Data Analysis

Data Analysis

           

            There is a multitude of research, theory and just simple opinions on how often and why police brutality occurs but the most important viewpoint is that from the police officers themselves. Aaron Woodruff is a Major and acting Chief of Police in the Illinois State University Police Department and was gracious enough to provide some answers to some very important questions. To begin, Major Woodruff explained how he began his career with the ISU Police Department and has ever since been working in Normal. He believes he is a police officer now because he enjoys helping others and isn’t fit for a job that is the same everyday therefore he says “police work just felt like a natural fit for me.” With a focus being on the relationship between minorities and city police officers; when asked if the academy has any cultural diversity training, he replied that the academy does include a cultural awareness class along with mental health and elder abuse issues programs. Also, officers attend additional diversity training and most have completed online courses through the Southern Poverty Law Center and University of California at San Bernadino. With all of this in mind, Major Woodruff concluded, “While I think this type of training has some effect, I think personal experience is by far the better teacher.” Being in Normal, it would be interesting to see whether the Major has felt mistrust or negative attitudes towards himself from minority members so I asked him and he replied, “Absolutely, over the years I have heard remarks by minority members about myself and other officers that were absolutely untrue.” He goes on to say, “sometimes you need to let people vent their frustrations, even if they are not valid.” This is important because it is aggravating for anybody to be wrongfully accused of something especially for police officers who are trying to help the accusers. Major Woodruff believes, from his experience in the field, that the reasons for excessive use of force by police officers includes “long work hours by the officer, poor officer selection, poor training, escalation in force by the arrestee, pre-conceived biases, family life stressors, or a number of other factors.” His answer to the problem is obviously not definitive but he believes that open and long-term communication between community members and police is the best way to increase understanding about what both sides are trying to achieve.

            In an effort to juxtapose this with a large urban city setting, I also interviewed Officer Joseph Meloscia, an undercover narcotics officer working with the Chicago Police Department. When Joe went through the academy he attended a short version of a course of cultural diversity and every 2 years has to go through a refresher course. This is interesting because it seems that Normal police officers go through more diversity training than Chicago officers although Chicago is obviously the more diverse of the two cities. Like Major Woodruff, Officer Meloscia always experiences mistrust from the minority members he works with. He reiterates by saying “Many people see police in their homes at a young age. The image of police officers arresting one or both of their parents leaves a bad taste.” Officer Meloscia believed a major reason of police brutality to be long, exhausting hours on the streets. This year, Chicago changed officer work weeks from four days to six days with an hour and half extra each day. Joe adds that studies have shown that on the sixth work day is when most complaints about excessive use of police force occur. He also believes that problems at home are a contributor; “getting into an argument with a spouse just before leaving for work and then the first person you come into contact with becomes an easy target.” Officer Meloscia believes that the way to reduce police brutality is to keep kids and drugs off the streets and put into better schools and work.

            A theme that is most surprising and stands out most is the criticism of both Officers’ co-workers and the language used in their answers. Both interviewees did not hesitate to say that there are still problems with corruption and racism within the police force. The strongest message came from Officer Meloscia in which he said, “There’s no doubt that many officers are heavy-handed or racist.” What is surprising about this statement is the definitive nature of it and the fact that “many” officers are racist in his opinion. Another interesting point to make about both of the officer’s viewpoints was the attribution of blame for police brutality towards long work hours. Both officers mentioned it but Officer Meloscia went further to explain it. A difference between the two was the fact that Officer Meloscia saw a solution to police brutality being a problem that the government needs to work on to keep kids and gangs off the streets. Officer Woodruff believed the solution to be not enough open communication between the police and the community they serve.

            The next source of data comes from the analysis of media reports on police brutality of urban areas and the ratio of citizen complaints to these actual reported cases. In a journal called the “Revolutionary Worker,” a startling statistic was revealed which stated “from 1993 to 1995, the Chicago Police Department’s Office of Professional Standards looked into 8,620 citizen’s complaints. During that same period, only 13 cops were fired for brutality (Revolutionary Worker).”  Although there may be some frivolous complaints, it is no reason for only one officer to be relieved of his duty for every 660 complaints of abuse. Referring to the 2009 annual report from the Chicago Police Department, there were a total of 726 complaints against police officers for unreasonable force and of those, only 20 were met with disciplinary procedures. Those procedures can range from a reprimand, suspension or separation from the Chicago Police Department (2009 Annual Report: A Year in Review, 66). In relation to this, media reports of unreasonable force by police are extremely limited in comparison with the number of complaints received. In 2009, the Chicago Tribune published only 13 articles on different instances of police brutality in the city of Chicago with three articles describing the beating of handicapped individuals. It is clear that in the crime, law and justice section of the Chicago Tribune that only the most extreme of cases will be published. Also, the Chicago Sun-Times published only three articles regarding police brutality or torture in 2009.

 It is impossible to definitively conclude why the exposure is so limited compared to the amount of complaints of brutality but there are a couple of possible reasons. First of all, a newspaper can only report a limited amount of stories and focusing on minor cases of abuse is obviously not the priority for a business. Secondly, like any other subject a newspaper reports about, only the most special and outlandish cases seem to interest the readers so reporting about officers brutalizing a handicapped person is more important than verbal insults on the streets.

multi-genre multi-model components

With my topic on police brutality, my first forum would be a newspaper article because it is always a sensational news story with the right conditions and situations. More specifically, a report on a specific event will help me delve into the problem at hand which is what my research essay essentially addresses. My other choice for a forum would be a website because it will allow me to show online videos of important cases of police brutality and maybe even analysis and interviews of professionals from news media outlets. The website will bring additional information and issues into my social action research project while the newspaper article will explain my findings with a specific example of police brutality.

Free writing social class and wealth disparities

The first of the three racial differences in wealth accumulation is the racialization of state policy where the authors refer to how "state policies have impaired the ability of blacks to accumulate wealth". They chronologically refer to the enslavement of blacks to laws that prohibit certain rights and today where welfare state policies tend to discourage accumulation of wealth. The second focus is on "economic detour" which describes the low level of black entrepeneurship in America. The third focus is the sedimentation of racial inequality describes the effects of the past discrimination and racism that blacks have experienced throughout their history in America. The low wages, exclusion from the free market economy, and poor schooling have "cemented blacks to the bottom of society's heirarchy."

The author interviewed a seventy-five year old retired homeowner named Kevin on the topic of inherited wealth.

A theme that emerged from the interviews was that families assets expand opportunities for their children in concert with this is that families with low amounts of access to wealth will impede on their childrens dreams and futures. The authors also argue that the U.S. is made up of two nations; black and white. They focus on the "seperate" middle classes whereby blacks depend on income rather than assets where whites have no such worries.

The authors call for two different policy agendas from the government. The first agenda is a forward setting of policies that directly benefit African-Americans in need. The other agenda is to make policies that help the people of the lower echelons of socio-economic status, black or white.

Coming to college was very stressful for me, the only thing that really helped was rooming with my good friend of many years. We both found our click through parties and friends of friends and became a very close group of musicians, artists and skateboarders. Challenges I faced had nothing to do with socio-economic or racial disparity it was more of a responsibility issue, i.e. grades and going out at night. I think the speaker that I related with the most was Kathleen Kelly who did not think too much about college beforehand and when she came she was very lost and more specifically said, "it was as if I had entered a foreign country and did not know the customs, the language, or the people." I think this really relates to me more because of the negative attitude I had about college in high school and the lost feeling I had once I first got to college. Other than that, her story is more unfortunate that mine but it is definitely similar to the feelings I have experienced.

Data analysis of social class questionnaire

The main theme of the questionnaire responses by Jane Doe reflected a decent upbringing in a safe neighborhood with values that encourage a good living, getting a college degree and saving up money. Values that were not as important are keeping up with the neighborhood and community service which may suggest a suburban upbringing. Her father worked at a bakery which can also suggest a modest salary and her mother was a stay-at-home mom. Jane states that, "I appreciate living in a nice area and always feeling safe" and does not respect it when others say that people in her situation get whatever they want. Another theme that seems to develop throughout is the fact that her socio-economic status taught her to maintain those values that are so often associated with that specific social class.

Critiquing Police Brutality Data

The participants of the study are a result of a nationwide surveys about police brutality and public opinion on it. The section begins by explaining their reasoning for their methods and measures and comparing it to other researchers methods. It is organized by first explaining, giving comprehensive results about the surveys and then going over the possible reasons for the data. The general consensus of survey takers is that police are justified in using physical violence if they have been threatened or battered. The other emerging theme seems to be that the people who said the police are generally right in instances of police using force were moderate in their economic position, political views and moderate confidence in institutions. They use several nationwide surveys to analyze the data. What stands out is that most people have a general trust for police, that is, white people. Inner city citizens tend to have a distrust with the police tactics and motives but that's not an unusual consideration. I don't think it needs to be improved, the findings are solid (nationwide) and the analyzing is very thorough. I would give the researchers an A-.

Comparative Data Analysis

 Bryan's Data Analysis

The focus of his research is linguistics in the African-American community. The participant was a black male in his mid-20's from South West Atlanta who can speak both Standard English and African American Venacular English. The data was collected through an interview that was most likely recorded. Bryan used direct and indirect quotes to explain his and his participants views on his research focus.

Samantha's Data Analysis

The focus of her research is telling the story of Columbine. She questioned a younger sister of a survivor and an actual survivor who walks her through the event as she remembers. The data is collected basically through story telling from witnesses and family members of survivors. Samantha didn't really use many quotes to show her angle but the stories were quotes in themselves.

Free Writing Progress on Data

Looking on the data to be analyzed right now would not show much work or effort but this weekend will be the time the survey questions go up on blackboard, my questionnaire is sent to Chief of Police Ronald Swan and I will begin searching for media reports on police brutality. The questionnaire and survey will be easier to accomplish than the media analysis, so naturally, media analysis will take more time and effort. I expect to be done collecting all this data within 10 days.

Job Description Reflection

The job I found on monster.com was a security guard position in Aurora, IL, about 5 miles from my hometown. A position as a security guard would satisfy my career goals because I would learn a great deal about interaction with people (customers) and threats (criminals), two aspects that police officers face almost constantly on the job. The fact that this job is almost completely, albeit informally, consistent with a law enforcement position also doesn't hurt. I believe that having a security guard position will help me experience and learn some of the aspects of law enforcement that I normally would not get with food service or other miscellaneous jobs and even may guide me to other areas of the criminal justice system that would best suit my future career goals.

What can i do with a major in...?

Since I was about 10 years old, I've looked up to police officers as my own heroes that go unnoticed. I used to have intense, high speed chases with my matchbox cars and I was always the officer chasing down the bad guy. I have always had a respect for those on the force because my family is, for the most part, a police family. As a criminal justice major, there are many career opportunities that follow but my intention is to keep the police family going.

Free Writing Questions 10/26

Sally French thinks this is problematic because saying that blind people want to be treated normally is saying that people without disabilities are all normal and striving to do their best in the workplace. In other words, she says that everybody in the workplace is trying to do their best and accomplish all that they can, not just disabled people.

Almost every paragraph is Sally French writing about how cynical she is toward the treatment of disabled people such as herself. She is very judgmental about the poor treatment and even the positive treatment that many misinformed non-disabled people try to give the handicapped.

Shapiro is saying that minorities are half as likely to be labeled with a learning disability as caucasians but when they are labeled, there double the likelihood of being put into special education. His reasoning is best explained by the average IQ levels of inner city kids with learning disabilities and white suburban kids with learning disabilities. Inner city kids had an IQ of 81 while white suburban kids had 103. The reason for this is the varying ways that schools "diagnose" a learning disability from state to state.


The ADA and IDEA changed the view of adults and children with disabilities from a medical problem to an issue of civil rights. This like any other civil rights movements leads to backlash and the Department of Justice has also stepped in to give rights to it's disabled citizens.

Shitty First Drafts

The author makes a point that the first draft is only a forum to put down ideas and basic structure to the paper. It is not meant to be a great or even good paper, she even goes so far as to say that no one really writes a good first draft. The first draft is then a post to form a more structured and better second draft and so on. She also talks about her confidence issues with every review she writes.

Homophobia Articles

Consequences of anti-gay prejudice include victimization and violence towards homosexuals or people assumed to be. Another consequence is forcing homosexuals to struggle within themselves because it's too difficult and emotionally draining in today's society to come out of the closet.

Secondary victimization is a result of violence towards a homosexual that ends up causing more violence because attention is drawn from the first hate crime.

Burn said that equal rights do not exist and that basic rights are not protected in areas such as employment and housing for gays.

Lim-Him was called a racist remark in a gay bar and realized that the white gay man could not understand the oppression that both gay men shared.

Interview Analysis

The interview found some important information about the Criminal Justice field. I asked questions about the motivation to be a police officer or in this case, a Drug Enforcement Agency officer and thoughts on graduation. He believes that 20-25% of students take a break after graduation before they start their careers in whatever field they choose. He is a criminal justice major and wants to be a DEA agent because it's a step above patrol officers and includes a lot of investigation rather than law enforcement. He also would like to intern at a police department because he believes "it is a hands-on learning experience for the basic systems of law enforcement." I also asked him whether he thinks his career choice is more beneficial to society than most other career choices and he agreed because the role of the DEA is to keep drugs off the streets and out of the hands of criminals and children alike.

Finding your Voice

I would define 'voice' in writing as the struggle and eventual success of putting down what's below the surface of your public mind into words. In other words, it is to go beyond what people want to hear from you and to say what you REALLY want to say. I think Lamott's quote "We write to expose the unexposed" in a way is related to my definition of voice in that it tells us we should say what other people don't say.

Asian Lesbian Struggles

A visible minority is one who could never pass as being part of the majority or in this case, "white." An invisible minority is one who is part of the minority in society but doesn't run the risk of being discriminated against. Sticking to your own kind means staying with that minority and not having the values and accents of the majority. In other words, it means not conforming to the majority race. The author is going through the struggle of identifying and embracing her own culture even though she regards herself as a sinophobic. She overcame her struggle through meeting other people from her group, such as colored lesbians. I don't tone down many aspects of myself more than normal. One thing I do is to avoid telling people that I am from Naperville, a rich, rich suburb of Chicago because most people assume that I am spoiled and look down on me for it. It's a confusing and selfish habit...

Perpetuating Sexism

I don't think that I necessarily act sexist because I believe myself to be relatively neutral about women in that I don't judge them because they are not wearing make-up or acting accordingly to how women should act. I think sexist when I see sorority girls all formally dressed up and screaming at each other because i believe that is what's degrading to women in general.

Paraphrasing Activity

In order to stop overuse of quotations in your research paper, you should limit them at the source. This means that you should limit the amount of quotations you take down as notes, therefore, a smaller portion of your research paper will be direct quotations (Lester, 1976).

Reflections on Breaking the Code activity

What I learned from this activity was the importance of the literature review as part of the research process. Also, I think that this helped me understand how I can delve deeper into the articles and other sources I have collected. It was hard to do but with those specific questions to find an answer to, it is relatively easy.

Summary Practice

The author discusses the social functions of "serious" and "popular" music, a distinction he makes between mass produced popular music and a real form of art which is "serious" music. He posits that "popular" music serves only a sociological function in that it is determined by the social atmosphere of that time and "serious" music is created for transcendental purposes in that it passes through social forces. His main point is that "serious" music has social forces at the time it was made hidden in it while "popular" music literally tells us those social forces.

Three Workable Research Questions

Can cross-cultural community relations training and different hiring techniques help curb police discrimination in urban American cities?

Are there similarities and differences between urban and rural police discrimination and what is the reason for them?

Do public acts of discrimination through brutality by police officers result in retaliation by the victim's community members? Does this result in cyclical violence towards the police and community?

Finding the Focusing Questions

Important Question:
When police officers commit racist acts against the public, what specific types of factors and settings can be determined to pinpoint why that racist act occurred.


Sub-Questions:
Would providing cross-cultural community relation training and diversity training help curb racism within the urban police force?

Can the hiring of more minority police officers create a trust between the police and urban minority communities?

Does the setting for which police stereotype people determine whether it is racist or efficient?

When racism in the police force occurs, is it a more personal or institutional cause?

Narrative on Social Diversity and Multiculturalism

Social diversity can be defined as a society that lives together as different but equal units. Social class, race, gender, sexuality and others are what make people different but in that society they bring their own unique and special qualities that in some respects, bring us all together. Of course not everything is so positive; with differences in people come hatred for those differences and hatred based on those different but equal units can be very dangerous to a society. I said before that these different units bring unique and special qualities to the society as a whole; this can be defined as multiculturalism. Two or more cultures living together can be positive and negative as can hatred based on social class and sexuality. Social diversity has taught me how to live along with other people that are different than me and this is a very important thing for me. I think altogether that I haven't face many diversity issues being a middle-class white male, there is really nothing to complain about. I grew up in a town that had a few bad apples who tended to be racist in their everyday lives and watching things they do made me believe that I never wanted to be like that.

There has been one person who has been influential in shaping the ideas of social diversity and multiculturalism in my life and she is my mother. She was always tolerant of everybody in situations that some people would not be so tolerant. She taught me that everyone's the same and it's ridiculous to assume that skin color is a difference. I remember the first time I ever watched "American History X," it was and still is my favorite movie because it really delves into an important social issue at hand...hate groups. The movie depicted the life of a family sickened by Neo-Nazi ideals and the antisocial life of the other individuals in those groups. The most memorable part of the movie is the "curb-stomp" scene where the main character, a neo-nazi, comes out of his home to find a group of black gang members and proceeds to kill one by curb stomping him. This scene showed me the unreasonable brutality that some hate groups use all for the reason of diversity. This, to me, is the darkest side of social diversity. The side that I can't wrap my head around as to why people pursue those ideals and actions.

Being a Criminal Justice major, the social justice issues I am interested in investigating this semester are police racism and classism. More importantly, I want to look at what situations police use racism and why they do it. Whether it's to stereotype race and enforce law more efficiently but unethically or if it comes from hatred for another group or class of people. I think this is a very important topic to pursue because it is and has been one of the biggest social issues of the century and beyond. I believe it's important to understand why racism still exists and more importantly why it still exists in the police force.

Social Action Research Thoughts 1

Reading and writing in my personal life is huge because with it I can communicate and learn. Without these processes, I would not be able to function very well in life. Academically, it is very important not only to read and write but to do it well. Grades aren't everything but I have to be able to read and learn to get through school. Other writings that I do outside of class include facebook messaging and texting. I don't like texting although women do.

The most difficult part of academic writing is getting your thoughts together for the introduction and then putting them down with satisfaction. That is the hardest part for me; once I get through that, academic writing is pretty easy for the most part. The area of writing that I really need to improve is with research and informative papers. Research, to me, is a hassle and always a terrible experience for me but the biggest problem is not being able to go in-depth into the research and subsequently going in-depth into my research paper.

I read non-fiction novels about crime and outlaws since I am very interested in those areas. It's no surprise that I am a criminal justice major I suppose. I don't think reading those kinds of books has facilitated anything important into my own writing. I believe that reading and writing are very connected, although with me it's not a very important connection because I do not facilitate personal readings into personal writings.

I have taken a course like this last semester where the whole research paper was in sections throughout the semester and I enjoyed it. I have experienced a lot of research so there is really nothing to assume but for this course I am assuming that I can do well since I did well in that similar course last semester.

I want to research about something in my field of study (criminal justice)...preferably enforcing gangs or something that has to do with classism and racism. I think that there are reasons why police officers enforce gangs harshly but I want to know when the police go too far and why they do that.

I think with that topic in mind, the majority of researching would be in the library and looking at online articles since there is history with police and racism, it shouldn't be too hard to find interesting articles and books on that subject.

About Me

My name is Mark and I'm a criminal justice major who wants to be a police officer in the near future. I'm in a band called Oh Well and I might be missing class a couple times this semester to go tour with them east coast style. I like to skateboard and I just recently built a mini-ramp in my garage. Every tattoo I have gotten, I regretted the next day so I'm gonna keep getting them until I'm happy. Hot Tub Time Machine is the greatest movie ever made.