Posts by Shawn Mathew
Public Health Problems and Solution
One of the big problems that we see when we look at public health in New York is the healthcare system. It focuses solely on helping those that are already sick. If we focused on keeping people healthy instead it would reduce the number of high cost surgeries and would in the end cost much less. There is also that fact there is a much less chance of dying when you keep people healthy rather solely than healing the sick. This doesn’t happen because people usually visit the doctor when there is a problem instead of constantly keeping up with their health. There are also many that are unable to be in good health due to financial situation, and medical bills only make the situation worse. Another evident problem when we look at the health in New York City, is the high substance use. Smoking is one of the bigger substances used in the city. According to CBS there is more than a million New Yorkers who smoke, and this is an increase from last year. If this were to continue more and more people will start smoking, which will cause a ridiculous amount of second hand smoking and people who are at risk for various ailments. Not only is smoking bad for the people that smoke, but its bad for the government. According to American Lung Association, smoking has cost the government $96 billion from health care expenditure. Everyone wins if smoking is decreased in New York.
Another big problem that is seen with health is obesity. Usually when you think of America you see a very obese person that is constantly eating even when it’s detrimental to their health. According to the nyc.gov, 34% of New Yorkers are overweight. This is a big problem. A lot of these people have a much higher risk of getting diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and many other health problems. Fixing this problem would definitely be very beneficial to society. It has been seen that obesity and overweight problems start at an early age. According to the Center of Disease Control, more than a third of children and adolescents are either overweight or obese. This is a very large number and may contribute to the large number of New Yorkers who are overweight. To fix the problem of obesity, focusing on improving the diet of children may be the best solution. Currently, schools feed children with fattening processed food that is in no way good for their health. In order to change this, the schools need an incentive to get their kids better food. To do this the government should give schools more money if their school lunches follow a certain guidelines. These guidelines would obviously aim to make the school lunches healthier. The government can also give various food providers to schools that will get them this incentive. Schools can use this money to get better computers, desks, chairs, and various other items needed for schools. This will cause students to become healthier while also getting tools to receive a better education.
Sources:
http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/obesity/facts.htm
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/smokers-in-nyc-increase-to-1-million/
http://www.lung.org/stop-smoking/about-smoking/health-effects/smoking.html
http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/living/obesity.shtml
Gender and Economic Growth Solution
One of the big problems that for women in the workplace is the notion that men are better at working than a woman would be. This notion does not only exist in the workplace but in various other places like sports and education. Gender roles are not something that a teacher or parent directly presents to children. It is clearly in various multimedia and underlying tones that are seen everyday for many children. In order to remove these notions that men are supposed to succeed while women are meant to stay at home and take care of the children, we must change the minds of the future generations. This clearly will not fix the problem immediately, but the next generation will have the ability to live outside of these gender roles that are present in society. According to the Riggs Institute, a child who learned how to play an instrument will play it better 20 years later than an adult starting out. In order to get children to get into the habit of having women be successful and leaders we have to set up a program in elementary schools.
The program in elementary school would be focused on spending at least half an hour a day focused on empowering women. While this does not need to happen very explicitly in classrooms it needs to be done. To make this program appealing having the government gives extra money to schools that undertake the program. This will give many schools incentives for going through this program. A very integral part of the program would be that the boys would also need to be present along with the girls. Simply altering the girl’s perceptions would not be enough to remove these gender roles. Having both men and women participate in these activities would force both the boys and girls face the fact that both men and women are equal. If these men are later in their lives found in positions of power, they will look at women without any bias due to the program.
The activities that would be done during the half hour period could involve watching shows where there is a female protagonist or holding a sports competition like football or soccer. Having girls play sports has actually been seen to increase the confidence that women. The Huffington Post covered a story where teenagers were playing football on a regular basis. Usually in sports there is a different division for both men and women, but these teenagers were playing against other boys. The experience of playing football really showed them how gender roles are all in their mind. Another big activity would be to half would be to bring in female parents come and talk about their jobs. Hopefully, some of the parents brought in are in some of the popular dream jobs for children like police officers, firefighters and doctors. This will bring children to learn that both men and women can undertake these jobs. In order the change the gender roles in the future we have to change the minds of the future.
Sources:
http://www.riggsinst.org/brainpower.aspx
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mary-alice-stephenson/football-taught-twelve-year-olds-girls_b_6681262.html
Questions for Kim Wales
1. Does your company help any type of start up regardless what what its cause is?
2. Does Wales Capital help guide a company even after it has left the start up stage or do the two companies part ways once successful?
Questions for Arielle Kandel
1. What is the most common challenge that women immigrants face when they come to New York?
2. What brought you to work with New Women New Yorkers?
Gender and Economic Growth Problems
One of the big problems that can be seen in the workplace is that women are not found in executive positions as much as they should. Since they make up approximately half of the population, they should at make up around half the people in executive positions. According to catalyst.org, less than 15 percent of fortune 500 executive officers were women, and women filled less than 17 percent of board seats in fortune 500 companies. This is clearly a problem. Although the trends show these numbers increasing slowly over the past 4 years, it is not enough. The change in percentage is in the single digits for both categories. It would take about another century for women to be represented in these companies, as they should. Not only do we see this problem in the workplace, but also in the government. There has yet to be a female president in the United States. In addition to this, according to nwpc.org, women only make up 18.5 percent of Congress. Since they make up half the population it would only make sense that they make up half of the government. This currently is not the case. We need to facilitate the current growth of women in both Congress and in higher positions in companies.
Another large problem that is seen in gender and economic growth is the culture that women are exposed to. They are taught ever since being young that men are better. The one child policy has brought many parents to hope that their child is a boy, and creates a world where boys can be seen as better than girls. In our culture, the men are considered to be the provider of the family while the women are the ones who stay home and just take care of the children. This culture has changed slightly over the years, but it still is not enough. Little girls are still taught to play with little baby dolls and easy bake ovens while boys are taught to play with cars and toy guns. Little girls are accustomed to having the idea of becoming a mother in the back of their minds. This continues all the way until they get married. This mindset is only going to hurt these women.
People doing the same job should be paid the same amount. It would only make sense because the same type and amount of work is being done. This, however, is not the case. According to payscale.com, women are being paid less than 80 cents for every dollar a man would make for the same job. This represents an average for every job, but some professions have a four percent difference in wage between men and women. Considering that these jobs, like software developing, would give you approximately 67,000 dollars annually, women would be receiving 2,000 dollars less than they should. In addition to this, women appear to stop receiving pay increases around the age of 40, while men continue to receive increases in payment until around 50. There is clearly some sort of bias in the system that needs to be resolved. Women are clearly not receiving the proper compensation for their work.
Sources:
http://www.catalyst.org/knowledge/statistical-overview-women-workplace
http://www.nwpc.org/statistics
http://www.payscale.com/gender-lifetime-earnings-gap
Future of Work Solutions
One of the big problems for the future of the work is the need to find our college graduates jobs. Right out of college it is very difficult to get a job especially if you had no internships or work experience during your college experience. Many employers believe that the graduates are not exactly ready for the work force, and that is most likely why they end up having trouble finding a job. More than half of the college graduates under the age of 25 are either unemployed or out of work. 48% of the college graduates that have a job are employed at places that only require less than a four years degree. What these people are doing before searching for a job is inadequate. What they all are doing is going to college, and it appears that college is not the best way to guarantee you a job anymore.
The way we fix this is by changing the college system so that it does better to prepare their students for job. One of the big things that people to do to improve their resume is take internships in their field of interest or get a job. Having this kind of experience in a job like setting would make the students more appealing to employers. To get students to acquire this experience, schools should make it a requirement that students get an internship. If schools had the requirement of an internship for graduations, many students would look much further ahead and start searching for this. To make this truly effective colleges would have to require their students to obtain a paid internship rather than an unpaid one. Normally, one would thinks that an unpaid internship is enough for one to get a job, but that is not the case. There is only a two percent increase in those offered a job between those have had an unpaid internship and those who did not. 63% of people with paid internships receive a job, which is 23% higher than those who have a regular internship. The colleges would not even need to do so much more than they do because they are already finding various internship opportunities for their students.
One of the bigger problems about college is the importance of tests. Tests tend to assess one’s test taking abilities and memorization. Students lack who in either of these skills start with a big disadvantage. On top of that, when these students go to work these skills will almost never come of use. Students would really benefit from various projects that are related to the class. While many classes do offer projects on occasion, the majority of a student’s grades are attained from a multitude of exams. Changing these projects will actually train students to take the things they learn in the classroom and apply them to an actual idea. This is what is usually done in a work like environment. Having these two changes in colleges could reduce the number of people out of work right out of college.
Sources:
http://deepexistence.com/how-school-trains-us-to-fail-in-the-real-world/
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/06/do-unpaid-internships-lead-to-jobs-not-for-college-students/276959/
Questions For Debra Johnson
1. How did the get the idea to start the Pratt Design Incubator?
2. What are some examples of the social ventures that the Pratt Design Incubator helped create?
Future of Work Problems
One of the problems that have arisen in the work place is the benefits for employees have been declining. One of the big reasons for having a stable job is for the benefits. According to Times, the cost for healthcare has increased by 29% in the last five years. On top of this costs like co-pay and healthcare premiums have increased for the employees. Along with this the retirement plans for employees have taken hits in many companies. 45% of survey employers lowered or removed health care coverage for their employees. Some have even put a cap for how much is being spent per employee. A lot of current employees will end up having trouble while retired because their employers decreased their benefits. If this trend were to continue, all the benefits that employees have will be removed and this could cause problems for those unable to work and those who end up in the hospital.
Another big problem with the future of working is the manager meetings. As we saw in the TED talk, manager meetings can be very counter-productive. It was one of the reasons that the speaker claimed that the office as work place should be removed. The constant meetings disrupt with the actual work that is being done in the office. This can be seen as a tremendous problem because the employees will have trouble meeting deadlines while the employer is not receiving the quality of work that they would like to be receiving from their employees. The blame may end up on the workers, but it is not their fault. The meetings that take place in the offices are really what are to blame. According to fastcompany.com, an experiment by Waber showed that there was a 20% increase in electronic communication between engineers when they shared a workspace. The work given to them was also completed 32% faster. Getting rid of offices may decrease this interaction between employees and would decrease productivity. The offices are not the problem, however, the meets that the offices are a big issue.
Recently, it has been evident that colleges are not giving their students enough skills to be released in the work force. A lot of jobs require you to have both skills and education. This is one of the big reasons that college is very appealing. It is supposed to prepare you for various jobs. The majority of colleges, however, focus solely on teaching the information. The students never gain any practical skills in field they wish to pursue. The only way these skills can be acquired is by finding various internships that could lead to a job. This could lead to many college graduates having trouble paying their bills right out of college. They would not have the practical experience to gain a full job, and many internships are unpaid or underpaid for the job. If colleges were to help their students acquire the skills they need for their jobs, it would be much easier to get a job.
Sources:
http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1898024_1898023_1898082,00.html
http://www.fastcompany.com/3035569/the-future-of-work/forget-what-you-think-you-know-about-the-office-of-the-future
NY Innovation Social Centre
1. What are some of the social ventures that are being worked on in the building currently?
2. How much interaction is there between those working with different social ventures?
Policing Solutions
One of the big problems that is present in policing is the prisons. According to crimeinameria.net, two thirds of the prisoners released return back to jail within three years. Within five years, three fourths of those released return to incarceration. This indicates that the problem lies within the way they are being reintegrated back into society. The change from being incarcerated to being released is vast. It takes time for those prisoners to get used to society, but they are not given any. This can cause many issues as we have seen in one of the reading we have done for class.
To fix this, I propose that there be another location that prisoners would have to stay before actually being released. This period of time would ideally be the last year of an inmate’s sentence. This could slowly help rehabilitate inmates to society. It would be a facility that would give each inmate more freedom, but not complete freedom, since his or her sentence has not been fully completed. This would give prisoners a chance to slowly get used to society. According to justicefellowship.org, the violence in prisons is one of the reasons that they are unable to successfully reintegrate in to society. To help eliminate this, prisoners that are excessively violent in the facilities would be returned to regular incarceration. This will remove violence between prisoners. One of the larger sources of the violence is said to be from the prison guards themselves. To reduce this, a series of intensive interview would be required for every guard before hiring. This along with, regular inspections could decrease violence between guards and inmates.
Since the whole point of the facility is to help them reintegrate back into society, it would beneficial to have a decent education system involved. To do this, facilities would be classes that would be mandatory for every inmate. These classes would help teach them valuable skills that they can use in the real world. This would require more of an intensive class unlike the ones that were held in the regular prisons. The class could help those who don’t already have a GRE get one so that they can more easily find a job. For those who already have GRE, there could be classes that teach them skills for various other jobs.
These facilities could replace some of the jails that are currently in place. It would need would also need to hold a quarter of the people in a regular jail. This is viable due to the fact that the program focuses on decreasing the number of people in prison. This program would lead to more jobs in the area near the previous jail due to the extra positions that would be necessary to run it, so citizens would be on board with creating these facilities. Therefore, prison guards would not be opposed to the creation of these facilities. The farmers in the area would not disagree with having less criminals leaving near them. Everyone wins.
Sources:
http://www.crimeinamerica.net/2010/09/29/percent-of-released-prisoners-returning-to-incarceration/
http://www.justicefellowship.org/prison-violence/
Comments by Shawn Mathew
"It was very interesting to read about the lead paint. I knew that it was a problem that was existent in the past, but I thought that most of it had been taken care of in the past. It definitely is a huge problem for those with children and I feel that having this fixed immediately would be beneficial. I was also very surprised to hear about the food deserts being here in the city. In my mind subways made it easy for those in the city to simply travel to a market to get the healthy food that they need. The only extra cost would be the subway fare to get to a market that sold the produce one was looking for. I definitely agree that the school lunches are too unhealthy for children. There have been studies that show that adults who are obese have been like that since childhood. This is a very bad habit to build for all the kids in our school and fixing up the school lunch can help decrease the number of obese people. I really like your solution fixing these lunches. Having these requirements on the school lunches will force the school lunches to be healthy."
--( posted on May 7, 2015, commenting on the post
Public Health Problems and Solutions )
"A lot of the problems that you mentioned are definitely those that have a very large effect on all New Yorkers. You mentioned that there was the high cost of medical bills is one of the reasons some people get into large amounts of debt. Your idea of keeping people healthy rather than fixing the sick is a very practical idea that can help prevent these procedures. If people were healthier overall then there would be no need for these high cost surgeries. Along with this, the high amount of debt that these surgeries cause could be one of contributing factors the inability to stay healthy. Definitely the disease becoming immune to our antibiotics is a huge problem. There may be a point where we run out of ways to kill these bacteria, and we will have no way to fight the disease. Your solution is a very interesting one. I personally am a very picky eater and I know that if something that does not look so good to eat is something I would not even consider eating. Promoting these foods that are unattractive be a great way to actually get picky eaters like me to eat the healthy part of fruits and vegetables. This is definitely a solution that would get me to eat healthier."
--( posted on May 7, 2015, commenting on the post
Public Heath Problems and Solutions )
"I definitely agree with you when you say that we have to remove gender bias from the minds of children to completely get rid of gender issues, and this will, as you said, take a really long time. This was a very similar solution to the one I proposed, however I found that the addition of government laws would help expedite the process. The transparency of employee wage may not give a holistic look at the contributions that an employee makes. This is due to the fact that they may end up doing more than their job description implies. An employee could claim that they are not being paid as much as they should be while they are not doing as much as the other person is. I think the idea of adding paternal leave could be done in America if it were done through a law rather than just through a company. If the government supplied the cost for paternal leave then there is no reason that a company would have not to give a person paternal leave after a child is born. This is shown to work as you said in both Denmark and Norway where there is very little gender bias in the work place."
--( posted on Apr 26, 2015, commenting on the post
Gender Lens on Economic Growth: Solutions )
"I definitely agree with you when you say that a big problem that is faced is the fact that women are not going into STEM fields as much as they should. They make up approximately half of the population, so why would they not make up at least half of the STEM majors. I was actually surprised when you said that women in STEM fields would earn more than their counterparts in different majors. I was under the impression that the wage disparity was the same for all fields. I feel that the scholarships are definitely one way to help solve the problem, however, I don’t think that it will solve the root of the problem. The real issue is that women are not trying to earn a degree in a STEM field. Increasing the scholarships would simply make it more financially viable for women to enter these fields, but if money were a real issue then simply going to a less expensive school would be the solution for various women. While scholarships would provide some motivation for women, creating programs in schools to present the benefits of a degree in a STEM field would also be beneficial. This way there will be more women that will see STEM fields as a field to earn a good living."
--( posted on Apr 26, 2015, commenting on the post
Gender Solutions )
"I definitely agree with you in that a woman receiving less pay than men is a very large problem. This problem is probably very detrimental to single mothers who are trying to support a family on a single person’s income. It is difficult enough to support a family by yourself, but having a deduction in wage due to gender is very unfair. I do not agree with you when you say that the problem with the lack of women in STEM fields is due to the lack of knowledge of positions, mentorship, and coworker acceptance. This may be a factor, but I believe that the problem is more related to the number of women actually pursuing these jobs. I myself am a computer science major. I have seen only two female computer science major in all of my classes. While companies are looking forward for women to work for their companies, women do not appear to be pursuing these fields as much as we think they are. I, however, agree with the problem we see in sexual harassment. It is definitely a big problem and I feel like it going to take a lot to fix these types of injustice. For sexual harassment, the problem is with the people that are committing these injustices. In the end, there is not much we can do but use propaganda and pass laws."
--( posted on Apr 2, 2015, commenting on the post
Gender Inequality: Problems III )
"The wage gap between men and women is definitely a big problem. Especially considering the idea where women are spending it and having it recirculate into the economy where men just keep their money. I especially found the fact that men kept all their money in the bank to be very interesting. Usually we are under the impression that the men are the ones that bring home the money to be spent on the family. Finding out that this is the really changes how we view men in the family and in the workplace. I also agree with you in saying that the lack of women in leadership positions and government positions is an enormous problem. Considering that they make up half of the population they should at least take up half of the positions in these places. The fact that women only make the government and these companies better really shows that the problem is not necessarily due to the women. There is something in our system that is pushing women out of these positions and this definitely needs to be fixed as soon as possible. You clearly show that having gender diversity in both the workplace and government will only bring about good results."
--( posted on Apr 2, 2015, commenting on the post
Gender and Economic Growth Problems )
"I definitely feel that this solution is a great one. All the students will end up getting the work experience they need and will be more prepared for the work force. In addition to this, they gain a great education. The only thing that troubles me is what happens when everyone has this type of work experience. Previously, going to college alone was enough for one to find a job. Not everyone saw college as a necessity and found a job right out of high school. That is no longer the case today. After high school, the majority of students go to a college. In addition to that, college no longer guarantees you a job anymore. This is most likely due to the high volume of people that go to college today. Having everyone get internships may not be a permanent solution for finding a job after college. Once everyone has an internship, having the internship experience does not set you apart from other job applicants. While having this work experience is useful, employers will have to look elsewhere to determine which job applicant is more valuable. There would have to be a similar reform in the future to make college students appealing once more."
--( posted on Mar 18, 2015, commenting on the post
Work Solution )
"I definitely agree with you when you say that the upcoming anti-social trends of the workplace are going to become a real problem. When I was doing my problems, I found that a statistic that showed that people who worked from same place finished work at a 32% faster than those that had worked in the different areas. Not only is this issue an anti-social work place problem, but it is also a productivity problem. I definitely feel that your solution is one that works very well. Having employees come in at least one day of the week will definitely be useful for morale and productivity. It cannot hurt to know the people that you are working with. The only problem with this is that everyone working on the same project would ideally be near the same location while this is not always the case. Sometimes the people employed do not live anywhere near each other, and these kind of weekly workplace meet ups would be inconvenient for everyone. For this kind of situation, I would think that having more frequent company retreats would be a more viable option. Company retreats alone seem to be infrequent, so increasing them will make it so that employees are not inconvenienced too often and get a decent relationship with one another.
http://www.fastcompany.com/3035569/the-future-of-work/forget-what-you-think-you-know-about-the-office-of-the-future"
--( posted on Mar 18, 2015, commenting on the post
Solution 2 – The Future of Work )
"I think one of the reasons that people in work place have stopped interacting as much is because they have no need to actually interact with one another. A simple email could suffice to request assistance form another co-worker. Before all this, one would more likely approach his or her fellow co-worker and ask for help. The reduction of this face-to-face interaction is probably what is causing the decline in relationships in the office space. The emails that are being sent between people have no emotion, and people in the office will never be able to connect with one another. I also agree with you when you say that education in college is not enough anymore. A lot of employers look for extra experience outside of school. This is because the schools do not teach practical skills for the work place. Our school system works in a way where the ability to memorize various facts is what is being tested in schools. Employers need their employees to be able to know these facts while using them to solve various problems. I feel like a lot of schools do not realize this and is partially why testing is so big in college."
--( posted on Mar 11, 2015, commenting on the post
Problem 2 – The Future of Work )
"I feel that this whole idea that machines are taking our jobs is not fully understood. I do agree that they are taking the jobs of many people, but at the same time their existence creates many jobs. They need people to actually create, maintain, and improve these machines. This alone creates many jobs for various people within the company utilizing these machines. The company itself will end up saving a lot of money, which will end up being spent for various services. These services they request would require people to do a job, and them spending more money means more people outside that company get jobs. It also improves our society by making people work less meaningful jobs. Nobody wants to work at a factory doing a redundant job. It simply opens up people to do more meaningful work. This may be part of the reason there is a large increase in the number of people going to college. Working in a factory is no longer implies job security. So going to college to open up many other job opportunities seems much wiser. While it may make it slightly harder to receive some jobs, it makes our society as a whole more intelligent. Isn’t that better than having the majority of people doing a job that could be done by a machine?"
--( posted on Mar 11, 2015, commenting on the post
Problems with Work )
"I agree with you in saying that the United States has a very large problem when it comes to incarceration. Considering that it has the highest incarceration rate compared to almost all other countries. I disagree, however, with the idea of dropping all charges related to drugs. The laws are supposed to be there to protect the people. Although this may not be the case for all the drugs the government is outlawing, it is the case for some of them. Removing the penalty of drugs may not actually cause people to stop doing drugs. There was a time when the United States prohibited alcohol consumption. Removing the ban on alcohol has not made alcohol consumption decrease. There are still plenty of people drinking alcohol today. Making these drugs more accessible would be detrimental to the health of many citizens. One of the main benefits seen was the drop in HIV infection rates. This may be due to the fact that there was less need to sneak around about doing drugs. A person doing drugs would not have to need a medical reason to get a syringe and therefore would not need to share a needle with someone else. Thus, the HIV infection rate has decreased. Making drug related crimes a prisonable offence may be a better way to handle the problem."
--( posted on Mar 2, 2015, commenting on the post
Policing Solutions )
"I definitely agree with the idea of releasing prisoners with non-violent drug crimes. The only problem with this would be the fact that the government would have some trouble enforcing their anti-drug laws. The government needs to show that there are consequences for breaking these laws. They could do this by making the punishment an enormous fine rather than putting them in jail. This would result in the government receiving money rather than spending money to put these people in prison.
In my opinion, I am not entirely sure if adding more police will solve the problems. As we have seen in class, the numbers of crimes have been decreasing while the number of police has remained the same. This means that there is not a need for all the extra police around. Also, if they all have a quota, all the police will be searching for reasons to arrest or fine people. This would simply cause more problems for everyone. Having more police, as you said would also cause a larger financial burden for the government. This money could be spent on the body cameras that you mentioned. The body cameras would make each officer more liable for their actions because everything could be seen to make sure they do not abuse their power."
--( posted on Mar 2, 2015, commenting on the post
Policing Solutions )
"I am shocked to see that the United States has a quarter of the world’s prisoners. It really shows how our system is flawed. This would not be so strange if our nation had a quarter of the world’s populations, but that clearly is no the case. It appears as though we are just taking all those who break the law and putting them in one place so the rest of the community can just grow. On top of this, a lot of people who leave jail end up going back, so people that can be helped are just forced to suffer. This is not only immoral but also uneconomical because a lot of taxpayer money is now being used to fund these prisons rather than going to fix various other problems in the community. Taxpayer money also should not be going to buying military grade weapons for cops. There are very little occasions where military grade weapons are necessary for cops. If these weapons were really necessary it would be much better to call the military to assist the police. The military would be well trained with these weapons and it would make sure they are used properly. The daily situation for a cop would not normally require military grade weapons, so why have them. I definitely agree with you saying that the system needs some improvements."
--( posted on Feb 18, 2015, commenting on the post
Policing Problems )
"I definitely agree with a lot of the points that you made. I find that body cameras can be really helpful when it comes to the courts. A lot of cases come down to what is said by the police officer and the defendant. Usually, the police officer’s word is considered to be more trustworthy, and even if the defendant were right they would not be able to do anything. Having more concrete evidence will make sure that officers can’t abuse their title in court. It could also lead to the finding of evidence that may not be noticeable at first. I do see how having police wear cameras can make it so that we rely on the footage from cameras, but the risk is worth the reward. Having more people justly reviewed in court is worth having the one or two cases thrown out due to the lack of footage. When it comes to the sentencing, I believe that the judge should have the right to give a sentence based on discretion. If a person has a good moral reason for doing a crime, they should not have an insane punishment. There are definitely plenty of situations in which the rules need to be bended."
--( posted on Feb 18, 2015, commenting on the post
Policing Problems 1 )
