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.

What Is Going On In This Town?

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In class, we watched episode 2 of Making A Murderer. One thing that really caught me off guard is that when confronted about the conversations that were documented, the people who were participating in the investigation denied or acted like they could not remember if that is what they said. They kept spinning the stories, trying to get out a tight spot. Stating that the document wasn't done right because that was not how they spoke.
The part when Penny asks for forgiveness and Avery gives her a hug came as a surprise to me. Penny was part of the reason why Avery went to jail. However, Avery never blamed Penny and forgave her. That was a huge shocker to me.
Another point that shocked me was the fact that when Avery was taken into custody for questioning regarding the murder of the reporter, he did not get a lawyer and his lawyer did not know where he was. I really hated the part where it shows video of the investigator telling Avery to confess and no one was against him because of the fact they did this investigation right this time. Yet, video of searching Avery's house was so bias and mean towards him that it was hard to believe him that the investigation was not a set up. It seems that this may be yet another murderer that the police framed Avery for.

Looking Ahead

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Looking at my writing, there are a few writing techniques I would like to improve upon. One being my grammar. Sometimes I place commas in places that are unnecessary but usually I can catch them when I edit or reread my papers. Another issue I may have is that sometimes I switch tenses, This is another easy fix that I make sure is fixed when I reread or edit. 

Something I fear is writers block. At times, I do not know what to write. I know there are different techniques. I do force myself to write a lot of the time. I do not really like to interrupt my writing and writer's block is something I do not like.

I Want To Have The Very Best Notepad

In class we discussed note taking for law enforcement. It is pretty straight forward. Dr. Kyburz gave us an assignment to see what notepad would best suit us as law enforcement. To someone who carefully picks out their notebooks, pens, and other school supplies, it is very hard for me to choose one note pad without actually testing it out.

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I like this note pad because it has a place to hold the pens and a place for extra papers or business card. My only dislike is that if it opens to the side like that, it may be harder to write in. So therefore it places third in my most likely to purchase for the job.

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I like this note pad because it has a place to hold pens. It seems like a very straight forward style. It has a little slot for papers or maybe business cards. This notepad seems like it would serve me well. 

Therefore, it places second because I think it is a little flimsy and I may loose pens easily.

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This notepad would have to be my favorite though. It zips up so there is no fear of things flying out and it seems like it would be great to write in. The only thing that I would be skeptical of is if the binding would be able to flip over. This notepad is one I would buy without a question. It places first on my must buy notepads for work.

Rewriting A Report

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On 7-25-15 at approximately 1230 hours, I was radioed to meet the reporting party, Katherine L. Tunney, DOB: 09-16-1989, at 1647 Rancho, El Fuego. Other persons living with K. Tunney are Carol Tunney, DOB: 01-21-1966, and Gary Tunney.

I met Katherine Tunney at 1215 hours. Katherine Tunney said she wanted to run some errands when she saw a white Toyota van wagon stop in the middle of her street. The Toyota only had the driver inside and the suspect was holding a camera to his face taking pictures of her home.

Katherine Tunney decided to call it in because her mother had been contacted by a suspicious person in April this year.

Katherine Tunney tried to approach the car, but when she exited her home, the driver rolled up his window and sped away. Katherine Tunney was able to see the license plate number when the car slowed for a speed bump. The license plate number was 836L92F.

A radio call was initiated on this license plate number and it came back to a 2004 Toyota Wagon, registered to Stephen D. Bond, 3381 El Balazo. El Fuego. Katherine Tunney described the driver as a male, white with graying hair.

Carol Tunney said she filed a report with the police department back in April of this year. In April, Carol Tunney was in the front of her garage, in the driveway re-potting a plant, when she was approached by a male who asked about her name. Carol Tunney told the male that she would not tell him her name and asked for his name but he did not answer.

Carol Tunney said the license plate read ISPYONU. A radio call was initiated on this license plate number and came back to a 2008 SAAB registered to Richard Toomey, 36 Paseo De Bonito, El Rancho.

I told Carol Tunney and Katherine Tunney that there was no crime that had occurred, yet the information would be filed. No contact has been made to Bond or Toomey and the information has been passed on to the investigation division.

Nothing further to report.

The Summary Is Done

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The summary documentary project has been completed. The biggest challenge I faced was avoiding being bias. It was so hard to stop myself from writing an introduction and conclusion without having my own person thoughts in them. Taking myself out of the paper was hard, but I would say that once I started typing away the summary itself was not too hard. There was a couple transition issues I faced. To take myself out of this summary I had to clear my mind and focus on the film. I kept telling myself, Victoria, you cannot add in feelings. In the end, introducing the documentary gave me the most problems. Thankfully, my classmates and my professor were able to provide their own examples and bounce off ideas with me to see what would work best. When I finished typing up the conclusion, I felt like something was missing but I left it how it was. I knew I wanted to add in my own opinion or research I had done, but I stopped myself. Overall, I am very satisfied with all the challenges I faced and was able to overcome. This was a interesting writing experience and gave me hope that I can overcome even the most challenging projects with the help of my peers.

Reflecting On My Writing

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Writing is a skill that one cannot perfect. Every single time I write, there is something new I learn. Sometimes it is a writing skills and other times it is about myself. During this summary documentary project I learned about myself that although sometimes I take excessive notes, it pays off. While writing the summary, I had very little issues remembering what happened in Living On One Dollar. There are some issues in my writing other than the usual grammar ones. For starters, I usually never write in the present tense unless I do it by accident. So it was a little harder for me to switch over, but I was more careful and considerate while typing. There was some MLA formatting issues and some odd spacing. So I need to remind myself to look over the paper closer before I hit print.

I would like to be a psychologist. This experience will help me in the future, because it made me write in an unbiased nature. It was interesting and I felt like I had to shut down my emotions so I would not include my own personal opinion.

For next time, I would look at the assignment closer, so I would not misinterpret it. Also, I would make sure to take a good look at the printer preview so I do not have spacing issues. There is something weird about google docs sometimes. I will be certain to double check my work.

Learning About Myself

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For class, we had to draft a summary on our documentary that we watched. When we came in with our drafted summary we were asked to free write. The documentary I chose to watch was Living On One Dollar.  I am not sure if we had to post our free write or any excerpts but better be safe than sorry.

The reason why I chose this documentary was because in my criminology class we are learning of all sorts of theories people have as to why one may commit a crime. A lot of the theories involve the individual's living conditions. People living in lower class neighborhoods tend to commit more crimes. So the documentary Living On One Dollar, really sparked my interest. Do these theories apply to people outside the United States living in such conditions where crime is needed for survival? After watching the documentary, where the only crime that was committed was videotaping inside a local bank, I can soundly say that crime is not committed because of living conditions. The people living there fight for their lives every day and make choices daily that impact them greatly. 

Anyways back to the whole free write part. We were suppose to answer the question "With the freedom you had for the documentary project, what did you learn about yourself?"

I learned that my intense note taking really pays off. I typically am known for taking too much notes. The amount of notes I took for the documentary helped me a lot though. I was able to easily look back at my notes and recall the film with no issues. Another thing is that I have always struggled to write in one tense and typically write in the past tense. This assignment was to be done with the present tense. That was hard and I am sure that there are some places where I messed up. Grammar is also another issue that I always encounter. I hope it was not too shabby though. My MLA format was a little rusty, so I did have to dust off a lot of cobwebs by visiting the Purdue OWL page. I still missed a couple things. I know I am not a perfect writer and it is okay because practice makes perfect. I know that if I make the effort, I will only grow. 

I really was happy when I found out I could keep my documentary. In my write up I wrote that if I was going to do this again, I would probably just write the summary while watching the documentary, and later fix and add what was needed. The reason being is that my notes were really detailed. All I had to do was make it into complete sentences and I was basically done with my summary. So the biggest thing I learned is that being prepared and taking notes pays off. 

From Riches To Rags

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"Living On A Dollar" really brought to my attention a lot of hard choices people living in poverty make on a daily basis. These choices can impact them for the rest of their lives.
Chris and Zach studied and were interested in how people in Pena Blanca survived on a dollar per day per person. So they, along with their film friends, Ryan and Sean, go from living in nice homes in New York to living in a shack in Guatemala. These guys spend fifty-two days in living conditions that are not what they are used to. Since the natives never really know what they will make on a daily basis, the boys randomly draw out numbers from a hat to stimulate the circumstances these people are in.
The scene that really got to me, was when Chris was talking about how Ryan and Sean do not understand. That Ryan and Sean say they can live like this for maybe another two years and it outrages Chris. Chris and Zach both speak Spanish and the other two guys do not. So Chris and Zach spend a lot of times listening to the hardships that these folks go through and the choices they make. Chino, a young boy of twelve, knows he is going to be a farmer, yet he aspires to be a famous soccer player. Rosa, another native, had to give up her dream of being a nurse because when she was in sixth grade, her parents could no longer afford her education. While Ryan and Sean are accepting of the living conditions, they are unaware of all the hardships that accompany this type of life.
The most surprising moment of the short film was when Chris became ill. He was in really bad shape, puking and in the bathroom a lot. His illness got to be so bad that he had to go to a clinic. While at the clinic, he was told he had a worm inside his stomach and the medicine would cost him twenty-five dollars. The issue then became that they did not have enough money for the medicine. Chris decided he would use the medication that they brought from New York and hoped that it would work. I was in awe that he would choose that option. Obviously Chris could have easily bought the medication but he wanted to experience the hardships and continue the journey.
This film arouse some questions. Did the guys pay off their loan for the small land they purchased? Did Chino end up going to school? Has Rosa completed her education and is a nurse? Why isn't there consistent labor available? How does the pool of twelve dollars a month work that Anthony set up?
There are a lot of issues that this film brought to my attention. For starters, the poverty cannot be solved by throwing money at it. Secondly, there needs to be more funding for programs like Grameen that loan out money to people living in poverty. Thirdly, there has to be a way to prevent so much damage done by hurricanes. There has to be some sort of back up plan to ensure that all belongings are not lost. Fourthly, maybe there should be some sort of public education that does not make families pay for their children to go to school. Lastly, we cannot forget about these people because they are fighting every day for their lives. It is hard for them to move up and more than likely, their future generations will go through the same cycle, unless something is done to prevent it.

The Sweet Sound Of Bias

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I have played the violin since I was in fourth grade so music interests me a lot. In addition, in sixth grade my English/Writing teacher introduced this idea of analyzing everything and this idea followed me through the rest of my school career.

When I hear music in a movie, it is key to determining whether I enjoy the movie or not. I will always have something to say about the music pieces accompanying the film. Trust me, I have seen some badly matched films. 

Having this sort of background, I could tell that the documentary on "How To Make A Murderer" used the music accompaniment to their advantage. Music has this unconscious impact on us all. The documentary's music made the audience empathize with Steven Avery. When he was describing the cat incident in a "I regret what I did" tone, the instruments were teasing your ears to feel for this guy. 

Which brings up another idea-was the documentary bias? I personally would say yes. It came from Steven Avery's perspective. We do not know all the facts and nothing was really in there to show what the police department was thinking. It is really hard to see where the scale of justice would land in this case because we only have some of the details. The details presented in the documentary were very persuasive and but to determine if the police department was a hundred percent wrong is impossible. We were not in their shoes. Maybe at the time, they thought this was right. 

So in honesty, I feel like I might have been a bit too rash in the last post. I was blindly seeing all the wrong that the documentary pointed out without stopping to think that their side of the story was not being presented from their perspective. 

So I urge you, no matter how tempting the orchestra is and how convincing one side is, stop and take a step back to look at all the information from different sources. Not just one.

On a side note, there is a petition floating around in the United States that you can find out more about it here. I do not know who is signing it but it seems like the documentary has stirred a bit of social unrest. People are outraged but my question is did they look into it further than the documentary or is that their only source?

Framing Steven Avery

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Making a Murderer follows Steven Avery who is wrongly charged with raping Penny Bernsteen. As I watched the first episode there was a lot that popped out at me. The most surprising is that there was the Morris Family. The Morris family, specifically Sandra, had it out for Steven. Sandra would spread rumors of Steve masturbating outside and having sex with his wife, Lori outside for the whole world to see. Steven was not the brightest fellow. Steven thought he could make Sandra stop spreading these lies by flagging her car down and walking up to her with empty gun. Although, at the time Steven thought this would be the right way to go about it, it was not. Sandra's husband was Sheriff in their town and the incident was blown out of proportion.
The Morris family really wanted to ruin Steven's life. I think there must have been more to the story than presented. There had to be a reason that Sandra would turn against her own cousin. I understand that the Avery family was frowned upon but it still does not make any sense as to why someone would hate another person so much.
Yet this hatred for Steven was at the core of the problem. The hatred led to all the false accusations. Sandra Morris was not a reliable source. She was spreading rumors and took the situation to the extreme. While the Police Department run by her husband ran with it. By the time the Police Department was done, they made it seem like a felony. This is an issue because people with power are using it for their own personal agenda.
When Judy, the deputy and friend of Sandra, went to interview Penny, the rape victim, she went with the idea that it was Steven Avery. And the rest is history. Judy was suggestive to Penny, as was the rest of the Police Department. They wanted to pin it on Steven. The sketch artist is said to have drawn the perpetrator from Steven's old mugshot. When they brought Steven in, they quarantined him off and did not give him a phone call or attorney. This is all illegal. The Police Department is not allowed to be suggestive and they are not allowed treat suspects in such a manner. 
The part that struct me as most memorable was the evidence. The evidenced used to pin the crime on Steven Avery was nonexistent. There were twenty-two witnesses supporting Steven Avery's alibi and they were all dismissed because they were "fabricating" it. Twenty-two people all had the same story and it was thrown to the side. There were officers from another district saying they had a suspect, Gregory Allen, who was most likely the perpetrator and the Sheriff ignored them. People went to the District Attorney and he too sent them away.
Steven in the past had committed crimes, but he had always owned up to them. Steven always paid the fines and time. For the rape, Steven did not change. He continued to be the honest man and claimed to be not guilty, even though that meant he would have to stay till his MR (Mandatory Release Date) with shot at parole. Steven was in jail for eighteen years, serving time for a crime he did not commit. Steven saw people who had actually murdered released before him. Steven appealed to court saying that the DNA had a third allele that was not identified to him or Penny. Unfortunately the court said that was not sufficient enough. When DNA technology had advanced enough to be able to pin who did it, it was found that Steven's DNA was not on the crime scene but rather Gregory Allen's was. This time Steven was released. The evidence surrounding this case was the most interesting because to get anywhere, there has to be convincing evidence and I feel like jobs were not done right. Evidence was spun to make it seem like it had been Steven and anything saying otherwise was ignored. As someone who has taken a handful of Criminal Justice courses in college, I do not understand how no one stood up in the police department and said wait-this is unethical and we are letting the true perpetrator get away. It is suppose to be innocent until proven guilty, but in Steven's case it was guilty until proven innocent.
Steven's situation had brought some heat for the Police Department. The district was investigated by the new district attorney and was found not guilty of doing anything wrong. So Steven did what anyone in his situation who was wrong could do. He filed a civil law suit against the Police Department of thirty-six million dollars. He did not want the money, rather the attention so that people would see how the police had wronged him.  
This problem is rare in my opinion now that technology is so advanced. However, since the technology is new we must revisit cases similar to this one. Through talking about it on social media, friends, and family we are able to bring to light the wrong doing of the Police who are more concerned with their own agendas. Not all situations are the same as this one. So we must keep in mind that not all officers are out to get us. Through raising our voice and opinions we will bring the situations to light. The innocent should not serve for the guilty.