The Plan
1. Freewrite: Reflect on the following question: What is a criminal? Use what we've read in Yummy and the Time's article, seen in the films: Juvies and The Interrupters, to define this term.
B. Topical Invention (handout)
2. WLTC--Chapter 3: Exercises 3B, 3C, 3D
3. Homework--From WLTC: Read and annotate, bring in questions on Chapter 4.
Complete exercise: 3F (72)
We reviewed Exercise 3D (65-66). If you need more practice with this complete exercise 3E for extra credit.
4. Old homework: Post the 10 arguments: 5 for Juvies and 5 for The Interrupters. Post where assigned.
5. Bring Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow, to class Tuesday. We will start reading it next week.
The exercises in WLTC are to help students become conversant with the material. The weighted assignments are of course the arguments you write and present. Look at the syllabus to see how the assignments are weighted for the final grade. No one from English 5 has come to my office hours. If there are questions, I suggest students come and see me.
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Liliulachelle Finley
ReplyDeleteProfessor Sabir
English 5
16 February 2012
Freewrite: What is a Criminal?
A criminal is defined in the dictionary as someone who has committed a crime. However, I do not agree with this definition. I believe a criminal is someone who commits a crime with sole intentions to do so where they truly acknowledge what they’re doing and the consequences that come after the act is committed. These people commit crimes because they want to get in trouble and they do the things they do with great and full intentions. An example of someone deemed a criminal who really isn’t is Jean ValJean. In the book, Les Miserables, the protagonist, Jean ValJean, stole a piece of bread for his family from a bakery, was caught and deemed a criminal under the court of law. However, to his family and others, he was and is no criminal and only did the deed for the sake of his family. I agree with the views of his family and others because many do this these days. They regret, they ponder on what they’ve done and they try their best to never do such again. Yummy, to me, was not a criminal. He felt much regret, he was a young child whose brain was not fully developed for the crime world, and in the end, he wanted to turn himself in. With examples from “Juvies” and “The Interrupters,” the kids were scared and really did not want to be there. Regret is the key factor to really knowing whether someone is a criminal or not.
Ronald Parker
ReplyDeleteProfessor Sabir
English 5 11-12:15
February 16, 2012
What is a criminal?
Over the years when your parents were kids, your parent’s parents were kids and so on down the line I think the word criminals definition never changed. A criminal has so many different meanings, but all tie back to the same thing. A criminal is an individual who decides not to abide by the law and make his or her own rules. Also a criminal is a person who is not fit to be in a world where they have to respond to authority. A criminal is also someone who will go to juvenile hall or prison and most likely return in their lifetime. A criminal is not everyone who is imprisoned at the moment. You are a criminal when you are convicted of a crime that you have committed, as far as the people who are in jail for a crime they didn’t commit is not a criminal. A person who is a true criminal will not have remorse for what they have done no matter how harsh the crime is. They are just heartless individuals who could careless about anything but benefiting themselves.
Monsoon Pandey
ReplyDeleteProfessor Wanda
English 5
16 February, 2012
Free write: What is a criminal?
A criminal is someone who breaks a present law, gets caught and gets proven guilty of doing it. After proven guilty, they fight the system and either have to serve prison terms or get away with it with help of a good lawyer. Every once in a while, however, an innocent person can be accused of being a criminal because of the special circumstances that they are in where justifying oneself becomes impossible. Most of the criminals who choose to break the law and do horrible things in their right state of mind are either abused, sad and have lots of hate within themselves. Sometimes, people are also obligated to commit a crime against their will. For example, in the novel “Yummy” by G. Neri, a twelve year old boy shoots a girl in order to impress his gang members and be accepted in the gang. After committing the crime, almost all the criminals regret their action and whish for a second chance when they are imprisoned for a long time. The rates of young criminal teenagers are growing exponentially in our society because of gang members recruiting young kids since they tend to think that being a minor has less sever consequents for their action even though that is not necessarily true anymore. Some teenagers also commit crime because of their low temper, anger management problem and their ability of not being a good thinker or making the right decision. I personally believe that young criminals need a second chance and should not be sent to jail for a long period of time because they have the chance to grow, understand things better, and use their regret to make a better life so they deserve a second chance more than anyone else.
Tiffanya Richardson
ReplyDeleteProfessor Sabir
February 17, 2012
English 5
Criminal Freewright
When one thinks of a criminal, you often think of someone who breaks the law repeatedly and gets caught. A criminal is typically someone who has been convicted of a crime, or is found guilty of breaking a law. Criminals serve prison sentences or subject to paying fines. The underlying term that is prevalent in my mind when defending a criminal is “guilty”. An individual must be caught and convicted to fit into society’s definition of the term. This makes me think, what exactly does guilty mean?
As we see in the novel “Yummy”, he was an underprivileged abuses child from the start. The justice system and child protective services failed him, so are they criminals? Are theses systems off the hook because they weren’t found to be “guilty” or convicted? From the definition of the term I would say these systems are criminal, or even breeding criminals so to speak. Criminals stereotypically don’t express their regret of sorrow, while Yummy himself expressed his shooting of Shavon as an “accident”.
It seems as if society’s view of a criminal is skewed. A child without a chance from the very beginning is innocent. Without any guidance or direction from the start, a criminal like an abused animal, is pitiful and deserves our empathy and assistance.
Aaron Villanueva
ReplyDeleteProfessor Sabir
English 5
Feb. 16, 2012
Free Write
What is a criminal?
In Class:
A criminal is someone who has committed a crime and has been caught.
Criminals are people who have been found guilty for breaking the law.
Criminals do not often express regrets like yummy does. When he says re: his shooting of Shavon: “It wasn’t my fault [perhaps] I should turn myself in”.
My Opinion:
A criminal is someone who is having difficulties in society and wanting to have more in life causing them to commit crimes. One example is Yummy. As a child, he has been neglected by people and what he wanted in life is attention; therefore, he causes criminal activities to have it. Another example would be in the film Documentary Juvies. The youths who grew up in negative environments became negative in life. The youths in the documentary film committed adult crimes because of society. The way they were raised made them who they are in society.
Monsoon Pandey
ReplyDeleteProfessor Sabir
English 5
16 February, 2012
Free write: What is a criminal?
A criminal is someone who breaks a present law, gets caught and then later is proven guilty for doing so. In order to be proven guilty, they have to fight the system first and either have to serve prison terms or get away with it with help of a good lawyer. Every once in a while, however, an innocent person can be accused of being a criminal because of the special circumstances that they are in where justifying oneself becomes impossible. Most of the criminals who choose to break the law and do horrible things in their right state of mind are either abused, sad or have lots of hate within themselves. Sometimes, people are also obligated to commit a crime against their will. For example, in the novel “Yummy” by G. Neri, a twelve year old boy shoots a girl in order to impress his gang members and be accepted in the gang. The rate of young teenage criminals are growing exponentially in our society because of gang members recruiting young kids since they reckon that being a minor has less sever consequents for their action even though that is not necessarily true anymore. Some teenagers also commit crime because of their fast temper, anger management problem and their lack of ability to control oneself and distinguish right or wrong. After committing the crime, almost all criminals regret their action and wish for a second as they sit and ponder in jail. I personally believe that young criminals need a second chance and should not be sent to jail for a long period of time because they have the chance to grow, understand things better, and use their mistakes to enhance their life style, so they deserve a second chance more than anyone else.
Edwin Peabody
ReplyDeleteProfessor Sabir
English 5
16 February 2012
Criminal is a person why acts in the manner that is outside of the normal social constraints. A criminal is someone who breaks the law and is caught and proven guilty for his actions. Criminals don’t often express regret like yummy does when he says Shavon death was an accident. Most criminals live a rough life while growing up, very similar to yummy’s life. Yummy was a young black boy, who grew up in an urban neighborhood with very little support from his family or positive influences to guide him toward a correct direction. Yummy was attracted to the gang life because he sought to find people to care for him to replace what he did not initially have with his real family, so being a gang member was the closet thing to family for yummy. Being involved with gangs, yummy was influenced to break the law in order to be accepted as a family member by the older gang members. Yummy was too young to be able to decide how to make the right decisions in life, so growing up in the area he lived in, he became a product of his environment.
Kelsey Johnson
ReplyDeleteProfessor Sabir
English 5
February 20, 2012
In class we said a lot of things about what exactly a criminal is. A criminal is anyone who acts unjustly, immorally, or unethically. In class it was decided that one is only a criminal if s/he is caught; I greatly disagree with this. It doesn’t matter if a person is caught by the authorities. If an action is wrong, it is wrong regardless of whether or not someone has to face consequences. However, I do believe that the question of intent should be taken into account. While someone’s intentions are not the sole deciding factor of guilt, it should play a part. A criminal has ill intent when acting unjustly, immorally, or unethically. This is not to say that someone can claim that their intent was not ill and therefore they should not have to serve jail time. However if it can be proven that someone did not intent to commit such a crime, this should be taken into consideration during sentencing.
Saba Ghanem
ReplyDeleteProfessor Sabir
English 5
21 February 2012
Free-write: Defining a criminal
A criminal is a person who has been convicted of a crime, that has violated the safety and liberty of others. Yummy was a victim of societal upbringing, family neglect, and gang exploitation of young minds. If we were lawyers these are the arguments we would present to lower his sentence, or give some window for innocence as a victim to soceity. However, the line that clearly defines a criminal would be once that person has taken a life or violated another person’s safety. In the book Yummy, we are told by the narrator, that Yummy “ran the streets looking for trouble”.The narrator also says “At first Yummy just did little things, like shoplifting”, thus setting the stage that Yummy is going to get himself into bigger things and takes on a habit to do even more. In this sense, we can say that a person becomes a criminal by taking on little violations and little by little finds the comfort to commit serious violations and crimes. So that’s one feature of a criminal. In the film “Juvies”, we are told that certain young offenders act by impulse, rather than by intent to kill. I think this factor should be taken seriously when weighing in whether a person meant to commit a crime or not; however we can’t stress too much the argument of impulse versus intent when defining a criminal. But rather, persuade people to use reason, and anger management skills rather than blame their impulsive behavior for committing the crime. Another factor in defining a criminal would be to look at the victim. In the film, Juvies, many of the kids showed remorse for the crimes they committed, which makes us have some sympathy for them, and maybe even hesitate to call them criminals. However, if the offender is in a horrid living environment, what about the victim, who’s now paralyzed, or lost a child or sibling, or dead; they too deserve some sympathy. For example, in the film Juvies we saw the girl that was shot in the stomach, and how she said she forgives the girl who shot her because she had to do it. When I think about these two girls, one paralyzed and the other in jail with her child, I wonder about our societal morals and values. She paralyzed her friend and ruined her life and her child’s life, in order to save who?. It’s true she didn’t mean to do it, but if she was brought up to value life, I don’t think she would have done it. Another factor in defining a criminal would be if they take pride in committing crime and are repeat offenders. An example from Juvies, would be the father that was re-sent to jail four days before his son was to be released. I have no problem calling him a criminal, as a repeat offender, and one who clearly shows no remorse. In contrast to him, would be, Eddie, from the film Interrupters. It’s hard to label him as a criminal because he later made use of his mistake to help prevent others from doing the same.
Melvin Herring
ReplyDeleteProfessor Sabir
English 5
21 February 2012
Free-write: Defining a criminal
What is a criminal? Adulf Hitler considered all gay Germans criminals. The FBI considered John Dillinger, Al Capone and Bonnie and Clyde as criminals; but what is a criminal, a criminal according to the merriam-webster dictionary is defined as someone who is guilty of a crime. This could explain the story of an 11 year old boy named Robery Sandifer also known as “Yummy”, Yummy was a young kid looking for a father figure and found it in the leader of a gang called the Black Disciples. This gang used Yummy as their little puppy dog, he always followed and obeid their every command. Yummy’s story is one of many, it happens all over the world. Criminals are like loyal stores, you can find them in every city, state, and country. Criminals are not born, they are made. For Yummy this may be the case; as a young child he was abused, he was fillied with anger and had no guidance.
Ricardo Arvizu
ReplyDeleteProffesor Sabir
English 5
Febuary 2012
free write: Defining a criminal
A criminal is defined as a person who commits crimes for a living. A criminal in my opinion does not have to be convicted of a crime or be incarcerated to be considered a criminal in todays society, a criminal is someone who commits crimes for a living. People do not just wake up one day and decide they want to be criminals they are a product of their environments in lower class environments the school systems and jobs rates have let them down so of course some people are going to let out their frustration by committing crimes. These peoples sons and daughters will grow up in the same mentalities as them and commit crimes as well take Yummy for example his mother and his father both committed crimes and they did not really give him the love and respect he deserved so of course he was going to grow up angry and he felt the need to be wanted by someone so he joined a gang. Criminals are a product of their environment it is not the people that are crazy its the society they grow up in.
Maya Dobjensky
ReplyDeleteProfessor Sabir
English 5
Feburary 2012
Define a criminal.
In the eyes of society, a criminal is someone who is or has served jail time for an accused crime, whether the person committed it or not. I know that many people who are or have been in jail are not guilty of the crime they were committed for. On the other hand, many people have committed crimes and have not been caught for it, and therefore are not considered criminals. Also to be considered is the question of law versus morality. There are people who do not break the law but still manage to live outside society's moral and ethical code. Thought they are every day citizens in the eye of the law, they may committ wrong doings against other humans or animals. A criminal is a product of society. Therefore, there is the definition offered by the community at large, and there is a personal definition which differs for every individual. Personally, I don't believe in criminals. I believe that everyone does things both good and evil, but it is pointless to label some people as "bad". They may make a mistake once and never commit it again, or they may continue to harm others for their entire lives. either way, that's not a judgement I am comfortable making.
While I remember having this discussion in class. I didn't post my opinion on the definition of a criminal. While we've been challenged with using what we've seen in the films and in our reading to define the term criminal, I feel like that limits our scope of the criminal concept. In my opinion there are different angles to the definition of a criminal.
ReplyDeleteAngle 1: In the eyes of the american justice system, a criminal is an individual that has been convicted (even in a court of public opinion) of a crime.
Angle 2: In the eyes of the morally conservative, a criminal is any person that has shown little or no integrity by being untrustworthy. My (somewhat conservative) mother used to always say that anyone that will lie will surely cheat and will obviously steal. Of course, this is all based on judgment, but the court of public opinion does play a major part in the laws of this country.
Angle 3: The criminal mind. There are individuals that are never caught nor suspected of any criminal activity. These people would never be consider criminals because they're always quiet and keep to themselves. However, their criminal thoughts, plottings and in some cases their actions (think serial killers that have yet to be caught) most certainly make them criminals.
Adalie Villalobos
ReplyDeleteProfessor Sabir
english 5
A criminal is a person who has not followed the laws, it is an individual that has been convicted of a crime. For example, in the novel “Yummy” by G. Neri, a twelve year old boy shoots a girl in order to impress his gang members and be accepted in the gang. After committing the crime, almost all the criminals regret their action and wish for a second chance when they are imprisoned for a long time. In the film Juvies, it seemed like they were given chances to prove there innocence but fail again because of the enviornment they are raised in. Old habits arise in their lives again when let out to the world for a second chance.
Ana Cristina Muro
ReplyDeleteProfessor Sabir
English 5
16 February 2012
What is a Criminal?
A criminal to me is someone who commits a crime and gets caught. The reason why I think this way is because if you are not caught then no one knows you have committed a crime. Therefore you are not an official criminal. However, I also think that everyone has a conscious and if they have broken the law they can classify themselves as criminals as well. Criminals are also people who are fugitives and the police are looking for them. I think that mainly to be a criminal a higher authority must be looking for you or has you under arrest.