Reference no: EM133418834

Questions:

1. For this prompt, I want you to think about how the topics we are exploring this week related to criminal justice relate to the issues we are facing currently with the COVID-19 pandemic. This one might be a little more difficult than the previous week, but you will be able to make connections. Use your sociological imagination and think as far outside of the box as you need: what are some of the more obvious and not-so-obvious ways that COVID-19 specifically ties to issues relating to crime, criminal justice, and social control?

2. The deaths of Tyre Nichols in 2023 and George Floyd in 2020 were some of the relatively few examples of police officers being arrested for the death of someone in their custody (with Floyd's murderer Derek Chauvin going to prison for kneeling on his neck for almost nine minutes. For this prompt, examine the issues surrounding the deaths of men, women, and children like Floyd and Nichols and/or other related issues. You should feel free to express your feelings, whatever they may be, but you must keep all responses civil or you will receive no credit for this activity. You are specifically forbidden from posting graphic videos or images to this or any other thread; I will delete your comment and give you no credit for it if you do.

• the systemic issues surrounding events such as the deaths of Black people both in police custody and by everyday citizens. You may also / instead focus on profiling of other groups, such as other racial and ethnic minorities, LGBTQIA+ people, disabled persons, or immigrants;
• calls by protesters to "Defund the Police", a movement that really seeks to allocate much funding from police departments to other areas of a city's budget, such as education and services, due to the over-reliance on police for many different things in society (check these explanations from the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and Vox);
• recording of police officers in the line of duty, both through dash-cams and by citizens standing by, with advocates on both sides of the political divide. In the past, I have seen people of all different political persuasions argue in favor of it both for the sake of police and for the sake of civilians;
• the apparent unequal treatment by law enforcement of white perpetrators of crime, most recently seen in stories of those who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 (almost all of whom were white). While the FBI has arrested hundreds of those involved, articles shared on social media show some of those arrested have been treated less harshly;
• protest movements such as Black Lives Matter, and the goals of this and similar movements;
• safety of law enforcement officers, and steps that police departments take to keep their officers out of harm's way (this can include use of dash cams and more rigorous training of law enforcement officers, for example)

Discuss your chosen topic using the sociological imagination. Again, in answering this discussion question, you will be airing your own opinions on the issues surrounding this topic. If you are a criminal justice major, you are encouraged to bring in information and ideas you have obtained in your CJ courses (cite sources if you bring in any)!