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Assignment#3 Researched Essay

Posted by Min Aung Zaw (he) on

Police Brutality Reform

Imagine being knelt on the neck by a pair of legs on the side of a road for nine minutes. Is it brutal or not? Discrimination has been around us in the United States all the time. One of the most concerning issues is inequality for black people, and the most recent cases are related to police brutality and unequal treatment of black people. There are many cases of police brutality against black people, such as the beating of Rodney King, the deadly shooting of Michael Brown, and the most recent kneeling on George Floyd. Additionally, black people are “3.23 times more likely than white Americans to be killed by police”. (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) These incidents often occur, making black people feel insecure, angering many people, causing protesting on the streets, and bringing up hate toward the police. Therefore, to solve and improve the issue that has been struggling all of us in history and will be a big issue in the future, police training should be reformed, removing the warrior mindset, and reducing mass incarnation in police to prevent racial discrimination.

First, reforming the police’s training program is essential because “In 2015, 224 unarmed Americans lost their lives at the hands of the police, of which 57 percent were African American or Latino”. (Guitierrez ) The death of George Floyd also shows how callous the brutality of officers toward black people is. Although George Floyd was already on the ground, police officer Chauvin put his knees on Floyd’s neck, causing Floyd to be unable to breathe for almost nine minutes, and suffer to death. George Floyd told the officer “I can’t breathe” over 20 times (Singh), begging for his life, and leaving his death sentences, “Tell my kids I love them. I’m dead.” and “Mama, I love you. I can’t do anything”. (Singh) It is a very tragic event for George and his family. This statistic and situation show how unprofessional the officers are and their unequal treatment of African Americans and Latinos. Therefore, police training should be reformed to prevent such tragedies in the future.

One of the changes is increasing training time for taser guns. Police only train “8 hours of training for Tasers, which is only 25 percent of the necessary training required”. (Gutierrez) This information is vital because police focus most of their time on firearms, not tasers, which will not kill one person. According to the Police Execution Research Foundation (PERF), “Use of TASER Civil Expeditionary Workforce(CEWs) was associated with a 76% reduction in the chances of an officer being injured compared to agencies that do not use CEWs, and the odds of a suspect being injured were reduced by more than 40% in TASER CEW agencies compared to non-CEW agencies”. (PERF) It is beneficial for both the officer and suspect to use taser guns because officers will have less risk when arresting a suspect, and the suspect will be less likely to be injured. It is a win-win solution. Therefore, police officers must be using taser guns. 

  Another change that police should consider is increasing mediation training time. Most of the time, police use force on the suspects because they are not good at resolving problems. According to Guitierrez, a rising senior in social studies from Harvard stated, “Police departments only offer an average of eight hours in mediation skills.”(Guitierrez) By training more in de-escalation skills, police will be more professional at calming the suspect, reducing the frequency of using force. In sum, police should increase their training time for taser and problem-solving skills.

Essentially, to reduce less racial discrimination and police use of force, police officers should consider themselves neighbors to the citizens, not warriors. According to David Gutierrez, a senior in Harvard, “warrior mentality obscures an important part of policing: the interaction between police officers and the community. People care more about how they are treated by the police than about falling crime rates The image of a warrior mindset gives police nobility, making them feel justified in their actions.” (Gutierrez 7) The warrior mindset causes police officers to forget that they serve the citizens, provide security, protect them from violent attacks, and treat people equally and kindly. Hence, the warrior mindset should be removed. By enhancing the neighbor’s perspective, the community will feel the care and love of the officer, leaving a reliable hero-like figure.

In addition to changing the police, courts must be reformed as well. According to the sentencing project, “African Americans incarcerated in local jails at a rate 3.5 times that of non-Hispanic whites in 2016”. (Walsh 12)The rate of black Americans is 3.5 times higher because officers target poor minority communities where most African Americans live. The officers only focuses on black community, causing an assumption that African Americans are the ones causing problems. More than that, “Seventy percent of pretrial releases require money bond, an especially high hurdle for low-income defendants.” (Walsh) This causes unfairness because many black Americans and Hispano are poor and unable to pay the fee. They are stacking up many black Americans in prison, and police are using force on black prisoners. The solution for this issue is “stop prosecuting a range of misdemeanor crimes such as resisting arrest, loitering, trespassing, and drug possession.”(Walsh) Doing this will be fairer for the black Americans suffering from poverty, reducing cases concerning minority black communities, and fewer black Americans will be imprisoned.

In conclusion, every life matters. There should be no hate and bias toward people of other races. Humans are humans. All of us want to be respected, loved, and equally treated. Therefore, racism should be eradicated. Start supporting black lives matter movements, and reform the police training, the court policies, and the police’s warrior mindset to protect our fellow African American friends. By doing so, there will be fewer deaths caused by police use of force, and our police will be more reliable. Moreover, one day, our communities will be safe, and may the day come. Start supporting the BLM movement!

Works Cited

Gutierrez, David. “Why police training must be reformed.” The Institute of Politics at Harvard University. , from iop.harvard.edu/get-involved/harvard-political-review/why-police-training-must-be-reformed 

Interactive. “Report to the United Nations on racial disparities in the U.S. criminal justice system.” The Sentencing Project. 2 Nov. 2022, www.sentencingproject.org/reports/report-to-the-united-nations-on-racial-disparities-in-the-u-s-criminal-justice-system/

Singh,et al. “George Floyd Told Officers ‘I Can’t Breathe’ More than 20 Times, Transcripts Show.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 9 July 2020, www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/08/george-floyd-police-killing-transcript-i-cant-breathe

Walsh, Colleen. “Solving racial disparities in policing.” Harvard Gazette, 24 Feb. 2021, news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2021/02/solving-racial-disparities-in-policing/

Digital Receipts/Digital Receipt #6

Digital Receipt #6

Posted by Harin D on

After reading the articles the idea of writing deteriorating is not a true thing and technology and time might just be simplifying how we write in the future. My question: Should we completely place the blame for writing deteriorating on technology when it’s people that invent simplification of writing?

Digital Receipts/Digital Receipt #3/Posts

Digital Receipt # 3

Posted by Harin D on

Harin Dharmasena 

Digital Receipt #3

Reading, Listening, Viewing  

This week I spent approximately 1 hour going over the week number 2 assignment responses. From the documents, I chose two peers’ responses. I understood each one and was able to figure out how they used rhetorical analysis. I spent time making sure that I understood everything in the document. I went over their responses and how they used rhetorical analysis.

Writing  

This week our only writing assignment was to respond to two peers’ week 2 responses. We were to take comments on them by asking, what did you learn from this post? what questions do you have for the post’s author? This took me about 20 to 30 minutes in total to do, as I was slowly figuring out what my peers had written about. After I was able to comment on their responses and complete the assignment. During this assignment, I worked at a normal speed trying to learn what the assignment was asking for. I do not believe that I struggled at this yet did my best.  

Providing & Responding to Feedback   

As this is the third week of assignments for this course, I have not really received any feedback yet but am hoping to get some feedback on how to better improve my digital receipts and how to further understand what I need to improve upon.  

Reflecting  

I learned how to give feedback on my peer’s work and better use the comments feature. I think I completed the assignment as best as I could, although I hope to learn with future assignments. I am slowly learning how to take what I learned from my peers and implement it into my future assignments. I have a basic understanding of the WLLN Assignment prompt and am looking forward to receiving feedback on my assignment on how to better improve. 

Collaborating 

Thus, because it is the third week of class, and I have only had such a few times with my classmates, but I have collaborated and given my feedback to my peers. I have introduced myself through the course site and through our week #1 and week #2 assignments. Other than that, I haven’t had much communication besides the comments I have given, I am looking forward to collaborating and working with my peers in the coming weeks.  

Week #2 Response/Digital Receipt #2/Digital Receipt #2/Week #2 Response

Week 2 /Digital Receipt 2

Posted by Barthendrick on

Usually when anybody’s outside you see a lot of billboards advertisement commercials on LED screens and everywhere. The main thing you see in a lot of these things are  companies trying to convince you to buy an item or donate money to a cause or visit a certain location. Now this is a tactic of persuasion which is seen in our daily life but a lot of us don’t really notice it but that’s what a lot of big companies do. Their job is to use rhetoric to try to convince an audience to get their product or spend money on them and that’s one thing we don’t notice but it’s using our daily life and I find that very important for English and writing in general.  We have to do this so we can hook our readers on to whatever we are wring about or hook the audience on to what we are presenting.

Digital Receipt #3/Digital Receipt #3

Digital Receipt 3

Posted by Barthendrick on
After reading the response by Ayesha, I was able to understand we use rhetorical analysis in our daily lives. This can be seen through social media and how we communicate with others epically friends and family.
After reading the response by Anniel, I was able to understand how rhetoric is seen everyday. We see this in ads on tv and social media, billboards and other places. This is primarily used in advertisements because their goal is to persuade you to use their product or donate money to their cause.
Digital Receipt #7/Digital Receipt #7

Digital Receipt 7/ WLLN Reflection

Posted by Barthendrick on

Reflection – The audience I targeted was teenagers and adults under 22. I felt that sharing this story was very important to people because it shows a lot of character development not only for me but for others also. I chose to write about this it shows the significance of tv shows/movies for children. It can help them understand languages and the environment they are in faster than a lot of other ways of teaching language and it help them build a personality that they want. I mean we can all remember who we anted to be like growing up with tv’s and movies. A lot of the things we said came from these sources.

Language and literacy are used in everyone’s life, and it is around the globe. This allows us humans communicate with each other, learn more about ourselves and the world around us, and helps our character development.

            Growing up PBS Kids and other kids’ channels such as Noggin/Nick Jr played a role in learning English. I was born in the US, but both my parents are from Haiti. At home they would barely speak English with us since that isn’t their primary language making Haitian Creole the first language I spoke. It wasn’t until I was around 4 years old when I started speaking clear English so that other people could understand me. These channels gave me the ability to communicate with people other than my family and start making friends as a child.

Some shows that helped me learn how to speak are nothing but classics everyone should know. Mickey Mouse, Electric Company, Cyberchase, etc. But I also watched a lot of movies with my dad such as Boyz in da hood, Coming to America and listened to music a lot. Focusing on a lot of words being used in entertainment industry allowed me to speak better and learn better. I believe that if English is not your first language, watching films, shows, and listening to music is an amazing way to learn a language and their culture. It played a key role in my development and communicating with others.

Digital Receipt #6/Digital Receipt #6

Digital Receipt 6

Posted by Barthendrick on

Technology cannot be blamed for how this generation is writing. It is clear that over time wiring changes and you can see that from every century. Humans are adapting to what they have and with adaptation always comes change. My question is that did humans in the 1700’s or 1800’s say writing isn’t as good as it used to be?

WLLN/WLLN

WLLN Final/ Assignment #1 (digital receipt 7)

Posted by Tenzin Tsephel (she/her) on

Tenzin Tsephel

12/4/22

ENG 110: Writing and Rhetoric

Professor Jesse Rice-Evans

WLLN Final

Cover Letter

My audience is everyone and anyone that is interested in my story. Especially anyone with immigrant parents and first-gen students since they can relate to my writing. I tailored my language to make my words and experiences more relatable to the reader. I used comparison to show the contrast in my homelife and school life to paint a picture of how different the personalities were- one being joyous and the other being rude and cold. I also included a part where I confessed how much I regret my actions towards my mom. I used this vivid language to appeal to the readers’ pathos so they can see how much my ignorance has affected my life. 

Language and literacy has always played a big part in my life and it is evident in my choice of topic for this essay. Through writing this assignment, it has only strengthened my admiration for others’ writing. Prior to this class, I have written essays for other subjects and other english classes however, this assignment/this class has allowed me to put my feelings into words. In other classes, I mostly write about other writers and their literary devices and languages, but writing about my own experience allowed me to see truly how much of my mental growth I achieved through Language and Literacy skills. I also have a newfound appreciation for writers because conveying your exact feelings into words and making sense of it is really hard. Even if  I know exactly how I feel, it’s hard to write it out sometimes. This assignment has shown me that I need to work on my rhetoric.

Rhetoric has impacted my learning and writing practices the most out of these concepts/terms. Rhetoric makes our writing. Ethos, Logos, Pathos are all types of rhetoric that we can use in order to keep the audience engaged with our writing. Having clear and eloquent rhetoric in our writing allows us to communicate with our reader our points and persuade them into agreeing with what you are saying. I need to work on my rhetoric in my writing because I often struggle with over-explaining or I focus on background details rather than the main point. This leads both myself and my audience into confusion. Authors have a huge impact on my learning and writing practices. Authors are the ones writing the literature and if they are biased, then I will end up with a biased writing assignment. I admire how different authors have different stances on the same ideas, which allows me to gain more knowledge on the topic and create my own opinions.

Growing up in India and making a sudden life changing move to New York at the age of 4 was something I never truly grasped. I didn’t recognize the seriousness of this life-altering move. Some can argue that I was too little to understand, I think that I definitely could’ve shown more emotion- specifically sadness and maybe even anger, because I would be leaving my family and friends. I excitedly waved goodbye with a fat smile to my childhood best friends/neighbors and my grandparents, not knowing that it would be the last time that I would see the majority of them. My sister is 8 which is 4 years older than me and I saw her cry as we descended down to the LaGuardia airport, while I looked around in awe of the new world we’ve just entered. We moved around in New York 3 times and I went about it as if the course of my life wasn’t changing with each new “home”. Our first home was a tiny one bedroom, one bathroom apartment in sunnyside Queens that housed my sister, my dad, my mom and I. 

In India, I was bilingual and spoke hindi and nepali. You would think it’s a good thing that a child as young as I was at the time, picked up not one but two languages (that were not primarily spoken in our house) and spoke it fluently. Instead I was made fun of by my peers and had snide comments thrown at me from other family members because I didn’t speak my own language, Tibetan. I’ve been a stubborn child since birth, so these insults didn’t have much effect on me. I would argue back when my friends commented about my lack of Tibetan culture and language. I never made the effort to change myself and learn because I took these comments as an insult instead of as constructed criticism. At times it felt almost as if I was ganged up on and bullied, which only strengthened my resistance to learning Tibetan because I didn’t want to give in and do what they wanted me to do. .

Fast forward to 5 year old Tenzin attending elementary school in NYC, I immediately adapted to American life and quickly forgot both of the languages I grew up speaking. I began learning and primarily speaking in English. Every morning, my mom would walk me to school for the next ⅚ years. My mom and I have always been closer than my dad and I. As those ⅚ years passed by, our conversation grew shorter and shorter due to our language barrier. Eventually it turned from conversation to a few sentences every now and then. When I started middle school, my mom’s English was getting better because she started to work as a housemaid in Manhattan to provide for our family.

In my teens, my ignorance only grew. At the ages of 10-15, I was very selfish. I was only concerned about normal pre-teen/teen girls things – boys and popularity. In school I was funny and loving to all of my many friends, and at home, I barely spoke to my family because I was constantly on my computer/phone. This emotional distance from my family can also be attributed to the language barrier that was previously instilled. During this time period, my family spoke only in Tibetan amongst each other, and when they would speak to me I would understand but only respond in English. I thought the only important language was English, and that I didn’t need to learn my native language.

During conversations with my mom on laundry day,or dinner at home, family outings etc. I would correct my mom and sometimes even laugh at her pronunciations of certain english words. I would speak over her when we’re in the grocery checkout line, or at restaurants because I was afraid of people not understanding her english. Looking back, I have not regretted anything more in life than the way I treated my mom during this time. I failed to understand that i learned English in school alongside kids my age and teachers. I was privileged in the aspect that I had so many resources and was taught at a young age so it’s even easier to learn. My mom on the other hand, had to learn English for her survival and for the betterment of our family. 

Once I hit 16, I went to a Tibetan refugee camp in India where I met Tibetans that were born and raised in India. I realized how uncultured I was and I was ashamed to even call myself Tibetan, when I didn’t even know the first thing about my culture. There, I read multiple writings by the Dalai Lama and watched documentaries about Tibet and our painful fight for freedom. I attended conferences, and even met the Dalai Lama in person for a Q&A with my camp. After the month ended, I returned to New York as a new person with a new mindset. When my parents would talk to me, I would respond back in Tibetan and I never made a comment again about my mothers pronunciation. Reading has truly made such a huge impact on my life by giving me knowledge and evolving my mindset. These books on Tibet provided me with a sense of culture and comfort and eventually created my love for reading books on activism and religion. Not only do I feel more educated, but I have genuinely been happier since then. I am now 20 and for the past 4 years I have been educating others on Tibet whenever they ask me about my ethnicity and why I was born in India (and not Tibet). The more people I can educate, my country and our history/culture/language will stay alive. 

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