Blog 10. Judge Kimberly Adams

Superior Court of Fulton County Judge Kimberly Adams

 This is Judge Adams' information on the website of the Superior Court of Fulton County.

Rick and I got to Judge Adams' courtroom just as she was finishing her talk with you (sorry about that—but finding a parking space downtown, particularly for a school bus (and Rick had to parallel park that monster), is not easy).  So:

1.  What did we miss?  Everyone give us a different point that she made when we weren't there.

2.  So: what did you think? What jumped out at you about Judge Adams and what she said to you all?  Did she make clearer and/or change the way you thought about how judges and/or the courtroom works?  Would you want her on the bench of you had to go to court?  It's great if you respond to what others say, but if you can, try not to repeat what others have said.

Finally, look at your school email: the test essay question is on it.  On Monday we're going to watch a couple more clips, talk about them (and a little about Judge Adams too), and if there's any time left over, you can study and prepare for the test.  EVERYONE:  YOU HAVE TO HAVE YOUR BLOG RESPONSES ON THE BLOG TO GET CREDIT FOR THEM.  I know some of you are still having problems posting. There's a good chance you are posting with a different email than your school one. It is up to you to fix this problem by talking with Tami in Technology.  


See you Monday. 

Blog 9. Into The Abyss. "Hold Still and Watch the Birds."

Into The Abyss.  (2011)
Directed and Written by Werner Herzog
Released 8 September 2011

Michael Perry

Jason Burkett

Lisa Stotler-Balhoun

Charles Richardson

Delbert Burkett

Werner Herzog filming "Into The Abyss"

Read this review of the film from The New York Time.  And if you want more information about the crime and Michael Perry, read this.

Here is Richard Lopez, the chaplain at Death Row in the prison where Michael Perry is executed, and here is Fred Lewis, the captain  on Death Row who quit his job and lost his pension for doing so.

1. As we asked today in class: your reaction to the film?  Some of you spoke to this in class—go ahead and elaborate.  For all of you, what moment or scene particularly stayed with you or struck you most powerfully—and why?

2. Why do you think the film is called "Into The Abyss"?  Be sure to look up the definition of "abyss."

Choose one of the two to answer:
3.  Did the film change or affect in any way your views of murder and/or murderers; the criminal justice system; or capital punishment?  And in what way(s) did it change or affect—or not, I suppose—that view?

3. Can you connect the story of Michael Perry, Jason Burkett and Conroe, Texas, to what we heard from George Morton and his world?  If so, in what way(s)?  If not, what do you see as the difference(s) between George and these young men (and others too that speak to life in Conroe)?

As always, write about 250-300 words. 

Blog 8. George Morton.

"I was the oldest of 11 children...it still feels like just yesterday I was in your seats."

This is George's website.  And this is the New York Times article that helped him jump start his artistic plans. And below is some of his work.

Rick and I thought that was an amazing presentation—and an amazing man.  George told us he has never spoken to a group before about his experiences in the Federal prison system, let alone talked to a group of high school students.  It sure didn't seem as if this was his first time.


So: what did you think? What jumped out at you about George and his talk? How did he make clearer what we've been talking about so far in class? Is there anything he made more confusing? What does he make you now think about committing crime and about incarceration?  Did his story—and stories about surviving 135 months of prison—change preconceived ideas you had about who commits crime and what prison is like or did he reinforce those ideas—or maybe bits of both?

Go ahead and write 250-300 words.  Be honest—as honest and straightforward as George was. Don't be afraid to comment on what others write—respectfully, of course. 

See you tomorrow. 

Blog 7. Dirty Harry. "Do I Feel Lucky?"

"...Well, do you, punk?"

Dirty Harry.  Written by Harry Julian Fink, R.M. Fink, and Dean Riesner. Directed by Don Siegel.
Clint Eastwood as SFPD Homicide Inspector Harry Callahan
Andy Robinson as Charles "Scorpio" Davis
Harry Guardino as SFPD Homicide Lt. Al Bressler
Reni Santoni as SFPD Homicide Inspector Chico Gonzalez
John Vernon as The Mayor
John Larch as The Chief of Police
Released 23 December 1971
Budget $4 million
Box Office $36 million.

Here's the iconic scene from the first minutes of the film.

Dirty Harry was such a commercial success that it spawned four sequels, none nowhere near as good and disturbing as the original.  Without Dirty Harry perhaps we would not have L.A. Confidential and Bud White and Ed Exley.  Inspector Harry Callahan in the squint of Clint Eastwood  is the archetypal morally suspect police officer; and the film, hugely controversial when it came out, still has the power to shock.  Critics have called it a "deeply immoral film"; they have said he is the flip-side to Scorpio; some have called him the kind of cop our world has to have.  The film holds up amazingly well for being 48 years old. It is a messy film, and Harry is a messy character, messier than Bud White, Ed Exley, and even Deputy Wurms.  So...

Your reaction to Harry? Good guy? Bad guy? Better than Bud White? Worse? Do you approve of his actions? In a world of Scorpios (based on a real figure, and the subject of the film 2007 David Fincher film Scorpio), do we need a cop like Harry? Write several sentences. We'll finish the film tomorrow, and pull all these strands together—what we've been asking to respond to again and again here. 250-300 words.

Here's a scene that Rick will fill you in on in terms of the law:  the ways Harry violates the law when he tortures Scorpio.

See you all tomorrow!

Blog 6. Dan DeWoskin.

My Cousin Vinny (1992).  The favorite of 7 out of 9 lawyers. 

I just made that up.

"I didn't like law school.  Lots of grade grubbers.  Lots of talk about competition."
"The day you pass the bar, you can practice."
"There are thousands of attorneys who are trial lawyers...But only 5% of all lawyers set foot in court."
"A lot of criminal defense attorneys will not go to trial.  They will plead rather than go to trial.  Lots of them are terrified to go to trial."
"In Dekalb there is a a judge who if you had two suitcases of cocaine would not convict for long.  But domestic violence? 250 years."
"When I started law I thought there were 80% good cops and 10% bad.  Once I got into the law, I reversed that: 20% good, 80% bad."
"A bad cop is not a dirty cop. It's a low paying job, any day can be your last.  The low pay doesn't attract the best of candidates." 
"Nobody could be that stupid [to accidently shoot his girlfriend].  Yes, he was that stupid."


Dan DeWoskin, class of '95. What was your reaction to him?  What about what he said stayed with you and why?  What did he say that most surprised or shocked you?  How did he affect the way you thought about what we've been talking about in class or what we've been watching?  You all took plenty of notes (or should have) during their talks.  Go ahead and use them.

Give some depth to your responses here, okay?  Short cursory answers won't get full credit.  See you all tomorrow. 

Blog 5. L.A. Confidential. "Life Is Good In Los Angeles. It's Paradise on Earth."

 L.A. Confidential.  Directed by Curtis Hanson.  Screenplay by Hanson and Brian Helgeland.  Based on the novel by James Ellroy.
Music by Jerry Goldsmith.
Cinematography by Dante Spinotti.
Kevin Spacey as Det. Sgt. Jack Vincennes
Russell Crowe as Officer Bud White
Guy Pearce as Det. Let. Edmund "Ed" Exley
Kim Bassinger as Lynn Bracken
James Cromwell as Capt. Dudley Smith
Danny DeVito as Sid Hudgens
David Strathairn as Pierce Patchett
Ron Rifkin as D.A. Ellis Lowe
Film Budget: $35 million.  Box Office: $126.2 million
Released 14 May 1997. 

 The film trailer.

EXLEY. How's it going to look on your report? Huh?
BUD. It'll look like justice. That's what the man got. Justice.

So goes the exchange between two of our three protagonists after Bud White murders (a deliberate word choice) one of the rapists holding the young woman hostage. Did you see that coming? It's a shocking scene—I heard gasps from some of you.

This 1997 film by Curtis Hanson was a major commerical and critical success, making over $126 million against its $35 million budget. In addition, as the oracle that is Wikipedia tells us, "L.A. Confidential was nominated for nine Academy Awards and won two, Kim Basinger for Best Actress in a Supporting Role and Curtis Hanson and Brian Helgeland for Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay). It was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Production Design, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Original Dramatic Score and Best Sound Mixing (Andy Nelson, Anna Behlmer and Kirk Francis), but lost all the categories to Titanic." So you're watching Hollywood at its best, where commerce and art come together seamlessly.

Clearly, justice—its meaning and application—is one of the main themes of the film. We see it stated explicitly in the quote at the top of the post. Earlier, Captain Dudley Smith asks Ed Exley:

"Would you be willing to plant corroborative evidence on a suspect you knew was guilty in order to ensure an indictment? Would you be willing to beat a confession out of suspects you knew to be guilty? Would you be willing to shoot hardened criminals in the back to offset the chance—"

"—they'll be freed," I think is how that line of thought would end. Clearly, this is not a dilemma for Bud White. For Exley it is, though—yet he's willing to rat out, so to speak, his fellow officers, partly for his own benefit. So:

1. Yes or no: Exley should have testified against his fellow police officers. Why or why not?

2. Yes or no: Bud White was justified in shooting the rapist. Why or why not? 

3.  Which of the three—Exley, Bud White, Jack Vincennes—do you feel most drawn to? Why? And which of the three do you think is the most moral?

4. Reaction to the movie so far? Like? Dislike? Why? And what scene or moment has stuck with you most—and why?


See you all tomorrow!

Blog 4. Southland. "Fallout."

Fallout.  Written by Etan Frankel.  
Directed by Allison Anders.
Cast:
Officer John Cooper (Officer Jessica Tang's partner)...Micheal Cudlitz
Officer Ben Sherman (partner of Officer Sammy Bryant, who is mad at him)...Ben McKenzie
Det. Lydia Adams...Regina King
Officer Sammy Bryant...Shawn Hatosy
Det. Ruben Robinson (Det. Adams' partner)...Dorian Missick
Officer Jessica Tang...Lucy Liu
First broadcast 28 February 2012.
 
"Southland" ran from 2009 to 2013, first on NBC and then on TNT.  It was a critical favorite and commercially semi-successful (the series ended with John Cooper, the big cop partnered with Jessica Tang in this episode, shot by other cops when he confronted his neighbors over noise: it wasn't clear whether he would live or die—and we never got to find out because the show wasn't renewed).
As one writer said of it:

"Southland" dealt both with the high intensity of bringing down the bad guys—or of being the bad guys —and with mundanities, like setting up roadblocks or doling out parking tickets. Obviously, the show had lots of drama, but it didn't pretend that all its characters were superheroes. Most importantly, it looked real. "Southland" used actual ex-gang members as extras, and shot on location in LA. Additionally, the show was faithful to the actual day-to-day grind of being a police officer; not every case got solved, and even when suspects were caught, it didn't mean that everyone's lives were magically better. All this made the show seem like a slice right out of real life... but for some viewers, real life isn't as good to watch as comfortable TV tropes.

And as the New York Times put it:

But “Southland still gets it right most of the time, and stands above the more popular police and forensic dramas that satisfy our appetite for predictability while insulting our intelligence to greater or lesser degrees. It acknowledges the arbitrary, contingent, inexplicable nature of human behavior in the way its stories circle and lurch and stop midstream, and in the way it crowds the frame with unnamed cops and masses of angry or bored or hyped-up bystanders. It pays attention to everyday conversation, and disdains the haiku of superhuman detection and analysis that substitutes for dialogue and action on other shows.

This is a lot of background for an episode of a series you most likely never heard of. I'm indulging myself here. Both Rick and I think—having watched the entire series—that it was, indeed, one of the best cop dramas on TV ever—Detective Stolarski agrees—if not also one of the best dramas on TV in the recent past. It's worth checking out on your favorite streaming channel. One of the things the series never shied away from was what it is like for a female cop on the street: Tang who in an earlier episode was badly beaten, and Lydia Adams, played by the always excellent Regina King, the detective who is, if you couldn't figure it out, pregnant.  And here is the moment that changes everything for Tang and her partner Cooper.

So:
1. If we take Detective Stolarski at her word, this show gets the job and life of a cop right.  What does the episode as a whole say about the job of a cop?  Use a specific example in your answer.  EVERYONE: use a different example than the responders before you. 

2. What does it say about Jessica Tang as a cop? Is she a "good" cop? A "bad" cop? Why?

3. Should Cooper, her partner, have turned her in for tampering with the toy gun? Why or why not?

4.  If you were in Tang's shoes, would you, as Cooper urges her, go back and tell the shooting board the truth?  Why or why not?

See you all tomorrow.