Understanding of the Old Testament Essay Example for Free

Understanding of the Old Testament Essay To what extent does archaeology inform us about our understanding of the Old Testament? The Jewish scriptures that made up the Old Testament were written over a period of a hundred years during a time when the Israelites were established and prosperous, but also during the times when the whole religion and lifestyle were under threat throughout exiles and national crises. Biblical scholars study the evidence within the scriptures themselves and also use other resources such as prehistoric documents and archaeological findings in order to inform us more thoroughly about the Old Testament. Archaeology is a modern science calling for much patience and skill. Generally speaking there are three kinds of archaeology. The first is ruins of buildings, homes, temples and fortifications. These reveal culture, worship, social structure and manner of life. The second is artefacts, pots, lamps, weapons and ornaments. These reveal something about wealth and culture. The third is inscriptions, also known as epigraphic material. This reveals what people wrote about. We have to be cautious about what archaeology can prove. From reading ancient texts, scholars can not always tell whether it is true or not. We can simply tell what the writer of the text wanted the world to believe. Archaeology can help to provide evidence that an event happened, but it cannot always show why it happened nor who was involved. Therefore it is most useful for corroboration. Through archaeology scholars can discover more about the times in which people in the Bible lived. What importance did they have as a nation among other nations? What were their everyday lives like? What animals did they keep? What did they eat? How did they trade? What were their social habits and family interactions? What was the nature of the other religions by which they were surrounded when Judaism was first beginning and much more? One of the main reasons scholars look for archaeological evidence is due to an issue that causes the most controversy- whether the events described really happened. For many people who are strong believers this is not an issue for them as the Bible, which is the Word of God is thought to them to be more true than any other foundation of information, so therefore the events portrayed in the Bible are true to them. If there is no outside evidence to support this, or discoveries of scholars contradict what the Bible says, then the Bible remains true to the believers as the people investigating the evidence are thought to be able to be fallible whereas for the believers, the Bible is not. Many people are also willing to accept that some of the Bibles accounts are true in a theological rather than a historical sense. However, it is argued that the accuracy of the historical accounts might have been sacrificed in order to put emphasis on the theological point. It is very difficult for events in the Old Testament to be accurately dated for many reasons. The main reason is that many of the written records have not survived. This is because many of the texts were written on insubstantial materials and the climate was not particularly dry and therefore could not preserve the texts. Another reason is that much of the Old Testament originated as oral traditions rather than written, which means whilst being passed on from one person to another, the real translation could have sometimes been changed through misunderstanding or false impression. This makes it extremely difficult for scholars to work out which parts are historically correct and which are not as elements may have been removed or added. Texts occasionally referred to features which were thought to be of a later date than the story itself and therefore scholars have to decide if the older parts of a narrative were correct or had been altered. Biblical writers also often exaggerated wha t was written in order to express that someone was particularly blessed by God. This means scholars have to make informed guesses where they do not know facts, which means they can easily make mistakes in accuracy as well as writing according to their own biases. A final reason why the Bible cannot be accurately dated is because Biblical writers primary purpose was not to write an accurate historical record. Their main interest was to illustrate the relationship between God and humanity, particularly the relationship between God and his chosen people, Israel. This meant important rulers and political events of global importance, which could give the Bible definite dates if they were mentioned in the texts, were ignored because they did not show any relevance for religious faith. Some people dispute that a date from the Bible can be found using the text itself as many do believe the Bible is historically accurate and reliable as the Bible is inspired by God. However, for many scholars this is thought to be very unreliable. As well as using documents to attempt to place the Bible in historical context, archaeologists have searched for evidence of the existence of cities and buildings mentioned in Biblical stories. Since the First World War, scholars have used archaeology to discover more reliable sources about events that were said to have happened in the Old Testament. For example, excavations on the southern bank of the river Euphrates in Syria revealed the existence of a city called Mari. From this city, archaeologists found cuneiform (wedge-shaped writing of ancient civilisations) tablets dating from the nineteenth and eighteenth centuries BC. They provided a wealth of information containing economic factors which helped scholars to understand the ways in which people lived in the Middle Bronze Age. In the past, thousands of tablets covered with cuneiform have been discovered. They provide information about the Biblical world before 100 BC. After that time alphabets with letters not made up of combinations of triangles begin to emerge and we are on our way to the Hebrew script known to Biblical scholars. Names found through archaeology can provide more clues to the dating or geographical setting of particular events in the Old Testament because when scholars find evidence of other people with comparable names to those of characters in the Bible, it can suggest a background for the Biblical writings. To conclude, archaeology can help to inform us more about events that happened in the Old Testament and help us understand what happened and who was involved more than we already do. However, we cannot always rely on archaeology to inform our understanding of the Old Testament as archaeologists and scholars do not always know the truth behind evidence found, they are only able to use what they see with their own eyes and make educated guesses with what they already know.

Analysis of Internet Protocols and Infrastructure Essay -- Internet Te

Analysis of Internet Protocols and Infrastructure Introduction: Network: Anything reticulated or decussated at equal distances, with interstices between the intersections. - A Dictionary of the English Language SECTION : 1 1.1 WHAT IS A NETWORK? A) What is a network? A network is simply a collection of machines connected in some way that allows them to communicate with each other and share information. To do this the machines have to be connected in some way that allows communication, and have an agreed upon a language to talk when they do communicate. Components of a network might include individual hosts, some form of communications hardware, a network protocol and a collection of network services. B) Individual hosts A network is a collection of individual machines sometimes referred to as hosts. Each host (computer) must have some unique identifier that allows other hosts to talk to it. 1.2 COMPONENTS OF A NETWORK A) Network Protocol In order to communicate the parties must speak the same language. Languages on computer networks are referred to as network protocols. A network protocol is simply a set of rules and formats that govern how information is sent and in what format it is sent. Some of the different network protocols used today include TCP/IP (Internet and UNIX favourite), IPX (Novell), Appletalk (MAC), DECnet and various others. TCP/IP is quickly becoming the networking protocol and is the one I concentrate on in this subject. B) Network services To be of use to users the network will provide various services including file, print and device sharing, electronic mail etc. 1.3 TYPES OF NETWORKS A) Network categories  · LAN (local ... ...UNIX the routing table can be viewed using the netstat command. The route a packet follows can be viewed using the traceroute command. Routing tables are either created statically, or by the systems administrator configuring the system, using the startup or configuration fiels, to used a pre-defined, unchanging route.dynamically.  · There are protocols, part of TCP/IP, that will dynamically modify the routing table in response to events.  · Adding a host to the network requires obtaining, installing and configuring the necessary network hardware, gather the required information including IP address and hostname of the new host, the gateway and the name server, the network address and the subnet mask, modify the appropriate configuration and startup files with that information, make sure the new host has an entry in the domain name service, test the connection.

Establishign a Company Pmo, Ppm & Governance Structure

A project management culture is important in today’s competitive environment. If the company is to thrive and meet future financial targets, project management principles and practices must be a part of our business management model. Every employee must understand how critical this undertaking is. Below are examples (Gary, Larson, 2008) of business environment drivers that are moving the company to create this extremely important initiative. oIn high-tech industries, the product life-cycle is averaging 1 to 3 years.Approximately 30 years ago, life cycles of 10 – 15 years were not uncommon. Time to market for new products with short life cycles has become increasingly important. oThe open global markets of today demand cheaper products and services but also better products and services. This coincides with the quality movement and the practice of building quality into the project plan. oThe growth in new knowledge and understanding has increased the complexity of project s because projects encompass the latest advances from the materials used to the specifications, codes, equipment and specialists required to complete the project objectives.Increased competition has placed much emphasis on customer satisfaction. No one settles for generic products and services. The demand is around customized products and services that cater to specific needs. Years ago there was more of a â€Å"one-size fits all† approach. Now there is a great deal of selection. In summary, there are a substantial number of environmental forces requiring the company to take project management to the next step. The company project management initiative will position us for the future business environment which will require increased accountability, flexibility, innovation, speed and continuous improvement.This briefing will describe this company initiative and plans to create a Project Management Office (PMO), initiate Project Portfolio Management, an improved governance stru cture and addresses a change in culture to assure project management and proper governance are part of our daily activities. Establish Project Management Office Project Management Offices often have different styles (Morris, 2008). The company PMO will have a style of â€Å"Operational Partner. † The PMO is not only to create the project management methodology and governance, it will also help organizations grow and meet their strategic targets.The PMO will also be a major factor in project selection through Project Portfolio Management (PPM). This will assure projects are being selected for their overall contribution and alignment to the company strategies. The responsibilities of the PMO are: oMethodology Creation – Creates successful and repeatable processes in support of the company project management methodologies. oProvide Project Management – Supply the project management function to the company business units. Centralized Reporting – Organizationa l level reporting providing complete views of all project activity and summarizing cost and progress reporting for the entire company. oKnowledge Center – Act as an advisor and will maintain a knowledge center for project documentation. oProject Selection – Creating criteria and methods for project selection via a Project Portfolio Management process. The plan (see accompanying MS Project File) to establish the Project Management Office starts with a Brainstorming session with the CIO.This session leverages participant innovation and â€Å"out of the box† thinking to establish the PMO strategy management elements (Vision, Mission, Goals). Once the strategy management elements are defined, the PMO design and architecture phase will start. During this phase, the PMO Responsibilities, Authority and Accountabilities (RA&A) are documented, the team architecture is defined and the facilities requirements are documented. Choosing the PMO team could be the single most i mportant decision in establishing the PMO (Campbell, Baker, 2007).During the development phase, the PMO staff, team operating rhythm, PMO processes will be created and the facilities build up occurs. Establish Project Portfolio Management A Project Portfolio Management (PPM) methodology will be established. The purpose of the PPM is to assure approved projects are aligned with the company strategic goals and priorities. This methodology will provide information that enables better business decisions. Figure 1 shows a conceptual project scoring matrix that may be used to measure projects against specific criteria.Projects that are approved will be tracked to assure the business case comes home and the forecasted return on investment is realized. The plan (see accompanying MS Project File) to establish PPM, like the PMO, starts with a brainstorming session and again will include the CIO and leverage participant innovation and â€Å"out of the box† thinking. The key outcome of t he session is to define and document the objectives of the PPM and each step of a PPM gated process. The PPM gates to be defined are: oGate 1 – Define and Prioritize Business Strategy Gate 2 – Capture and Publish Idea oGate 3 – Publish Business case for Idea Review and Rating oGate 4 – Idea Analysis and Approval oGate 5 – Finalize Design Document oGate 6 – Approval Each gate will go through a design phase prior to entering the development phase. A formal tracking method and visual controls will be created to include â€Å"return on investment† verification. The net present value (NPV) model will be used to access the project against management’s minimum desired rate-of-return to compute the present value of all cash inflows.If the result is positive, it will be eligible for further consideration. Other project considerations are shown below. oIncreasing market share oIncreases difficulty for competitors to enter market oCreatio n of an adjacent product or service oIncreases independence from unreliable suppliers oCreation of new technology that enables new products or product derivatives oCreation of a product that will increase sales of more profitable products oReduced production defectsFigure 1 – Conceptual Project Scoring Matrix (Gary, Larson, 2008) Each project will be scored against the selection criteria. Based on the scoring for the project a total scoring based on the weighting will reflect the final score. Establish Governance Structure In order for the PPM to function properly, an Investment Review Board (IRB) must be put in place to assure proposed projects are brought through the approved process, voted on based on the selection criteria established and formally tracked to the success criteria stated in the business case.Each functional area will have representation on the IRB. This assures that impacts to the overall company priorities can be assessed and result in the best possible go vernance of the projects and priorities in alignment with the company strategies. Like the other major planning components of this company initiative, the plan to build the new Governance Structure will start with a brainstorming session. The session will include the CIO and a representative from each of the functional areas.This provides an opportunity for a manager from each area to help shape this important board and voice any risks or issues to assure these are addressed in the design and architecture phase in creating the governance structure. The session will focus on foundational elements in creating the new structure such as board chartering, RA&A (Responsibility, Authority & Accountability), team structure and operating rhythm. A draft of a governance board structure is shown in figure 2 to facilitate initial discussions. Figure 2 – Governance Board Structure Establish Culture Change/Communication PlanThe success of this company initiative is in the hands of every te am member in the company. If we are going to remain competitive and thrive in a global market, we must take our business disciplines in project management and governance to the next level. A communication plan is part of the overall plan to assure the flow of information horizontally and vertically. Culture change requires a high degree of multi-faceted communications (hybrid of high touch and no-touch). This plan supports a corporate communications expert to help assure â€Å"the right information† is getting to â€Å"the right individuals† as â€Å"the right time. This includes branding the activities for promotional purposes and creation of escalation paths for any employee (non-management and management alike) with questions, concerns and issues surrounding the initiative. This effort will mitigate previous issues where a top down deployment of a company initiative did not enable the escalation of issues and concerns related to the implementation challenges experi enced by the employees. Summary This plan requires a commitment from all employees. We can not afford to fail in our efforts.Securing our future growth and prosperity are paramount in the challenging business climate of today. To help the company make this successful journey, extensive use of the Independent Review process (to be created by the PMO) will assure full implementation of the initiative and achievement to the expected level of performance. The benefits of this initiative will be seen and felt by every employee in the way of focused efforts that are sized and prioritized for the approved resources and aligned to the company strategies resulting in greater levels of shareholder value.Thank you in advance for your support of this plan. NOTE: A non-recurring budget snapshot for the development and implementation of this initiative is shown in figure 3. Figure 3: Non-recurring Budget SnapshotReferences Morris, Rick A. (2008) The Everything Project Management Book 2nd Edition Avon, MA: Adams Media Gary, C. F. , Larson, E. W. (2008) Project Management – The Managerial Process New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin Campbell, G. M. , Baker, S. B. (2007) Project Management Fourth Edition New York, NY: Penguin Group

The Caribbean Language Situation

Topic: The Caribbean language situation. The Caribbean language situation is rather multifaceted thus there is a lot of controversy surrounding it. This topic in the course is an interesting one because it has enriched my understanding of what the language situation is in Jamaica and other neighbouring islands as well as its impact on education. According to Kathryn Shields (1989), two ways in which Standard English in Jamaica is defined are through the traditional metropolitan norms and the educated Jamaicans.She identifies that the discrepancies found in defining Standard English in Jamaica often times go undocumented. However, this should not be as teachers would want to use it as they hope to monitor the factors to which their students are exposed by paralleling the discrepancy model with the acceptable model. As a result of this, I do agree with the idea of teachers using Creole to teach students different aspects of the target language. This is because many students in Jamaica enter the classroom speaking Creole or a mixture of Creole and English.Often times this reflects the social background of the students as a result the teacher becomes a facilitator and accommodate these language varieties, thus, introducing Standard English which seems foreign to them may make them feel uncomfortable. Therefore, it would be wise to immerse them into the target language by taking them from the known to the unknown. Shields uses the educated Jamaicans as she identifies features that comprise the de facto model of English for the learner in Jamaica, subsequently presenting evidence of a new form of English in Jamaica.Additionally, she compares the pre-independence and post-independence eras of Jamaican language history. In the pre-independence era she regards the language as ‘mish mash’ and the language was referred to by the blanket term Jamaican English, which hides the difference between standard and non-standard as well as Creole, thus, making the desc ription of the language vague. In the post-independence era the concept of Creole being inferior seeps over although there have been several revisions of attitudes to the language.This is true as years after independence Creole speakers are still looked at and regarded as deep rural residences who have not been exposed to Standard English. In addition, many people including Creole speakers see Creole as a bad language and so should not be used in schools. It is seen as a waste of time to study or understand as it interferes with the learning of the target language. In some Jamaican schools especially city schools, teachers are not allowed to speak Creole and students are forced to speak the target language.I am in disagreement with the negative attitude that still exists against Creole in this day and age as to me Creole has evolved into a unique language that identifies us as Caribbean people as well as our respective territories. Fortunately, not all Caribbean countries are still showing prejudice against Creole as in Haiti; French Creole has been legitimately accepted as an official language. Another salient aspect of the language situation in Jamaica and the Caribbean is the fact that children from varying backgrounds are expected to communicate in a language they cannot write or speak.Therefore, a child from a Jamaican Creole speaking background is expected to write in Standard English and understand the language of educational books written in the target language. According to Shields, the Ministry of Education endorses the notion that adoptive speakers of the target language will have problems speaking the language but by reading, modelling and practice one will be able to write it. However they are not totally trying to eliminate the idea that one should be able to speak the target language as this is also an important factor in communicating globally.This is evident in many schools where some students are able to write to an extent in the target langu age but whenever they are to speak the language they develop severe pronunciation and grammatical problems. The implication this has for myself and other teachers is to approach our class as a teacher of a ‘foreign’ language and use effective strategies and suitable models that will provide students with all the reading, writing and speaking practice necessary to become good users of the target language.

Cop in the Hood Essay Example

Cop in the Hood Essay Example Cop in the Hood Paper Cop in the Hood Paper Setareh Salehi Cop in the Hood Peter Moskos‘, Cop in The Hood, is the story of a sociologist going native by going through the Baltimore police academy, becoming a cop and working for over a year. The book follows Moskos chronological journey, from the academy to the street and the last part of the book is dedicated to a pretty thorough analysis of the War on Drugs. The first interesting observation from Moskos’s work is his analysis of the police academy as relatively useless for the job: â€Å"So what’s the point of the academy? Primarily, it’s to protect the department from the legal liability that could result from negligent training. To the trainees this appears more important than educating police officers. † And second, despite the lax approach toward academics, instructors were very concerned with officer safety, the aspect of the job they emphasized most: â€Å"The most important part of your job is that you go home. Everything else is secondary. † This philosophy is reinforced at all levels of the police organization. Formal and informal rules concerning officer safety are propagated simultaneously. By the end of the academy, less than half the class saw a relation between what police learn in the academy and what police need to know on the street. A strong antimedia attitude, little changed from sociologist William Westley’s observations in the 1950s, grew steadily in the police academy. At the end of training, just 10 percent of trainees believed that the media treat police fairly. After six months in the academy, trainees learn to: * Respect the chain of command and their place on the bottom of that chain. Sprinkle â€Å"sir† and â€Å"ma’am† into casual conversation. * Salute. * Follow orders. * March in formation. * Stay out of trouble. * Stay awake. * Be on time. * Shine shoes. † But Moskos’s conclusion is that the training actually demoralizes trainees even before they start working on the streets. Physical training is not boot camp and provides a poor preparation (after all, most officers will spend their days in their patrol car) , and academic training does not really impart knowledge and does not encourage thinking. Once training is over, the bulk of the book follows Moskos on the beat, on the Eastern side of Baltimore and the constant contradictory demands placed on officers (between following a very strict military-style chain of command and having to make quick decisions). In that sense, the book is also a good study of the necessity of developing informal rules in in highly formal, bureaucratic environments. Working around the rules is the only way to keep the work manageable and within the limits of efficiency and sanity. But for Moskos, the gap between formal and informal norms is especially wide in policing. They constantly have to innovate while on patrol because the rules do not work on the streets (of course, some officers do lapse into ritualism especially in a context where protecting one’s pension is the concern all officers have and that guides their behavior on the street). These informal rules are constantly at work whether it comes to stopping, frisking, searching, arresting, writing reports. In all of these aspects of the job, covering one’s butt and protecting one’s life and pension are paramount concerns. This means that officers actually have quite a bit of leeway and flexibility when it comes to their job. These  informal  norms are described in details in Moskos’s book and there is no underestimating their importance. Once on the streets, police officers mix a culture of poverty approach to â€Å"these people† (the communities they are expected to police, where gangs and drugs culture produce poverty with quite a bit of eliminationist rhetoric that reveals an in-group / out-group mentality between police officers and civilians: â€Å"A black officer proposed similar ends through different means. â€Å"If it were up to me,† he said, â€Å"I’d build big walls and just flood the place, biblical-like. Flood the place and start afresh. I think that’s all you can do. † When I asked this officer how his belief that the entire area should be flooded differed from the attitudes of white police, he responded, â€Å"Naw, I’m not like that because I’d let the good people build an ark and float out. Old people, working people, line ’em up, two by two. White cops will be standing on the walls with big poles pushing people back in. † The painful universal truth of this officer’s beliefs came back to me in stark relief during the flooding and destruction of New Orleans, Louisiana. Police in some neighboring communities prevented displaced black residents from leaving the disaster area, turning them away with blockades and guns. † That in-group / out-group outlook also involves dehumanization and stigmatization: â€Å"In the ghetto, police and the public have a general mutual desire to avoid interaction. The sociologist Ervin Goffman wrote, â€Å"One avoids a person of high status out of deference to him and avoids a person of lower status . . . out of a self-protective concern. † Goffman was concerned with the stigma of race, but in the ghetto, stigma revolves around the â€Å"pollution† associated with drugs. Police use words like â€Å"filthy,† â€Å"rank,† â€Å"smelly,† or â€Å"nasty† to describe literal filth, which abounds in the Eastern District. The word â€Å"dirty† is used to describe the figurative filth of a drug addict. It is, in the drug-related sense, the opposite of being clean. † The â€Å"dope fiend† becomes the loathed representative figure of all this. But the dehumanization applies equally to them and the dealers. In that sense, there is no sympathy for the people who have to live in these communities and have nothing to do with the drug trade. They are put in the same bag. And whatever idea of public service trainees might start with tends to disappear after a year on the streets. And quite a bit of what goes on in the streets between police and population has a lot to do with forcing respect and maintaining control of the interaction: â€Å"Although it is legally questionable, police officers almost always have something they can use to lock up somebody, â€Å"just because. † New York City police use â€Å"disorderly conduct. † In Baltimore it is loitering. In high-drug areas, minor arrests are very common, but rarely prosecuted. Loitering arrests usually do not articulate the legally required â€Å"obstruction of passage. † But the point of loitering arrests is not to convict people of the misdemeanor. By any definition, loitering is abated by arrest. These lockups are used by police to assert authority or get criminals off the street. † And, of course, the drug dealers also know the rules and become  skillful  at working around them, avoiding arrest, challenging the police authority and have structured their trade accordingly. It would indeed be a mistake to look at this illegal and informal economy as anything but a trade structured around specific rules hat take into account having to deal with the police and the different statuses of the actors involved in the trade reflect that: * lookouts have the simplest job: alert everyone else of police approach, * steerers promote the product, * moneymen obviously hold the money for the transactions, * slingers distribute the drugs after money has been exchanged * and gunmen protect the trade. The transaction is therefore completely decomposed into steps where money and drugs are never handled by the same person while the main dealers watch things from afar, protecting themselves from legal liabilities. For most of these positions, the pay is not much better than fast-food joints, but that is pretty much all there is in these  urban  areas. Of course, just like everything in the US, there is a racial component to this. The drug trade is not a â€Å"black thing† (like mac and cheese as Pat Robertson would say) and it has its dependency theory taste: â€Å"The archetypal white addict is employed, comes with a friend, drives a beat-up car from a nearby blue-collar neighborhood or suburb such as Highlandtown or Dundalk, and may have a local black drug addict in the backseat of the car. A black police officer who grew up in the Eastern District explained the local’s presence, â€Å"White people won’t buy drugs alone because they’re afraid to get out of the car and approach a drug dealer. They’ll have some black junkie with them. † The local resident serves as a sort of freelance guide, providing insurance against getting â€Å"burned† or robbed. The local addict is paid informally, most often taking a cut of the drugs purchased. † The complete mistrust between the police and the community is also a trademark of impoverished urban environments. And indeed, what would residents gain by interacting with law enforcement and the court system? At the same time, police work is arrest-based (the more the better) which officers all understand to be futile. For Moskos, part of the problem with policing was the advent of policing-by-patrol-car: â€Å"The advent of patrol cars, telephones, two-way radios, â€Å"scientific† police management, social migration, and social science theories on the â€Å"causes† of crime converged in the late 1950s. Before then, police had generally followed a â€Å"watchman† approach: each patrol officer was given the responsibility to police a geographic area. 5In the decades after World War II, motorized car patrol replaced foot patrol as the standard method of policing. Improved technology allowed citizens to call police and have their complaints dispatched to police through two-way radios in squad cars. Car patrol was promoted over foot patrol as a cost-saving move justified by increased â€Å"efficiency. 6 Those who viewed police as provocative and hostile to the public applauded reduced police presence and discretion. Controlled by the central dispatch, police could respond to the desires of the community rather than enforce their own â€Å"arbitrary† concepts of â€Å"acceptable† behavior. Police officers, for their part, enjoyed the comforts of the automobile and the prestige associated with new technology. Citizens, rather than being encouraged to maintain communi ty standards, were urged to stay behind locked doors and call 911. Car patrol eliminated the neighborhood police officer. Police were pulled off neighborhood beats to fill cars. But motorized patrol- the cornerstone of urban policing- has no effect on crime rates, victimization, or public satisfaction. † This has encouraged a detachment of officers from the communities they police. Quick response time becomes the goal and officers spend time in their car waiting to be â€Å"activated† on 911 calls. The only interaction between officers and residents is limited to such 911 call responses, which can all potentially lead to confrontations. But that is still the way policing is done and the way it is taught at the academies, guided by the three â€Å"R†s: * Random patrol: give the illusion of omnipresence by changing patrol patterns * Rapid response: act quickly, catch the criminals (doesn’t work) * Reactive investigation: solve crimes rather than prevent them But the institutional context very poorly accounts for the interaction rituals that guide the interaction between officers and residents: â€Å"Police officers usually know whether a group of suspects is actively, occasionally, or never involved with selling drugs. Some residents, often elderly, believe that all youths, particularly those who present themselves as â€Å"thug† or â€Å"ghetto,† are involved with drug dealing. If police respond to a call for a group of people known not to be criminals, police will approach politely. If the group seems honestly surprised to see the police, they may be given some presumption of innocence. An officer could ask if everything is all right or if the group knows any reason why the police would have been called. If the suspects are unknown to a police officer, the group’s response to police attention is used as the primary clue. Even with a presumption of guilt, a group that walks away without being prompted will generally be allowed to disperse. If a group of suspects challenges police authority through language or demeanor, the officer is compelled to act. This interaction is so ritualized that it resembles a dance. If temporary dispersal of a group is the goal, the mere arrival of a patrol car should be all that is needed. Every additional step, from stopping the car to exiting the car to questioning people on the street, known as a â€Å"field interview,† is a form of escalation on the part of the police officer. Aware of the symbolism and ritual of such actions, police establish a pattern in which a desired outcome is achieved quickly, easily, and with a minimum of direct confrontation. Rarely is there any long-term impact. When a police officer slows his or her car down in front of the individuals, the suspects know the officer is there for them and not just passing through on the way to other business. If a group of suspects does not disperse when an officer â€Å"rolls up,† the officer will stop the car and stare at the group. A group may ignore the officer’s look or engage the officer in a stare-off, known in police parlance as â€Å"eye fucking. † This officer’s stare serves the dual purpose of scanning for contraband and weapons and simultaneously declaring dominance over turf. An officer will initiate, often aggressively, conversation from the car and ask where the suspects live and if they have any identification. Without proof of residence, the suspects will be told to leave and threatened with arrest. If the group remains or reconvenes, they are subject to a loitering arrest. Police officers always assert their right to control public space. Every drug call to which police respond- indeed all police dealings with social or criminal misbehavior- will result in the suspect’s arrest, departure, or deference. † And a great deal of these interactions are also guided by the need, on both sides, to not lose face, be seen as weak or easily punked. These interactional factors may often determine whether an officer gets out of his car or not, sometimes triggering contempt from the residents. So, officers tend to like car patrols as opposed to foot patrols which are tiring, leave one vulnerable to the elements, and potentially preventing crime. Rapid response is easier and more popular with officers. People commit crimes, you get there fast, you arrest them. Overall, Moskos advocates for greater police discretion and more focus on quality of life issues as opposed to rapid response while acknowledging that this is not without problems. I don’t think there ever was a time of policing where communities and law enforcement worked harmoniously together for the greater good. But the bottom line, for Moskos, that the current War on Drugs is a massive failure and a waste of resources (and Moskos does go into some details of the history of drug policies and enforcement in the US, a useful reminder of the racialization of public policy) and should be replaced by a variety of policies (not all drugs are the same) with three goes in mind: * preservation of life (current policies increase the dangerous nature of drugs) * reduce incarceration save money (through reduced incarceration, depenalization and taxation). I think that the poor economy is to blame for drug dealing to be the main source of income for the residence. I believe if the city spent the money it spends on arrests and prosecutions on creating a better environment instead, then the problems would dramatically decrease. If there were after school programs or recreational facilities where the entire community could benefit from, the level of drug sales and abuse would drop. If there were new businesses created in the city, people wouldn’t turn to selling drugs or at least the majority would turn away from the drug dealing business. I also think that if drugs were legal and the residents wouldn’t get arrested for having a small amount of drugs, the relationship between cops and residents would improve.

Corroboratively vs. Collaboratively

Corroboratively vs. Collaboratively Corroboratively vs. Collaboratively Corroboratively vs. Collaboratively By Maeve Maddox A reader has brought my attention to an odd use of the word corroboratively in a job description for a communications specialist position: Work corroboratively as a member of an integrated contractor team Like the reader, I believe that the recruiter was reaching for the adverb collaboratively, which is the word used to describe the action of working with others in a cooperative manner. In my search for additional examples of this misuse, I did not find many, but corroboratively, often spelled â€Å"corrobatively,† does appear in other job descriptions published by recruiters, including several from the UK and one from Australia: You will work corroboratively with the Directors and other Managers Work corrobatively [sic] to support recovery process A marketing site provided another: I think probably this has [a lot] to do with the niche and how much [revenue] is in it for them, and is used corrobatively [sic]. The verb corroborate means â€Å"to strengthen or confirm.† It cropped up frequently in the old Perry Mason television series: Can you corroborate his alibi? If it please the Court, we have corroborating evidence. The adverb form corroboratively is rarely used, although I did find it in two or three difficult-to-follow interpretations of the Book of Revelation in which the prophecies are seen as an indictment of the petroleum industry: all prophecy is corrobatively [sic] linked into the energy business I’m not certain, but I think this example may have something to do with the idea that the Bible provides supporting evidence for the writer’s views. So far the rogue use of corroboratively in the sense of cooperatively or collaboratively is rare, but errors travel quickly in cyberspace. Beware. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Misused Words category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:85 Synonyms for â€Å"Help†The Four Sounds of the Spelling OUPreposition Review #1: Chance of vs. Chance for

Immigration Wars Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Immigration Wars - Essay Example However, the under utilization of pathos can be a highly effective tool in delivery of an argument when seeking to avoid an overly emotive response in politically charged subject matter. It is well known in the written rhetorical argument the writer is wise to embrace the concepts of logos, ethos, and pathos. The more difficult the subject matter, the more critical it is to master these rhetorical elements. Eduardo Proctor tackled a difficult topic in an aspect of illegal immigration. In Proctor’s lack of pathos, he successfully demonstrates the effectiveness of coupling logos and ethos as standalone tools of the rhetorical argument. Eduardo Proctor’s primary argumentative focus in the â€Å"Cost of Illegal Immigration May Be Less Than Meets the Eye† was logos. Proctor not only established credibility with his apt usage of statistics, he used them to maintain his credibility throughout the article. The best application of logos is found be in the statistical comp arison of wage loss percentages between that of California and Ohio during the years of illegal immigration surges. He clearly identified that while illegal immigration critics cited wage declines in California, Proctor competently demonstrated Ohio, which has little to no illegal immigration saw nearly three times the low-income wage loss in the same period. By doing this early in the write, Proctor effectively attracted attention by using factual data that many may not have been aware. This effective use of logos literally forced the reader to continue hearing his argument. While starting the argument with statistics, Proctor was hardly done with logos. He continually reinforced credibility by repeatedly referring to the dates and time line in question. Why was this effective? This hit the mark for Proctor because he was referring to a period of spanning some 25 years. An important aspect of this article is the fact that the period in question is not a snapshot. This was originall y introduced in the second sentence of the article because Proctor identified this as the key element of his argument. Proctor effectively applied the statistical date reference by referring to it no less than six times. He further built his credibility with this statistic by subtly referring to it in varying manners. By stating it as â€Å"quarter decade† and â€Å"since the 1980’s† allowed the reader to grasp the scope of time without losing interest through redundancy. Proctor was also effective in his use of quotes to build credibility. He quoted well-identified, credible sources. To establish his sources, he listed them by name, profession as it pertained to his argument, and organization. Proctor utilized appropriate quotes to support his argument without belaboring the quotes with inappropriate or off topic information. The quotes were precise, direct, and factually based. To achieve success in this, Proctor identified the individuals he cited, as â€Å" economists† to establish they were on the same level of those from which he was dissenting. In quoting one of the economists he cited, "’Illegal immigration had a little bit of a role reinforcing adverse trends for the least advantaged, he said, but there are much stronger forces operating over the last 25 years.’" This was an ideal quote because it both builds credibility and solidifies Proctor’s use of statistics. The element of logos has been highly effective in this article. However, Proctor did not