Assignment Task:
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An important case study is the 2014 killing of 17-year-old African American Laquan McDonald by Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke. Following an encounter in which McDonald was shot 16 times by Van Dyke, there were massive protests and an investigation into Chicago police procedures. It is possible to analyze this episode using the conflict model of law. The underlying social dynamics at work in this case can be seen by applying the conflict model of law to its analysis. According to this concept, the interests of the powerful frequently influence legislation, which can result in systemic injustices, especially against vulnerable populations. The public outrage that followed McDonald's killing is indicative of a larger fight against injustices and a system that is frequently regarded as favoring police enforcement over the lives and rights of people from minority communities. The McDonald case serves as an image for the current discussions over racial discrimination, police reform, and the requirement for more openness in law enforcement procedures. It is an essential reminder that in order to solve these pervasive problems and promote social justice, systemic reform is required.
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Adam Toledo was a 13-year old Latino boy who was shot and murdered by a police officer in the little village neighborhood. The shooting body cam footage was released to the public and cause many protests from the community given the footage did not align with what the officer had reported. I would connect this case with the conflict model of law. It was evident that the police officer changed the facts of the interaction during the chase in order to excuse his excessive force on Adam. Unfortunately, this is all too common and a perfect example of how interest groups, in this case the police department, believe that they hold more power and define the law. I would add that the fact that law enforcement agents that conduct like the officer that murder Adam Toledo, are only encouraged to believe they are even above the law considering the protections they have when facing charges in court.
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Rekia Boyd
Rekia Boyd was a 22 year old Black American woman who was fatally shot by Dante Servin, an off-duty Hispanic Officer police detective. Servin was off duty when he drove his car to Douglass Park and approached a group of four people at a party in the park. After having a confrontation with the group, one of the group members, Antonio Cross, claimed that Servin was looking for a drug dealer and told him to leave. Servin fired his gun at the group and hit Rekia in the head. After the police department claimed that Servin shot his gun after Antonio pulled a gun on him, it was later clarified that it was a cell phone. As with the case of Adam Toledo, this is also another issue of the conflict model of law. It was made evident when the case took a long time to be heard in court. Additionally, I would argue that this is also a case connected to the interactionist model of law. Servin's bias towards the type of people in the group, could have brought him to assume that what was in Antonio's hand had to be nothing else than a gun/weapon.
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Criminal justice focuses on the application and enforcement of laws within the legal system, including police, courts, and corrections, while "criminology" studies the causes and patterns of criminal behavior, aiming to understand why crimes happen and how to prevent them, often drawing from sociological and psychological perspectives. The case I picked was the Laquan McDonald case and the consensus model of law is that the officer Jason was responding to a call regarding a teenager that fit Laquan description. Jason the officer thought he did the right thing by waiting for other officers because they had a taser instead of a gun, but Jason reacted stating that Laquan was a threat and him and his partner using their guns to kill Laquan with over use of force shooting him 16 times. The conflict model of law is that Jason was trying to do the right thing by waiting but he didn't wait long enough and took it upon himself to put 16 shots in a teenage black teenager which was the use of excessive force. The interactionist model of law is that the outcome of the case shaped other cases or showed how a black life is not valued by letting him free in three years or showing that the power between the powerful and the powerless shows how he gets a light sentence for taking a life that he didn't help bring into this world.
Question:
What do you understand and like about paragraphs above. "Short comment for each paragraph"