Final Blog Post!

We have learned a lot of interesting things in this class, but my favorite topics were about killers and the deviant behavior. I have always had an interest in serial killers and how their mind works. I don't know if it was because I am a big scary movie fanatic, or if it is just for some other random reason, but the idea of a serial killer's mind and their motivations or actions just interest me. I feel almost the same way about deviance because you wonder why people do certain actions that are out of the norms of society and what encourages them to act outside of society. Another thing I enjoyed were the free blogs. Writing them were easy, but I enjoyed seeing what other people were interested in because they would have fun writing their blog, making them more exciting to read.

My least favorite parts of the class were the presentations by guest speakers. It is always a good idea to have guest speakers, but the suicide presentation seemed more of an information session about suicide and what Varner house does to help. The presentation about Swift Justice did not show much purpose to me. The speakers were very nice and seemed to present well, but the topics were not very interesting.

The topics I would like to see expanded are things on television, movies, and music. I feel like the class would be much more engaged in these topics since at our age, we are almost hypnotized by such things. I would love to get my opinion on different killers in movies or how music motivates us and the last couple classes were really fun to talk about. I don't really think anything needs to be limited though.

If I were to teach the class, I would probably do it very similarly to how Dr. C did it. Many good topics were presented and the articles were good displays of media. I do think the more recent news should be a part of the class. Maybe a current events section needs to be included. Perhaps a certain amount of people could bring in an article every week relating media and justice. But overall, I wouldn't change much of anything.

Se7en

I hope you guys have seen the movie since it is one of the greatest movies in history. If you haven't, then the movie Se7en is about two detectives, Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman, who are on the hunt for a serial killer who justifies his crimes as absolution through God for the world's ignorance of the Seven Deadly Sins. Killing people based on their sins, the character John Doe, played by Kevin Spacey, murders people one at a time and signifies how this particular person ignores a particular sin to a great extent.

The issue of justice portrayed in the movie is that Kevin Spacey believes he is doing God's work and sending a message to the world. He kills a man who was heavily obese (gluttony) as well as cut off a model's nose for thinking too highly of her self image (pride.) The ending has some sort of twist to it, so I won't ruin it for anyone. On the other side, Pitt and Freeman feel that it is not just to kill these people and try to put a stop to it. Killing someone by the Sword Of God is not a justification for murder although Spacey believes it to be so. Emotions get in the way for Pitt's renegade character as the older, more calm cop, Freeman, tries to keep order throughout the movie. I found one way to look at this is that in Islamic tradition, they follow the word of Mohammed and stick with that tradition. Spacey takes this concept to a whole new level in this movie by taking matters into his own hands rather than through the justice system. It is more of a vigilante from the criminal side.

Slow Motion - Third Eye Blind

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ibfvjv4uxE
I don't think this is the official music video because I don't think they made one, but I found an interesting video with some clips trying to explain some of the video.


LYRICS
Miss Jones taught me English
But I think I just shot her son
'Cause he owed me money
With a bullet in the chest you cannot run
Now he's bleeding in a vacant lot
The one in the summer where we used to smoke pot
I guess I didn't mean it
But man, you should've seen it
His flesh explode

Slow motion, see me let go
We tend to die young
Slow motion, see me let go
What a brother knows
Slow motion, see me let go

Now the cops will get me
But girl, if you would let me
I'll take your pants off
I got a little bit of blow we could both get off
Later, bathing in the afterglow
Two lines of coke got cut with Drano
And her nose starts to bleed
A most beautiful ruby red

Slow motion, see me let go
We'll remember these days
Slow motion, see me let go
Urban life decays
Slow motion, see me let go

And at home
My sister's eating paint chips again
Maybe that's why she's insane
I shut the door to her moaning
And I shoot smack in my veins
Wouldn't you?
See my neighbor's beating his wife
Because he hates his life
There's an arc to his fist as he swings
Oh man, what a beautiful thing
And death slides close to me
Won't grow old to be
A junkie wino creep

Hollywood glamorized my wrath
I'm a young urban psychopath
I incite murder for your entertainment
'Cause I needed the money
What's your excuse?
The joke's on you

Slow motion, see me let go 
Oh yeah 
Slow motion, see me let go 
Slow motion, see me let go 


MEANING
I have listened to this song tons of times and I absolutely love this song. A lot of people listen to this song and think of all the things like doing cocaine, shooting people, and beating wives and completely misunderstand the message that this song is trying to send. I tried to find the actual meaning to the song online and couldn't find much but what I feel like what goes on in the song is that we see all these things that go on on TV and movies and in celebrities lives and they are in "slow motion." It is about how we see these things and interpret them, with others seeing some of them as "beautiful" when in reality, they are just disgusting. It could be a coincidence that I know this song so well for class and this blog but in a way it shows how the media has interpreted how we look at things. One other way to look at it is how in life we look at things in a certain way and ignore the true beauty of them, but these are the two meanings I could figure out.

Suicide Guest Speaker

The guest speaker this week was very informative as well as presented information that was interesting and informative. The speaker did present some things that seemed like common sense to me, but some of the class might not have known it. Actually, I didn't know that JMU had a entire suicide program for students. Considering that the William and Mary has such a high suicide rate and the whole Rutgers situation recently, it seemed like a good time to present this material. As she explained, 80 percent of people think about suicide and to me that doesn't exactly say that people think that the world would be better without them or anything like that. I feel like people just wonder what it would be like if they weren't around in a sense.

Becoming aware of the signs of suicide seemed to be the important part of the presentation since it involves you and your friends. I know we all have had some rough times, and for some people times can get so rough that suicide becomes contemplated and becoming aware of these signs can help the cause. One topic found very interesting was the people who attempt suicide and end up living. Like the people who jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge. There was also a presentation where a man who has been on death row came to speak saying how he attempted suicide and failed, saying it was the biggest regret of his life. If only suicidal people could listen to these presentations or people who attempted and failed, it would probably change their lives. But overall, I feel like the presentation went extremely well and opened my eyes to a couple things.

Safe on Halloween?

We all see it on the news. We see the "Tips for Being Safe on Halloween," where it talks about where to walk, who to be with, what candy not to take. But in the past few years, Halloween apparently seems to have gotten safer every year and I found a statistic saying the most dangerous part of Halloween these days are cars. Sure there are a lot of pranks every year and kids will be kids, but as for deaths and dangerous pranks go, police have cracked down. Cars seemed to be the main concern and there have been more deaths and injuries by cars on Halloween compared to deaths by pranks, poisonous candy, and Halloween murders (Deaths by cars is 4 times higher on Halloween than any other day statistically.)

The media has done a good job of putting these facts and tips out there, but do you think the media has a big effect on how to keep kids safe, or is it mostly police and parenting that is keeping kids safe?

http://www.examiner.com/northside-family-parenting-in-atlanta/halloween-safety-cars-not-candy-is-the-biggest-danger-for-kids-1

Halloween Crime

In the spirit of the holiday, I decided to do my blog post on crimes during Halloween. I found an article about how a lot of crimes, mostly robberies, consist of men wearing Halloween masks to conceal their identity. The crimes listed in the article go from robberies to murders. Law-enforcement officials say they see an uptick in crimes committed by people wearing Halloween masks about this time every year. Once the costumes hit the stores in late September and early October, criminals jump on their sales and use them to strike fear in department stores.


The punishment for crimes while wearing masks is greater than ones where masks are not used. If the crime is a second-degree felony, it can be upgraded to a first degree felony if the criminal is wearing a mask. You could also be charged with a crime under a little-known Florida law that prohibits anyone older than 16 from wearing masks or hoods in public places or meetings, except during Halloween and masquerades. Are there any ways to prevent these crimes from happening or for stores and people to prepare themselves that has not already been done? (such as "safety tips" for going out on Halloween)


http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-halloween-mask-crimes-20101027,0,6831891.story

Copycat Killer Film

I found this film fairly interesting in the sense that as a society, many people look up to celebrities. They want to be able to do what they do, whether they be sports stars or movie stars. We want to copy what they do, and it shows that it is no different in movies, even if the act is killing another person. Actors and actresses make it seem "cool" to rob a bank or murder someone because they can easily get away with it. Those ordinary citizens copying these individuals do not look at the consequences because they usually don't show them in the movie, and if they do, the criminal avoids them, usually with ease. There have been a lot of cases, and I am not going to lie, I find some crimes like bank robbery very unique and love watching movies about them. Killing someone based on what they see in a movie is just disturbing. I did a post a few weeks ago where a boy killed his younger brother because he idolized the Showtime serial killer "Dexter." Even at a young age he was idolizing a killer and took matters into his own hands to be like him. I am a big fan of film, so watching movies and television shows is one of my favorite things to do, but watching them and acting like them are completely different ideas and should be avoided. Try to be like someone that really does exist, not a character in a movie.