Combat Police Corruption (CCPC) as an entity independent from the police department was created. The CCPC monitors the NYPD anti-corruption policies and procedures, conducts audits, and i ssues public reports. Misconduct complaints can be quantified on a city-by-city basis, but these data are often subjective, and far more complaints are filed than ever are evaluated at trial. Corruption is even harder to measure. As the National Institute of Justice acknowledged in its May 2000 report, The Measurement of Police Integrity, most corruption incidents go unreported, and data that do exist are best regarded as measures of a police agencys anticorruption activity, not the actual level of corruption. Prosecution of the officers was less conclusive. Officer Justin Volpe pleaded guilty to leading the Sodomy assault and was sentenced to 30 years in prison. However, in 1999, his fellow three officers were acquitted on charges of assault in the police cruiser; one of them, Officer Charles Schwarz, was convicted of violating Louimas civil rights for holding him down during the bathroom assault. In 2000, all three were convicted of obstructing justice for their actions in covering up evidence of the attack, but these convictions were later overturned in United States v. Schwarz, 283 F.3d 76 (2d Cir. 2002). Ordered a new trial on the civil rights charge, Schwarz reached a plea bargain in September 2002, agreeing to be sentenced to a 5-year prison term. Misconduct by police officers has occasionally led to rioting. The Los Angeles riots in 1992 followed the acquittal of white police officers charged with the videotaped beating of black motorist Rodney King. In April 2001, three days of rioting in Cincinnati followed the acquittal of a white police officer on charges of shooting Timothy Thomas, a 19-year old unarmed black man. Cities continue to examine ways to bring meaningful reform to police departments. Some critics have argued that misconduct and corruption are age-old problems that resist all efforts at eradication; the best society can do, in this view, is monitor and correct. Others trace recent problems to public policy that emphasizes aggressive policing of drug, gang, and street crimes. Until more effective remedies are found, some citizens will still require protection from the very people appointed to protect and serve them.

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According to Hector Avalos, religions might preach peace, love, and harmony, but establishing a textual canon or sacred site which only some have privileged access to also establishes an illusory â€Å"scarcity† which causes people to fight. This is the intent of religious leaders, but it's an inevitable outgrowth of their actions — and we can see this occurring in the context of Islam with its holy sites and cities: Mecca, Medina, the Dome of the Rock, Hebron, and so on. Each city is holy to Muslims, but while Muslims focus on what they regard as the positive aspects, they cannot pretend that the negative aspects don't exist.Moreover, even the positive aspects can be criticized as often inaccurate. The holiness of each site is associated with violence against other religions or against other Muslims and their importance has been as dependent on politics as religion, a sign of the degree to which political ideologies and parties make use of the religious concept of â₠¬Å"holiness† to further their own agendas. Mecca Islam's holiest site, Mecca, is where Muhammad was born. During his exile in Medina, Muhammad had his followers pray in the direction of Mecca instead of Jerusalem which was the original orientation site.Going on a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a person's life is one of the Five Pillars of Islam. Mecca is closed to non-Muslims because of a revelation Muhammad allegedly received from God, but some outsiders have entered while disguised as Muslims. Even before Muhammad, Mecca was a pilgrimage site for pagan polytheists and some argue that the Muslim practice of pilgrimage was borrowed from those ancient rituals. Some scholars argue that because Jews and Christians rejected Muhammad's message, ancient pagan practices had to be incorporated into Islam in order to more easily capture the allegiance of local polytheists.Christianity did much the same throughout Europe in order to convert pagans there. Located in the courtyard o f the Great Mosque in Mecca is a windowless cube known as the Kaaba, believed by Muslims to have been built by the prophet Abraham In the southeastern corner of the Kaaba is the â€Å"Black Stone,† an object which Muslims believe was given to Abraham by the angel Gabriel. Reports of local pagans worshipping gods in the form of stones go back centuries and Muhammad probably incorporated this practice through the Kabaa itself.Pagan rituals were thus re-told through the lives of biblical characters and so that local practices could continue under the guise of Muslim tradition. Medina Medina is where Muhammad was exiled after he found little support for his ideas in his home city of Mecca, making it the second holiest site in Islam. There was a large Jewish community in Medina which Muhammad had hoped to convert, but his failure eventually led him to banish, enslave, or kill every Jew in the area. The presence of non-believers was at first an affront to Muhammad's claims that his religion superseded theirs; later, it was an affront to the holiness of the place.Medina was also the capital of the Muslim empire until 661 when it was moved to Damascus. Despite its religious status, this loss of political power caused the city to decline precipitously and it had little influence during the Middle Ages. Medina's modern rise to prominence was again due to politics, not religion: after Britain occupied Egypt, the Ottoman occupiers of the region funneled communications through Medina, transforming it into a major transportation and communication center. Thus the importance, decline, and growth of Medina was always dependent upon the political situation, not on religion or religious beliefs.Dome of the Rock The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem is a Muslim shrine which stands where the first Jewish temple is believed to have stood, where Abraham tried to sacrifice his son to God, and where Muhammad ascended into heaven in order to receive God's commandments. For Muslims this is the third holiest site for pilgrimage, after Mecca and Medina. It may be the oldest surviving example of early Islamic architecture and is modeled after the Christian Church of the Holy Sepulchre, located nearby. Control of the site is a hotly contested issue for Muslims and Jews.Many devout Jews would like to see the mosques torn down and the Temple reconstructed in their place, but this would destroy one of the holiest sites of Islam and lead to a religious war of unprecedented proportions. True Believers have gathered together in a variety of Third Temple societies in active preparation, even going so far as to prepare the precise clothing, coinage, and sacrificial implements needed for use in a rebuilt Temple. Stories have spread among Muslims that the creation of Israel was the first step in an apocalyptic process which will culminate in the total triumph of Islam over all the world.The Dome of the Rock is thus one of the best examples of Avalos' argument about how reli gions create false scarcities which encourage violence. There are no natural resources on this site which humans might be expected to fight over — no oil, water, gold, etc. Instead, people are willing to launch an apocalyptic war simply because they all believe that the site is â€Å"holy† to them and, therefore, that only they should be allowed to control and build upon it. Hebron The city of Hebron is holy for both Muslims and Jews because it contains the â€Å"Cave of the Patriarchs,† supposedly a tomb for Abraham and his family.During the Six Day War of June, 1967, Israel seized Hebron along with the rest of the West Bank. After this war, hundreds of Israelis settled in the area, creating conflict with thousands of Palestinian neighbors. Because of this, Hebron has become a symbol of Israeli-Palestinian hostilities — and thus of interreligious strife, suspicion, and violence. It's not possible for both Jews and Muslims to have exclusive control of Heb ron and neither group is willing to share control. It's only because of the insistence of both that the city is â€Å"holy† that they fight over it at all, though.Mashhad Mashhhad, Iran, is the site for the burial places and shrines for all twelve of the imams revered by the Twelver Shia Muslims. These holy men, believed to be a source of sanctity, are all martyrs because they were murdered, poisoned, or otherwise persecuted. It wasn't Christians or Jews who did this, though, but other Muslims. These shrines to the early imams are treated by Shia Muslims today as religious symbols, but if anything they are symbols for the ability of religion, including Islam, to encourage violence, brutality, and division among believers. QomQom, Iran, is an important pilgrimage site for the Shi'a because of the burial sites of numerous shahs. The Borujerdi mosque is opened and closed each day by government guards who praise Iran's Islamic government. It is also the site of Shia theology trai ning — and thus also of Shia political activism. When the Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran from exile, his first stop was Qom. The city is thus as much a political shrine as it is a religious one, a monument to authoritarian politics and the authoritarian religion which provides politics with existential justification. –>

The Psychology of The Gambler Essay - 2127 Words

The Psychology of The Gambler In Fyodor Dostoyevskys The Gambler, we are presented with a novel whose protagonist is what we would call today a problem gambler. The gambling mania of the storys hero, Alexei Ivanovitch, is a mirror of Dostoyevskys own gambling compulsion. The heroine, Polina Alexandrovna, represents a woman Dostoyevsky had as a real lover. Polina is the stepdaughter of the General, who Alexei works for as a servant. The General shows paranoia over gambling from the outset of the story. He censures Alexei with respect to his care of the children, I suppose you would like to take them to the Casino to play roulette? Well, excuse my speaking so plainly, but I know how addicted you are to gambling. Though I†¦show more content†¦He struggles with moralizing over this but knows a change in his fortunes can be had from successful gambling, I had long ago made up my mind, that never should I depart from Roulettenberg until some radical change had taken place in my fortunes...why is gamblin g a whit worse than any other method of acquiring money? How, for instance, is it worse than trade? True, out of a hundred persons, only once can win; yet what business is that of yours or mine? (Dostoyevsky 8). When it comes to writers and writing, there is an old maxim that is often repeated, Write what you know. Dostoyevsky seems to have taken this advice to heart when it comes to his own writing. For the gambler is based on a real love affair had by the author as well as being a first-hand account of the behaviors and psyches of the addicted gambler (which he was for a period of time). As Christine McKay (2) points out, The Gambler is based on Dostoyevskys love affair with Apollinaria Suslova as well as his frequent casino visits to play roulette, which he began playing in 1863, at a time when he was extremely poor. He experienced first-hand the excesses of gambling so aptly described in The Gambler. Alexei is involved in the intrigues of the social climbers who surround the General for whom he works as a servant. This too is an autobiographical element of theShow MoreRelatedGambling Surrounding The Asian And American Asian Communities1586 Words   |  7 Pagesfollow-up poll was distributed, 21% of the respondents openly considered themselves pathological gamblers, and 16% more labeled themselves as problem gamblers. (Asian-Nation) These rates are ridiculously higher than the rate we find throughout our entire nation. Current data suggests that only 1.6% of Americans can be classified as pathological gamblers, and about 3% are considered problem gamblers. 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History and Design of Submarines

Designs for underwater boats or submarines date back to the 1500s and ideas for underwater travel date back even further. However, it was not until the 19th century that the first useful submarines began to appear. During the Civil War, the Confederates built the H.L. Hunley, the submarine that sank a Union ship. The U.S.S. Housatonic was built in 1864. But it wasnt until after World War I began that the first truly practical and modern submarines were invented. The submariners problem has always been how to improve his underwater endurance and performance, and both capabilities are defined by the ship. Early in submarine history the submariners problem often was how to make his ship work at all. Hollow Papyrus Reeds Historical accounts point out that man has always sought to explore the ocean depths. An early record from the Nile Valley in Egypt gives us the first illustration. It is a wall painting that shows duck hunters, bird spears in hand, creeping up to their prey beneath the surface as they breathe through hollow papyrus reeds. The Athenians are said to have used divers to clear the harbor entrance during the siege of Syracuse. And Alexander the Great, in his operations against Tyre, ordered divers to destroy any submersible vehicle (submarine) defenses the city might undertake to build. While in none of these records does it actually say that Alexander had any kind of submersible vehicle, legend has it that he descended in a device that kept its occupants dry and admitted light. William Bourne - 1578 Not until 1578 did any record appear of a craft designed for underwater navigation. William Bourne, a former Royal Navy gunner, designed a completely enclosed boat that could be submerged and rowed beneath the surface. His creation was a wooden framework bound in waterproofed leather. It was to be submerged by using hand vises to contract the sides and decrease the volume. Although Bournes idea never got beyond the drawing board, a similar apparatus was launched in 1605. But it didnt get much farther because the designers had neglected to consider the tenacity of underwater mud. The craft became stuck in the river bottom during its first underwater trial. Cornelius Van Drebbel - 1620 What might be called the first practical submarine was a rowboat covered with greased leather. It was the idea of Cornelius Van Drebbel, a Dutch doctor living in England, in 1620. Van Drebbels submarine was powered by rowers pulling on oars that protruded through flexible leather seals in the hull. Snorkel air tubes were held above the surface by floats, thus permitting a submergence time of several hours. Van Drebbels submarine successfully maneuvered at depths of 12 to 15 feet below the surface of the Thames River. Van Drebbel followed his first boat with two others. The later models were larger but they relied upon the same principles. Legend has it that after repeated tests, King James I of England rode in one of his later models to demonstrate its safety. Despite its successful demonstrations, Van Drebbels invention failed to arouse the interest of the British Navy. It was an age when the possibility of submarine warfare was still far in the future. Giovanni Borelli - 1680 In 1749 the British periodical Gentlemens Magazine printed a short article describing a most unusual device for submerging and surfacing. Reproducing an Italian scheme developed by Giovanni Borelli in 1680, the article depicted a craft with a number of goatskins built into the hull. Each goatskin was to be connected to an aperture at the bottom. Borelli planned to submerge this vessel by filling the skins with water and to surface it by forcing the water out with a twisting rod. Even though Borellis submarine was never built it provided what was probably the first approach to the modern ballast tank. Continue David Bushnells Turtle Submarine The first American submarine is as old as the United States itself. David Bushnell (1742-1824), a Yale graduate, designed and built a submarine torpedo boat in 1776. The one-man vessel submerged by admitting water into the hull and surfaced by pumping it out with a hand pump. Powered by a pedal-operated propeller and armed with a keg of powder, the egg-shaped Turtle gave Revolutionary Americans high hopes for a secret weapon - a weapon that could destroy the British warships anchored in New York Harbor. Turtle Submarine: Use as a Weapon The Turtles torpedo, a keg of powder, was to be attached to an enemy ships hull and detonated by a time fuse. On the night of September 7, 1776, the Turtle, operated by an Army volunteer, Sergeant Ezra Lee, conducted an attack on the British ship HMS Eagle. However, the boring device that was operated from inside the oak-planked Turtle failed to penetrate the target vessels hull. It is likely that the wooden hull was too hard to penetrate, the boring device hit a bolt or iron brace, or the operator was too exhausted to screw in the weapon. When Sergeant Lee attempted to shift the Turtle to another position beneath the hull, he lost contact with the target vessel and ultimately was forced to abandon the torpedo. Although the torpedo was never attached to the target, the clockwork timer detonated it about an hour after it was released. The result was a spectacular explosion that ultimately forced the British to increase their vigilance and to move their ships anchorage further out in the harbor. Royal Navy logs and reports from this period make no mention of this incident, and it is possible that the Turtles attack may be more submarine legend than a historical event. David Bushnell Larger Photo of Turtle SubmarineDavid Bushnell built a unique vessel, called the Turtle, designed to be propelled underwater by an operator who turned its propeller by hand. David Bushnells American TurtleThe only working, full-scale model of David Bushnells 1776 invention, the American Turtle. David Bushnell 1740-1826The most sensational contribution of patriot and inventor David Bushnell to the American Revolutionary War effort was the worlds first functioning submarine. Continue Robert Fulton and the Nautilus Submarine Then came another American, Robert Fulton, who in 1801 successfully built and operated a submarine in France, before turning his inventing talents to the steamboat. Robert Fulton - Nautilus Submarine 1801 Robert Fultons cigar-shaped Nautilus submarine was driven by a hand-cranked propeller when submerged and had a kite-like sail for surface power. The Nautilus submarine was the first submersible to have separate propulsion systems for surfaced and submerged operations. It also carried flasks of compressed air that permitted the two-man crew to remain submerged for five hours. William Bauer - 1850 William Bauer, a German, built a submarine in Kiel in 1850 but met with little success. Bauers first boat sank in 55 feet of water. As his craft was sinking, he opened the flood valves to equalize the pressure inside the submarine so the escape hatch could be opened. Bauer had to convince two terrified seamen that this was the only means of escape. When the water was at chin level, the men were shot to the surface with a bubble of air that blew the hatch open. Bauers simple technique was rediscovered years later and employed in modern submarines escape compartments that operate on the same principle. Continue The Hunley During the American Civil War, Confederate inventor Horace Lawson Hunley converted a steam boiler into a submarine. This Confederate submarine called the could be propelled at four knots by a hand-driven screw. Unfortunately, the submarine sank twice during trials in Charleston, South Carolina. These accidental sinkings in Charleston harbor cost the lives of two crews. In the second accident the submarine was stranded on the bottom and Horace Lawson Hunley himself was asphyxiated with eight other crew members. The Hunley Subsequently, the submarine was raised and renamed the Hunley. In 1864, armed with a 90-pound charge of powder on a long pole, the Hunley attacked and sank a new Federal steam sloop, USS Housatonic, at the entrance to Charleston Harbor. After her successful attack on Housatonic, the Hunley disappeared and her fate remained unknown for 131 years. In 1995 the wreck of the Hunley was located four miles off Sullivans Island, South Carolina. Even though she sank, the Hunley proved that the submarine could be a valuable weapon in time of war. Biography - Horace Lawson Hunley 1823-1863 Horace Lawson Hunley was born in Sumner County, Tennessee, on 29 December 1823. As an adult, he served in the Louisiana State Legislature, practiced law in New Orleans and was a generally notable figure in that area. In 1861, after the start of the American Civil War, Horace Lawson Hunley joined James R. McClintock and Baxter Watson in building the submarine Pioneer, which was scuttled in 1862 to prevent its capture. The three men later constructed two submarines at Mobile, Alabama, the second of which was named H.L. Hunley. This vessel was taken to Charleston, South Carolina, in 1863, where it was to be used to attack blockading Union ships. During a test dive on 15 October 1863, with Horace Lawson Hunley in charge, the submarine failed to surface. All on board, including Horace Lawson Hunley, lost their lives. On 17 February 1864, after it had been raised, refurbished and given a new crew, H.L. Hunley became the first submarine to successfully attack an enemy warship when she sank USS Housatonic off Charleston. Continue The USS Holland John Holland