Terrorism

The Paris shooting has been devastating especially since I do know people who almost attended the concert but canceled last minute. But it's the terrorists what I want to talk about. Why on earth do they do these kind of actions. Well one answer is that they want to terrorize the world and one way is through the media because on one hand the media will get lots of readers if a terrorist posts a video consisting an execution or a shocking statement. I'm not saying the media is responsible for terrorism, but it would be nice if terrorist groups didn't make it onto national television. Another issue is how countries like France and the US are handling the terror groups. After the attacks, France issued one if its largest bombing sprees on ISIS destroying a training camp and bomb storage. Although these are important cornerstones to the ISIS group, that is not enough. We may be able to kill the leader of a terrorist group but that doesn't mean that another leader will not be put in place. If you really want to stop them, how about cutting their supply line of guns and bombs as well as their funding from many wealthy people living in the Emirates. ISIS also controls many oil plants of which some countries buy from. They have smart strategies and its up to the western and modern countries to find a alternative to nonstop bombing killing civilians in the process.

SF shooting

While strolling through my Instagram timeline, I saw several videos pop up about the recent shooting in San Francisco involving police. It showed, what looked to be, about 8 police officers surrounding an African American civilian who looked to be a young adult (discovered to be 26 years old). All you could see in the video is all of the police officers with their guns pulled out and the man simply walking away, limping, and the next thing you see is the phone moving, then gunshots being fired by 5 of the police officers. I almost feel like it was bound to happen around our area, however it was shocking to see since it was so recent and it was in our home, the San Francisco Bay Area. Although I'm not yet aware of the entire incident, I found this crazy because the man looked as if he did nothing wrong to be shot at the time that he did, but there was no evidence of anything happening to lead to 5 of the officers shooting. I think it was unnecessary to kill the man when he didn't charge towards the officers, nor looked like he was threatening anyone; he was limping away. I've seen a little bit of the news, and many San Francisco citizens are enraged about the incident, and, to me,  the video's leaked give them a good reason to be.

Ferguson: A Report From Occupied Territory

Citizens were anticipating disappointment within the trial.

"...no probable cause exists to file any charges against Officer Wilson and returned a ‘no true bill’ on each of the five indictments."

After the grand jury decision the protests and riots weren't only directly towards Mike Brown. It was also directed towards the unfairness the black community has felt throughout many years of discrimination and not earning proper justice. This was a public death by having the body lie in the street for 4.5 hours. This brought up many feelings and sensitivity within the community. Extra police and dogs were brought in for force. Many blacks in Ferguson were marked as a target by the police. "You're the black guy, you're the bad guy" is how the black community feels with the brutal and uncalled for force. Racism has shaped the geography of cities due to racial zoning laws very early on. Where police officers are supposed to be looked at as the good guys, the one's promoting justice and helping the community, the Ferguson police is just the opposite to many. Instead the Ferguson police is looked at as the "bag guys" because of the foolish reasons they are fining and ticketing citizens. J-Walking one of the most common offenses is 90% given to black residents. When Wilson initially confronted Michael and Dorian it was due to J-Walking which resulted in the death of Brown. J-Walking connects to Michael Brown and is directly focused for income and money for the police department. Generations are still reliving each others past of unfairness between law enforcement and the black citizens.

Crips and Bloods: Made in America

This documentary I watched talked about the lead up to the 1960's "race riots" in LA where blacks were fighting each other. Prior to this, L.A. accepted their consciousness when everybody was joining or instigating groups that were fighting the power other than fighting other gangs. LA was attractive to the African Americans because it stood for more of what they believed of the "American Dream". Although, LA didn't have the same laws that the south upheld with color divided bathrooms, schools, and restaurants, etc. LA did have a strong influence on segregated housing that kept blacks in certain areas of the city. The wealthiest blacks and the poorest blacks lived side by side because of the restricted housing. During this time people were working towards bettering their communities and looking for equality within. Soon after industrialization and and factories jobs increased but soon after  everyone lost those jobs due to technology coming into place.  Hundreds of jobs were taken away in automobile factories and many more. Soon the children would be doing worse than their parents. Within years the most influential black leaders had either been locked up or killed, Martin Luther King, Malcom X, Medgar Evers, and many more.

After this was all over a new element rose called the "crips" and the violence began to begin again in a new form. The Crips were the generation that was disconnected from the black movement of change. The Crips formed in the late 1960s in Fremont High School, LA.  The founding member was Raymond Washington. Rival gangs formed an alliance called "Bloods".  Blue stood for Crips and Red for Bloods. These gangs took their own hardship in their lives out on each other, "kill or be killed". Bloods and Crips took over the streets of South LA creating their territories. Certain grocery stores, parks, alley ways, and schools were all considered their "turf". Many members hadn't left a 10 block radius their whole life. A member of one of the gangs said, "never allow yourself to show feelings or emotions, except for brutal force" or else you will be scene as weak. The own members admit that respect is actually fear. If you respect one you really just fear them.  Kids join these gangs in search for a family and protection, they find a gang to avoid being a victim. These children began carrying guns from the ages of 10-13 and sometimes having several guns. They no longer fought each other physically it was only gunfights. The first time using a gun "your jittery and nervous" but then you become numb. The gangs are constantly playing tag and trying to one up the other. The whole game is based off of retaliation which is a vicious cycle. A gang member says that he struggles with his moral issues a lot because he knows "this is not the way God or society intended it to be but I have to put the moral state of mind behind me and become and animal".

I found the documentary extremely interesting to see how what we learned about in class with the civil rights movements and LA riots and how it came into place with the two largest gangs, Bloods and Crips. This documentary shows how this lifestyle is bound onto the younger generation because of the unstable homes that already are involved in drugs. These children didn't have the support and were misguided due to their unstable living circumstances. A study was done at UCLA that stated, "children in South LA are exhibiting greater levels of PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) than children of a similar age in Baghdad, the war torn capital of Iraq." It is the next generation that needs to be saved from the vicious cycle.

America still isn't free, people in this specific area don't have the right to walk down any street they choose.

The Planned Parenthood shooter is NOT transgender..if anyone was wondering..

On the topic of the Planned Parenthood shooting last week...

I was looking through articles online to find out the details on the shooting, and I stumbled across an article titled “Surprise! The Planned Parenthood Shooter is NOT Transgender.” I found this kind of disturbing, not because the possibility that the shooter is transgender, but how that is what the media decides to focus on. Does anyone really care that one year when he voted he was registered as a woman? This is what sparked the research into his background to find out if he was previously a woman. I personally do not find that interesting or relevant at all, and I’m kind of aggravated thinking about the amount of time and effort that was put into writing the article. There have been over 350 shootings this year, most of which have not had major media coverage, and yet they decide to focus on figuring out whether or not this man is transgender. Even if he was, why does the media think that it is up to them to expose him?

We need to be spending our time figuring about the topic of gun control and how to stop these mass shootings from happening...Thoughts?

Today in class...

Today in second period we were talking about race, and Lauren pointed out something that I can relate to. Everywhere I go, there is always that one person who points out how short I am. It gets really annoying and frustrated! Even when I'm at work, my coworkers like to joke around about my height like its something that doesn't effect me. They usually make comments like, "Oh my god! you're so short, I bet you cant reach the cups". In my head i'm usually saying, "wow thank you for stating the obvious! Thanks for letting me know, I totally didn't know I was that short!" Sometimes people like to joke around race, skin color, weight or height like its nothing! They probably think its funny but sometimes words slip out of their mouth.
We also pointed out a that saying "oh wow you're so white" means nothing much as compared to saying "Oh wow you're so black/brown" I still don't find a concept to why that is, but my best guess is because being white is normally the "norm" in America. And one being colored kinda shows that they are "outsiders" and they don't belong.

Republicans ignore global warming

The climate change conference was held in Paris recently. All the countries met together to talk about climate change. Beijing, China is covered in dense smog and everyone is orderd to stay inside. Glaciers are melting, hurricains are developing and massive rainfalls are hitting all over the world and creating damages to communities. In many countries the effects are severe but in others the effects are mild and they proggresively get worse. Obama is trying to get all factories to swich to cleaner energy and passing this bill will require lots of work because the republicans are ignoring the problem and acting like it doesnt exist which to me is quite absurd. They state that switching to cleaner energy will cost billions. All they focus on is the economics. But they fail to realize what is being witnessed by many other countries and global warming activists. They don't care about the earth as long as people can live on it. Untill a major catastrophe happenes they will not budge. They are the only ones in the world who are ignoring it.
At this point, Obama threatens to veto their bill against renewable energy, but that will not guarentee anything. Lets cross our fingers.