Violent Media Or Violent Society? @english-113b - Tumblr Blog

Amanda Wilson

Annotated Bibliography

Albiniak, Paige. "Violent Media, Violent Kids?" Broadcasting & Cable, 130.32 (2000): 14. Violent entertainment encourages kids to be violent, according to four major public health groups in this article. "The effects of violent media are measurable and long lasting," said the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychological Association and the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry last week when agreed with this statement. "Moreover, prolonged viewing of media violence can lead to emotional influence toward violence in real life”. The groups say there is a causal connection between children's behavior and violent TV shows, videogames, movies and music, but they also pointed out that many other factors including family breakdown, peer influences, and easy availability of guns and other deadly weapons may contribute to the problem.

Erhardt, Christopher O. The Business of Video Game Development in 2009: Statistical Representation of Indian Video Game Player Trends and Habits. n.p.: ProQuest, UMI Dissertations Publishing, 2010. Previous research into video game trends have focused on the physiological and psychological effects of video games and has been limited to studies of violence and aggression along with attempts of distinguishing certain actions that are analyzed by special interest group, which is supported by specific demographic data. This article, while providing the research over the last decade pertaining to video games, demonstrates an innovative study in which anonymous participants in the study of the target demographic give a more accurate representation of game players residing in several ages. This demonstrated that while still in its growth period the video game community and its role in our society contributes to violence in reality and is developing a core consistency in a specific genre of gaming through specific platforms.

Jones, Russell Marketing Violent Entertainment to Children. New York: Novinka Books, 2007. Entertainment to Children, Russell O. Jones, This book deals with the entertainment industries and their engagement in widespread marketing of violent movies, music, and video games to children that is consistent with the cautionary messages of their own parental advisories and that undermines parents' attempts to make informed decisions about their children's exposure to violent content. Parents should monitor their children’s media activity instead of overlooking certain tendencies the child may withhold. That’s how cyber bullying, and other violent matters come into play.

Proposal

For several years there have been many controversies regarding the psychological affect on our society when watching violent television shows, movies or playing video games. On most DVD’s, CD’s and video games there is some type of label with a posted rating indicating what age is appropriate for that particular genre and audience. However, it has not always been like that. In 1994 the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) was established to enforce industries to adopt guidelines ensuring privacy principles for digital software in the United States and Canada due to the excessive violence, sexual or usage of profanity portrayed. By rating the content the board aspired to encourage parents, teachers and other authority figures to enforce them on younger minds to prevent them from acting in a violent manner. The matter is still questioned whether violent content truly affects the human brain or if the human brain is mentally ill before a violent incident occurs. Although many industries have taken precautions when displaying violent content, parents and other authorities do not monitor their children as much as they should, which may or may not be influential to their psychological, physical or social health.

Our society has become ignorant towards how fragile a child’s mind can be for example, the article Children and Adolescents Health Approach explains the development of the brain and that exposure towards technology at a young age can endanger the brain by lack of ability to cognitively solve problems, express themselves emotionally, and may distract them from reality. Children have a critical period where they feed on curiosity of the world around them, how well they consume information reflects their psychological tendencies to take what they learned from the violent media and attempt to copy what ever they saw. Children may build anxiety from not playing their video game, watching television or listening to music. The anxiety may result to acting out in class, at home or anywhere in public.

If a child is too wrapped up to their technology they may miss out on interacting with their peers by resulting in depression or loneliness, in which may also lead to violent a violent crime committed in the future. Social development within children may be the most critical skill to learn. The child may potentially be bullied if socially different, which at times leads to violence or self-defense acted out of a movie that the child should not have been watching in the first place.

Final Essay, Violent Media Or Violent Society?

For several years there have been many controversies regarding the psychological affect on our society when watching violent television shows, movies or playing video games. On most DVD’s, CD’s and video games there is some type of label with a posted rating indicating what age is appropriate for that particular genre and audience. However, it has not always been like that. In 1994 the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) was established to enforce industries to adopt guidelines ensuring privacy principles for digital software in the United States and Canada due to the excessive violence, sexual or usage of profanity portrayed. By rating the content the board aspired to encourage parents, teachers and other authority figures to enforce them on younger minds to prevent them from acting in a violent manner. The matter is still questioned whether violent content truly affects the human brain or if the human brain is mentally ill before a violent incident occurs. Children at a young age should not be exposed to media indoors or anywhere, they should be outside exploring and embracing nature. Although many industries have taken precautions when displaying violent content, parents don’t monitor their children as much as they should, which is harmful to their psychological, physical and social health.

Our society has become ignorant towards how fragile a child’s mind can be. For example, the article Violent Media, Violent Kids explains the development of the mind and that exposure towards technology at a young age can endanger the body in all aspects. By lack of exposure towards human interaction we lose the ability to cognitively solve problems, express ourselves emotionally, and can distracted from reality. Children have a critical period where they feed on curiosity of the world around them, how well they consume information reflects their psychological tendencies to take what they learned from the violent media and attempt to repeat what ever they saw. Children often build anxiety from not playing their video game, watching television or listening to music because they develop a routine that their mind adjusts to that causes them to go into a mental shock when there is a vast change in the routine. The anxiety may result in acting out in class, at home or anywhere in public. Blaming only the media would be a waste of time, because it is also the parent and the child’s fault for not monitoring them and for spending a large amount of time on the media.

Children these days do not develop the skills to think abstract, by building forts out of blankets, having an imaginary tea party, or playing cowboys and Indians by running around outdoors. The main issue with today’s generation is that they learn to protect themselves violently instead of peacefully. For example, a child picks up a tree branch to stab the other child while pretending to be pirates instead of playing dress up, thanks to the movie Pirates of The Caribean. Adolescents may become addicted to video games and they tend to lock themselves up indoors or stick to the television the rest of the evening. What I have noticed is that parents see nothing wrong with their children hiding behind their technology. Physical growth is imperative to a child’s health because their body needs the outdoors to adapt to their environment. According to Marketing Violent Entertainment to Children, manufacturers think about the next video game to sell, and how much profit they will make off of it, but they do not think about the child behind the screen who will be playing it. That also reflects back to the parents and the role they play in buying their child the game and not setting ground rules, for example a time limit, using it as an award or even simply saying no.

When a child is too wrapped up into their technology they might miss out on the opportunity to interact with their peers and by resulting in depression or loneliness, in which may also lead to a violent crime committed at the time or in the future. Social development is one of the most critical skills a child is to learn. The child can be potentially bullied if socially different, which at times leads to violence or inflicted actions. There are times they might even react toward the issue with something they seen on television or in the movies. When I was younger my family had a rule, the rule was that how ever many hours we spend in the house on the television is how much time we were to spend outside later that day or even the next. I remember thinking my mother was crazy, and now I should be thanking her. It’s sad that children these days will never know what its like to walk down the street to ask if they are able to come outside and pay. Instead, all they have to do is text them or call them. I see children younger then fourteen years old with ipads, cellphones, and other devices. As a whole our society lacks social skills especially now that we do not have to verbally communicate with someone, all we have to do is email or text.

One thing I was taught when I was younger and that I still respect is not haven’t technology, answering the phone or watching television when my family is sitting down to eat dinner. What I have noticed when going to a restaurant is that there are so many children, teenagers and even adults that are on their cellphones just talking and texting away. We are so attached to our phones that it interferes with eating and spending time with family. I know I find it rude when I am trying to have a conversation with my siblings or my friends and they are not even paying attention to me because their nose is in their phone. What has really struck me is that cellphones are used in class. The last couple years of high school some of my teachers realized that fighting with the students about cellphones were not effective because it was inevitable. Once upon a time teachers were allowed to dismiss students if they had their phone out. My senior year of high school their was a rule that teachers had to allow the students cellphones to be on in the classroom just incase of an emergency. Now that I am in college the cellphone strike is practically banished. Most professors ignore the distraction and move forward with their lecture. Only few really enforce the rule on us college students. One reason towards the professors becoming careless is the fact that we are now adults, we may be excused from the class is we become disruptive of those around us yet; professors hardly ever crack down on use of cellphones. I myself am guilty of using my cellphone in class, however once the professors enters the class my cellphone is set on silent and is not touched unless the professor is allowing it or if they are not lecturing and interacting with us.

When it comes down to the subject of Violent Media Or Violent Society, I honestly do not blame either one of them more then the other. They are both guilty of corruption because, we have the ability to control how much time we invest in the media and are responsible for knowing our limits. If someone has a psychological issue, they cannot blame it on the video game, the movie etc. for what we ourselves took the time to participate in. We are not forced to use any of these entertainment resources; therefore we should not throw the blame on the manufacturers. There is plenty of violence in all of these, but over all, most of the games, movies and music we buy have some type of rating that is there for our benefit. It is up to parents and other guardians to take the initiative to monitor their children’s activity.

Works Cited

Albiniak, Paige. "Violent Media, Violent Kids?" Broadcasting & Cable, 130.32 (2000):14.

Erhardt, Christopher O. The Business of Video Game Development in 2009: Statistical Representation of Indian Video Game Player Trends and Habits. n.p.: ProQuest, UMI Dissertations Publishing, 2010.

Jones, Russell Marketing Violent Entertainment to Children. New York: Novinka Books, 2007.

Reflective Letter

Dear English Faculty,

Over the past two semesters of English 113A and 113B, I believe that I have grown as a writer and as a student in many different ways. I entered college fearing education, fearing that I would struggle without help and fearing that the professors would not care about me or what I have to say. Thankfully, I was just jumping to conclusions before actually experiencing anything for myself. The environment was comforting because I was surrounded by faculty and peers that were open to new ideas and willing to help me with any confusion that I had. What I enjoyed the most this year was having the opportunity to work with my peers and learn some of their strategies to finding research and building a well though out toulmin style essay. I have to say that I really struggled with building a toulmin style paragraph let alone an essay. That's where my Si class came in handy with a great instructor, Emily Gahan. Having extra time to ask questions, work on our essays and gain feedback really helped me become successful in both English 113A and 113B. I also liked the availability with Emily and Professor Lace's hours. They were always available by email, which I thank them for that because there were several times when I emailed them with random but necessary questions. Another one of my favorite things that we often participated in were class discussions about things happening on social media, on the news or things that are effecting our lives. I liked having a voice and the opportunity to speak with my peers and listening to how they also felt about those topics. Professor Lace also took an important role in my life this semester when I was having a tough time adjusting to school and my time management with my new sorority life. I was able to confide in her and she gave me a lot of helpful advice. What I took from both semesters was that, I will always have something new to learn that I will utilize in the present or in the future. I am ever so grateful for the opportunities that I’ve had at CSUN in just my freshman year. Moving forward, I would like to thank you, Professor Lace and Emily for this experience. I plan on taking everything that I have learned and putting it to use whenever, and wherever I go.

Thank You.

Sincerely,

Amanda Wilson

Amir Ranjbar

Annotated Bibliography

Gerlach, Christian. Extremely Violent Societies : Mass Violence in the Twentieth- century. Cambridge ; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Print. Shows how the geographical location of someone can cause him or her to be violent. Other factors can be the cause too, like depression and drugs. Facts are stated to give me a better understanding of the solution to this problem. I can use the charts in this book to state the locations that are the most dangerous due to poverty and the crime rates associated to that.

ProCon.org. "22 Charts & Graphs on Video Games & Youth Violence." ProCon.org. 18 Feb. 2010. Web. 20 Apr. 2014. This website displays lots of charts and graphs behind video game violence and the users who play them. I can also use the statistics to compare the behaviors of boys and girls who play these types of games. The numbers might be very shocking because most will think boys are the only ones to blame, but girls develop aggressive behaviors too after playing. Also, it shows me the games that are the most popular, and out of those, it gives the ratings of how violent they are.

Urban, Dan Kelly Mike. "Violence in Video Games." McClatchy - Tribune Business News, (2013):. It explains how parents should control what type of video games their children buy and should keep them away from the violent games. The government should censor those games or set laws to reduce the violence they contain. Violent video games are partially to blame for some shooting rampages, like the Sandy Hook massacre. This also gives details about what the vice president of the National Rifle Association (NRA) had to say about these kinds ofgames. Provides discussions between Joe Biden and his representatives about the role of violent games.

Proposal, Violence Media and Violence Society

Video games are a form of communication where humans can interact with one another and try to have fun in the gaming world. Many boys and girls play everyday, and the problem is the variety of games they choose to play. Some games can be rated M, which stands for Mature, and the gamers have to be at least eighteen years old to buy it. The specific kinds of games that are harmful are the action games because they involve a lot of violence. The average person who plays video games does not realize the effects video games have on them. Also, these games can be played on a gaming console or on the computer like Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo. I play video games and I am a big fan of them today. I enjoy playing them with my friends online because we have moments of escape from reality together. We usually play games that involve competition like action ones because winning is important to us. On some occasions, I do act differently when losing in certain games. For example, my parents believe my gaming systems should be completely taken away because it is all I play most of the time. Also, they have taken my game system many times after they believed I was “disobeying” them. During my research, I want to find out if there is any connection between violent media and violent society. For that, I may find shootings that occur in society by thoroughly reading articles to discover the reason behind everything and why it happened. The person could have been a violent gamer, mentally ill, or going through a major depression. It would be frightening to know that their crimes are only based on a video game. For example, Grand Theft Auto (GTA) is one game I believe has an impact on the mindsets of some people. This game involves shooting, robbing, reckless driving, and many more dangerous activities. There needs to be a solution to this problem to reduce the aggressive behaviors in our society. And I believe a solution to this problem can be monitoring what a child views at home. This means the parents need to be more responsible with the activities their children do and take control. Also, the government should do more to restrict things that should not be put on media and prevent certain games from being sold. I hope to find articles that interview some parents and members of the government who discuss the problems concerning this issue. Since video game violence translates into real-world situations, controlling the use of certain games is one step we can take to help protect our society from violence. I believe violence in both media and society correlate with one another to create violent people who harm others.

Final Essay, Violent Media or Violent Society?

In our world today, video games are the new gaming systems that the average person has. Many boys and girls play them everyday, but the problem is the different games they decide to play. Some games can be rated as M, which stands for Mature, and the gamer has to be at least eighteen years old to purchase it. After all, most teenagers are not old enough to buy these types of games, so most need to have their parent with them to buy the game. The type of games that are damaging for the user is the action ones. These types of games usually display lots of violence in them; the images can be a serious problem for the people who play them. The most popular gaming consoles are the Xbox or PlayStation because it allows the user to play online with others. I play video games too and own an Xbox 360. I enjoy playing sports and action games with my friends because we are competitive and the whole experience is filled with enjoyment. On certain occasions, my game system had been taken away because my parents assumed I was “disobeying” them. Since video game violence changes to real life scenarios, appropriate actions need to be made to solve this problem. I believe violence in both media and society correlate with one another to create violent people who harm others.

Being a fan and playing video games myself, I have had lots of experience playing different games. Like everyone else, I also react to the games too at different situations. I usually try to have fun and just play, but that is not always the case. Being very competitive, I hate losing, so I usually rage when that happens. My parents believe it gets uncontrollable sometimes and that is why my game systems should be out of my possession. In that case, I step away from my Xbox and do something else because I do not want to do continue engaging in violent activities. Also, the audience can be teenagers because they are the majority who usually play video games. The user should be aware of the games they are playing and know the effects it has on the brain.

Violent media changes the way someone thinks, and causes them to reenact that in real life. Playing violent video games is usually the cause of all this, especially the ones that are rated M. According to the statistics, “51% of boys who were M-Gamers been in a physical fight, 60% beat someone up, 23% damaged property just for fun, and 22% got suspended from school” (ProCon 12). This shows that the games they played made them more aggressive and engaged in delinquent behaviors. I believe GTA is one of the games behind this issue, since it contains lots of violence. The average person who plays this game has the freedom to shoot and murder others, steal, and even engage in fistfights. After all, since there is cheat codes in this game too, the users can become Gods in a virtual video game and do anything they desire. Knowing they can do all of this in a virtual game makes the people deem they can act that way in real life too. Other games can have an impact too like Call of Duty and Battlefield because both involve dangerous weapons and slaying. I believe there should be a solution to this problem to stop the violent acts of people who reenact what they view on media. So, parents should observe what their children play and watch on television and take action. Parents should disallow their children to also buy M-rated games because it can negatively affect them in the future as they grow up. They are the ones who can educate their children about theright thing to do in life to be more responsible.

Video games are played daily by both genders, not just boys. Many people blame the males for the violence that occurs in society dealing with video games, but girls are included too. According to statistics, after the girls play games that are rated M, “40% been in a physical fight, 49% beat up someone, 20% skipped school without an excuse, and 49% got into trouble with teacher or principal” (ProCon 13). This shows that the statistics comparing boys and girls who act violently after playing video games are fairly close to one another. In fact, girls skip class and get poor grades on their report card more often than boys. I agree with the statistics because I witnessed violent acts of girls in my high school who were gamers. After all, they admitted that violent video games got to them, especially GTA. This explains that in society, both male and females can make violence prior to viewing media.

Violent media can be the cause of violence in society. Recently, many shootings have made me believe there is a correlation between violent media and real life scenarios. In the articles, Mike Urban said, “National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre stated in December that violent video games such as Mortal Combat and GTA are to blame for the Sandy Hook massacre” (8). So, since a member from the NRA thinks violent media plays a role in society, the government should do something about this. The government can step into this situation and use the rating systems to restrict some games that have too much violence. By doing that, stores will not be able to sell them to the gaming world, forcing them to buy different games. Overall, there can be less violence in society by ending this problem.

A society can also be violent depending on their geographical location. Some places can be hit with chaos daily, but other locations can be safe to live. Living in Santa Clarita, I believe it is a safe place because violence usually does not occur. The only place in our city that violence occurs is Newhall. Newhall is known to be very ghetto and contain a population denoted as dangerous. More stabbing, killing, and fighting have occurred there than any other place in Santa Clarita. The more dangerous people a location has, there is a better chance for violence to occur.

Even though I believe violent media has an affect on the way the user behaves in society, other factors can be a reason too. Someone who is going through a major depression can try to hurt others before ending his or her life. If they are going through a rough time, then they will want others to be the same; so harming society will be an option. The average person might think video games are suppose to be fun and not cause the user to act violently, but it all depends on the person. Also, a person can be mentally ill and go on a shooting rampage in public. The geographical location, being in poverty, and the use of drugs and alcohol can be the reason too. Many people can debate that all of these factors can be the cause of violence in society, not just video games.

I believe society and media play a role in creating violent people in the world. Some video games such as action ones contain lots of violence and negatively impact the user. One of those games is GTA, which gives the player the ability to fight, shoot, stab, and recklessly drive around. This game can be played on different consoles like Xbox and PlayStation. People also have the power to play these games online with anyone around the world and communicate with them too. I play video games too, and on some occasions, I had to stop playing due to “disobeying” my parents. Many boys and girls display delinquent behaviors while at school, and M-rated games are alleged to be a big part of the way they act. Majority of people might believe boys are the only ones who play video games, but according to the stats, girls play them too. In fact, the numbers are fairly close when comparing the violent acts of boys and girls. Parents need to be more responsible and disallow their children from playing violent video games. Another best way to end this issue is for the government to get involved and to control the use of media in society. More and more people will act violently if this problem is not addressed and solved immediately.

Works Cited

Gerlach, Christian. Extremely Violent Societies : Mass Violence in the Twentieth- century. Cambridge ; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Print.

ProCon.org. "22 Charts & Graphs on Video Games & Youth Violence." ProCon.org. 18 Feb. 2010. Web. 20 Apr. 2014.

Urban, Dan Kelly Mike. "Violence in Video Games." McClatchy - Tribune Business News, (2013):.

Reflective Letter

Dear English faculty, Greetings. My name is Amir Ranjbar and this is my first year here at CSUN. Coming to a University straight from high school, I was very nervous and expected chaos. Taking English 113B with professor Lace, she taught us the “Toulmin Style” paragraph for the essays we had to write. It is a step by step process that will make the reader understand the whole purpose and idea of the essay they are writing. The six steps to making a strong toulmin style paragraph are: claim, reasoning, warrant, evidence, explanation, and concluding statement. For an argumentive essay, the evidence is the most important element because it supports and backs up the thesis statement. Also, for the essays, I favored the fact we could use first person to display and state our own opinion about the topic. Even though I do not like writing, I still contribute my best effort and receive fairly good grades on my assignments. I also enjoyed writing the rhetorical analysis because it gave me the ability to evaluate the work of an author. Three parts make up a rhetorical analysis: ethos, pathos, and logos. Ethos is the ethical appeal such as evidence, pathos is emotions, and logos are the facts. In my last essay, I used the toulmin style paragraph to argue how violence in media and society play a role in creating violent people. I used statistics from the ProCon website displaying the number of boys and girls who engage in delinquent behaviors after playing M-rated games. Thus, I used my own opinion to back up my argument to make a flawless paper. I was happy with the grade I received because of the time and effort that was put on this assignment.

Thanks for your time.

Sincerely yours, Amir Ranjbar

Shawn Guzman

Annotated Bibliography

Helmke, Paul. “Targeting Gun Violence.” Library.calstate.edu/Northridge/article. Puplic Administration Review, volume 73 issue 4, July/August. 2013. Web. 21 April 2014. This article provides information about how other states such as New York, Colorado, Connecticut, and Maryland are trying to get a law adopted, so that guns are not easily accessed. In this article it provides information about a school shooting in Newton, Connecticut, and how twenty students and six adults were killed.

Koyama, Jill. “We need federal, not state, gun policy.” Cnn.com. Cable News Network, 18 April 2014. Web. 22 April 2014. This website provides information that can help me not only write a stronger essay, but this source can also be used as a counter example. This website supports gun use because when using guns, it’s all about how the gun is handled. If someone can handle a gun properly then there should be no problem what so ever.

Ph. D. Lester, David. Gun Control Issues & Answers. Illinois: Thomas, 1984. Print. This book provides information about the impact of guns it has on American Life. This book will discuss guns role in America on how it bring violence, accidental death, and suicide. This book also provides information about who are the people behind the gun.

Proposal, Guns Good or Bad?

Guns in our society have become a big issue. American’s believe that owning a gun will protect them from danger. They believe that the risk of injury and death will decrease. In today’s society anyone can obtain/possess a firearm. People feel that owning a gun will reduce criminal activities, since there are criminals out there that are armed and dangerous. However, does possessing a firearm actually keep you safe? The answer is no, possessing a firearm has a high risk of injury and death. There is a saying about people who possess guns, “Guns don’t kill, people do” (Para 7). This is telling the audience that people are responsible for gun violencebecause a gun cannot pull a trigger; people are the ones with their hands on it. People will soon realize that guns bring danger to their family, and the people around them.

From my observation/experience guns do bring danger to people. For example, in the past five years there have been at least seventy or more school shootings in America, and there have been almost one hundred and eighty nine deaths. Seven of these deaths already occurred within this year. I might use the event of Barack Obama’s Gun Control Proposal. President Obama tried to propose a plan to reduce gun violence, and who can possess them. This was proposed after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Barack Obama felt that this was going to help reduce gun violence. However, American’s felt that this was wrong. According to my knowledge the Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights states, “To keep and bear arms, collective militias does not prohibit any regulations of firearms, or devices.” When Americans heard that Obama was trying to propose this act, Americans were outraged because it goes against the United States Constitution.

While doing more research on this topic about gun violence I will provide more evidence, and hopefully I will be able to find more statistics on what is the main cause of gun violence. Is the main cause of gun violence gang related? Is it more suicide or homicide related? Is there a way that guns can provide safety? This is a very interesting topic because firearms are a serious topic. In my opinion, would say would be in my top three of violent issues. When writing my annotated bibliography and paper, I plan on using the examples used earlier in my paper; I plan on going to the library, and see if there are any books to read about gun violence. I want to try to use some articles, and a website; maybe CNN or LA times for my paper. As I do my research, I should have a better understanding on why guns are bad, and how it brings danger to you and your love ones. By the end of this final project I will be able to explain why guns do not provide safety, but brings harm to anyone near.

Final Essay, Guns Good or Bad?

Guns in our society have become a big issue. American’s believe that owning a gun will protect them from danger. They believe that having a gun in their possession will actually prevent criminal violence. In today’s society anyone can obtain/possess a firearm. People feel that owning a gun will reduce criminal activities, since there are criminals out there that are armed and dangerous. A firearm creates a potential risk of injury and death within a family household. However, does possessing a firearm actually keep you safe? As we develop more as a nation, the sooner people will realize that guns don’t kill people; people kill people. People can argue that guns can be safe; it all depends on how they are handled and used. Guns can bring danger to everyone around if not used with precaution.

What some families don‘t know when owning a gun are the consequences it comes along with. Sometimes when people bug a gun or and type of firearm, chances are that they don’t know how to use it. When people don’t know how to operate a gun, they can accidentally injure themselves, or kill themselves. Guns have been one of the top leading issues in our society today. There have been multiple shootings in schools in the past couple years that involved a gun, and the results of those incidents is the death of teachers/adults and multiple students. Owning a gun is like a slippery slope, when something bad happens it’s mostly down hill from there. If someone accidently shoots himself/herself, then they are taken to the emergency room, once it leads to fixing the wound, after a visit to the emergency room the medical bills start to stack up, and can put families into debt. Basically, no good can come out of possessing a gun or firearm.

Can guns provide safety for people? I believe that it doesn’t bring safety to anyone, even if you know how to use a gun, I still believe it doesn’t provide safety. Just having a gun in the household can put a family in danger because chances are that they don’t know how to operate such weapon. In the book, Gun Control Issue and Answers states, “It can be observed that states with the highest accidental death rate from firearms also had the highest rates of suicidal and homicidal death” (Lester 15). This quote talks about how people who don’t properly handle guns can result is a serious injury or possible death. Guns cannot keep anyone safe because of the effects that it brings to families and those around.

When people hear about gun violence, they think of war/government related issues. However, use of guns does not just involve them. Guns today are starting to be distributed to the youth. Usually the people who fall under the youth category of using guns are usually school drop outs and their parents didn’t really care what or who they were involved with. In the journal The Problem of Gun Violence Among Serious Youth Offenders states, “The youth violence epidemic peaked in 1993 and was followed by a rapid, sustained drop outs over the rest of the 1990s” (popcenter.org para 2). It talks about how the youth population took a heavy toll on the population. Ever since the youth population has turned to drug marketing, gang violence, and illegal gun marketing there have been multiple homicides all involving guns.

Guns don’t just cause violence; it can also cause financial problems. If someone doesn’t have health insurance, that means they are not covered medically. This is a problem because of someone with a family who owns gun accidently injures him/herself, and don’t have insurance they are probably looking at a very expensive bill. One way that guns can put a family in debt are nonfatal treated wounds. After a wound is healed they receive a bill that is maybe a thousand dollars or more. Some people can be traumatized after a gun shot injury, so that person is put into some medical center to help them recover, and get back to the stage before they were injured. This is going to keep taking money out of a family’s pocket. Once he/she realizes that they can’t afford the bills, they start going into desperation of money, which can lead to violence. In some case money also plays a part to gun violence, especially gang related. If someone owes money to someone who is in a gang and cannot pay them back, usually most deaths in gangs are gun related. That’s why guns don’t bring safety to families or anyone in general.

Guns now these days are starting to become easily obtained in today’s society. Having some sort of firearm in the household is increasing the risk of potential violence. For example, from my knowledge there have been multiple school shootings. The most recent school shooting was probably the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting. This shooting occurred almost two years ago, and almost twenty students and at lest six adults were murdered by one man. This event was in the news for a while; there were multiple contributions to those who passed. Every sporting event always had multiple moments of silence to honor of those who passed. That’s how serious this event was because even though there is no clear evidence on why he decided to go on a shooting spree, there is reason to believe that he was mentally ill. After this incident president Barack Obama proposed a policy that will help reduce gun violence. He was trying to propose a policy where guns were not easily obtain making some restrictions. However, people were outraged by this policy because they felt that it went against their Second Amendment, which is the right to bear arms, collective militias does not prohibit any regulations of firearms, or devices. Even though this was to help reduce the risk of gun violence, it did go against our Bill of Rights.

Some people can argue that owning a gun can keep families safe from violent criminals. This can be true because it depends on the people who can operate the weapon. For example, in the article, We need federal, not state, gun policy, talks about a man named Michael Bloomberg who is trying to convince others that gun control policy is not really needed because it’s just a big waste of the state’s time and money. Bloomberg does mention some good points in his article. He talks about how growing up he was taught on the basics of gun safety, and how to properly operate such firearms such as rifles, cross bows, and guns. Michael Bloomberg states,“As a child, I was taught the basics of gun safety, and I often accompanied one of these men when they honed their hunting skills through target practice or skeet shooting. Even though I was familiar with guns, they scared me, and I often worried that my father would be fatally shot by a criminal. This worry ended when he retired from the police force, but my fear of guns persisted” (CNN para 7). He is telling the readers that people can be safe when owning a gun; it’s just how to operate and handle such weapon. Not only knowing how to operate a gun, it can also keep your family safe from viscous criminals who are trying to break into your home and hurt your family. It is the owner’s responsibility to know how to handle a firearm in a safe way.

As people believe that guns provide safety, guns will always be the source of violence. While researching my topic I have come to realize that it’s not the gun that kills people; it’s the people. People are the ones holding the gun with their finger on the trigger. The way I see it, guns are dangerous and cannot provide safety. Gun violence now these days is usually related to some sort of gang formation, drug dealing, underage drinking, or illegal gun marketing. Understanding the issues of gun violence will determine the measures and points on why guns do not provide safety. Research shows that most deaths that have occurred in the past couple of years were all suicide and homicides. Therefore, guns do not provide safety to anyone because they are dangerous and easily misused.

Web

Braga, Anthony. “Gun Violence Among Serious Young Offenders.” Popcenter.org. 2003 Web. April 2014

Journal

Helmke, Paul. “Targeting Gun Violence.” Library.calstate.edu/Northridge/article. Puplic Administration Review, volume 73 issue 4, July/August. 2013. Web. 21 April 2014.

Article

Koyama, Jill. “We need federal, not state, gun policy.” Cnn.com. Cable News Network, 18 April 2014. Web. 22 April 2014.

Book

Ph. D. Lester, David. Gun Control Issues & Answers. Illinois: Thomas, 1984. Print.

Reflective

To whom it may concern, I am a freshman at Cal State University Northridge. I am currently a full time student balancing out a part-time job, paying bills, and doing extracurricular activities. I have achieved multiple honors for school and athletics for my outstanding efforts. I go above and beyond to do better than others. If I struggle in something, I always do my best to understand the material, and if I am still struggling then I seek help to have a better understanding.

Not once in my school career did I think I would ever like an English class. I have been in Professor Lace’s English 113A from last semester, and her English 113B class this semester. I must say that she has taught me a lot in her class, whether it be learning about grammar, punctuations, toulmin style paragraphs, rhetorical essays, or even fallacies. I would say that I struggled with writing essays coming into college. Even though I had good grades in my high school English class, I felt that my essays weren’t college level worthy. Professor Lace has been outstanding in her work, and able to help those who do not understand the material. She sure has helped me in the past year that I have been going here. Just this semester I have been able to have a better understanding of writing a toulmin style paragraph because that style of writing is what we used in all of our essays. Professor Lace also taught me about fallacies. This was very helpful to learn because it helped us analyze are topic on what people were arguing. This was able to make are argument essays stronger.

Coming into this semester, I had the knowledge of being able to write a toulmin style paragraph, better understanding of punctuations. I’ll admit I didn’t do as good on my essays than I did last year. I got a lot of ninety fives rather than one hundreds. My quizzes for Gatsby was just crap, but my effort to try in that class was always there. I always attended every class and SI lecture. I never once, okay once did I forget to turn in something late. It was just because the syllabus said it was due Tuesday, but since are class is a Monday, it was due one day early. However my efforts in that class was always there, there would never be a time where I didn’t try.

I would like to take this time to thank you Professor Lace and Emily, sorry I’m just used to calling you Emily, for all the teachings, jokes, and laughs we shared in the past two semester. I felt that your class is a place where we can freely express and be ourselves without getting into trouble. I mean are class this semester has had some crazy conversation that has brought laughs to everyone. Again thank you again for everything.

Sincerely,

Shawn Guzman

Byron DeLeon

Annotated Bibliography

Anderson, Craig A.; Gentile, Douglas A.; Buckley, Katherine E.. Violent Video Game Effects on Children and Adolescents : Theory, Research, and Public Policy.Cary, NC, Oxford University Press, USA, 2007. Provides a study of the effects of violent video games on children. Also explains the ratings for video games and why the ESRB was pushed by congress. The studies conducted vary from young children to teenagers. It explores the different forms of violence children get from violent video games. Ultimately, it discusses how to prevent children from acting out violently.

Kirsh, Steven J Children. Adolescents, and Media Violence: A Critical Look at the Research. Thousand Oaks: SAGE 2012. Print. This book explores more than one factor that leads to violence in teenagers. However, it also goes through the different forms of violence in childhood and adolescence. It introduces its audience to modern research done regarding teen violence and its correlation with violent media. It wraps around everything from music to videogames in order to show the reader that violent media has a great influence.

Shackford, Scott. “Imaginary Gun Don’t Kill People, Either.” American Spectator Nov. 2013: 12-13. Web This article discusses the effects of violent video games on older people not just children. He goes into depth on one specific gaming franchise, Grand Theft Auto. He correlates this game with the Navy yard shooting that happened in D.C. The author explores the different negative influences that the game has had. Abusing the use of this game is a factor that the author believes can make some one act violently.

Proposal

People’s perception of the world is mostly based on personal experience. However, the media has a way of shaping people’s perspective and making them jump to conclusions before they can form their own opinions. The media is also very selective of what they broadcast; many times the negative overweighs the positive. This leads to people perceiving a certain neighborhood, ethnic groups, or people in a positive or negative way. This ties in with everything from videogames, books, and even to music. With many things already perceived for us, many people don’t know who to blame for violence. This brings up the argument of violent media vs violent society. Is society the one to blame or is it the media for portraying society as violent and vicious. I will argue that the media ultimately has a greater fault in shaping people to be violent and ruthless.

Growing up I fell in love with video games. I remember playing video games since I was about four years old. My first gaming system was the Super Nintendo and I thought it was amazing. However, my mother played a big role in monitoring what my brothers and I played. She would buy us our games and she made sure they were age appropriate. Because of this I did not play shooting games or combat games until I was about sixteen years old. At this point I never acted out violently and ever since I have been playing mature games I haven’t busted out in violence. However, I have noticed that I have become short tempered and I excessively use vulgar language. One of my close family members, who is the same age as me has been playing video games since he was a kid. His mother was also the one who bought him games but she never monitored what games he was playing and bought him whatever he wanted. At a very young age he was playing shooting games and fighting games, which began to shape his personality. He was very vulgar and violent. This personal experience can be linked back to videos games. However, other factors can be linked to why we’re different. Outside factors such as divorced parents, religion, and etc.

In my research I hope to find statistics that link the cause of violence with exposure ofmature media. I will find research that has to do with teens or even adults that are acting violently and see if there is a connection with violent videogames. I will also do the same with violent movies, tv shows, and even music. I would like to also find research regarding parent and violent/misbehaved children. I feel that a lack of parenting can lead to a child developing bad characteristics that ultimately make him/her violent. Furthermore, I have already done research on children who grow up to be violent because they live in domestic violent homes. There are many factors that can effect a person character and personality. This essay will be based on personal experience and statistics on both sides of the argument.

Final Essay

The Juggernaut: Violent Video Games

Media plays an important role in one’s perception of the world. It also helps shape one’s interest and the way one acts and talks. The media consist of television, movies, and with the rise of technology, games. Many infamous shootings such as the Virginia Tech shooting have made people wonder what is the cause of these violent acts. A great debate that has grabbed the attention of parents, teenagers, and even politicians is whether violent video games lead to violence. Through my personal experience I will argue that playing violent video games is an attribute to violent behavior.

Video game violence is a subject I can relate to easily. I grew up playing video games and to this day, still do. When I was younger, my mother would buy me games when she was able to. Many times I would play games like Super Mario or Donkey Kong because in her eyes these were appropriate games. There were times where I asked for a specific game like Mortal Combat and I did not get it because they were mature games that had explicit violence and blood. I grew up with two older brothers who also loved gaming. However, they were much older so they became bored with childish games but regardless of their age my mother refused to buy violent video games. My cousin and I are the same age and we grew up across the hall from each other. We both share a love for video games and many times would spend the night at each other’s house gaming. When it came to games his mother was more lenient about the violence in video games. She would buy him whatever game he wanted and allowed him to play at whatever time he desired. He and I grew up very differently. He was always a troublemaker in school and was constantly being expelled for fighting. He was very vulgar and responsive with his mother. I, on the other had, was not. I never really understood why he was like that until I turned 16. Just like my brothers, as I got older I became bored with childish video games. I began buying more mature video games although I was still under the age limit. Sometimes the stores they would not ask for, or I would have a friend buy the games for me. As I played these shooting games, and fighting games I realized that my attitude began changing. The more I played these games the more aggressive I became. My vocabulary changed and I excessively used explicit and vulgar language. I would also get irritated easily and found it difficulty to contain my anger. I soon realized that the cause of my attitude change was coming from playing video games. This led me to believe that violent video games cause one to become violent.

Video games have been a part of many peoples life ever since technology began booming. As technology rose, different genres of games began hitting the shelves. However, there was not an official way of labeling these games for a certain age group. It was not until 1994 that the U.S congress put together the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board), which rates every game that is released to the public (Anderson, Douglas 167). This organization was put together mostly because parents wanted to know what type of content the games their children were playing had. The basic ratings are ‘E’ (everyone), ‘T’ (teens, 13 and older), ‘M’ (Mature, 17 and older), and ‘AO’ (Adults only,18 and older) (Anderson, Douglas 169). By having congress intervene on video game ratings, one can note that there is an importance on who is seeing what. Many parents censor what their children see because they believe that children mimic what they see and hear.

A study done in Oxford University brought forth 3 different experiments with violent video games and students. Study one, experimented with both elementary students and college students, and exposed them to violent video games. The students were exposed to both violent and non-violent video games for one hour at a time. In this research the “found habitual exposure to violent media was positively associated with higher levels of recent violent behavior” (Anderson, Douglas 66). In their experiment, this proved that after being exposed to violent games a person tends to act violently. Furthermore, the study also showed that “violent video games were more strongly related to violent behavior than was exposure to non interactive media violence” (Anderson Douglas 67). Video games have more of an effect on a person than television and music do because it is an interactive form of media. This leads to higher forms of violence due to the connection between what the game and the gamer.

Study 2 was an experiment done with highschool students and exposure to violent video games and other explicit media. In this study, a group of both female and male students were exposed to violent media for extensive time periods. In the study they found that “Adolescents who play a greater number of violent video games hold more pro-violent attitudes, have more hostile personalities, are less forgiving, believe violence to be more typical, and behave more aggressively in their everyday lives” (Anderson, Douglas 83). Regardless of the age difference or gender, exposure to violent media has an effect on people. Whether it is consciously or subconsciously, one becomes more aggressive when interacting with violent media.

In the article “Imaginary Guns Don’t Kill People, Either” by Scott Shackford, the author argues that violent video games have an effect on people but not as drastically as people think of. He states that it is difficult to argue against the correlation between violent media and violence because of all the research and studies that have been done. Many infamous shootings have led to people blaming violent media on influencing individuals to act out violently. One example of this is the Navy yard shooting in D.C where a man went on a rampage shooting innocent people. One of the man’s roommate stated that “[He] would play violent video games for hours on end” (Shackford 12). Thiswas labeled as one of the factors to cause Alexis (the shooter) to go out and kill people. However, after further studies were done, it was concluded that he suffered from psychological disorders.

Statistics show that there is a heavy toll on someone’s behavior when he/she plays video games. Whether it is bullying, school problems, or delinquency, playing violent video games has an effect on someone. Both males and females are affected by interaction with violet video games. 60 percent of males who constantly play violent video games have acted out in violence, either hitting someone or beating someone up. While only 49 percent of girls who played violent video games acted out in that same way (Kirsh 313). When it comes to school problems, 20 percent of girls who constantly played violent video games have skipped class or ditched school (Kirsh 314). Overall, playing violent video games has some type of effect on someone. Interacting with violent media changes a persons behavior.

There are many other factors aside from violent video games that can be the cause of violent outbursts of an individual. Many infamous school shootings have found that the students were troubled psychologically. Yes, they were gamers who played violent games, but many also suffered of paranoia and were socially awkward. One of the major differences between my cousin and I was parenting. He grew up in a divorced home and with a mother that did not pay much attention to him. Many of his violent actions can be attributed to the problems in his household and not the violent video games.

Rating video games and monitoring who buys them is the first step in preventing violence in society. Although violent video games do not just effect children and teens, censoring what they see and what they play is an important step parents must take. Self control and knowing when to put the controller, keypad, or mouse down is also important in making sure one does not mix the virtual world with reality.

Shackford, Scott. “Imaginary Gun Don’t Kill People, Either.” American Spectator Nov. 2013: 12-13. Web

Kirsh, Steven J Children. Adolescents, and Media Violence: A Critical Look at the Research. Thousand Oaks: SAGE 2012. Print.

Reflective Letter

To all the young gentlemen and beautiful young ladies in the English department,

I have a confession to make. The name is De Leon, Byron De Leon. I was hired by the US government to go under cover in an English 113 B class. I have been undercover for four months and many people are becoming suspicious. It is time I break my cover. In the four months of covert affairs I have learned life long lessons that have helped me improve. I have learned to love my mothers cooking and to cherish sleep because I got very few of both. But in all seriousness, I am very thankful for professor Lace and the English department. This year I have learned many important concepts in my English 113B class that I can apply to many of my other classes. Going into this class I thought that it would be easy and I wouldn’t have to pay much attention. However, Ms. Lace challenged us to always think outside the box and how to stand up for what we believe in. By using rhetoric devices such as pathos, logos, and ethos, I now know how to properly state an argument rather than just rant on about something I feel strongly about. If I am ever found against the wall when trying to win an argument, I know that compare my opponent to Hitler will help me win. I am very grateful to be at this school and to have met my new best friends in my English class. The memories that I have shared with my classmates and professor are the most valuable things I can take from this experience. I feel that my writing skills have improved, especially with sentence structure and being able to put my thoughts on paper. To all who read this I say EXCELSIOR!!!

Greg Triana

Annotated Bibliography

USC. “someone in the crowd spat on one of them. They stopped withdrawing and two highway patrolmen went into the crowd and arrested a young Negro woman and a man who wassaid to have been inciting the crowd to violence when the officers were arresting her.” "144 Hours in August 1965." 144 Hours in August 1965. Usc, n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. Theses evens that took place all that went on turned ugly. With the tension already so high when the women spit on the cop it got worse. Then to make maters even worse the cops went into the crowed to get her and a rest her. All of these lead to a riot.

Cohen, Nathan Edward. “Thirty-eight pre cent of the population in the curfew area that thoughtnthe riot would help the negro cause. Only twenty pre cent thought it would hurt the cause”(Cohen). The Los Angeles Riots; a Socio-psychological Study. New York: Praeger,1970. Print. This gives two sides which every argument should have, and he takes votes and poll study’s to see how they are to the people what percentage of people disapproved and what pre cent approved it. I feel this a great resource to see how many people actually liked the rioting and what was going on. Otherwise it then becomes very unfair.

Hodak, George. “On March 3, 1991, Rodney King, a 25-year-old parolee, was arrested near Hansen Dam in Los Angeles after leading police on a high-speed chase. The incident might have gone unnoticed but for an amateur photographer's video, which revealed several LAPD officers repeatedly kicking, stomping and clubbing a helpless King.” "King Verdict Ignites LA Riots." (n.d.): n. pag. Proquest. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.<http://search.proquest.com.libproxy.csun.edu/docview/194375597>. This source shows that if you have a camera and it gets filmed that people interpret what they know and for the most part they interpretation of it is different and make it go in the wrong ways. And that is how things can go from bad to worse.

Final Essay

I believe that the riots of LA could have put a traumatic toll on the neighborhoods that where within the vicinity. The people of the Watts riots were out raged with how the police officers handle a young black male yet the things leading into this event seemed to be more on the part of the young black man. The young male got pulled over and failed a sobriety test. He was then getting arrested when his mother showed up the young male then got riled up. Then we have Rodney King: this guy has a record and he is running from the cops. That makes you look worse then what you actually are or could be. He ended up suing and won and I mean yeah sue the cops that beat you extensively but nobody else and you where in the wrongdoing. I believe Rodney King was the one a fault and I believe the black community went overboard the interviews with the community they say oh, he was not going over eighty yet he still ran so how is he not at fault. The official police report says he got the up to one hundred and ten miles per hour. My question is why run and make you self look worse then you are. I believe that all these events are what caused the riots to start. The riots seemed to take their toll mentally and physically on the community.

What caused the riot in Watts was a motorcycle cop was informed of a reckless driver and when the cop pulled up he asked the man to step out for a standard police field sobriety test, in which the young black male failed. The officer asked for a cop car to be sent to pick up the young man. The mother of the young man showed up and was yelling at her son for being stupid and that caused the young male to get agitated. He was fine before his mother had arrived on scene, after that, things went wrong. The young male pushed his mother and the cops went after him, to restrain him then the young man started swearing at the crowed which then got them going. The mother then jumped on an officers back and attacked them the police immediately call for back up back up soon arrives on scene. Then the events leading into the LA riots a black male on drugs going on a high-speed pursuit then the cops using force for what he had done the black community called racism on the police force yet, this black male was running from the had a police record was violating his parole and then last but not least resisting arrest and getting up repeatedly after being told to stay down. The death toll because of the Watts riots was unbelievable.

There were way too many people who did nobody needed to die over this. The damage that then comes from this affects the family’s emotions. The people that died added up too “In the weeks following the riots, Coroner's Inquests were held regarding thirty-two of the deaths.The Coroner's jury ruled that twenty-six of the deaths were justifiable homicide, five were homicidal, and one was accidental. Of those ruled justifiable homicide, the jury found that death was caused in sixteen instances by officers of the Los Angeles Police Department and in seven instances by the National Guard. The Coroner's Inquest into one of the deaths was canceled at the request of the deceased's family. There was no inquest into the death of the deputy sheriff because of pending criminal proceedings”(USC). They’re where so many unnecessary deaths because one person riled a crowed of people up and now all those people are missing loved ones. These people had too loose someone and it did not have to lead to that, it is like the LA riots of1992.

The riot in Los Angeles in 1992 was pretty bad, but the one in 1965 was probably considered a little worse. There where so many people in the 1965 riot that had lost there lives over something that that should not have had happen and there was high percentage of people who did not want anything to do with the riot at all. There was a “thirty-four pre cent of the curfew area sample was favorable or very favorable of what took place and then there was a majority that expressed disapproval of the violence and the destruction”(Cohen 3). Most people could have dealt with out the rioting, but I mean who would not. It is crazy to find out that there was a large portion of the people that where happy to see this happen. What may end up helping the cause? There was a percentage that felt it was good to riot. There was a group of “thirty-eight pre cent of the population in the curfew area that thought the riot would help the negro cause. Only twenty pre cent thought it would hurt the cause”(Cohen). I feel that it will hurt what you are fighting for and what you think is right, the way that they did it was wrong they could have had peaceful protest and petitions signed; why would you destroy your own town that is just stupid, and then getting your people in your community hurt and killing innocent people and police officers. Then after that there came another riot a couple years down the road called the Los Angeles riot of 1992.

In LA a man by the name of Rodney King started the LA 1992 riots, this man was chased in a high-speed pursuit. I feel that the police where within there rights to subdue the subject with force because of how fast he was going he was endangering the lives of others. The date it occurred “On March 3, 1991, Rodney King, a 25-year-old parolee, was arrested near Hansen Dam in Los Angeles after leading police on a high-speed chase. The incident might have gone unnoticed but for an amateur photographer's video, which revealed several LAPD officers repeatedly kicking, stomping and clubbing a helpless King”(Hodak). The cops may have gone just a tad over board if you are a parolee why run that just makes them think you have move to hide which gives them even more of a right to use force. The black community blew this whole thing out of proportion and the African American community went over the handle because the guy getting detained was a man of color. There ends up being so much death when it come to riots and people who become hurt if it was a burse or a critical condition case, it seems people should just not do them. People get hurt and in riot there are stats to show that it happens more in the time of a riot. This toll count was pretty high “Over the next four days, a wave of arson and looting spread throughout many of the poorer sections of Los Angeles County. With 54 deaths, more than 2,300 injuries and $1 billion in property damage, the 1992 LA riots marked the deadliest civil disturbance in the U.S. since the Civil War”(Hodak). Riots are dumb what’s worse is if you hurt your fellow man you should be helping not hurting them. We should reassess what we are doing to others. USC does have a point about the cops having a part in the violence.

It seems as if during the Watts riot the cop was at fault and played a part in the riot starting. A women of color spit on an officer and he went in to the crowd. But then the “…two highway patrolmen went into the crowd and arrested a young Negro woman and a man who was said to have been inciting the crowd to violence when the officers were arresting her. Although the wisdom of stopping the withdrawal to make these arrests has been questioned, the Commission finds no basis for criticizing the judgment of the officers on the scene. Following these arrests, all officers withdrew at 7:40 p.m. As the last police car left the scene, it was stoned by the now irate mob”(USC). It seems as the evidence is reversed that it was not the cop at fault but another person in the crowed getting people all worked up over something that the women should have never done. There is always a calm before the storm and at this time the storm is a riot. The people where calm and then that made it uneasy are feeling in the air, which is not helpful to the police. By “On Thursday morning, there was an uneasy calm, but it was obvious that tensions were still high. A strong expectancy of further trouble kept the atmosphere tense in the judgment of both police and Negro leaders. The actions by many individuals, both Negro and white, during Thursday, as well as at other times, to attempt to control the riots are commendable”(USC). When tension is hot like that an uneasy feeling does come about in the air and that was not good at all. By this time all the incidents lead to chaos.

The law had made a few bad moves on there part, but when it came to it there where people getting rowdy and very aggressive, to things that where not even any of there dang business, the young black male that was getting arrested was only his affair no one else’s and it was fine until a crowed gathered and his mother got involved. I feel that if people are not supposed to be involved stay the hell away from something they have no business being in. both these riots would not of happened if people stayed out of what they did not know anything about, and if people would have just stayed came. Plus then in doing these things you hurt people and possible killed people then you in danger the lives of other people and the people and things around you. Because in the end it is not the people in the riot that got effected it is the family’s that stayed out or the family’s of the officers who died the physical damage to them is hard because they will not see them again.

Works Cited

"144 Hours in August 1965." 144 Hours in August 1965. Usc, n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.

Cohen, Nathan Edward. The Los Angeles Riots; a Socio-psychological Study. New York:

Praeger, 1970. Print.

Hodak, George. "King Verdict Ignites LA Riots." (n.d.): n. pag. Proquest. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.

<http://search.proquest.com.libproxy.csun.edu/docview/194375597>.

Reflective Letter

Dear Esteemed faculty members,

I am Greg Triana, and I am a second semester freshman. I am in English 113b. I am a big fan of sports love baseball, football and hockey, and I am happy Kings made a comeback go Kings go. I love going outdoors and getting fresh air, like fishing and also I enjoy riding dirt bikes. What I would like to reflect on is a few different things; I would like to cover my strong areas and where I know that I struggle. I would like to start with the weak areas that way I can finish off with the stronger areas. The area that I struggled in this year I would have to say is the rhetorical essay, the professor explained it but I guess I understood it slightly different, and that is a form of writing that I was not use to at all. The other area I struggle in is my thesis, I know what kind of thesis I want, but it takes me longer to word it without it being a question. I know that once I do get my thesis going, the essay becomes a whole lot easier to write. After I figure it out it just flows out. Like here in my last essay “The riots seemed to take their toll mentally and physically on the community.” I guess that, if you wanted to, you could consider that a part of my strong area. Another thing that I learned, and to be honest enjoyed, were learning about fallacies. Fallacies are interesting to me because of all the different kinds that are out there. I liked all the different parts and how you could phrase them and use them. This year’s English class was a lot harder for me. I do not know why but I did struggle, but there were a lot of opportunities for help from Professor Lace and (SI Leader) Emily. Overall I would have to say that it was another great year in Professor Laces class she found ways to make boring thing interesting and I would have to say the second semester with Professor Noreen Lace was a good one and I am going to miss this class all the good time in them. And so this is a farewell to Professor Lace and Emily.

Sincerely,

Greg Triana

P.S. have a great year and hope to see Professor Lace and Emily soon, enjoy your

summer break.

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