Starbucks

       A situation happened at a Philadelphia Starbucks in mid April. Two African American men were sitting in the Starbucks waiting for another individual to arrive to discuss a meeting. When one of the males asked to use the restroom (there is a padlock on it) the employee had said that the bathroom was for paying customers only. The situation turned out worse because the employee and the customer were arguing back and forth, which made the employee call 911 and claimed it as trespassing, because they did not purchase anything. Later, police arrived and were instantly arresting the two african american men until their friend actually showed up.

    I personally never had a situation like that ever happen to me. The Starbucks near me does not require a padlock code to be able to use the bathroom nor ever require me to buy something. There was plenty of times that I had gone into Starbucks and just sat down to do homework. I feel like that is what a lot of individuals do. They go there to have meetings, or do work. I personally think that the employee acted poorly towards the customer, overall it is just a bathroom. Even if rules are rules I feel like it can be easily looked over.

http://money.cnn.com/2018/04/19/news/companies/starbucks-arrests-philadelphia/index.html

Bill Cosby Verdict

       On April 26th, Bill Cosby was found guilty of three counts of aggravated indecent assault, for drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand at his home in a Philadelphia suburb in 2004. He faces up to 10 years in prison for each count, but he will probably serve them concurrently. It personally grosses me out completely because I was such a fan of the Cosby show. It is very upsetting to see a horrible situation like that play out, and also very upsetting to know that this had happened in 2004 and he is 80 years old today. If someone really thinks about it he will probably die soon, so overall it is not really fair because he will not really get the type of treatment that he really does deserve. I could only imagine though how that girl feels, she can feel relieved or angry that it took that long to actually figure out everything and finally get what he deserves. 



https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/26/us/bill-cosby-trial/index.html

Mock Interrogation/Interview

         In class the other day we were put into two separate groups, and were given two separate cases. We had to prepare for a mock interrogation/interview. While given the case, the groups were to come up with ten or more questions to ask another individual from the other side of the room, to see if they had committed the crime, and tried to get that individual to confess to the crime. While picking the individual we had to sit up in front of the class, and ask the individual our questions that we had come up with. I was the interviewer in our case, but did not really play the part well. I am not good with being put on the spot, even though technically the other person was more on the spot than I should have been. I believe that we could have done a better job with preparing for the mock interrogation, I feel like it was just altogether thrown together. Overall, it was still a fun experience to go through, and I already know if I was the person who had to be interrogated I would defiantly be very nervous up there with the other individuals interrogating me because they were coming out hard, and were very good actors.

4 charged with digging up graves and reselling the plots

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/07/09/illinois.cemetery.scheme/index.html

         I was speaking with my boyfriends grandma and she had brought up this story that had happened back in 2009. I decided to read up on it and was very disgusted. There were 4 individuals-cemetery manager Carolyn Towns; foreman Keith Nicks; dump-truck operator Terrence Nicks; and backhoe operator Maurice Dailey who were all charged and convicted for their roles in the macabre scheme. These individuals dug up dead bodies and dumped the dead bodies behind the cemetery to be able to resell the plots to make more money. Not only did they dig up dead bodies they were burying people on top of other people. This happened at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, IL. I do not understand on how people can be in the right mind set to be able to do something that sickening to other families. Those people really thought that they would be able to get away with something that terrible. I feel so sorry for those family members who had to face such a horrible situation like that, and have their own family members be disturbed at rest. I had read another article and it had said that all of the bodies that were dumped are getting put back into the ground. 

Easter Break

       I ended up driving up to Wisconsin to celebrate Easter at my cousins house. It was nice to get away and visit with my family, because these are the only family members that my family even interacts with. (We had a lot of family drama in our past) The cousin's house that we went to is the youngest of the four cousins and she is 24. She is the first one who is getting married. Her wedding is going to be in October down in Wisconsin. I am very excited for my cousin, but she is the type of girl who needs to go full out with everything. She was already telling my sister and I about how her whole wedding is going to be planned out, she has her theme being "sparkles" which requires her to have an overall sparkly dress. I love my cousin with all my heart do not get me wrong, but sometimes she is a tiny bit super facial for my liking. Overall, I am very happy for her to be getting married and I do hope that all will work out for her in the end.

Interviewing and Interrogation

          The short film Scaredycat presented by Andy Blubaugh reveals the productive thoughts of memory and through the concept of fear. In the short film that Andy had presented to us, Andy is known for having these types of rituals ever since he was a little boy which was him having to align his feet with every floor board that he came across, and that he had to have every item that he saw straightened out, from a picture frame to a piece of newspaper on the bus.
          One day Andy was riding his bicycle late at night and had gotten jumped by 5 individuals. He had encountered a face to face moment with one of the individuals who had jumped him and that man happened to be an African American man. After having that encounter with the African American man, Andy had only remembered all of the men being African American, which they were not. Two of them were white men, and the other one was hispanic. The reason why Andy had thought they were all black men who had jumped him was because of the encounter he had with the African American man who he last had saw. From being in a state of shock he started to have a fear of African American men who he would come across in a public or private area. He would see them on the bus, and he if he felt uncomfortable he would get off the bus or walk away from the individual. People may say that he would be stereotyping the situation, and in a way he is, but people need to remember his exact situation and realize why he thinks what he is thinking.
            Later, Andy decided to call one of the men who had jumped him for a type of interview. He had asked the man why he did what he did and the guy had said, "Andy was at the wrong place at the wrong time" and that he did feel guilty in a way for doing what he had done. The criminal was later telling Andy that he did not feel it was fair for him to have to be put in prison for such a long period of time, because by the time he gets out he would be 33 years old and would have no real life experience to be put into the real world, which would make him commit more crimes. Andy had said that he did understood that the people who jumped him deserved to get what they got, but later felt bad after he heard the guy say that he would not have any use of being put into the real world after.
           While reading the article The Reid Technique and False Confessions it made me understand the situation way better. It was created in the 1940s by a former policeman named John Reid, the method is "really considered the gold standard of interview and interrogation techniques," Starr tells the Fresh Air's Terry Gross. When John Reid was doing this in the 1950s, people had thought that you were able to see anxiety in a person's body language. If the person had their arms folded, or was hunched over, or looked away, they were being anxious, and also that anxiety was a hallmark of lying. But, 40 years of extensive research has shown that both of those premises were actually untrue. Anxiety has nothing to do with lying. It is said that there is many liars who could look at you straight in the eye and very calmly lie up a storm right to your face. Body language has nothing to do with deception.
              Overall, a lot of people tend to feel guilty with situations and will confess up to something that they never even did, because of the amount of pressure cops put on them through interrogation. In the Reid's article it had said how a man named Darrel Parker had eventually succumbed to the suggestion of murdering his wife, because Reid was putting it in his head that his wife was unfaithful, and that he would've done there same thing. Putting things in people's mind to get them to confess about something is very wrong. Many people could be innocent, but got put in prison and falsely accused just because of a false confession. Even though cops want to just "capture" someone and end the case, they should really look more into the case.


https://www.npr.org/2013/12/05/248968150/beyond-good-cop-bad-cop-a-look-at-real-life-interrogations?sc=tw&cc=share


         

Seek Death Penalty for Cruz

       Do you believe that Cruz will receive the death penalty? In my opinion I feel like he will not. There has been so many young kids who deserved to have the death penalty done to them, but since they still are looked at as a "baby" they will not give them the death penalty. Already Cruz was locked in a cell by himself for protection, because they know that he would get eaten up alive in Prison with the other prisoners, which he deserves. Cruz should not be getting any type of special treatment at all from what he has done to those innocent teenagers.

       Reading in an article, "Florida Shooting: Prosecutors seek death penalty for Nikolas Cruz", by BBC News it states that they are looking to give him the death penalty. Personally, I feel like they are just looking for more attention to bring to him to make it look like they are actually going to do something about the situation. In the article it had mentioned how Nikolas Cruz will plead guilty if it means he will not get the death penalty. Even though according to them he does not consider himself "guilty". That is one of the most sickening things that I have ever heard. The fact someone does not believe that they are guilty, but will only plead guilty because they do not want to be placed on the death penalty is honestly ridiculous. That is not even a far trade. He had taken 17 innocent teenagers lives away from their friends and family, so why should he deserve to live and be safe in prison away from all of the other criminals?