Argumentative Essay #2

Joshua Hahn-Varona

4/28/15

Police Soldicers

Police brutality and police militarization are becoming hot topics of discussion in the United States today. The dangers of police militarization are becoming more prevalent and cases of the use of brutal force by police are becoming more common. The question is, how do we deal with these types of issues in terms of prosecuting police who used brutal force and how do we prevent these cases from occurring? What are the pros and cons of militarizing police forces around the country? The answer to solving problems with police brutality is quite simple: body cameras.

    Body cameras on police can be, by far, one of the best ways to slow down or even stop police brutality. They provide an officer’s perspective of any encounter with people. Body cameras can make officers think twice before pulling out a gun on a citizen or if an officer does pull out a gun for a good reason, the body camera will record all that happens, and it can easily be determined whether the officer’s use of force was necessary or not.

    Take for example Rialto, California; a study was done by the Police Foundation, which is an organization that specializes in researching law enforcement, that found that when half of Rialto’s police force wore body cameras for a year of patrols, “there were just three complaints of excessive force against the officers -- down from 28 in the previous 12 months.” After reading the study myself, they had also found that there were “ten times more citizens’ complaints.” This is because now that police have cameras recording encounters, there is more solid evidence for or against citizens where excessive force as used.   As you can see, body cameras are very effective in keeping officers from stepping out of line for the most part.

    The good news is that many police departments around the country are joining in on the use of body cameras. The Los Angeles Police Department announced that they will be buying “7,000 on-body cameras to expand transparency and accountability” The police chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, Chief Charlie Beck said that “Officers will have tremendously powerful evidence and the ability to collect it. We are starting a journey that will go on for decades."

    A journey it is, a long and hard one, unfortunately. Though you would think it is a no-brainer to immediately implement body cameras to police after all that has happened in the country over the last year, there are some complications, mainly political, to come about.

    For starters, the cost. It will cost over $75 million to cover just half of the cost of 50,000 body cameras for police officers around the country. Now mind you, there are over 680,000 police officers in the United States, so you can imagine how much it would cost to provide cameras for ALL police officers. In my eyes, however, the cost of buying cameras is well worth it. Cameras will be able to make cases of brutality or just regular criminal cases that are caught on camera easier to solve, costing those involved less money from court fees, if the police department were to get sued and so on.

    Another potential concern with police body cameras is in regards to privacy. If a police officer is to have a camera on at all times, what if a case was more of a private matter. For example if the police officer has an embarrassing encounter with someone, or if the encounter was some sort of domestic issue. Also of note that “storing such videos is open to potential abuse” and “with the possibility of… winding up on the Internet.” This is a very legitimate concern that also begs the question as to how the police will handle recordings.

    Some say that the police have the ability to edit video footage from body cameras, or even delete footage that could also be improperly stored. The biggest concern with the storage of footage is that if body camera footage is going to be stored by someone, it MUST be by an independent company that has no affiliation with a police department other than providing the cameras. This way, the footage will not be tampered with, and records will be kept safe from the hands of police departments who may want to alter footage of police encounters.

    The last concern is when how body cameras will be used. That is to say, when should cameras be on and recording, and when should they not? Also, what happens if an officer forgets to turn his or her camera on when it is needed? The problem is, there is no right or wrong place to have these cameras on, because they are for the safety of both the citizens and the officers. The cameras should be on at all times when a police officer is on patrol. The only time a police officer should turn his or her camera off is when they go to the bathroom, really. Otherwise, if a police officer does turn off their camera, there should be some sort of notification for them to turn it back on if it is turned off for too long.

           When it comes to militarizing the police, there are potential pros but very obvious cons. For starters, a militarized police force may be better equipped for drastic situations that may require special types of weapons or vehicles that are immune to bombs. The problem is that there hasn’t been a situation where these weapons and vehicles were needed. Not only that, but just because a police force has military-grade weapons and equipment, does not mean that they are trained well enough to use them. Another issue with having military-grade weapons and equipment is that, to keep them, the police force has to use the equipment in the field within six months of receiving the equipment. As I pointed out before, the police have not needed to use the equipment in a proper situation, and because the police want to keep this military-grade equipment, they use the equipment on civilians. Use on civilians is usually excessive, too mostly because of the lack of training the officers receive with the equipment. A good example of this, is in John Oliver’s “Last Week Tonight” episode “Ferguson, MO and Police Militarization”

       

           In this episode, John Oliver talks about the Michael Brown case in in Ferguson, Missouri and what is becoming of police forces across the country. He mentioned a photo from Ferguson, Missouri where, a man was standing in front of a line of police with guns pointed at him while the his hands were up; the line of police officers wearing military uniforms. John Oliver showed a clip from CNN of an interview where, the interviewee said that “In the military, we’re trained on something called ‘escalation of force.’ Which basically means, the only time you’re really going to point a weapon directly at someone, is when you’re ready to pull the trigger. And instead of that, in Ferguson, police are just wandering around with their weapons up at all times pointing them at people that obviously didn’t pose a threat.” This brings me back to what I had said earlier. Just because a police force has military-grade equipment, doesn’t mean they have the proper training to use it. Another point John Oliver mentioned was how the military-grade equipment was used. He showed a clip of a video that talked about how “The number of S.W.A.T. raids have gone up 1400% since the 1980s. An estimated 50,000 now take place every year.” He then explains that 79% of S.W.A.T. deployments were used to execute search warrants that were mostly for drug investigations. There is no need to call in the S.W.A.T. team to search a home or area for drugs unless it is considered hostile or dangerous. See, the police however, don’t care. This is because, as I mentioned, the military-grade equipment has to be used within six months after it is received. Because of this, the next con of militarizing police becomes apparent.

Militarizing police has psychological consequences for both the community the police force serves, and the officers themselves. As "When Peace Officers Dress for War" points out, police officers who dress and act military-like, become military-like overtime automatically. It makes "their uniform and vocabulary of war reinforces their mind-sets" and "they become distanced from the community."

This distance from the community that a military-like police force causes is a dangerous thing. The trust that a police force is there to help a community is eliminated by the idea that rather than helping, they are controlling a community. A police officer, as the article calls them “Peace Officers” should be just that; a peace officer. Their goal should not be to scare a community with their fancy and dangerous equipment so that the community is terrified of what could be used against them if they commit a crime or protest, etc.

Another way of explaining what police officers should do and what they are is outlined by John Paul and Michael L. Birzer's paper: "The Militarization of the American Police Force: A Critical  Assessment". They talked about how militant police officers alienate themselves from the community that they are supposed to be a part of and explained that "A law enforcement officer is ultimately a member of a community, and a member of law enforcement is subject to the same laws as their fellow citizen; a soldier is not." Later, they quoted Max Weber who wrote about police that said "the job of the police is to react to the  violence of others, to apprehend criminal suspects and deliver them over to a court of law. A soldier on the other hand, does not think; [he/she] initiates violence on command and doesn't  worry about the Bill of Rights."

The paper also proposes some ways to ease tension between a community and its police force. One that I found most interesting was by changing the color of uniforms. They proposed that instead of police officers wearing military-like black and camouflage, they should be wearing “a color more consistent and symbolic of democracy, such as ordinary blue.” Interestingly, in our case here in Rockford, most of our officers wear blue uniforms. Only more specialized officers wear black or a dark navy-blue.

Another way to build trust in the community is by adding a community policing initiative. This can be done by having a community become sort of a self-policing one. By this, a community will report its problems to the police and they will have to identify and respond to “crime, disorder, fear of crime, drug use, urban decay, and other neighborhood concerns.” By doing this, they said “Community oriented policing is a strategy that entails crime prevention, problem solving, community partnerships, and organizational transformation. With community policing, the police take on a role of being more community oriented and the citizens take on a role of being more involved in assisting the police with information.” Going back to our community and police officers, we have programs like “Crime Stoppers” that allows people to call in for suspected crimes and other mischief in their area. This type of community policing can be very effective in building trust within the community towards police.

           All in all, the simple solution to solving problems with police officers is done by simply de-militarizing them. It is that simple, but only at first. The next problem is whether or not a community trusts their police force. The first step is for the police department to show their community that they are there to help, not to harm. Police officers need to show that they are in fact "peace" officers. Other steps to take would include body cameras as proof of just actions by police officers, as well as help distinguish the "bad apples" of a police force to gain trust from the community.  Only then will the relationship between a community and law enforcement become stronger and more effective, and less problems will arise with a police’s use of force.

When Peace Officers Dress For War Summary

Joshua Hahn-Varona
4/21/15

 

Militarizing police has psychological consequences for both the community the police force serves, and the officers themselves. As "When Peace Officers Dress for War" points out, police officers who dress and act military-like, become military-like overtime automatically. It makes "their uniform and vocabulary of war reinforces their mind-sets" and "they become distanced from the community."

            This distance from the community that a military-like police force causes is a dangerous thing. The trust that a police force is there to help a community is eliminated by the idea that rather than helping, they are controlling a community. A police officer, as the article calls them “Peace Officers” should be just that; a peace officer. Their goal should not be to scare a community with their fancy and dangerous equipment so that the community is terrified of what could be used against them if they commit a crime or protest, etc.

   

Dr. Carl's TED Talk

Joshua Hahn-Varona

4/7/2015

  
   Dr. Carl's TED Talk was about his book called "High Price." He explains the problems with the war on drugs today. The media paints horrible pictures for people who use drugs but he explains that most of the things we are told about drugs are not true. For example, he did a study about how if you give a drug addict an alternative to their drug of choice, they will most of teh time chose the alternative if the alternative is good enough. In his case, he offered money or store vouchers.

   Dr. Carl calls for decriminalization of all drugs (NOT legalization) that is to make it legal to posses drugs so that our prisons arn't mostly full of people on petty drug charges.

   I found Dr. Carl's information quite interesting. I don't know that it will ever get much traction today but if I did, I think our country may be a little better off. Of course, I don't think people should be doing drugs anyways but at least, as Dr. Carl puts it: "Drug charges won't ruin their lives." If his ideas go through.

Critical Review Essay

Joshua Hahn-Varona

3/24/15

Ori and the Blind Forest Critical Review

Since its first trailer at E3 2014, Ori and the Blind Forest caught my attention and hundreds of thousands of others. At first, Ori and the Blind Forest was set to release during the fall months of 2014, only to be delayed until December of 2014, then delayed again to its final release date: March 11, 2015. Though it’s not fun seeing highly anticipated games get delayed, it’s often a good thing as it gives developers more time to polish and perfect their games. In this case, Ori and the Blind Forest is perfected. Developed by Moon Studios and funded by Microsoft Studios for Xbox One and PC, Ori and the Blind Forest is a potential candidate for a game of the year for 2015, and it sets a high standard for independently developed, next generation, platforming games both aesthetically and functionally. Some game review companies even calling it “Paradise.”

          Before I go further with this review, I would like to point out that the type of game Ori and the Blind Forest is (a platforming game) is not a type of game that I usually play. I am more of a first-person-shooter, racing and action/fighting kind of gamer. That being said, this review is more of my attempt at trying a new type of game without much previous experience with platforming games other than the typical Super Mario. I figured a new generation of consoles calls for new types of games to be played. Since I am an Xbox One owner, this review reflects the Xbox One version of Ori and the Blind Forest, not the PC version.

          When I look at a new game, a few things that I want to know are: Is the story compelling? Do I get some sort of connection with the characters? Does it look good graphically? Does it sound good in terms of both music and sound effects? Does the game control well? Does the gameplay look familiar at all? After watching the first trailer for Ori and the Blind Forest, all of these questions were a definite yes except for whether or not the game controls well because no one had hands-on experience with the game yet, but I’ll get into that later.

          Ori and the Blind Forest begins in a cut scene of a storm rattling the Spirit Tree accompanied with harmonic music when a leaf from the Spirit Tree fall flies off, which you soon find out is actually the main character, Ori that falls below to the Forest of Nibel. Ori is a lemur-like, light creature created by the Spirit Tree. Eventually, Ori is found by Naru who then adopts Ori as her own and grows a strong bond with Ori, giving you the feeling of a mother/child relationship. The Spirit Tree, however, wants Ori to come back, and calls out to Ori by spreading light throughout the Nibel. Unfortunately, the Spirit Tree’s light angers the antagonist, Kuro the bird because the light harms her and her newly hatched chicks. Because Kuro is angered, she goes and steals the Spirit Tree’s light, only to return to see that the light killed her newborn chicks, leaving only an unhatched egg in her nest that she feels she needs to protect by finding and getting rid of Ori. But because Kuro stole the Spirit Tree’s light, the Forest of Nibel is dying, and Naru later dies because of the lack of food in Nibel. Your job as Ori, is to find and restore the three elements of the forest to bring light back to the Spirit Tree, and life back to the Forest of Nibel, leaving you with a great  story to unfold that is both easy to understand and satisfying when it's  all over.

Immediately after the opening cut scene, you are thrown into the bright and colorful world of Nibel. The colors of the game have a watercolor texture, with an active background and foreground with you in the middle. Though this sounds difficult to look at, the foreground and background have only subtle movements like waving trees from the wind in the background and a few times in the a foreground a creature moves about. This artistic aspect makes the game feel like the world around is alive at all times, giving it a sort of depth that I've hardly ever seen before in games. Though the game does look stunning, sometimes the frame rate drops because too much is happening on screen. For me, this only ever happened three times and didn't matter to me. I can imagine on PC it may happen more often since every PC is different while all Xbox Ones are the same.

When it comes to the audio of Ori and the Blind Forest, it is second to none. I even love the soundtrack so much that I've listened to the whole track three times. From the moment you begin the game, you are hit with a beautiful orchestral soundtrack that interestingly plays in exact sync with the world around you and the scenes you play. For example, one part of the story has you running away from lava, and the music ends exactly when you are supposed to be finished with the escape. The music doesn't cut off or anything. The music and game itself is timed perfectly. Not only is the music beautiful, some tracks (like the lava escape track) can even put you on the edge of your seat.

The functionality of Ori and the Blind Forest is phenomenal. The controls are simple: A to jump or double/triple jump, X to attack, Left Stick to move. Later on in the game, you acquire new skills that incorporates things like being able to bounce off of enemies, projectiles and strategically placed lanterns hung around the game and holding onto and climbing walls. Now, these controls are easy to learn, easy to use, but Ori and the Blind Forest is all about precision and timing by being able to string together all of the skills you have learned to get around the environment and combat enemies. For me, I had no issues with this type of gameplay since being a first-person-shooter type of gamer, I am used to using precision timing to play games. The only problem I had when it came to controls were problems on my end through possible issues with my controller since it’s a custom controller or because I had just messed up. Things like accidentally slamming down into a pit of spikey plants by pushing down on the Left Stick while in the air got me killed a few times in my play through which is probably why Twinfinite said the controls feel “tight.”  Some critics, however, feel that Ori and the Blind Forest is too difficult at times. In IGN’s review of Ori and the Blind Forest, they docked points off of the game’s score because it was “unevenly difficult.” Though the game still got a good review from them, I think the “uneven difficulty” is a good thing. I think a better word for Ori and the Blind Forest is that it is challenging. “Difficult” has a negative connotation to it compared to “challenging.” What makes Ori and the Blind Forest challenging is that, at first, Ori feels frail and you often die quickly by enemies if you don’t react correctly to their attacks. There are also three large escape scenes in the game that give you no checkpoints and each scene leaves no room for error as you escape things like rushing water or lava. This can prove frustrating failing escapes scenes over and over but once you get it right, is very rewarding. Because Ori and the Blind Forest is challenging, you will die a lot, or as the game puts it more kindly, you will “respawn” a lot. The game even counts how many times you respawn in the pause menu. Though I wasn’t able to get the exact number of respawns in my 8 hour play through, I know I respawned well over 500 times.

One thing I wished Ori and the Blind Forest would let me do was go back into the game after I completed it. Because of this, I was not able to get an exact number of respawns that I had and I was also not able to go back and collect all the secret items for Achievements on Xbox Live. But that’s okay with me, now I can play the game over again with secret items in mind while traversing the environment. Ori and the Blind Forest has strong replay-ability because of how good the game is with its stunning visuals and amazing soundtrack.

Though as I stated before, I don't have too much experience with platformers, Ori and the Blind Forest's gameplay is intuitive. One reviewer I read said that "Outside of Bash, there really isn't much new here." but to me, it is very new, very challenging. This game will have you fighting enemies from a distance with your fire ball with the X button while also dodging and bouncing of enemy projectiles with the Y button. It requires a lot of multitasking and quick reactions that I've never seen before in a platformer.

Through the innovation in Moon Studios by a beautiful environment accompanied by amazing music and thoughtful gameplay, Ori and the Blind Forest will go down as a game of the year for 2015 and possibly a top 5 games of all time, giving future independent developers a standard to reach when it comes to platforming games.

"He Took Off His Skin For Me"

Joshua Hahn-Varona

3/17/15

   What people do for love is sometimes strange and twisted. "He Took Off His Skin For Me" is a short film that tells the story of a husband and wife that are deeply in love. The man, to show his affection for his wife, takes off all of his skin.

   Taking off his skin was the ultimate sacrifice to show his love for his wife. The narrator (his wife) explains at first that not much had changed when her husband took off his skin except that now she has to clean the house for a few hours a day and needs to wash their bed sheets every morning.  However, as he later finds out, not having skin on his body lead to losing his job and his friends.
  

Virunga Review

Joshua Hahn-Varona
3/3/15

Virunga

   Virunga was quite interesting to me. The fact that a big corporation can come into a country and cause chaos because they want to exploit oil is both sad and frustrating. There is some good insight on how big corporations work to essentially take over broken lands with money. It makes me wonder what other corporations have done like this that went off the radar from the media. It's a shame that SOCO only sees dollar signs when they look over the land. Not even considering the environmental effects.

Argumentative Essay #1

Joshua Hahn-Varona

2/24/15

3D Printing: Why We Should Be Excited

Over the past decade, 3D printing equipment has started to become more and more available to those who wish to build their own printer to start 3D printing at home. As "What is 3D Printing?" says: "Personal 3D printing or domestic 3D printing is mainly for hobbyists and enthusiast." However, over the last few years, not only has 3D printing become cheaper and more readily available, it has also become better in terms of speed and precision. In this year's CES2015 (a technology convention that showcases new and innovative technology) a new product was revealed that may eventually make at home 3D printing a norm. The XYZprinting: Nobel 1.0 is the newest at home 3D printing technology that the author, Hong Ngo, says himself, "The maker of the Da Vinci today unveiled at CES 2015 its first SLA 3D printer, the Nobel 1.0. It's the first on the market to retail at $1,499, which is significantly less than any other 3D printer of its type." and "XYZPrinting says that the Nobel 1.0's strength is not only its speed but also the quality of the print, capable of delivering print resolution of up to 25 microns. From the demo prints I've seen, the quality was indeed a huge leap forward from those printed by the Da Vinci or any other 3D printers I've reviewed. It was hard to believe that they were 3D-printed objects." Though $1,499 isn't necessarily cheap, eventually, the price of this type of product in particular may drop.  Newer, smaller and cheaper models may also be available in the near future for everyone to use, and benefit from. 3D printing is becoming one of the best technological breakthroughs of our time, and we should be looking forward to what 3D printing has to offer in places like manufacturing, medicine and even in our homes.

However, some say that at home 3D printing is going to make it easy for people to have and assemble undetectable weapons that will be abused by criminals that mass produce weapons in their garage. Because of this, it is believed by some that in home 3D printing is a step in the wrong direction as people will be able to use free files from the internet to 3D print weapons. Though I agree this is a huge concern in regards to public safety, I want to focus on the positive aspects of in home 3D printing. 3D printing is the way of the future, it is changing the world.

As "What Is 3D Printing?" explains, 3D printing has many benefits for the consumer along with benefits on the industrial side of things, and how 3D printing will be in the future. The article also shows an infographic at end which shows the history and possible future of 3D printing, along with its current and possible uses.

In terms of in home 3D printing, many things come to my mind of the extensive uses that a 3D printer has to offer. A cool idea I was thinking of was being able to buy a file for cheap from a place like Amazon to 3D print a missing or broken part to really anything. Need a new door knob? 3D print it for little cost. Are you missing an important part to a Do-It-Yourself project? 3D print it for cheap while you assemble the other parts. The list of possible uses goes on to other things, of course. As stated previously, 3D printers used to be mostly for hobbyists. These hobbyists could use 3D printers for, well, their hobbies like model cars. A recent example for this that I personally witnessed was at the Chicago Auto Show 2015. A man (I don’t think he was sponsored by any car companies as he didn’t have any sort of badge on. Just a suit and tie) was showing a 3D printer that was printing very basic model cars. I didn’t have time to talk to him about what he was doing exactly there, but he did let me take a picture of the machine that was in the process of making another model car along with some of the already made cars on display.

Artists may very well have a use for 3D printing, too. A new product on the market called the 3Doodler is a small pen-like instrument that “writes” in 3D. One end of the pen is fed a plastic, cylindrical material that goes through the pen and comes out on the other side of the pen in a liquid form that cools and hardens quickly to create 3D models that you design on the spot. Some of the already designed and tested creations from the 3Doodler include a working rocket, wall sculptures and a remote controlled plane.  The great thing about this product is that it is already available at Michaels giving access to those interested for $99.

That is not to say that in home 3D printing doesn’t have its risks. When it comes to whether 3D printers are safe for home, things get a little foggy. The problem with in home 3D printing comes when people have the ability to make weapons. Cody Wilson is the creator of the first 3D printed handgun called "The Liberator". Since this gun is made of hard plastic, it is undetectable by metal detectors, which is a huge public safety concern. Interestingly enough, Cody Wilson is an anarchist, he basically designed this weapon to scare governments. Since governments cannot  regulate files on the internet to stop people from downloading them off of the internet, the only way to counter in home 3D printed weapons is to ban the production, sales and possession of the weapons. Sadly, criminals will eventually find a way to break the law, but the benefits of having an in home 3D printer outweighs this set back by a large margin.

3D printing has many uses outside of your own home. In the medical field, 3D printing has been used to make cheap prosthetic limbs. As the article here explained “The e-NABLE team recently visited a leading trauma surgeon, Dr. Albert Chi, to show the surgeon their $50 3D printed plastic hand. Dr. Chi saw the potential for this hand and likely many other types of prosthetics, to change the lives of thousands of people worldwide, who could never afford a commercially made $30,000-$50,000 prosthetic.” Cheap prosthetics will benefit anyone in need because of how cheap and available 3D printed prosthetics will become.  There has also been development in 3D printing human tissue by “biotechnology firms and academia for possible use in tissue engineering applications where organs and body parts are built using inkjet techniques. Layers of living cells are deposited onto a gel medium and slowly built up to form three dimensional structures.”  Even working organs to eliminate the need for organ donors as the infographic mentioned above explained.

Another odd but may very well become quite practical use for 3D printing is construction. Recently in China, a fully 3D printed apartment building was built. The first of its kind. It is a five story villa that is 11,840 square feet that also has decorations inside and out. The article also mentioned how the process of 3D printing this apartment building “process saves between 30 and 60 percent of construction waste, and can decrease production times by between 50 and 70 percent, and labour costs by between 50 and 80 percent.” And “In all, the villa costs around $161,000 to build.” This is astonishing to me, as some houses in our area by themselves cost more than this five story apartment building. This idea of cheap architecture  may sound as if construction workers will lose jobs. However, 3D printing homes does not mean that the house is built by the 3D printer, but rather the parts for the house are made by the printer. Basically, you still need builders to put the building together, but the parts of the building are made by a 3D printer. You can think of it as a life-save LEGO project.

Other uses for 3D printing outside of home can be in manufacturing. 3D printers allow manufacturers to “create prototypes or objects that would be impossible to machine.” This is great for manufacturers because fast, testable prototypes will make both cheap and easy to innovate within a company. This is also good for small business owners who can provide printable designs on the internet, as small excerpt from “U.S. Productivity Growth: An optimistic Perspective” points out. The article also talked about how products will be “endlessly customizable- in form, material and dimension.” and how products will both never be out of stock and “manufacturing will become truly just-in-time.”

While the 3D printing technology we have today is still making progress, it is by no means at any sort of halt. In the next 10 to 20 years, 3D printing may have advanced enough to the point where we are saving lives in the matter of minutes. Along with being able to save money on parts for projects or full blown homes for us, 3D printing will let us imagine and then almost instantly create things to better our lives, letting us create 3D works of art as well as advancing enough to save lives in the medical field with cheap prosthetics and quicker, more efficient manufacturing of products all together.