Ciao!

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Documentary Project
This semester was a little bit of a rocky start. With the film festival claiming our professor, the documentary project was confusing. However, once coming to class started, things became a lot less stressful. The professor had to push back the documentary project and offered a lot of helpful guidance and sources. There were plenty of opportunities for revision and editing. The process was wonderful while we were in class. I enjoyed that we had to post blogs about our documentary project because it kept us in the loop and helped get guidance from our other classmates on how to answer certain questions. Through the documentary project I learned more about the revision process, concision, verb tense, and how to not be bias. All these skills are very helpful and will help me be a better writer for the future.
Mock Interviews
Another portion of our class was the mock interviews. Those I was terrified for doing because I hate being the center of attention. Speaking in the front of a classroom is not something I enjoy because if I feel like I said something stupid it makes me feel like the whole classroom has noticed. Making up questions was also difficult but I am glad that we worked as a group. Once we finally did the interviews they felt like they were no big deal. I am glad that we did the interviews because they were helpful for the future and fun. They gave me more confidence.
Blogs
Blogs were a huge portion of our work. I felt like some of the blogs were a bit repetitive. Specifically with "what would you like to work on" or "what are your strengths/weaknesses" blogs, I felt like they were a tad bit repetitive. However, I truly enjoyed blogging because it gave me a place to express my own thoughts about topics in class in case we ran out of time. It was great to be able to see what my peers thought too. I know I was always looking at John's blogs in particular for guidance. Overall, the blogs gave me a place to express my feeling with the outside world. I tried to be more professional in them, because I was always conscious that anyone can read them.
Exercises
The exercises were another portion of class. I like to look back at the first, evil exercises and laugh. Whenever I think exercises I remember the conversation we had in the middle of the semester that was like a turning point in our classroom. The exercises were exactly what we needed after our conversation. I enjoyed doing them in class with my peers because we were able to bounce off ideas and our own experiences. It was actually a lot of fun and I felt like it was more real world when we did it in class. We became our own little police department. :)
Enhanced Skills
The enhanced skills I have gained were concision and verb tense. These are two big things that will follow me to the rest of my life. Another skill is being unbiased. I have never been told not to be bias in a paper. All the papers I write have to have an argument and I must choose a side. Telling the facts just as they are was easier than expected, except for the introduction. Oh man, that was hard to stop myself from going into a fluffy introduction. However, I was able to accomplish a lot and grow tremendously as a writer this semester thanks to this class.
Goals
The goals of the class were to work on Rhetorical Knowledge and Skills and Critical Thinking. Through all the assignments I was able to work on my logos, pathos, and ethos. In addition, I was able to think more deeply on the assignments. 
I am saddened that the semester has flown by so quickly. I wish you all the best and hope that we shall be seeing each other more on campus. I'll miss you!

Pre-Farewell

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This semester was a little bit of a rocky start. With the film festival claiming our professor, the documentary project was confusing. However, once coming to class started, things became a lot less stressful. The professor had to push back the documentary project and offered a lot of helpful guidance and sources. There were plenty of opportunities for revision and editing. The process was wonderful while we were in class. I enjoyed that we had to post blogs about our documentary project because it kept us in the loop and helped get guidance from our other classmates on how to answer certain questions.
Another portion of our class was the mock interviews. Those I was terrified for doing because I hate being the center of attention. Speaking in the front of a classroom is not something I enjoy because if I feel like I said something stupid it makes me feel like the whole classroom has noticed. Making up questions was also difficult but I am glad that we worked as a group. Once we finally did the interviews they felt like they were no big deal. I am glad that we did the interviews because they were helpful for the future and fun.
Blogs were a huge portion of our work. I felt like some of the blogs were a bit repetitive. Specifically with "what would you like to work on" or "what are your strengths/weaknesses" blogs, I felt like they were a tad bit repetitive. However, I truly enjoyed blogging because it gave me a place to express my own thoughts about topics in class in case we ran out of time. It was great to be able to see what my peers thought too. I know I was always looking at John's blogs in particular for guidance.
The exercises were another portion of class. I like to look back at the first, evil exercises and laugh. Whenever I think exercises I remember the conversation we had in the middle of the semester that was like a turning point in our classroom. The exercises were exactly what we needed after our conversation. I enjoyed doing them in class with my peers because we were able to bounce off ideas and our own experiences. It was actually a lot of fun and I felt like it was more real world when we did it in class. We became our own little police department. :)
The enhanced skills I have gained were concision and verb tense. These are two big things that will follow me to the rest of my life.
I am saddened that the semester has flown by so quickly. I wish you all the best and hope that we shall be seeing each other more on campus. I'll miss you!

YOU are the Police now. Whatcha gonna do?

This is a traffic stop unlike any of the ones I have witness before. William Hannah, a truck driver was pulled over by a Sheriff for driving in the left lane. A simple moving violation. As the Sheriff is talking to William Hannah, Hannah first appears to be blaming it on a pick up truck that continuously cut him off, but ends it by admitting that he is guilty of being in the left lane. The Sheriff understood Hannah's situation and decided that since he did it to avoid an accident, it was acceptable. Next the Sheriff goes on and asks Hannah to switch places with him. Hannah is now the police and the Sheriff is a truck driver, what would Hannah do in this situation. 

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The film says it all goes downhill from there. My reaction is crap, Hannah is going to pull out a gun or something. However, what the film goes on to explain that Hannah was speechless and had no idea what to say. In a later interview done, Hannah goes on to explain he felt like he was in church with his fly down and didn't know what to do to make it better. After minutes of confusion and speechlessness from Hannah, the Sheriff lets Hannah go without writing a ticket. Hannah is grateful.

I think that this is a perfect and silly example of how an stop can go. It made me laugh so much. If  I was in Hannah's situation I would be concerned that it was a trap, but luckily for Hannah, the Sheriff was in a forgiving mood. This stop, should be more publicized because people need to see that cooperation can help you. I am happy to see that among the possible videos to watch, this was one option. A lot of the videos of traffic stops are not the best. The ones that reach the public's eyes typically involve police shooting or treating an uncooperative person as a threat. I am glad to see this video. It really made my day.

Interview Reflect

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On Friday, we had interviews in class based on hypos we were given Wednesday in class. My group came up with eleven questions as our script. Nick was suppose to interview a student in class but after reading the article, John had a plan about how the interview would play out. During the interview things did get a tad bit heated. Nick and John worked as a team to ask the questions and it was quite entertaining.
One observation I had was that at one point, the interviewee said she hated yogurt. Our crime had been that yogurt was stolen from the cafeteria. The interview could have ended there, instead John began to question if there were any exceptions to the interviewee's hatred to yogurt. Lucky, for John there were and the interview was able to continue. I feel like if this was how officers questioned interviewees, then there may be some false confessions to crime.
Another observation, was that while we were coming up with these question, it was tough to come up with questions regarding a crime. I am glad that we worked as a team to come up with the interview and in the end, I was satisfied how our interview went. It was a great, unusual experience.

Chapter 6

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Chapter six focuses on arrest reports. I think that it is pretty interesting that there are two types, fill in the blanks and narrative type report. I really like the fill in the blanks version because it is a simple format making it easier to follow and understand. I think the five senses rules are pretty interesting. It makes sense and I am sure that officers never know exactly how a stop will go.

The Impact Of Your Appearance

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After reading the A Black Man Wore Different Kinds of Clothing To See If People Treated Him Differently article I think it is safe to say that a majority of people do treat individuals based on their appearance. It is super sad that we let stereotypes influence how we treat people. People who dress like a million bucks should not be treated better than people who are in sweats. I mean if we do, then there is a self-fulfilling prophecy. It is the same thing with treating young adults worse than older ones. For example if you are not an attentive waiter to a young couple because you think younger adults tip worse, than your tip will be bad because your service sucked. I mean it is great that if you dress up you get special treatment, but that should not be the case. Everyone should be treated equally.

People, Posture, Behavior

After class discussion on Wednesday, we were asked to further discuss the posture and behavior of the people who were getting interviewed.

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There was Mark Rohrer, the district attorney. His face lit up bright red when confronted with evidence and he appeared to be trying to hide the evidence with his body. Mark looked like he was extremely nervous and was itchy.

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Sergeant Andrew Colburn was the person who another was contacted by another police department eight years ago regarding Allen confessing to raping Penny Bersteen. The whole call was disregarded for eight years until Avery got out of jail thanks to DNA evidence. Sergeant Andrew appeared to be nervous and was fidgeting in his chair. It is like his face is frozen in fear.

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The one that really caught the attention of my professor was the sketchy sketch artist, Chief Deputy Eugene Kusche. Eugene was extremely cocky and eye rolled at the questions being presented to him. He tried to provide himself with the alibi that he couldn't remember what happened twenty years ago, yet he went back and screwed that over for himself. Eugene was also fidgeting a bunch.
Overall, the interviews present the people as extremely nervous, which makes me wonder if they truly are hiding something. That they truly set up Avery.