Blog Post 3

Violence in order to deal with violence, this concept may seem ludicrous, but in actuality it is used throughout the world. One of the hotspots for current day violence is in Mexico. With warning given every spring break to college students about kidnappings and innocent people being slaughtered on the street to notices given to families about leaving their cruise ship to tour the towns in Mexico and being harmed while on vacation. The majority of the violence is being sparked from the gangs and drug cartels in Mexico. It seems that the Mexican government has their hands full and need help in fighting the violence, which is where a new vigilante group called the Mata Zeta comes in to play. This group has a mission to help eliminate the Zeta, which is one of the most violent cartels in the Vera Cruz region. Mexico is getting a bad rap throughout the world due to the amount of violence being produced by their drug cartels. According to BBC, “The Mexican government last issued figures in 12 January 2011. Its database said 34,612 people had been killed since December 2006, including suspected drug gang members, members of the security forces and those considered innocent bystanders. It is now estimated that some 40,000 people have died during the nearly five years of Mr. Calderon's presidency.”(BBC)

An Al Jazeera article by Chris Arsenault Talks about the Mata Zetas or the “Zeta Killers” which are a sort of paramilitary group and their mission “to protect the people”. This group was dubbed the name because of the powerful gang known as Zeta. Arsenault continues in the article to state that the paramilitary group says, “They don't want to fight state security forces, they said, but called on "the functionaries and authorities who support the Zetas to stop doing so", in a digital communique read by men wearing balaclavas and toting machine guns.”We are anonymous warriors, faceless, but proudly Mexican."(Al Jazeera) This is an issue, because Arsenault in the article states that this could be some sort of front for the Mata Zetas and their actual agenda which is actually guns for hire by other cartels in order to eliminate opposing cartels and gangs. I totally agree with this assumption, because of the fact we do not know who works for whom. The Mata Zeta has remained quite anonymous, and elusive. With the group being so obscure it is extremely hard to find validity in their claims in whether their violence is to prevent cartels from terror or too be the muscle for some other cartel or gang..

There has been other cartels in the past that have gone on the mission to “protect the citizens” in the war against cartel violence, but have eventually been caught up with the law. For example the La Familia in Michoacán ultimately ended up having their leader arrested. Seems that The Mata Zetas might end up on the same road, Arsenault also has word that the men of the “Mata Zetas, also known as the New Generation Jalisco Cartel, formed a partnership with the Gulf cartel, La Resistencia and the Sinaloa cartel to take on the Zetas, Proceso magazine reported. "As far as I know, the Mata Zetas are hired guns fighting for the highest bidder," George Grayson, a drug war expert at the College of William and Mary, told Al Jazeera. "It seems like El Chapo [Joaquin Guzman, the billionaire leader of the Sinaloa cartel], is the highest bidder."(Al Jazeera). The only way to validate the arguments of Mata Zeta and their claims to help the citizens is to wait and see the outcome of their mission. Fortunately or unfortunately there just hasn’t been anything done by them to validate or invalidate their claims. Regardless of right or wrong it seems that the violence of any group in Mexico will continue to scar the country.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-10681249

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/10/2011101615958513627.html

Blog Post 2

“I am going to beat you!” When someone says a quote like that what comes to mind? For me I wonder what caused someone to say such a thing, or what the situation is that caused the person to become violent. I also wonder what this beating entitles. In the case of a Fullerton Homeless man the quote ended up meaning his life was going to be taken. In the article by Joel Rubin and Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times these men discuss how a recording ended up catching Officer Manuel Ramos stating the quote “I am going to beat you!” to homeless man Kelly Thomas. The authors really show that the recording technology helped convict the officers in this case. I believe without the recording technology it would have made it very difficult to come to a conclusion in this particular case.

After reading the article I then realized that the authors do not state whether or not Kelly Thomas was under the influence of drugs. The authors however do state that Thomas did not have any alcohol or drugs on his body. It would have made a lot more sense why Officer Ramos was being violent if Thomas was under the influence being more combative and belligerent than a normal citizen, which is why the situation ended up being escalated in to a physical altercation. Further research in the Los Angeles Huff Post stated that Thomas was actually a mentally ill man. When an officer responds to a call where they are going to be interacting with a mentally ill person the contact should be handled differently than opposed to an individual who is totally coherent and responsive.

Mentally ill individuals sometimes do no react with the same emotions as other individual, so it would have helped to know how Thomas was responding to Officer Ramos’s commands. The article states clearly that the recordings by Officer Ramos shows an aggressive tone. Without that key piece of evidence it would be a he said she said case, which would ultimately get tied up in the court system. In the article by Joel Rubin and Richard Winton they also discuss the effectiveness of personal cameras. I believe the personal Officer cameras would be a great tool in preventing unnecessary violence and bad accusations in the future. Although they are quite expensive, the investment will be well worth it. This is just another example how technology can help society.

L.A. Times- http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0923-kelly-thomas-audio-20110922,0,4325329.story

Huff Post Los Angeles- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/21/kelly-thomas-death-police-charged_n_974237.html

Blog Post 1

Violence seems to have two sides, the first being it is okay when being used to accomplish a greater goal that is socially acceptable, for example the violence taking place to overthrow  Moammar Kadafi. Then there is the violence that comes with rape and child abuse and other crimes like the shooting committed by Jared Lee Loughner. Violence can affect anyone in this world. Not only does the pain last while the actual violent act is being committed, but it can leave a wound on a persons demeanor for the rest of their life. It is important to understand why violent acts take place whether it is just or unjust. Because the more we understand violence the better we can help to further prevent it in situation where it is not necessary.

Violence is affects everyone in the 21^st century from when a child picks up a video game to play for recreational use, to the violence that terrorist are committing throughout the world. According to the Universal Crime Report there were 1,318,398 violent crimes committed in United States in 2009. That number is only the violent crimes that were committed and reported. This number is surely much higher since we know that all crimes are not reported. Sometimes the victims of violent crimes are scared to report the crime due to the retaliation, or the victim might be unaware that the violence being committed towards them is unjust.

Since violence comes in such abundance it is only accurate that it cost society a bundle of money. Phaedra Corso a lead author in a study which mapped out how much violence costs the United States estimates a figure of $70 billion. “The researchers found that most of the costs of violence stem from males and young adults. Sixty-eight percent of the costs from assaults and 63 percent of the costs from self-inflicted injuries were in males aged 15 to 44”.  Corso also states that we can save much more money if we invest a portion of that $70 billion dollars in prevention of violence. Often times the price is even higher when having to paying the price for violence, many have paid the ultimate price by giving up their lives. In the future we need to use other tools like technology and education in order to stop the violence in the world. Police officer’s now use taser’s to subdue a criminal instead of having to use violent tactics in order to get the criminal in custody. Society should continue to use their creativity in order to help prevent violence.

http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2009/data/table_01.html

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070605121002.htm