Social Chat

I’ve been following the recent shooting of three individuals in NYC by five NY police officers. Click HERE to read the latest info from CNN. I initially thought “Holy Crap, these cops must have been on meth or something!” However, having read a bit about the alleged situation, I find it rather interesting.

The 3 individuals (two are still alive) were leaving the cabaret and being followed by an uncover police officer. Apparently, the driver hit the uncover officer with his vehicle (attempted murder of a police officer) and then hit a police minivan with 4 other plain clothes officers who had just driven onto the scene. If this is true, I can definitely understand why the officers were using deadly force (both hitting the minivan and police officer may have presented a use of deadly force against the police officers). However, I’d be interested in knowing if the minivan was a marked police car as well as if it had its sirens going (this goes to whether or not the 3 men knew the minivan was a police vehicle).

Apparently, the uncover officer had heard the men were armed (he probably radioed the others telling them the men were armed). I also have to wonder why the gentlemen attempted to flee the scene (of course it could have something to do with the 50 or so bullets flying in and around their car).

No matter what, I wonder how many bullets are too many for 3 unarmed men. The report says one police officer fired 31 bullets (unloading over two clips in his 9mm). I’m sure the story will unfold in several weeks; however, what do you think?

So it’s Monday night and I’m chillin in the Bay. I saw this article on CNN and thought it might spark some interesting comments. It’s about an 80+ year old man that was sentenced to probation and ordered to pay over $100,000.00 for running killing 10 and wounding 70 others when his car ran thru a farmer’s market in CA.

The gentleman has major physical issues that would have cost prison administrators much time and money so the judge decided to place him on probation. He could have rec’d 18 years. So, was this the right sentence?

Today we went to the Racine Correctional Institution (RCI) in Racine, WI. Fifty-eight students road the big yellow buses with me over to Racine (we were styling).

The tour of RCI was really cool. We were really allowed alot of access during the tour, much more than I thought we’d receive. The cell blocks were sort of a combination of pod and linear style; however, there were no cameras in the individual cells, which was a bit interesting.

All of the groups mingled amongst the inmates, which was really interesting and the educational programs offered at RCI were pretty substantial. At the end, we had a question and answer time with several of the employees. All in all, it was a really cool experience.

I’d be remiss if I forgot to mention the correctional officers, metal detectors, and brown paper bags at the front entrance.

What did you think? What was most interesting to you?

So, it’s early Monday morning here in the Bay. I just got back from a nice walk down to the water for a little exercise. It was cold, but nice.

I’m changing topics this week. I saw this article and though it might spark some interesting discussion. The article focuses on a recent Elton John interview regarding gay rights and religion. Elton has some pretty harsh things to say about organized religion. He says that organized religion has historically been spewed hatred toward homosexuals around the world and proposes a world-wide ban of organized religion.

I feel like I’m a spiritual person (notice I didn’t say religious). I believe in God, attend church, etc. Some of John’s quotes ring true with me unfortunately, as organized religion has not shown the gay community much love over the years. I wonder what God thinks of the churches job in this regard?

Banning organized religion? I’m not really sure I’m ready for such a move. I would like to see organized religion reach out the gay community in love, however. In my mind, THIS is what organized religion should be striving to do. What do you think?

So it’s another Saturday morning and I’m in “The Bay” watching the Food Network (Yes, I like to watch some cooking shows!). As usual, I’m also surfing the Internet looking for some CJ articles and found a “doozy”

This article reports on a “Sex for Contraband” scandal in the State of Florida. Check it out.

We’ve been talking alot about the positive and negative aspects of prison in class so I figured this would be an interesting current events article. Anyway, what do you think?