Cops in the Hood

In high crime areas there is a need for more policemen and women to be patrolling and on the force. I have personally seen crime rates reduced in cities back home by putting cameras up on every corner around the projects. Before the cameras there were countless fights, stabbings, shootings and drive bys. After the cameras were put up a majority of the crime stopped because people did not want to get caught on camera. I feel like this should be done in all high risk for crime areas just as a pre-caution because it helps make people feel safer and confident that they wont get a bullet through their front door from a drive by. Policemen and women that work in high-risk areas definitely face more daily challenges such as these, however I believe the key to crime prevention is to begin with preventing it in youth. If we can stop it before it develops into a problem and we fix the child foster care systems I believe we would have less delinquent crime.

Children develop a think skin when their growing up in a dog eat dog world. If you don’t have thick skin in a tough situation then you may not survive. However, as children experience more negative influences in bad areas they can develop problems with authority and their attitudes. In a criminal justice blog called Simple Justice I read an interesting article that relates to the topic of attitude problems in adolescents and where it can get them when the police get involved. The power of authority and the fear it instills is what makes people become obedient. But, when that authority is not respected there can be problems and consequences for the adolescent that may be extreme. It can be argued that police who patrol areas that have high crime rates and severe poverty tend to be harder on children who get in trouble in these areas because they want to scare them away from delinquency and crime. The article that I found on the criminal justice blog depicts the extreme consequences that can come with mouthing off to authority.

Eleven-year-old Yajira Quezada was a 6^th grader at Shaw Height’s Middle School in Colorado. According to the states public school rankings, Shaw Height’s is a low performing middle school that has been performing worse every year since 2004; they are now ranked at 384^th out of 418 in the entire state. While at school one day Yajira was handcuffed and detained for talking back to the assistant principle after she was questioned for being in the hallway. Yajira was trying to get her sweatshirt during lunch because she was cold; she became annoyed when she was stopped and questioned for such a harmless thing. The assistant principle took it as her disobeying orders to stay in the lunchroom. After unsuccessfully forcing her to talk to a counselor, they police stepped in and she was taken to a juvenile holding facility. According to the Criminal Justice Blog, Steve Saunders director of communications and community relations for The School District, said, “You hate to see something escalate to where it becomes a police matter. Once they step in and take over a case, it is really in their hands. The conclusion was, as far as the district was concerned, everything was handled appropriately” (Greenfield). I personally think it is a little ridiculous that the poor girl got hand cuffed and taken to juvi because she mouthed off to the assistant principle…maybe a detention would have been a less severe punishment for the child. This just goes to show you how seriously police and authority figures take their power, especially in difficult areas and bad school systems. 

http://blog.simplejustice.us/2012/03/08/schools-have-rules-attitude-adjustment/