Author: briklein33

The complexity of the issues discussed in this week’s reading, Chapter Eight of the CQ reader, likely cause it to be one of the most important issues spoken about in the CQ, as its affects result in many of the other issues spoken of in other chapters.  It is fascinating, however, to consider that our country has gone through at least two periods in which the issues being discussed were specifically targeted, and we still have managed to fail to solve them to any acceptable extent, those periods being the reconstruction era of the 1860’s-1870’s, and the Great Society of President Johnson and onwards.

In considering why we as a country have failed to adequately address these issues, I found it fascinating that a lack of consensus is able to be reached amongst any community, be in the Black versus White community, or even amongst the Black community themselves.  To this end, it is quite possible our lack of movement in any direction towards affecting positive change is a direct result of political ideology and affiliation, as seen through the ideas of the leadership of the National Leadership Network of Black Conservatives, who espouse Conservative ideology while parting with solutions often proposed to alleviate the symptoms of poverty, such as a higher minimum wage or increased funding for the impoverished. As these issues, such as the wealth gap and the poverty level, are intimately related to our countries problem with race relations, the fact of our inability to work together across party lines in regards to other topics, such as taxation and the minimum wage, does not bode well in my mind for progress in regards to race relations.

While education is oftentimes thrown around as the solution to the interactions between the police and minority communities, I am of the belief that this will have little effect at all on these interactions.   Obviously, for one reason or another, the police are not comfortable enforcing the laws within certain neighborhoods. Furthermore, the I doubt the average police officer is leaving his house in the morning with the intention of murdering an unarmed African American boy.  As such, while there is certainly merit to the idea of increasing education, as this is always a valuable commodity, efforts must be made to ensure that the police grow more comfortable policing within the neighborhoods that they evidently are not currently comfortable doing so.  And the most logical way to do this, in my mind, is to alleviate the necessities, if currently in place, for minority communities to partake within suspicious behavior that has caused the police to grow uncomfortable around them.

As for an increase in education specifically, there is no question that an effort must be made to reduce the gap between funding provided for whites and minority groups.  This is not to say sacrificing the education of white children for that of minority children, but rather a reform in the educational and budgetary system, so that all children are provided for.  And frankly, with the amount of money being thrown around, some true effort must be made, or this money is simply being wasted.

So to conclude my thoughts on the issue of race relations within our illustrious nation, it too plays back into larger issues which we, as a nation, have seemingly been unable to address in the past.  This inability is not necessarily for lack of desire, although that may well be a portion of the problem, but also a seeming inability to reach a consensus of agreement that does not necessitate a complete reversal of policy after a maximum eight years of a Presidency.

This week’s reading of the CQ Reader, regarding gang violence, was extremely troubling, while also being impeccable in its timing.  Coming from Long Island, until very recently it had been my impression that, with distinct exceptions, gang violence was not an issue we suffered with.  These exceptions had always been in lower income areas, such as in portions of Hempstead.  However, within the last week, I was speaking with my mother who works with the Nassau County Legislature, and she told me that there have recently been gangs transplanted from Los Angeles who had been operating within Nassau County, to the point that there are talks to set up a division within the police force simply to combat the gang violence.  This recent news made this week’s reading far more relevant to the area which I come from, piquing my interest to say the least.

While it did interest me to learn that women were becoming increasingly involved in gangs, as well as the fact that our military bases suffer from gang activity as well, the portion of the reading regarding the efficacy and appropriateness of injunctions being used to prevent gang activity fascinated me.  This issue plays very well off of last week’s reading regarding racial profiling.  The issue in my mind is sticky for two reasons, the first being that these injunctions are primarily used with a racial undertone, so that very specific communities are targeted.  On top of this concept comes into play the First Amendment’s guarantee of the freedom of assembly.  This means that there is no inherent problem with gangs.  The issue comes into play when gangs begin to partake in criminal activity, which is both a crime at the federal and state level.  So a fine line is being danced when broad injunctions are issued to stop gang assembly, while also trying to ensure that a) these gangs are partaking in criminal activity b) the enforcement of the injunction is not being used to target specific groups.  With these two thoughts in mind, especially after having read last week’s reader, I am not convinced that injunctions being used to stop gang violence is an acceptable practice, much like stop and frisk.  While both may be effective, it is a slippery slope when we allow the rights of others, Constitutional rights, to be taken away, simply for our own peace of mind.

On another note, I’ve decided that every issue which our society seems to face nowadays, be it environmental, profiling, gang violence, etc. is either preventable or at least able to be alleviated in some form, by an increase in education.  With this in mind, I apply this concept to the gang issue as well.  Practically speaking, as per the reading, it doesn’t seem that there is the man power within the police force to arrest every gang member, and even if there was, it doesn’t seem that arrests are an effective way of stemming the tide of gang violence.  As such, it would behoove us as the greater community, and future leaders of the City of New York, to work to lessening the causes which lead one to join a gang. The first way to do this would be to work to ensure that children within communities that gang members traditionally come out of are set up with the best possible chance to improve their socio-economic status, if they so desire.

Reading this week’s CQ reader chapter, I found it interesting to actually place statistics around information which I had general ideas existed.  Considering the recent racial issues within our country, the activities of Black Lives Matter and the race riots included, had obviously been influenced by some type of action which raised flags amongst these offended communities, it was somewhat refreshing to put a face to these offenses.

The most interesting portion of this section was the piece regarding the success of prosecutors in convicting the police involved with these racial shootings as of late.  As far as charged litigations go, these cases are seeming dynamite, in that whatever verdict, an entire community is likely to be outraged.  This is a primary issue with the racial profiling problem, that it pits two communities, that of law enforcement and their supporters against those victimized by racial profiling. So, that a focus in moving towards progress should be education towards both communities, where everyone is given an understanding of the law, and what they can expect from their interactions with each other.

To proceed from this point, as it is evident to me from the facts given over that our law enforcement does have a racial profiling problem, is to work with law enforcement in order to find a method of enforcement, where is not nearly as much distrust between the communities, where the police are still comfortable enforcing the law.  This can be done through education primarily, simply because it will take time in order to shift the instincts which people have at their disposal, and at this time, those instincts lean towards distrust of minorities and a quick trigger finger as a consequence.  However, and this is the key issue in my mind, it would be far more damaging to law enforcement as a whole if we were to begin convicting all officers charged of these crimes, in that it would disillusion the officers from their given tasks. If this were to happen, our communities would be in much worse shape than it currently is in.  Paul Butler, Professor of Law at Butler University asserts that even though there is racial profiling taking place, this is not necessarily against the law.  If this assertion is correct, it is quite important that we do not begin locking up police officers simply to appease the protesting masses, as in the long run, this will cause an increase in the adversarial relationship between the communities involved.

Of the issues, which we’ve been speaking of in class until now, this seems to me to be the most complex, as it involves nuances within nuances.  One of the only courses of action to be taken, which costs little but may yield high results, is to increase education amongst every community involved.  Law enforcement must become comfortable interacting with these minority communities, while these communities must be made comfortable and acknowledge that generally, with very distinct outliers, the law enforcement community is simply trying to keep the public safe.  We must move towards a future where these facts are appreciated and acknowledged.