injustice within the criminal-justice system

Hey guys,

After writing my op-ed paper and having a continual interest in the Casey Anthony trial, I came across this OpEd article I thought would be of interest to you all. Just to refresh your memories, in October 2008, Casey Anthony was indicted for the murder of her still missing little girl as the false testimony and reports of body decomposition were found in the trunk of her car gave prosecutors enough for a criminal case against this young mother. In December 2008, Caylee's remains were found in a trashbag tossed in a field. Though conclusive evidence as the actual cause of the death could not be substantiated, the facts clearly supported the position that someone did indeed murder her. The shocking verdict of this case is what shocked America and had us standing on our tip toes. Casey Anthony was found "not guilty". Our generation has moved from a circumstantial evidence based era to a fact based era. The speculations and false testimonies alone represented by Casey was not enough to prove her guilty, which is what exhibits the injustice within our criminal system. We have the highest incarceration rate within our prison system, yet an individual who clearly portrayed to be guilty whom self was even shocked by the verdict, was set free.

Do you feel like she has the right to walk the streets again, freely, nightlife partying, living an ideal young adult she wanted, but had to make arrangements to accomodate this lifestyle... getting rid of her daughter. I sure don't. I began to talk about the comparison with the OJ Simpson case as well, because similarily with enough circumstantial evidence to prove him guilty, the lack of DNA or blood trails left on the criminal scene was what set him free. We pride our country on being "in the lead" in comparison to other countries around the world. But how prideful can we be when we allow circumstances like this, ones media are highly attracted too allowing the whole country to become involved in, be dismissed so easily. Where is the justice in that?

Here is the link to the article if you have an interest in reading it :)

http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Hypocrisy-of-the-Casey-by-Steven-Forrest-110708-511.html

Japanese Concentration Camps

The video we watched today in class was a bit of an eye opener to me. As Americans, we feel like we have been the supremacy country for generations, and people should model our ideas, morals, values, beliefs etc. To most Americans, the only issue we feel strongly about, regarding racism, was the Civil War and slaving African Americans. In return, those unresolved feelings of hatred and judgement still continues towards African Americans, but for the most part the African American community, overtime, has gained equal rights that the "dominate" ethnicity, caucasians, obtain. Watching this video made me realize that us Americans do not take accountability for the other racist acts we have performed, such as the Japanese concentration camps. I myself was not knowledgeable of our behavior during this time and the mistreatment this group of people recieved. Being in this class, and being a social work student, I learn more and more each day of the hatred, criticism, stereotypes populations are being attacked with besides just the African American community that we feel is the only community, as I said, we have "unresolved feelings with." Times have changed, equality is inevitable in our society, but are individuals truly recieving the equality and respect they deserve? Or is injustice a trait Americans among the european descendent ancestory will never fully get passed?

Labor Day NY Times article

To celebrate our great country or not? That is the question.

I found this NY Times article today to ber very interesting regarding the fact that our country wants to admire it's accomplishments and success, yet economically we are suffering financially and with foreign matters. How can people have expectations to climb up the social ladder when they are not able to recieve the resources to do so. With the high number of unemployed Americans continuously growing and the external factors limiting the ability to live out of poverty, will the financial economic crisis ever end? Will American ever fully get out of debt? External factors explained in this article, such as corrupt neighborhoods influencing drop out rates or taxing the poor, are playing such an important role in our economy going in the opposite direction desired, down the social ladder. And what conclusion has been made to stop this direction our society is heading? None. Like Ms. Wilk said, “It’s all talk. There’s never any action.” ( Pollack, 2011). In conclusion the subtle question remains, do we celebrate Labor Day admiring our 'great countries' efforts to help impoverished communities, or do we accept the fact that our federal system has done no such action to help eliminate this problem and will they ever? Some may say yes, however, allowing more Americans to be put on Welfare has not influenced social justice. Ending the article, Pollack set up an interesting argument with his quote,"Its members can tell people to their faces whether America will really help them, and what kind of country we really are." (Pollack, 2011). So what kind of country do you think we are? Encouraging the need for social justice, or ignoring the agony and pain our fellow Americans are experiencing and only giving them so many resources to help them 'get by' with the minimal amount of help needed.

social justice through the eyes of the individual

The readings for this week were very interesting to me. I agree with Lydia, I also think that Pelton made an interesting arugment about viewing social justice through social identity and the individual. However, I believe the two factors are relevant within each other to successfully obtain social justice. Social justice involves individuals through their social identity. Each individual has different expectations or stereotypes based upon their social identity, or which "group" they belong too. Although, trying to meet the expectations to obtain social justice for a specific group of individuals, for example African Americans, can be unjustice to other individuals. That is where the dilemma occurs, trying to maintain social justice for all individuals equally. Back to my example, like in the ted talks we watched in class, the Korean store owner was affected by the riots happening in her neighborhood, but no one noticed her suffer or injustice because the priority at the time was to end the cause of the riots which were affecting another group of individuals, African Americans.

So the question remains, How do we promote social justice when the most important factor to the community is pleasing the individual, not the community as a whole.