Last Blog

Overall, I thought this was a very fun and informative class and I'm very glad to have had the opportunity to take it. I think Dr. Castle did a great job teaching us about media and justice while keeping the topics and the class discussions interesting. My most favorite topics were the copycat killers because I enjoy learning about killers and their motives. My least favorite topics were the topics had to be the media fast and hearing about the same cases over and over. I can honestly say I didn't not enjoy anything in this class though. I would like to see a more indepth discussion about copycat killers. If I were to teach a class like this one, I would do it the exact same way Dr. Castle has, because I don't believe their is a more effective way.

Gran Torino

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLdIKlXl3ZA

This is my favorite scene from one of my favorite movies, Gran Torino.  Walt Kowalski is a bitter old man and a Korean War veteran who has just lost his wife. The world has changed around him as well. His once all-white neighborhood is now mostly Southeast Asian and he has a Hmong family living next door. He doesn't get along with his own family, all of whom seem more interested in getting his house than anything else. His pride and joy, however, is his mint condition 1972 Gran Torino. When the Hmong teenager who lives next door, Thao, is threatened by his cousin and other local gang members to steal it, Walt almost shoots him. Gradually, however, he realizes he has more in common with his neighbors than his own family and becomes something of a neighborhood hero when he prevents the gangbangers from forcing Thao into their car. He takes Thao under his wing, teaching him a few things about life and helps getting him a job. Walt's intervention has a price, however, when the gang shoots up Thao's house and attack his sister Sue. Walt decides to take things into his own hands, but not in the way you would think.

This movie raises concern for innercity gang violence. I'm sure its very hard for kids like these to escape the gangs, considering it is pretty much all they have sometimes. Its also kinda sad that Thao feels like he has to be like his cousin in order to "be a man".

Changes

Tupac - Changes

Come on come on
I see no changes wake up in the morning and I ask myself
is life worth living should I blast myself?
I'm tired of bein' poor & even worse I'm black
my stomach hurts so I'm lookin' for a purse to snatch
Cops give a damn about a negro
pull the trigger kill a nigga he's a hero
Give the crack to the kids who the hell cares
one less hungry mouth on the welfare
First ship 'em dope & let 'em deal the brothers
give 'em guns step back watch 'em kill each other
It's time to fight back that's what Huey said
2 shots in the dark now Huey's dead
I got love for my brother but we can never go nowhere
unless we share with each other
We gotta start makin' changes
learn to see me as a brother instead of 2 distant strangers
and that's how it's supposed to be
How can the Devil take a brother if he's close to me?
I'd love to go back to when we played as kids
but things changed, and that's the way it is

[Bridge w/ changing ad libs]
Come on come on
That's just the way it is
Things'll never be the same
That's just the way it is
aww yeah
[Repeat]

[2]
I see no changes all I see is racist faces
misplaced hate makes disgrace to races
We under I wonder what it takes to make this
one better place, let's erase the wasted
Take the evil out the people they'll be acting right
'cause both black and white is smokin' crack tonight
and only time we chill is when we kill each other
it takes skill to be real, time to heal each other
And although it seems heaven sent
We ain't ready, to see a black President, uhh
It ain't a secret don't conceal the fact
the penitentiary's packed, and it's filled with blacks
But some things will never change
try to show another way but you stayin' in the dope game
Now tell me what's a mother to do
bein' real don't appeal to the brother in you
You gotta operate the easy way
"I made a G today" But you made it in a sleazy way
sellin' crack to the kid. " I gotta get paid,"
Well hey, well that's the way it is

[Bridge]

[Talking:]
We gotta make a change...
It's time for us as a people to start makin' some changes.
Let's change the way we eat, let's change the way we live
and let's change the way we treat each other.
You see the old way wasn't working so it's on us to do
what we gotta do, to survive.

[3]
And still I see no changes can't a brother get a little peace
It's war on the streets & the war in the Middle East
Instead of war on poverty they got a war on drugs
so the police can bother me
And I ain't never did a crime I ain't have to do
But now I'm back with the facts givin' it back to you
Don't let 'em jack you up, back you up,
crack you up and pimp smack you up
You gotta learn to hold ya own
they get jealous when they see ya with ya mobile phone
But tell the cops they can't touch this
I don't trust this when they try to rush I bust this
That's the sound of my tool you say it ain't cool
my mama didn't raise no fool
And as long as I stay black I gotta stay strapped
& I never get to lay back
'Cause I always got to worry 'bout the pay backs
some punk that I roughed up way back
comin' back after all these years
rat-tat-tat-tat-tat that's the way it is uhh


Some things will never change


This songs has always been a personal favortie of mine and most people can always recognize this song.  This song raises questions about poverty, drug abuse, drug dealing, racism, murder, weapons, and corruption in the police force. Tupac is calling for a change in the way people live their lives to hopefully bring peace.

Guest Speaker

I thought Katie Baird did a great job at presenting a topic like suicide in a not so morbid manner to help educate us about it. She really went into detail about every little subject possbile about suicide and really helped us to recognize, diagnose, and treat one of our loved ones who may have these kind of thoughts. It is important that people take this information and apply it to everyday life. It doesn't matter if you use this information to save a loved one or ust some person you know from class, but if you save a single life, isn't it worth listening to an informational and involving presentation?

Amityville

http://www.radfordreviews.com/cgi-bin/rview.cgi?rm=mode2&type=article&name=TheTruthBehindTheAmityvilleHorror

Last night I was watching a documentary of the truth behind the Amityville Horror. It was really interesting and went into detail about Ronnie Defeo. His background and his mental state. Ronnie DeFeo was the son that killed his entire family while they were sleeping by gunshots execution style. He claimed he was insane and said that the house made him do it.  He claimed to hear voices and had a lot of weird happenings in the house. Turns out the house was actually placed on top of an Indian burial ground. What do you think? Do you believe Ronnie DeFeo was insane? Either way I have always been very interested in this story.

Beyond Sorry

I attended the folm Beyond Sorry in this week's Oceania Film Festival series. It was more of a documentary of Zita Wallace. Her family is in an aboriginal tribe in Autralia but over 50 years ago under the Government, she was taken by white men from her family and forced into schools and made to learn to live in white society. This story is of her finally return back to her home land and regain her culture which was stripped from her.  I found it interesting that the parents of the kids taken were told that their kids were dead so in their culture they were not allowed to talk about dead children.  Zita is one a few that come back to their true home and family even though they are nothing like it used to be. It is a touching tale that is a very interesting story that I never knew took place. Come connections I got were that this story reminds me a lot of the assmiliation and oppression put on the Native Americans by the English and Spanish settlers of the old days. Often we sometimes overlook what bad things we have done in the past.

Copycat Film

I really enjoyed the movie with Bill Curtis we watched in class last week.  After other blogs I think everyone pretty much hit it on the head that this individuals that commit these crimes and sick and mentally weak. These people do not know how to take responsibility of their own actions. I believe that these people have mental problems that are overlooked in the earlier stages of their development. I think the copycat acts can be avoided if the propers actions are taken when they show signs of not knowing right from wrong or understanding the consequences of their actions. To them, watching these people do it on movies only makes them feel like it can be done and they can maybe get some recognition and have a movie made about them possibly. Some of these offenders want just that, to be acknowledged. Either way they are all sick in the head and I feel if the people who surround them take the proper steps to get them help then the whole "copycat" excuse can be laid to rest.

Halo Murders

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10797_3-10141467-235.html

This weekend I was watching the E! channel and they had another countdown of the 15 Most Shockingly Crimes commited by children or something like that and one of the stories was the story of the video game addicted, Daniel Petric.  He was the son of a preacher and lived in a religous household which forbade him to play violent video games. He sneeked in halo and played it religously for a while. His parents found it and his mom took it away from him. In October 2007, he shot his mom and dad while they were watching tv. He tried to make it look like a murder suicide but his dad survived the attack.  He claimed that he was dangerously addicted to the video game. This is not recognized by the American Medical Association as a psychological disorder. He tried as an adult and convicted for the crime.  His father, who I said was a preacher, forgave his son after plenty of soul searching and actually testified for him in his case.

The Samoan Wedding

This past Wednesday I attended one of the Oceana Film Festival Series movies.  This week the movie was the Samoan Wedding.  It was a pretty funny and clever film based in New Zealand.  Its about four friends named Michael, Albert, Stanley, and Sefa.  They are four samoan friends that get crazy when they party each other, which seems to be every night. Even though they are thirty they still act like they are in college. Michael's little brother, Sione, has always been accepted in their group and he is about to get married.  However, since the boys have a bad rep about ruining wedding by being the MVP of the party, they are banned from Sione wedding unless they can all bring a date that is more than just a hookup.  The priest has to believe that the woman they bring are their girlfriend and see the light in the boys.  They all have their struggles trying to find dates.  Each guy goes through their own kind of choas while trying to find a date. Whether its an angry girlfriend, trying to find a right girl even though the right one was right in front of him, talking to a girl who everyone believes is fake, or being such a ladies man that he is scared to commit, every different story has its own ups and downs and is very funny. Through their journey, however, they figure out that they are able to find people they really care about and that they need to calm down become more responsible.  Eventually they all make it to the wedding by the skin of their butt.  I really enjoyed the film. I liked their accents and the way they had their own slang. It was an entertaining film that kept my attention the entire time.  It was a good choice by Dr. Castle.

Free Blog

http://www.aetv.com/cold_case_files/ccf_about.jsp

I just wanted to take this free blog to talk about one of my favorite shows, called Cold Case Files.  Its a show that comes on A&E that presents cases of murders that go cold, which means a case where there is nothing else left to investigate and cannot be closed. Then randomly some new evidence, another crime will spark interest, or something will happen that will bring the case back up. It shows steps detectives use to track down these criminals.  There hae been over 100 episodes and there are some very interesting cases included.  Not to mention with Bill Kurtis as the narrator, this show will keep you entertain. So I'm sure that most of you already watch this show, but if you don't i recommend you check it out.

October 7, 2010

http://crime.about.com/od/current/a/van_der_sloot.htm

This link is a couple of articles in one that play out the events in the Natalee Holloway case. The most recent update is a small overview on the basics of the case and that after 5 years Jordan van der Sloot was identified as the killer. After being arrested twice previously but let go, he was finally arrested in Chile and was flown back to Peru to face his murder charges.  

Although I believe that at the beginning of this story the media was trying to make it more entertainment than anything, I think that now that all the information has come out and they have identified the killer that the articles you see on the news and in the newspapers are more informational than entertaining.

Role of the News

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39380805/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/
http://afghanistan.blogs.cnn.com/2010/09/27/background-u-s-soldiers-charged-with-murder/?hpt=T1

The story I used for this assignment was updated a few hours ago.  It involves soldiers who are being charged for crimes in Afghanistan. They killed, dismembered, and took gross photos of the dead Afghanistan civilians. The MSNBC article gave information about the background of the entire case. The CNN story was more of an actual interview of Jeremy Morlock, from Alaska, that he provided step by step details of what all the troop did. The biggest difference between these two articles wasI could not find this story on FOX news. I am not exactly sure why but it seemed like FOX has only stories about Iraq and Iran. I could be dead wrong but I couldn't find anything about Afghanistan. I think this story is very important and should be known. The American people should know about this going on because what they did to those civilians is just plain sick.

HIDE YO KIDZ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y54yESyq6Io

This is a story that is recently becoming huge on the internet, especially youtube.  Antoine Dodson, 24, has now become a household name because of his rant on the uncaptured suspect in his sister's attempted rape.  In July of this past year a man climbed on the trashcan onto the ledge of the window and enterred the window of Antoine's sister, 22 year old Kelly.  He tried to get into bed with her and rape her. A struggle ensued and Antoine came rushing in after hearing his sister yell, causing the suspect to flee the scene leaving behind his shirt and fingerprints everywhere.  This will prove to be vital in solving this case.  This is apparently one rape in a chain of rapes that have occured in the same area. According to Antoine, "Obviously, we have a rapist in Lincoln Park, he's climbing in your windows, he's snatching your people up, trying to rape them; so y'all need to hide your kids, hide your wife and hide your husband, because they're raping everybody out here."  From what I can find, to this date the suspect has still not been caught.

The "Grim Sleeper"

http://serial-killers-news.newslib.com/story/3099-3250919/

This article I found in the Beverly Hills Courier is about a serial killer nicknamed the "Grim Sleeper".  The suspect is 57 year old Lonnie David Franklin, Jr. He is charged with 10 counts of murder and one count of attempted murder.  The article focuses on the fact that he plead not guilty while in court yesterday, but it also has background information about the killer and the victims.  The article reports that Franklin worked as a backyard mechanic in the Los Angeles area. He is suspected of killing 8 victims between 1985 and 1988, and 3 victims between 2001 and 2007.  There are no facts about serial killers in general in this article.  It did not say the FBI was involved or provide any names, but it did say that investigators linked him to the murders through familial DNA.  They noticed that his son's DNA was close to the killers and then managed to get some of Lonnie Franlkin's DNA.  The article gives the names of the victims and the date on which they were killed. There is also a story from one of the victims that survived her attack.  The article mentions that the bodies were all dumped in trash bins and alleys in South Los Angeles, Inglewood, and other unincorporated county areas. The killer was nicknamed the "Grim Sleeper" because of the 13 year gap between killings. Also, most of the killer's victims were prostitutes. Most of which were shot, raped, shot some more, and then dumped.  It is a good thing we have enhanced our field of Forensic DNA. Its kind of scary to think how many unsolved murders there would be without it.

09/16/10

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/boxing/news/story?id=5580784
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/boxing/2010-09-16-mayweather-more-felony-charges_N.htm
http://outofbounds.nbcsports.com/2010/09/mayweather-jr-hit-with-four-felony-counts.html.php

I decided to look into the story behind Floyd Mayweather's ordeal that I have seen on the news a lot recently. I looked at the same story on espn.com, USA Today's website, and MSNBC's website. Floyd Mayweather was charged with 3 more felony counts in a domestic violence case in which he already had a few charges. Apparetly he threatened and hit his ex-girlfriend and also, threathened to beat 2 of his kids.  All of this took place in a fight at his house after Mayweather confronted his ex-girlfriend about a new relationship she was in. He is alleged to have taken a cell phone belonging to his ex-girlfriend.  All in all, Mayweather is facing 8 different charges, and if convicted on all of them, he could possibly face up to 34 years.  All the sources share the same exact information on the story.  They all 3 are common in the fact that they recognize Mayweather as the most well-known boxer of this generation.

Deviance Promoting Website

http://www.nakedinvermont.com/

When I was coming up with ideas of a website that promotes deviant behavior, I stumbled upon nakedinvermont.com.  It is a site dedicated to nudists and a tool to get people together who share the same beliefs about nudity in the state of Vermont. WARNING there are some nude pictures and some links on the side are to other bad websites.  Something that really caught my attention was a NOTICE that that particular website was a family oriented nudist website and that it was rated G. Nudists believe that being nude offers a unique sense of freedom.  They celebrate the human body as a beautiful, natural thing that deserves to be open. It is considered deviant behavior because normally, us humans are not walking around or taking bike rides in the nude. We believe that clothes are supposed to be warn at all times in public.  The website offers many different activities for people who enjoy being nude. It has dates and times for nude bike rides, hikes, stretching, skinny dipping, photography, and other activities. They also have links to meet people who share the same beliefs and different photo galleries.  I believe that it should be labeled deviant because I don't believe it's normal to do all these activities without in clothes on.  Many people can have many different opinions on this subject dating all the way back to adam and eve.  Either way I thought the website was interesting because it says its a family oriented nudist website.

Toby Keith on Censorship

http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/2002/2002-06-13-toby-keith.htm

I read an article in USA Today called, Singer Toby Keith speaks out on ABC censorship.  He believed that anchor Peter Jennings was using censorship by vetoing using his song on a 4th of July tv special.  Toby Keith's song Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue expresses a line that has the word "ass" in it. Which is believed to be the reason why it was vetoed.  However one radio station played an edited version of the song and it recieved complaints about covering up the word "ass".  Toby Keith wrote that patriotic song in the wake of the death of his father and 911.  He said he believed it was the way all Americans felt when the towers fell.  Toby Keith joked that Dan Rather would probably allow him to play his song because he is actually from America and Peter Jennings is Canadian.

24 hour media fast

I did my 24 hour media fast on Saturday, September 4th. I knew it would be a little easier considering it was Gameday.  The only time I cheated was that I had to use my cell phone as an alarm clock to wake up on time for breakfast.  I also watched TV in the locker room before the game.  Besides that I really didn't use any form of media for the day. I spent most of the day just talking with friends and teammates. The game used a good chunk of time as well. It was pretty difficult to stay away from media before and after the game. The parties, however, greatly helped my chances of not using media. I didnt have a chance to watch tv or feel the need to use my cell phone since everyone I wanted to talk to was already there.  The hardest thing to give up was easily the cell phone.  I never realized how often I use one during a full days period.  The media fast was not really all that bad. It can make you appreciate the smaller things in life.

Media for a day

I choose today, September 5th, to take a mental chart of when I came into contact with any media.  I used my cell phone as an alarm to wake up at 10:00 to get ready to go to church. As I got ready I watched TV for about 15 minutes. I also watched TV throughout the day off and on from 2-4:30 and 8:30-12:30.  I didn't watch anything for the whole time just tuned in and out for certain shows. I was on the internet from 3:30-4 and from 9:30-11:30 doing homework.  At approximately 4:50 I read a newspaper article on the football game yesterday.  I texted throughout the entire day totaling about 30 minutes. Lastly I listed to the car radio on my trips in my car back and forth today totaling around 20 minutes.  I was pretty surprised that majority of my day, everyday, was surrounded by media.