ffleischmann21ahsgov

[ffleischmann21ahsgov]

Blog post #9: Final Infographic

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BLOG POST #8 CIVIC ACTION ASSESSMENT OF ISSUE

1) I have taken steps to learn more about how my local congressman views my issue by joining the class in a meeting with Mark Desaulnier. He generally did not say much about police reform when asked about it, only saying that he plans to review current requirements for police. 

2) In the future, I do plan to advocate for police reform and support by raising awareness about the difficulty that law enforcement officers face due to their jobs. It is an issue that I am personally passionate about, but I am not yet sure how it will become integrated into my life. 

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Legislative and Executive Action

1)  H.R. 7136: Police Training and Accountability Act

2) This bill was introduced by Mark Pocan

3) There is no “summary” tab for this page, however there is a short summary on the main page which states that it’s purpose is “To require the creation and adoption of national minimum training requirements for law enforcement personnel.”

4) This bill was solely sponsored by democrats. This can help determine that the bill will probably not pass

5) This bill was assigned to the house judiciary. 

6) I would encourage voting nay because the bill itself is unspecified. 

7) Department of Housing and Urban Development

8)  Our law enforcement partners at the state, local, tribal, territorial, and campus levels are essential to our Nation’s domestic defence against terrorism and our broader, shared mission of protecting our communities from all threats.  They are this country’s first responders and the first line of detection and prevention.

9) The secretary of homeland security is Chad Wolf. According to some websites, his appointment as secretary of homeland defence is questionable, largely due to his ties with president trump. He seems kind of sketchy because he has been reported to have ordered staff to stop reporting on Russian threats. He also has little to no experience with law enforcement in the past so I would not trust him regardless of current conspiracy. 

10) Law enforcement partnerships. They are concerned with the effectiveness and use of law enforcement in America. 

[ffleischmann21ahsgov]

BLOG POST #6: CALIFORNIA PROPOSITION ASSESSMENT

1) Prop 20: Changes to Criminal Penalty and Parole

2) Many crimes and verdicts of said crimes would be situational and DNA testing would become more widespread. The proposition would also expand classifications of violent crime.

3) It is unclear what the cost would be, however it is estimated to cost tens of millions annually

4) Results ended in a “no” which doesn’t surprise me. The issues brought up by the act for the most part would create more problems than they would fix. Having more situational crimes will open the case to the biases of the judge and could result in unfair punishments either too light or too heavy. I do think that increasing commonality of DNA testing, however, is absolutely necessary. 

5) U.S. Representative Devin Nunes (R) Assemblymember Jim Cooper (D) Assemblymember Vince Fong (R), Republican Party of California, Orange County Board of Supervisors, Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs Los Angeles Police Protective League Peace Officers Research Association of California, Albertsons Safeway. I am surprised that Safeway cares about this proposition. I am not sure what these sponsors represent in terms of true representation. 

6) The arguments for all have to do with the reclassification of certain crimes to be violent crimes, but never talk about the other 2 aspects of the proposition. The against arguments are calling this proposition a prison scam to keep people in prison longer.

7) I would not have voted for this proposition because I do not believe enough in humanity to trust any judge to completely form a verdict based on their own opinion. 

8) I really do find it interesting that Safeway cares at all about this proposition

[ffleischmann21ahsgov]

POLITICAL INTEREST GROUPS AND PACS ASSESSMENT

1) National Association of Police Organizations

2) “The National Association of Police Organizations (NAPO) is a coalition of police unions and associations from across the United States and was organized for the purpose of advancing the interests of America’s law enforcement officers through legislative advocacy, political action and education.”

3) This interest group advocates for police safety and pushes for increased punishment towards those who harm police officers, as well as increased officer protection. They want more funding towards police and serviced that will aide police such as the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) and Bulletproof Vest Partnerships (BVP) Grant Program. They also are looking towards better healthcare and social security for police. They would like access to military surplus to better arm their police, and would encourage their members to chose who they vote for in Judicial and Executive branches depending on their past relations with police officers and associations. 

4) NAPO would like to amend the Electronic Communication Privacy Act to better protect law enforcement officers. 

5) It seems that the main residence of the NAPO interest group is in Alexandria, VA. Their most recent event was an awards ceremony in February and there does not seem to be anything upcoming.

6) There are many linked sites that have volunteer opportunities, but you can also donate directly to NAPO on their website.

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1) Americans for Police and Trooper Safety

2) This super PAC is dedicated to the safety of law enforcement officials

3) They have raised $5.4 million. $374,000 has been spent towards independent expenditures.

4) $214,000 has been spent for democrats and $156,000 has been spent for republicans. This does not surprise me because I believe that officer safety is a concern of everyone no matter what side you might be on.

5) Most of their largest donors are retired. I can only theorize why this may be and cannot come up with a good reason to define this pattern. 

[ffleischmann21ahsgov]

Election 2020 Presidential Candidates Assessment

Howie Hawkins/Angela Nicole Walker, Green :

Federal Investigations of Local Police Misconduct

Community Control of the Police

The Green party candidates wants to reform the police in a way that would include federal investigations into local police misconduct as a way to make sure that corruption or misuse of power is investigated in local police forces. They also want the people to have a say in how the police operate in their communities. I wholeheartedly agree with their ideas and think that they are both good points for what should be done for a start. I think there is more that would need to be done, but these are good ideas. 

There are no conflicts between this and blog 3 but it does say more than the party website itself did, which I appreciate. 

Donald J. Trump/Michael R. Pence, Republican :

• The Department of Justice announced more than $98 million in grant funding through the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services COPS Hiring Program to allow 802 additional full-time law enforcement officers.

• The Trump Administration expanded Project Safe Neighborhoods to encourage U.S. Attorney’s to work with communities to develop customized crime reduction strategies.

The Republican party candidates do not say much about reforming the police, but by looking at their “accomplishments” it is clear that they are against defunding the police and, in fact, have provided much more funding to the police to allow for many more jobs. I do not agree with this solution because I see this as a try for quantity over quality, when I believe that it is our quality of police enforcement that is the direct and indirect cause of many problems nowadays. This also directly juxtaposes the party website, which is pro defunding of police and defunding of federal police. 

Gloria La Riva/Sunil Freeman, Peace and Freedom

Dear Gloria La Riva, The issue I am concerned about is police funding and reform.  I am concerned about this issue because I believe that police are necessary for public safety but also require reform.  I am currently a senior at Acalanes High School and I am researching this issue for my senior Government class.  Please clarify your stance on this issue.  Thank you so much for your time and good luck.

Sincerely, Fox Fleischmann [email protected]

Roque De La Fuente "Rocky" Guerra/Kanye Omari West, American Independent

Dear Roque De La Fuente, The issue I am concerned about is police funding and reform.  I am concerned about this issue because I believe that police are necessary for public safety but also require reform.  I am currently a senior at Acalanes High School and I am researching this issue for my senior Government class.  Please clarify your stance on this issue.  Thank you so much for your time and good luck.

Sincerely, Fox Fleischmann [email protected]

Jo Jorgensen/Jeremy "Spike" Cohen, Libertarian :

• As your President, I will defund federal involvement in policing. I will defund the DEA and keep federal agencies out of local police matters unless called upon by state authorities.

Jo Jorgenson aligns completely with her party’s statement as she calls for defunding of federal police. She also promotes the complete legalization of objects to be owned by whomever may want to own such objects including drugs, firearms, and other destructive devices. I agree with her stance on complete legalization, as I believe that if given the right tools, the people of America can defend themselves, and this would be the only situation in which de funding of police would be preferred. I also believe that crimes must have a victim, and there is no point to having a law on drugs when someone could just as easily go to a store and drink a bottle of whiskey and die from alcohol poisoning. 

Joseph R. Biden/Kamala D. Harris, Democratic :

Expand federal funding for mental health and substance use disorder services and research.

The Democratic candidates are pushing for a reform in the criminal justice system, and would like to support the mental health of the officers in the criminal justice system. I agree with this stance and think that their objectives align with my own in the fact that I believe that the criminal justice system needs to be reformed to fit the instabilities that lie within the justice system. These points align with those on the democratic website. 

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Political Party Action

Republican - Police should not be forced to join a union and union members should not be allowed to participate in union activities during work hours. Federal managers should be stricter with disciplining and dismissing problem staff. Reduce government responsibilites, and reduce funding to the federal government. I do not agree with this opinion because I beleive that we should not reduce funding to the federal government. 

Democrat - police need to stop focusing on kids when it should be their education that fixes their behaviour. Police NEED MORE TRAINING. I agree with this because I beleive that our police are underfunded, undertrained and underprepared. 

Libertarian - A crime is something that has a victim other than the perpetrator. While the Libertarian party does not explicitly talk about police reform or defunding, it is clear that they do not want the government to become intertwined with social matters or personal matters. I agree with this because I beleive that as long as they arent hurting anyone else, i dont care what people do. 

Green - mostly centered around prison populations, the green party wants to decrease prison populations. I do not know enough about the subject to have an opinion. 

Peace and Freedom - I couldnt find much on police training or psychology but it seems as if they would want to give police more power, as they want to have democratic police oversee boards with power of supoena. I am not sure if I agree with this because It does not fix the problems currently within the federal system but it also gives them power, so I dont think i agree with it. 

I mostly agree with the Democratic and Libertarian opinions. I beleive that the democrats have a good idea of how to reform the police, while the libertarians have a good idea of how the police should act. 

I would vote for Jo Jorgenson. 

Not much was said during the debate but Trump did claim to have the support of every police officer. 

[ffleischmann21ahsgov]

Media Assessment of Issue

https://www.afsc.org/blogs/news-and-commentary/6-reasons-why-its-time-to-defund-police?gclid=CjwKCAjwzIH7BRAbEiwAoDxxThOHkeeCgIL-Ey3y0gUYn_M6Hs_W76AfEULC4-0QPFXEVsooB4WRCxoC4tUQAvD_BwE

1) The article is trying to defame police

2)  Mary Zerkel is coordinator of AFSC's Communities Against Islamophobia Project and has worked at AFSC for over 20 years. In addition, Mary is co-founder of the art collective Lucky Pierre, which works on political and social issues in a variety of forms.

3) This article is a response or product of the current climate with police and the protests

4) This article is most likely made for the people who already want to defund the police as a reason to bolster their ideals.

5) This author is obviously against police and is attempting to label the idea of police as a whole as ridiculous, obscene, and racist.

6) There really isnt much direct information in the article. Much of it is single-statistics from second hand sources instead of before and after statistics to show what works or dosent work as far as policing. 

https://www.penncapital-star.com/commentary/reform-dont-defund-the-police-this-is-why-opinion/#:~:text=The%20defunding%20and%20reallocation%20of,for%20and%20now%20being%20legislated.&text=The%20concept%20of%20social%20justice%20is%20not%20isolated%20to%20policing%20or%20Pennsylvania.

1) This article is trying to gain support for the police

2) Scott L Bohn is President of the Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association

3) The source was produced during the protests and the defund the police movements

4) This article was most likely made to give the perspective of a police officer currently active to allow others to see his perspective

5) This author is against defunding the police because he believes that the general public would be put in more danger without them

6) There is not much direct information in this article however there is one direct statistic done by Monmouth University polling

https://www.apa.org/ed/graduate/specialize/police#:~:text=Police%20and%20public%20safety%20psychology%20is%20concerned%20with%20assisting%20law,conformity%20to%20laws%20and%20ethics.

1) This short article details the job of a police psychologist and the topics they cover

2) This article was published by the American Psychological Association which I would assume by the article to be largely unbiased

3) The article is a general informant, being made in 2009. I dont think anything sparked it other than the need for information

4) This article was made for people interested in a police psychology job

5) The author is making what seems to be almost a job advertisement

6) The article is most likely only facts. There are no statistics, but it details the jobs of a police psychologist

1) Neither of the biased sources present many statistical bits of evidence, but the left leaning article is much more based around the fact that they dont like what we have currently, and not based around what they would do instead. The right leaning article is more about why the police is good.

2) I identify more with the right leaning source because i think that the police are important for america and public safety, and I have yet to hear an alternative that I agree with

[ffleischmann21ahsgov]

Blog post #1

I chose to blog about police psychology and training because police do not get enough training, especially in de-escalation protocols and because it is common for police to have unhealthy coping mechanisms to deal with the stress of their jobs and that can create instability. This relates to the government because the police are the enforcers of the government who ensure that the country runs how the government expects it to, so they are the most important part of enforcing laws and preserving safety. I think that to address this issue, we need to have mandatory therapy and psychological evaluations much more often than currently mandated, as well as much more training in de-escalation and self defence.