1. Clap, directed by Terence Nance is a short film starring Gbenga Akinnagbe (The Wire), Kim Howard & Josiah Small . Clap is Pharoahe Monch's first visual from W.A.R. (We Are Renegades) out March 22nd. Clap is a 10 minute short film about a police raid gone wrong dramatically wrong. It is based on the story of Ayanna Jones, a nine year old child burned alive by the police in Detroit, Michigan. http://media.mvmt.com/2011/03/14/clap-a-short-film/
Here is the song: http://www.metrolyrics.com/clap-lyrics-pharoahe-monch.html
Share initial impressions and then pull out five (or more) arguments and then state them in standard form. If you'd like to indicate whether or not the argument posed is inductive or deductive reasoning that would be great. If you note any fallacious arguments at play, what are they?
Respond to a classmate's post (at least one). Expand their argument with pertinent questions.
2. WLTC
3. Homework -- catch up. I will send everyone their essays (Writing Assignments 7 & 8)
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10822617
ReplyDeleteProfessor Sabir
English 5
03/29/2012
I didn’t really understand the film. The only part that I understood was that clap was a synonym for shooting at someone. However, I didn’t really understand how the film related back to the news article about the little girl who was killed when the police threw a bomb into her home. I don’t see the similarity between shooting at someone, as the police did in the film, and throwing a bomb into someone’s home, as was reported in the news article. In my opinion, while both are wrong and tragic, bombing someone’s house is a lot worse than shooting someone in their home. Ultimately the film was little to artsy for me. I didn’t get what the overall message was from the film.
Jerald M. Appling
ReplyDeleteProfessor Wanda Sabir
English 5 Critical Thinking
March 29, 2012
I’ve always been a fan of Pharoah Monch and his lyrical portraits/stories. “Clap” is no exception. I was familiar with the song before seeing this powerful video. The lyrics told the story of a community that seemed to be at war with the police that have been trained to protect and serve them. The film tells the story of how this protection can go horribly wrong. Michelle Alexander discusses this when she writes about paid informants (that are often drug addicts) who have a tendency to provide misinformation so that they can receive a payoff.
The major argument in the film/song is this:
• Informants are paid by the police for information that could lead to drug busts.
• This information is not validated/confirmed by the police.
∴Police often respond to and act on false information.
Here are some other arguments:
• Cops kill the innocent
• Cops are against a peaceful community
∴Cops are the enemy in specific communities
• The cop had visions of the community (in which he lived) turning against him.
• The cop was shut out by the community.
∴The desire of the community (as manifested in the cop’s visions) was to “clap back” (slang for shoot or retaliate).
•Everyone in the film is wearing coats.
•There is a lot of snow/ice on the ground.
∴This incident happened during the Winter season.
•The original officer that spoke with the informant wrote down "1D" on his note pad.
•Before the raid began, there was some confusion on the radio about the apartment number. They broke into apartment "1B"
∴The information could have been correct, the poor translation could have caused the incident.
Melvin Herring
ReplyDeleteProfessor Sabir
English 5
03/29/2012
The short film clap “shooting” was about how police officers raided a building; during this raid, a young man was killed and the man they were searching for got away. This film was about the the problems in America, police “clap” first ask questions later. Police can be a problem, people need to come together.police, criminals, crooks can sometimes be the same thing. and you can never trust a snitch. snitches should get stitches.
1. police can sometimes be the criminals.
2.racism still exist today, "we went from niggas to porch monkeys, nacks to niggas again".
3. one death can affect many people.
4. people as a whole need to stand together, separation can lead to more problems.
5.police escapes their mistakes, never seeing the aftermat of what happens.
10820726
ReplyDelete29 March 2012
The short film, "The Clap." was interesting. From what I understood, the police raid a home, my guess is that they were looking for someone? I am not sure. Well maybe there was a mistake, or maybe the stress of the situation caused the officer to shoot into the room where the little boy was. In the film, I think the police officers raided the wrong apartment. In the film, the little boy is shot, and that is on the officer's hands. the officer walks around in plain clothes and people are clapping at him. I think the way they are clapping is not "for" him but "at" him. I think the fact that he made a mistake starts to mess with him because he might feel like all these people clapping at him are really doing just that. I think he commits suicide from the psychological and emotional pressure of the situation.
Ronald Parker
ReplyDeleteMs. Sabir
3/29/12
English 5
The clap:
I really feel the title related to the viewing. When you are in a ghetto or even using street terms the world “clap” is shooting, also the people clapping and singing outside. So when the cop shot in the door and hit the person that was something being clapped. I feel this is unfair in the system people just do it for money because we saw the informant took the $20 and gave up the room number. But I also feel that I am missing a lot because with the cops bursting into the door and the people in the park actually clapping their hands kind of confused me on if I was referring to the correct clap term. Did the cop really feel remorse for shooting the wrong person or was he upset that he didn’t catch the right guy and he is still out to commit another crime.
10158112
ReplyDeleteEnglish 5
Thursday 29, 2012
The clap
Basically what I got from the short film, was the guy had blood on his hands since shooting the little boy in the apartment. The police had broken into a wrong apartment and shot and killed an innocent child.It seemed like he was full of guilt and felt like people in the community were judging him. The clap represented the shooting. This short movie was kind of confusing.
Liliulachelle Finley
ReplyDeleteProfessor Sabir
English 5
29 March 2012
Response to “Clap”
In the short film, “Clap,” the viewer is subjected to the harsh realities of life mixed with violence and trouble with the police. Many things can go wrong on an operation for a police officer, such as trying to get a 34 year old suspect out as quickly and quietly as possible in order to avoid conflict. However, this went down entirely wrong. They not only go into the house without being quiet but they fail to really check out the house which results in the police officer shooting the young child. I just read three articles about Aiyana Jones and how she was burned and shot to death by police during a raid that went horribly wrong. I almost cried for her and her family and others who were mentioned in different articles, but I didn’t want to shed tears in class. How can police officers just go into a house and do as they please? It’s as if they feel that they are only there to complete one mission: to get the convict in their hands but they fail to forget all the other factors that surround this mission such as the home, the environment and neighborhood they’re in and the people they may be in the place they are raiding. This happens so much with police officers that I just feel the police academy is so stupid. Do they even really teach a man to be a “police officer?” What the hell is the definition of a “police officer?” Aren’t they supposed to defend and protect us? They obviously don’t do a good job when 30% of fatalities every day are caused by police. My heart rages for the innocent victims and their families. I did, however, feel a little bad for the police officer who accidently shot the kid in the film because he was going crazy because his conscience was getting to him. It was eating him up inside whenever he got the reminder of his wrong doing, the claps. The claps were actually kind of funny. It was like they were saying, “hey, good job dude, way to kill an innocent child.” *(sarcastic voice.) I just feel really bad and this response is getting really long.
Ricardo Arvizu
ReplyDeleteProffesor Sabir
3/29
English 5
From watching the film I saw a couple interesting things that caught my eye. The short film started off by showing a man speaking to a police officer and he gave the officer an adress. The next scene showed the police entering an apartment and shooting a young child by accident, I believe the director wanted to show what a snitch might be thinking when he is giving the police information. In the film the snich received money after he had told the police officer information so the director is telling the audience that people who snich on others might not be doing what they do for the good of the world but to better themselves by receiving money. By the end of the film a police officer had shot the snich this might be the officer that shot the child he might have been looking for revenge.
A.Police abuse rely too much on sniches
B.Police abuse their power
Police should be more carefull about what information they receive.
A.Snitches are not out to help the world.
B.Money can people do crazy things
Snitches only do what they do for money
A.Informants cannot be trusted
B.People can be killed because of false information
Informants can get people killed
A.Police abuses their power.
B.They enters people’s homes with little information.
Police enter peoples homes without the proper information
A.Misinformation can lead to people getting killed.
B.People can get killed by police actions
Police actions caused by misinformation gets innocent people killed.
Daniela Debergue
ReplyDeleteProfessor Sabir
English 5
28 March 2012
Clap Freewrite
The short film “Clap” that we watched in class was really interesting. I expected it to be really corny, but it actually wasn’t. It was filmed very artistically. I thought that the whole premise of the film creatively expressed everyday happenings. I really liked that the director of the film didn’t choose to make the cop that shot the little boy a white man. Instead, he chose to cast an African American cop. I liked this because it really showed that race is not always a factor when a person of color is killed by law enforcement. I also liked the irony at the end of the film when the cop who shot the young boy is killed by another cop while he is in plain clothes on the street, contemplating whether or not to kill himself for what he had done. I also liked how the clapping theme was used in this film to show how killing one person causes a rippling effect and touches the lives of many people and brings them together to demand justice.
Here are some arguments that were presented in the film:
1. Argument: Killing one person does not affect just the person who is killed.
Premise 1: First, the mother is affected by the killing.
Premise 2: The police officer himself is affected by the killing.
Premise 3: Multiple people around the neighborhood are affected. Their clapping shows this.
∴ Killing one person affects a huge amount of people, not just one person.
2. Argument: Police try to run away from mistakes they make.
Premise 1: The cop who shot the boy said nothing to the mother after he shot her son.
Premise 2: The cop makes no attempt to reach out to the public and explain himself or turn himself in.
∴ Police do not understand the repercussions of their actions and don’t try to fix the problems they cause because they are law enforcement and feel entitled.
3. Argument: Police don’t think before they shoot.
Premise 1: The cop shot the little boy without even waiting to make sure it was the person he had broken into the apartment to seize.
Premise 2: Even if the man the cops were looking for was in the bathroom instead of the little boy, the police would have murdered him as well because they shot as soon as the door was opened.
Premise 3: A cop at the end of the film shoots the first cop, believing he was just some random guy on the street with a gun.
∴ Police are trigger happy.
4. Argument: Police misuse information.
Premise: The police in the film broke into Apt. 1B instead of 1D, which is the apartment number the cop gathering information wrote in his note pad.
∴ Police should double check their information before they act on it.
5. Argument: Police informants are not reliable.
Premise 1: Snitches get stitches.
Premise 2: The informant in the film seemed unimpressed with the amount of money he received for providing the cops with information leading to a bust.
Premise 3: The informant didn’t seem like he really knew what he was talking about, like he was just throwing out information in order to get some money.
∴ Police should not always trust informants.
Lola Levi
ReplyDelete3/29/2012
Free Write
Clap video
1)Police giving people money for information.
Did the place that the police went to,end up being the wrong address.
Not all information giving to police is true, and not only the police, but others pay for this mistake.
2)The child having his ears covered with headphones.
The covering of the woman's mouth when the cops kick in her door.
There are things that should be heard that may save a persons' life.
3)The people are clapping.
To clap is to shoot a gun.
Just because a person is clapping their hands doesn't mean that the are shooting a gun.
4)What you see, is not always what a person may perceive.
The man really didn't see the boy standing there,after he was shot and killed.
The mind can lead us astray, if we have psycological problems or a fear.
5)The blood on the mans hands.
The cops shot the child.
Who is really guilty for the childs death?
Monsoon Pandey
ReplyDeleteProfessor Sabir
English 5
29 March 2012
Clap
I thought the short film “Clap” was very interesting and eye opening
because it was able to express a cop’s guilty conscious and the whole
story itself in a very explicit way. The song “clap” was very
metaphorical because clap is a slang word which means to shoot someone and since the whole movie was about accidently shooting a kid, the song gave more emotions to it. I really liked how the cop had blood on his hands and he saw all these people following him which shows his guilty conscious. The movie was showing what he was going through in his head and how the incident was haunting him. His team had accidently went into a wrong apartment and he had accidently killed a kid. For a police officer that is a lot to go through.
Some of the arguments are:
1. The police goes into a random house
The people living there are black
Therefore, the people in the house are the criminals
2. The police officer writes room 1D on his notepad
The team accidently breaks into room 1B
Therefore, they broke into the wrong room
3. Cop accidently kills a kid
Cop turns into the bad guy
Therefore, one accident turned the cop into a criminal
Shayne Keator
ReplyDeleteProfessor Sabir
English 5
4 April 2012
5 Clap arguments
The information provided by an informer is not always accurate.
Informers seek personal gain.
∴You can’t always trust an informer
The police raided the wrong home.
A police officer killed an innocent child.
∴The law can be guilty of crime
The police officers in the video use a “no knock warrant” to raid a home.
An innocent child is killed during the raid.
∴Greater preparation should be given to promote the safety of civilians when a ”no knock warrant” is enforced.
∴When the Police use a “no knock warrant”, they should be sure that the address that they are raiding is the correct address.
The police officer murders a child.
The community follows the police officer.
∴When violent crimes are committed by law enforcement officials, the community should do whatever they can to bring them to justice.
The police officers are looking for vengeance for the shooting of their partner.
Because of their impatience, the police decide to trust the information of an informer.
The informer gives invalid information.
A child is killed because of the misinformation given to the impatient police officers.
∴vengeance and impatience causes more damage than benefit.
Edwin Peabody
ReplyDeleteProfessor Sabir
English 5
29 March 2012
The film Clap by Terence Nance was very interesting. I really enjoyed it. It starts with a police officer speaking to an informant about the whereabouts of a man who murdered another police officer. The informant co operates with the officer and gives him information on the murderers whereabouts. Police then immediately get a swat team to the apartment 1D to search for the alleged murderer but they make a mistake and enter the wrong apartment, which is labeled as 1B. A police officer accidently kills an innocent boy. Through the film the police officer cannot escape the guilt of killing the innocent boy. He begins to see blood on his hands. In the end the police officer that murdered the little boy is shot by another police officer after contemplating about committing suicide.
The tittle of the film was very strong to me. I believe it symbolized the community coming together to fight against the police. Clap is a slang word, which means shoot. So, with listening to the song in the background of the film continuously repeating “one day we gone Clap” and also visualizing the community come together as one at the end of the film gives me the impression that the community is finally standing up against the police and demanding justice.
Argument 1) Police break into a house in an urban neighborhood so the people who live in the house is automatically considered criminals because of the environment the live in.
Argument 2) the cop who accidently killed the little boy is now a criminal because he made a mistake.
Argument 3) Police officers are not always right. They where suppose to enter apartment 1D but instead enter apartment 1B and kill an innocent boy.
Argument 4) the police see blood on his hands because of his recent murder he committed.
Argument 5) Police informants are not reliable.
Aaron Villanueva
ReplyDeleteProfessor Sabir
English 5
19 April 2012
Clap: Initial Reaction and 5 Arguments
I am very impressed with the video. It was very powerful to see that not even the police force is perfect in protecting people in society. It clearly shows an example of what is going on in today’s society. What was interesting is that the child was wearing earphones going to the bathroom as I recall. While the policemen raided the home making a ruckus, the child could not hear what was going on outside of the bathroom. This lead the child to his death once he stepped out of the bathroom. I imagined if I were that child, but I was not wearing any headphones and I heard something going on outside, I would yell mom is everything okay informing the cops that in this home there is child. Even though the cop did not mean to shoot the child, he was dealing with much guilt in the film causing him to hallucinate.
1) Receiving information from an unreliable source could be false.
Using the unreliable source could lead to a disaster.
∴You can’t always trust what people say unless supported by strong evidence.
2) Police officer harms an innocent citizen in a community.
The community will rise and protest against the officer.
∴When a crime is committed by an officer harming others, the community will bring the officer to justice.
3) The police officers raid a home.
A police officer killed an innocent victim
∴The policemen are the criminals in the video.
4) A policeman received information that could be true or not.
The policeman passed it along to another police officer.
∴The police officer that received the information from the first officer misheard or misinterprets the information.
5) Policemen received information and did not double check it.
Policemen raided a home and shot an innocent child.
∴Since Policemen are given orders, they act without hesitation and without double checking their resources.
Joseph Paez
ReplyDeleteProfessor Sabir
English 5
16 May 2012
The film Clap by Terence Nance was very interesting. I really enjoyed it. It starts with a police officer speaking to an informant about the whereabouts of a man who murdered another police officer. The informant co operates with the officer and gives him information on the murderers whereabouts. Police then immediately get a swat team to the apartment 1D to search for the alleged murderer but they make a mistake and enter the wrong apartment, which is labeled as 1B. A police officer accidently kills an innocent boy. Through the film the police officer cannot escape the guilt of killing the innocent boy. He begins to see blood on his hands. In the end the police officer that murdered the little boy is shot by another police officer after contemplating about committing suicide.
The tittle of the film was very strong to me. I believe it symbolized the community coming together to fight against the police. Clap is a slang word, which means shoot. So, with listening to the song in the background of the film continuously repeating “one day we gone Clap” and also visualizing the community come together as one at the end of the film gives me the impression that the community is finally standing up against the police and demanding justice.
Argument 1) Police break into a house in an urban neighborhood so the people who live in the house is automatically considered criminals because of the environment the live in.
Argument 2) the cop who accidently killed the little boy is now a criminal because he made a mistake.
Argument 3) Police officers are not always right. They where suppose to enter apartment 1D but instead enter apartment 1B and kill an innocent boy.
Argument 4) the police see blood on his hands because of his recent murder he committed.
Argument 5) Police informants are not reliable.
Adalie Villalobos
ReplyDeleteProfessor Sabir
English 5
Clap Film
The film Clap by Terence Nance was very interesting. I really enjoyed it. It starts with a police officer speaking to an informant about the whereabouts of a man who murdered another police officer. The informant co operates with the officer and gives him information on the murderers whereabouts. Police then immediately get a swat team to the apartment 1D to search for the alleged murderer but they make a mistake and enter the wrong apartment, which is labeled as 1B. A police officer accidently kills an innocent boy. Through the film the police officer cannot escape the guilt of killing the innocent boy. He begins to see blood on his hands. In the end the police officer that murdered the little boy is shot by another police officer after contemplating about committing suicide.
The tittle of the film was very strong to me. I believe it symbolized the community coming together to fight against the police. Clap is a slang word, which means shoot. So, with listening to the song in the background of the film continuously repeating “one day we gone Clap” and also visualizing the community come together as one at the end of the film gives me the impression that the community is finally standing up against the police and demanding justice.
Argument 1) Police break into a house in an urban neighborhood so the people who live in the house is automatically considered criminals because of the environment the live in.
Argument 2) the cop who accidently killed the little boy is now a criminal because he made a mistake.
Argument 3) Police officers are not always right. They where suppose to enter apartment 1D but instead enter apartment 1B and kill an innocent boy.
Argument 4) the police see blood on his hands because of his recent murder he committed.
Argument 5) Police informants are not reliable.
Ana Cristina Muro
ReplyDeleteProfessor Sabir
English 5
29 March 2012
The Clap:
My first impression when I saw the video clip was that it was very impressive and moving how the police just came inside the house and did not ask any questions. The police grab the women and later on there was a gun shot and a kid killed. After that the camera turns toward the person that shot the kid and everyone starts clapping which is very confusing because people just start following him. Later it seems that the guy/police man sees the kid he shot and it seems he is running away and is scared.