Comment on Benny Leykun's Article

My colleague Benny Leykun recently wrote an article, which you can read here, about the current situation of police officers and about requiring them to wear body cameras. I go back and forth between the requirement of wearing a body camera for all police officers. Let me start off by saying that I am a criminal justice major, so I do want to become a cop someday. And with all that's going on lately in the media with the police, it's driving me even more to become one. The problem that officers face is that their job is a very public one, they serve the public but that means that their mistakes also become more public than many other jobs. The duties of a police officer are also more high risked than other jobs too, they often put their lives on the line for people they don't even know. I for one respect anyone who takes it upon themselves to become a police officer, but that does not mean I agree with what some of them have done. If you talk with any officer, most of them will also tell you that they do not approve of what some of those officers have done either. I don't think we should judge every officer based on the actions of a very small minority of them, and remember that there are "bad apples" in almost every job sector. There's bad lawyers and doctors and teachers and garbage men and office workers. We are all human and we're bound to make mistakes, but I do think something has to change with how policing is handled. I just don't know exactly what....

Trump, Russians, and the FBI

Recently, President Donald Trump fired (now former) FBI Director Jame Comey, allegedly because of how he chose to handle the Hillary Clinton email scandals. Whether or not you believe that is the actual reason is up to you, but there may be more to the story than that. Comey has been supervising the investigation into the Russians and any connection they had with the previous presidential election, where there were rumors of Trump consorting with the Russians to help win the election. While there has been no hard evidence to support this claim, it does raise up some questions and suspicions about why Trump would fire the FBI director who was supervising an investigation into him.

Despite the rumors as to if Trump was involved with the Russians to help him win the oval office, President Trump went on the record to say that his reasoning for firing Comey was because of a recommendation from Deputy Attorney Rod Rosenstein. Rosenstein criticized Comey's handling of the Clinton investigation, saying that he was harsh in his dealings with the investigation and made it worse by reopening the case right before the elections. The truth of these remarks are another story all together, but I can't help but wonder if there is more going on to this than what Rosenstein and Trump are saying to the public. Maybe it's because I watch way too many crime shows, but what is said and what is the truth are not always the same thing. It is entirely possible that Trump fired Comey because of his investigation into the president, or it may be only because of how Comey handled Clinton's case. The point of the matter is that we may never know the full truth behind it all, and that we can only hope for an even better FBI Director to take his place.

In case Trump is reading this, I would be happy to apply for the position of FBI Director. I've seen Criminal Minds and I can be easily bribed to do your bidding (kidding. Or am I?)

-Austin

Comments on "Concern for Climate Change"

Recently one of my colleagues wrote an article called Concern for Climate Change. It's interesting to see how one person's views on a subject can influence everyone else's views on it, especially when that person is someone famous like the president of the United States. I'm not going to debate whether or not global warming is a real thing, because it's not something that I am particularly passionate about researching further, but the fact that the rise in people who see global warming as a threat because of Trump's personal statements does show how one person's opinions can have an effect on the masses. Even if I don't agree with everything that Trump says or does, it's at least comforting to know that his negligence can still have a positive effect on our society.

"America is not the greatest country in the world anymore...

... But it can be"

Hey everyone! The kids are in bed, all my work is done, so now I can get to writing today! Many (if not all) of us should recognize this line from a video we saw in class at the beginning of the semester. It is from an amazing show called The Newsroom, and it brings up a good point: America is no longer the greatest country in the world. That may be an unpopular opinion to have, as I can already hear the lynching mobs forming outside my apartment window as I type this, but I believe it still holds true.

Let me begin by saying that I am obviously not a very political person; I did not vote in the last election, I rarely ever watch the news unless it's an article that someone posted on Facebook that I just happen to see on my Timeline and I somehow am curious enough to click on it to read it, and I could almost care less about most of what Congress is currently doing (probably another unpopular opinion, but I won't pretend that I'm involved in politics just for the sake of this blog).

While I may not be much into politics, I am into the people of this nation; I care very strongly for everyone in this world. Our generation almost has this sense of "heroism" to it, we have an innate desire to stand up against all that is wrong in the world, whether it's human trafficking, gender inequality, saving the planet, slavery, the list continues. And I also believe that there is a reason we all have this desire within us, but that is a conversation for another time. Right now, I believe that to change the world, we first need to change the way the government is being ran. V for Vendetta is a great movie that I would highly recommend watching, and it produces a really good quote from it too: "People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people." The Constitution we have in place makes it so that power cannot be taken away from the people, that if we have a problem with the way that the government is being ran, then we can rise up and change that peacefully (I'm looking at you, protesters of the Trump inauguration. He's not my favorite guy either, but was breaking the windows at Krispy Kreme really necessary?? Anyway, moving on....). It's almost as if we want a revolution to get behind, but we're settling for all these small, detrimental ones instead of getting behind the real ones that matter, like against gerrymandering and corrupt politicians. I believe that if we are to ever change the world, then we have to do it together or it will never work out.

Love you all, be safe!
-Austin D.

Your Face Isn't Safe Anymore

Hey everyone! Sorry for the extremely late post this week! I forgot to do it before I left for my kid's camping trip during Spring Break, and then I've been having to take care of them when we go home too. The flu sucks, I highly recommend not getting it.

Anyway, down to business. I read an article recently on The Washington Post about the police and how they are using facial recognition more and more, and if it is right for them to do so (Who's logging your face?). Being a future police cadet myself, I found this to be interesting in the sense that facial recognition is an up and coming technology in today's society, and I wanted to see what points the author brought up about why it might be a bad idea. The article brought up some interesting arguments that I do agree with: one being that using facial recognition for criminal investigations does not have any Federal laws regulating the use of the system, unlike fingerprinting where there are many laws that restrict the use of it to needing a warrant for the majority of it. The author also mentioned how many people might be less inclined to call 911 for an emergency if the body cam of the officer can use facial recognition to look up their criminal history. Both of these points I can understand why it would make the technology bad, but one needs to look at if the good outweighs the bad in society.

The other argument the author makes is the reliability of facial recognition. According to a study in 2012 co-written by an FBI expert, the technology does not have the same reliability as fingerprinting does. Where fingerprints are unique to every individual, facial recognition can and has mistaken people before, mainly in African Americans, women, and young people. After reading this article, I do have to side with the author's views on it: facial recognition may not be the best course of action in law enforcement. But I do believe that it still has it uses in it. While it should not be used solely by itself to convict a criminal, it can be used to help identify a possible suspect, much like a composite sketch can be used in a case. I think it'll be very interesting to see how the technology progresses in the next few years and the laws that the Federal Government will institute to help control the use of facial recognition.

Fourth Time's the Charm?

When someone mentions North Korea to me, the first thought that pops up in my head is: why is this still going on? An article on The Christian Science Monitor called "Path of patience toward North Korea" talks about how Trump will be the forth president to have to deal with North Korea and its nuclear threats.The other presidents have tried all the other options already, whether it be cutting off all trades with North Korea, offering support in hopes it'll get on their "good side", or supplying South Korea with the means to defend itself. But the article here describes an unusual approach: to just be patient. Patience is hard to come by nowadays, just drive down I-35 in Austin, TX around 5:00 P.M on a Friday evening and you'll see just how "patient" people are. If you are not from Texas, I'll summarize it pretty quickly: they are NOT patient. But the author of this article is aiming at the general public to advocate patience with North Korea, stating that the upper class in North Korea already sees the regime there heading towards self destruction, with that thought process becoming increasingly more common throughout the population there. The author believes that as time goes on and as more and more information comes into North Korea from the outside, exposing the lies that the country's prosperity and reputation is still positive, the population will rise up against the leaders there. I have to agree with this statement too, maybe choosing to follow the route of patience will undoubtedly help avoid any unnecessary bloodshed or violence. Until there is an immediate threat to our safety, I agree with the author that just being patient could be the best course of action to take right now.

Now if only we could apply patience to our daily commute in Austin, TX....

Skeptical America

Hello everyone (and sorry for the late post)!

(Link to the article can be found on the bottom of this page)

"Let him make his decisions", a quote from Former President Obama, referring to our brand new president, Donald Trump. Some things are easier said than done, and something as controversial as this is definitely easier said than done. I will admit that Donald Trump is not my president (yes that is a reference to the popular hashtag going around social media currently), nor was Hillary, nor were many of the other candidates. Truth be told, it was hard to fully support one candidate. Sure there were good choices; but in my own opinion, which I know is different from many others, I did not find a candidate that I could fully support.

But while I may have not of voted for President Trump, I do agree with what our former president is saying: give him a chance. Like the article stated, the beauty of our form of government is that we can give our newly elected presidents the opportunity to govern in their own way and see what they can accomplish. We do not have to agree with their views or their methods, but we can at least show them respect and allow them to either succeed or fail. Either way, we are all still Americans and no president can ever change that.

So in closing, I just want to urge everyone to love each other. Even Donald Trump. He will never be my president, but I can still respect his position and pray that he will make good use of his time as President.

God bless everyone, love you all!
-Austin M. DuBois

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2017/0209/For-skeptical-Americans-a-debate-over-whether-to-give-Trump-a-chance-video