CRJ 465 Midterm Two
What is the very basic plot summary of To Kill a Mockingbird ("TKAM")?
A black man was convicted of a rape crime when there was clear evidence that none of the things he was being accused of happened. He was still convicted of the crime due to the southern moral codes saying that someone had to be convicted for the crime because he was black and having a relationship with a white woman. The black man is not set free and convicted and he tries to escape and ends up dying. The moral of the story shows the liberal view of the criminal justice system and the importance of a right to counsel because men like Tom Robinson are being accused and convicted of crimes they didn't commit. Atticus Finch takes the case out of duty, defending Robinsons right to a fair trial.
What does Surette mean by the "CSI effect"?
A phenomenon in which actual investigations are driven by the expectations of the millions of people who watch fake whodunits on TV. When people observe these films, they believe that it is actually how law enforcement works and how quickly things get done. After watching criminal shows, it gives people an idea of how forensics works but is always incorrect. -Problem is, you're watching a medium that's largely BS, the big things is that it leads to a very unrealistic of depiction of what crime scene investigation is really about. If you're not skeptical people may believe that is what it's actually about. High tech sherlock Holmes- not realistic. Public can be confused about how crime really is solve. This can affect juries and contributed to juror's desires to see more forensic testimony from the stand. This leads to "junk science" in which high-paid, underqualified consultants are hired to lend a little razzle-dazzle to a case because in prime time we've learned that virtually anything left behind can solve a crime: sofa cushions, a dead insect, or even lint.
The Exclusionary rule
A rule that provides that otherwise admissible evidence cannot be used in a criminal trial if it was the result of illegal police conduct - in other words this was a decision by the Supreme Court to keep cops from violating the 4th amendment in order to obtain evidence.
Legal Realism
A school of legal thought that holds that the law is only one factor to be considered when deciding cases and that social and economic circumstances should also be taken into account. The law is not a robotic mechanism, the law produces different things and is made by people and is capable of human error. The depiction of jury deliberations in 12 Angry Men was unsettling: In the movie, viewers are taken behind the marble pillars of the architecturally imposing courthouse where individual jurors are revealed as rather ordinary people. The film's opening shot looks up the steps leading to the pillars supporting the classical architecture of the courthouse. Exposing the inner workings of the legal system has historically been considered risky. The mystery so to speak is intended to preserve the authoritative mystique of the Law as distinct from ordinary politics. The film exposes the viewer to the reality that the legal process is not based upon certainty, that even after a six day trial for murder, the essential facts of the case remain open for interpretation. The verdict is a calculated gamble, an educated guess. If respect for the law depends upon the public thinking, the legal system is infallible, then crime stories like this one will seriously erode that respect.
What does Surette mean by police "reality programs" and "backwards law"?
Backwards Law - It's how the media can depict the opposite, or the backwards version of what reality really is - when you call these TV programs 'reality' it's a very distorted view and is a small part of what usually happens. What truly happens is not anything that is depicted on TV. Reality Programs - Shows like Cops that follow police officers who solve real crimes. Viewers are invited to share a street cops point of view as a partner officer. The attraction of these shows is clearly voyeuristic, with content running the gamut from dealing with ordinary street crime to the unusual violent predation. The cooperating police departments also have editorial control over the end product and routinely eliminate any scenes of police violence, malfeasance, or ineptitude.
What conservative legal rulings and opinions suggest about conservative views toward "law" and "order"
Conservatives tend to advocate law and order for so long that there is a tendency to put the two together, when in fact law and order are two distinct, sometimes competing values. Conservative feelings about criminal law coddling criminals and thereby undermining order. In the 70's, conservatives believed that too much law had produced too little order. They stood for more order and less law. Conservatives continue to prefer order to law and when faced with a choice, choose order rather than law. Conservatives had maintained a steady drumbeat of criticism of the due process model of criminal procedure. They have criticized the general rule of requiring search warrants before searching suspects, the requirement that Miranda warnings be issued before questioning suspects, and the exclusionary rule. These core elements of criminal procedure are generally portrayed as legal technicalities that tie the hands of law enforcement officers and enable the guilty to go free.
Plot of Dirty Harry
Cop film starring Clint Eastwood as Inspector Harry Callahan, a homicide detective in SFPD. DH put this inspector in dramatic situations and showed himself using a conservative view on CRJ issues. A serial killer named scorpio demanded a ransom or that he would kill again. The movie is set in SF, a liberal criminal justice town where Harry is a conservative detective sick of the hoops he has to jump through in order to keep criminals off the street.
According to Lenz, what is "vigilantism", and what is its role in American legal thinking and legal fiction?
Defined: Occurs when an individual acting alone or a group acting together take the law into their own hands to dispense justice without regard for due process of law because the government is unwilling or unable to provide public safety. The key part of this definition is that citizens who engage in vigilantism, believe they are taking the law BACK into their own hands rather than just taking the law into their own hands. Its role in American legal thinking and legal fiction: It has been in the American character since the beginning. It began with the American Revolution. The idea of stepping outside the law. You have two choices when dealing with crime, either break the law in the pursuit of higher morality or watch someone suffer. This American tradition is based on the concept of popular sovereignty, meaning that the people are sovereign. This means that it is usually understood to mean that the people and not the government are the ultimate source of authority. The contract theory of government, which described government as a contract between the people and the government. Americans believed that if the government fails to do their job (like putting away criminals when they are caught), then they are not fulfilling the terms of the contract, which then give reason to the people to take the law back into their own hands, thus leading to no due process of rights and more vigilantism themes.
Fact Skepticism
Early on in the film, when the jurors begin to look at the physical evidence more skeptically, they are warned to not think too much for fear of being confused. This warning accurately predicts where careful thinking about the evidence would lead the jury. The facts that seem so certain at the outset become more and more uncertain until, at the end, they are completely unsettled. The film provides a graphic illustration of a theory of jury decision making that legal scholars call fact skepticism.
4th Amendment
Freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
2. According to Lenz, how have conservative and liberal allegiances evolved in the 20th century?
In the early 1930's, conservatives opposed liberal pressures to make the legal system (in the courts) more responsive to popular demands. Then, in the 60's, they began to advocate a legal system that is responsive to public opinion; they began to criticize the government for being out of touch with the people, unresponsive to public opinion, and insulated from popular control; they began to criticize the criminal justice system as a bureaucracy that was controlled by legal professionals and other experts who discounted the opinions of lay people and crime victims and they began to criticize liberal legal policies. There is a clear correlation between the rise of conservative thinking about crime and conservative legal policies. In the 60's, a crime rate increase was reported as a crime wave due to riots and demonstrations, which prompted the conservative values associated with the crime control model of justice. Liberal allegiances began to be pushed back against and seen as weak and soft on crime which conservatives felt was evident in the "crime wave" that Nixon ran his platform on. Nixon accused liberals of being soft on crime and tying the hands of law enforcement officers by the 4th and 6th amendment and the due process of law rulings of the liberal Warren Court.
What does Lenz say about due process rights historically and their current treatment in legal fiction?
In the nineteenth century, due process only applied to criminal trials, where it referred to legal procedures that guarantees a defendant a fair trial. Over time, Americans developed higher expectations of justice which included raising the standards for what was considered fair or just treatment. The meaning of due process was expanded to mean treatment in general. This expansion meant that due process applied to the pivotal stages of the criminal justice process, including police questioning and line ups, as well as post trial stages such as correctional hearings. So, where it once only applied to the way criminal trials were conducted, due process has now brought law to most of the decisions made by criminal justice officials. In criminal law, the due process clause has proven to be the real "elastic clause" of the Constitution. In legal fiction, the characters in positions of power related to due process has produced changes in the media images of crime fighters. The image of police officers is especially varied; you can have by the book officers, incompetent officers, or respected local officials. Contemporary fiction portrayed cops who routinely break the law like in Dirty Harry. The modern police officer is often portrayed as a government official vigilante. The unstated and sometimes stated justification for these actions is the fact that society is teetering on the edge, and the legal system (due process) is on the verge of losing control.
Backwards Law
It's how the media can depict the opposite, or the backwards version of what reality really is - when you call these TV programs 'reality' it's a very distorted view and is a small part of what usually happens. What truly happens is not anything that is depicted on TV.
Law Skepticism
Legal facts are really just guesses. Legal facts are often not easily determined. So what is a jury to do? They must choose which set of facts to believe. Because few suspects are actually caught red-handed, in the act, holding a smoking gun, the easy cases are likely to be settled by plea bargains while the harder cases are left for the jury to decide after a trial. It may in fact result in greater uncertainty.
Explain the difference between the "liberal" and "conservative" models of criminal justice.
Liberal Model (Due process) - They stress the importance of presumption of innocence, so they advocate a legal system with elaborate legal procedures to protect against convicting an innocent person --> Due process, Individual rights, Rehabilitation, Indeterminate Sentencing, Judicial review, Legal Autonomy, and professional administration. Focus is on the offender/are they innocent really? From a liberal perspective do you want the process to convict someone fast or slow? Slow, so that it gets done effectively and no mistakes are made. So many safeguards. Centralized law enforced by educated people that prevail. Conservative Model (Crime Control) - Values executive discretion, allowing police, prosecutors, and correction officials to do their job without close legal supervision. → Crime control, Government powers, Punishment, Determinate sentencing, Legislative/Executive supremaVigy, responsive law, and political accountability. Focus on catching the criminal and don't feel bad at all for the offender. Conservative focus is if you delay the process, and make it slow to make no mistakes you're delaying the victims right to gain justice against this person. Let's streamline this and make it more effective with no delays. Let the people of the community decide what is fair for us versus government because we know what's best.
What does Lenz say are some legal rulings that reflect themes in TKAM, and how do they reflect them?
Liberal sentiments that reflect values that were in TKAM: Gideon v Wainwright they sided with the defendant → Did not have adequate representation→ Right to attorney. The state must give you some defense, we need to protect the defendant's' rights. This was seen in TKAM by Finch being willing to represent Robinson even though socially it was not acceptable. Arizona v. Miranda case - ruled in favor of Miranda → Have to read your rights to the defendant no matter what. Court is saying we need to assert liberalism, defendant needs to be protected from self-incrimination. Taking rights that you have in court and we will extend them to the frontend of the system. Powell v. Alabama - 7 young African Americans were wrongly accused of sexually assaulting 2 white women. The supreme court ruled that if you are facing the possibility of execution you need a lawyer. This case established the provisions in the Bill of Rights that now apply to death penalty cases like in TKAM. Liberals began to rely on the federal government to correct what they perceived as problems with local justice. Because the southern codes did not reflect adequate law (in this case against a black man who was wrongfully convicted), and help actually convict people who needed to be convicted, if justice was not specifically for the white person, they did not go hand in hand in working together.
What is the basic plot of Death Wish (DW) and the theme of masculinity as contrasted with femininity, and the symbolism of West and East in DW?
Plot: Charles Bronson plays the role of Paul Kersey, an engineer for NYC real estate development corporation. He is the quintessential bleeding heart liberal who feels for criminals because they are underprivileged. His wife is then killed and daughter brutally attacked by a gang of robbers and his first reaction is one of staying calm and collected. Although upset about what has happened to his family, he trusts the criminal justice system and relies on it to administer justice (liberal view of the law, not conservative). His beliefs become shaken when the police can't do anything for him and the hospital is lax about information on his family. After going out west on a business trip and meeting your typical "cowboy" who embodies conservative values. Kersey remembers his hunting father who raised him to shoot well while his mother was a pacifists whose views he eventually adopted. (East vs. West values). Western films of the 70/80's explore the dramatic conflict between savagery and civilization. In DW, Kersey is regenerated through violence and recovers the savage in him after virility sapped by the feminizing influence of eastern civilization and being raised fatherless; he recovers his masculinity by leaving the East to return to the more primitive, frontier values of the West. Femininity and Symbolism- Go out west and be a man and get a gun, quit being an east coast woman. Political trends - Liberals are the problem with their whining for rights. Mirror perspective, death wish mirrored what people were thinking, quit being an east coast women, and be a man and get a gun from the west coast and start taking the law into your own hands.
What is the basic plot of Dirty Harry? How do the 6th and 4th Amendments relate to this film?
Plot: Cop film starring Clint Eastwood as Inspector Harry Callahan, a homicide detective in SFPD. DH put this inspector in dramatic situations and showed himself using a conservative view on CRJ issues. A serial killer named Scorpio demanded a ransom or that he would kill again. Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) is assigned to the case along with his newest partner Inspector Chico Gonzalez (Reni Santoni) to track down Scorpio and stop him. Using humiliation and cat-and-mouse type of games against Callahan, Scorpio is put to the test with the cop with a dirty attitude. 6th Amendment: In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense. 4th Amendment: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. Callahan tortured Scorpio in order to obtain a confession and denied medical treatment because he shot him in the leg, so Callahan did not give Scorpio a proper council. This means that any statement that Scorpio gave without proper counsel is inadmissible because he was not given proper counsel like his six amendment right allowed to have. This applies to Dirty Harry because he was denied the ability to have a lawyer from the beginning. This starts from the moment of arrest to conviction - Scorpio was denied this right by being tortured and refused treatment. Callahan did not obtain a search warrant to go to the stadium, kicked down a door where Scorpio was living and he did not follow fourth amendment rights when dealing with the perpetrator. This means that any statement that Scorpio gave without proper counsel is inadmissible. Callahan broke into house found the shotgun, but it was admissible due to not following his rights.
Reality Programs
Shows like Cops that follow police officers who solve real crimes. Viewers are invited to share a street cops point of view as a partner officer. The attraction of these shows is clearly voyeuristic, with content running the gamut from dealing with ordinary street crime to the unusual violent predation. The cooperating police departments also have editorial control over the end product and routinely eliminate any scenes of police violence, malfeasance, or ineptitude.
What is the relationship between "law" and "justice" in TKAM?
TKAM affirms that we must use law and it must exist in order to keep people in check or rights will be violated. TKAM affirms the idea that law should be a constraint on human weakness. The primary moral of the crime story in TKAM is that law is a positive force in the struggle for a just society, and that if American society is to live up to its ideals and become a more just society, then law will have to become strong enough to prevail against strong social forces. Liberals believed that law could be strengthened by increasing professionalism in the administration of justice.
According to Surette, what "two claims" are promoted by reality crime programming, and what are the (other) effects of reality cop shows on audiences and police?
The backwards law results in these infotainment shows promoting two claims about crime fighting: 1. The police are in a contest with criminals who are unlike law-abiding citizens. Reality police shows further encourage the construction of criminals as predatory deviant others, people who are utterly unlike the rest of us. (This creates an "us" vs. "them" mentality that is harmful because it makes criminals to be rare and the outcasts of society, when in reality they are very common and often people we know) 2. The police invariably get it right. The people they stop really are criminals. Viewers never get to see the police battering down doors to the wrong apartment or arresting the wrong person. Legal rules invariably hamper the police needlessly and get in the way of effective law enforcement. There appears to be no reason legal checks on how the police do their job, and constitutional safeguards make no sense. Audience - it can create a separate category of people that cops deal with (losers, drug addicts, etc.) and creates a 'them' category and turn off the channel whenever you're done watching the scumbags. It's problematic because some of the worst people still have good moments. So, it's not fair how it portrays us decent people versus them. -How do we know that the cops aren't acting better because they have an audience versus how they act separately. COPS shows are sanitizing what the public gets to view on the police Other effects: most see these shows as realistic and think of them as informational rather than entertainment, as more similar to local news than to fictional TV storytelling. Another concern is the effect it has on real police. Like courtroom cameras influencing trial attorneys, there is anecdotal evidence of police tailoring their behavior for the cameras, behaving not as they actually do, but ast they believe the audience expects them to. Shows like COPS appear as a fantasy come true for police officers raised on the media's fictional police herorics found in entertainment crime dramas. The solution to proffered in police infotainment programming is drawn from the faulty system frame: crime is out of control because the CRJ system is misaligned. Society needs tougher crime control; due process and civil rights are part of the problem, and more unfettered police are need.
Liberal View of the Criminal Justice System
The belief that the primary cause of crime are social conditions such as poverty; that the administration of justice should be professional rather than political; that due process of law is an essential element of justice; that an independent judiciary is a vital protector of individual rights; and that rehabilitation, not vengeance, is the primary reason for punishing convicted offenders. It is a due process model of the criminal justice system, not crime control. The roots of the liberal mode of justice can be traced to the Progressive Era (1890's-1920), but the films of the 30's include some of the best expressions of liberal legal values. The theme was prominent in early Hollywood films because the era's real-life political scandals increased public cynicism. However, the criticism of institutions was tempered by liberals advocating for criminal and legal reform. They stress the importance of presumption of innocence, so they advocate a legal system with elaborate legal procedures to protect against convicting an innocent person --> Due process, Individual rights, Rehabilitation, Indeterminate Sentencing, Judicial review, Legal Autonomy, and professional administration. "The bill of rights should never be violated" = Liberals
What, according to Lenz, is the real-life logic of the exclusionary rule?
The exclusionary rule: the Supreme Court articulated this rule which prohibits using illegally seized evidence to obtain a conviction in a trial, as a remedy to the 4th Amendment (which creates a right against unreasonable searches and seizures, but never actually says what happens if the right is violated). This rule was created to remedy this issue meaning, the rifle, the confession, and even the body of the girl are inadmissible as evidence against Scorpio in Dirty Harry. Any evidence that was obtained without following the amendment rights that benefit the defendant are inadmissible in court because they were not obtained properly and legally and ethically so they cannot be used against the defendant. Logic: The first justification is that it protects judicial integrity by not allowing trials to use tainted evidence, by not allowing convictions based upon evidence obtained in violation of constitutional rights. The second justification is that the rule will deter police misconduct by prohibiting the use of illegally obtained evidence to obtain convictions. It protects the offenders rights, and keeps cops accountable to the amendments set in place.
What does Surette believe is the effect of reality cop shows on public perceptions/their credibility to the public?
The final construction invariably shows the police as sensitive, knowledgeable, and competent, never careless, corrupt, foul-mouthed, or overwhelmed. Additionally, the highly selective picture of criminal justice found in these programs overrepresent both violent crime and the proportion of crime solved by police. The effect this can have on the public perception of police is that police brutality doesn't happen, crimes are always solved, and that violent crime is rampant. It really puts the cops on the best foot forward to public. These shows are really advertising for the police. It promotes this impression that police are nothing more than soldiers heroes fighting on our behalf, but that's not always the case. They aren't always heroes. Surette also says that cops are effective, and know what they are doing but the impression you can get from these shows is that the cops are just a few defendants' rights away from solving crime problems.
The logic behind the exclusionary rule
The idea behind this was to keep cops and detectives in line from breaking the 4th amendment. Although they knew they shouldn't search and seize items from a suspect, no punishment is in place in the amendment if in fact it is violated. The SC added this rule to keep people away from trying to use evidence they obtained illegally.
What does Lenz say is the relationship between liberal values and popular justice in TKAM?
The liberal idea is that law works as a kind of artificial reason, as a check on baser human instincts, impulses, and customs, particularly those of the uneducated, lower classes. The grand theme of courtroom dramas like this movie is the struggle for justice. Sometimes the struggle for justice is not resolved by law and produces a guilty verdict. TKAM values mirrored southern racism and how their social customs of black people being 'bad' was embodied in this book. They did not care about actually convicting who did the crime, but what fits their social normative back then (popular justice). This included the racially discriminatory enforcement of the laws, and yet the laws played a minor role in the conviction because they looked past that and more on the color of skin.
According to Lenz, what were the political shifts taking place in the country which accompanied films like Dirty Harry and Death Wish?
The political shifts taking place were people began to move away from the liberal mode of justice (that emphasized individual rights) towards the crime control model that emphasized effective law enforcement (conservative mode of justice). Crime was one of the hot button issues that broadened the conservative political base from its traditional, elitist club to the average/middle class American. The law and order message resonated with both voters and movie audiences because it reflected public opinion in the 1970's. Between 1972 and 1983, Americans stated that the courts were not harsh enough on criminals. Increased public support for getting tough on crime meant shifting public policy away from rehabilitation and toward punishment. The people believed liberal permissiveness lead to more crime and therefore began to back away from this belief that rehabilitation was the focus, and punishment needed to be the focus.
6th Amendment
The right to a Speedy Trial by jury, representation by an attorney for an accused person in the district the crime was committed. (explain how this relates to Dirty Harry)
5. How are various aspects of liberal versus conservative views of the law represented in Twelve Angry Men, and how do the ideas of "fact skepticism", "law skepticism", and "legal realism" fit into this understanding?
The story of the jury's deliberations in the murder trial of an 18 yr old Hispanic youth who is accused of fatally stabbing his father. The boy will be sentenced to death in the electric chair if he is convicted. The film's gritty, realistic style reveals the inner workings of an institution, the jury, that has great practical and symbolic importance in the American system of justice. These are all liberal modes of the law. Putting the importance of due process at the front of the movie. It is a liberal era film portraying the liberal guy as the good guy wanting to ensure due process is had. The conservative view of the law is represented as wanting to put away a man even though he could be innocent. Portraying the dumb conservative thugs versus liberal voice of reason is how this is represented in the movie. Fact Skepticism: Early on in the film, when the jurors begin to look at the physical evidence more skeptically, they are warned to not think too much for fear of being confused. This warning accurately predicts where careful thinking about the evidence would lead the jury. The facts that seem so certain at the outset become more and more uncertain until, at the end, they are completely unsettled. The film provides a graphic illustration of a theory of jury decision making that legal scholars call fact skepticism. The film invites you to realize that you may have to question reality. Because what you think is facts may not actually be facts. Law Skepticism: Legal facts, however are often not easily determined. Legal facts are really just guesses. Because few suspects are actually caught red-handed, in the act, holding a smoking gun, the easy cases are likely to be settled by plea bargains while the harder cases are left for the jury to decide after a trial. It may in fact result in greater uncertainty. What's reasonable doubt? OJ Simpson verdict example: A traditionally racist police department, black victim, and two white victims who are the ideal victim, that in Simpsons case meant reasonable doubt. To different people, OJ is 100% guilty. But based on what was available to a jury, it can differ - which means there is a possibility of reasonable doubt. The film is inviting you to think about what is reasonable doubt? Your background of reasonable doubt may be different and you should be skeptical of some persons view of this because it could vary. Be skeptical of what you think the facts are because it could be completely different. Legal Realism: The depiction of jury deliberations in 12 Angry Men was unsettling: In the movie, viewers are taken behind the marble pillars of the architecturally imposing courthouse where individual jurors are revealed as rather ordinary people. The film's opening shot looks up the steps leading to the pillars supporting the classical architecture of the courthouse. Exposing the inner workings of the legal system has historically been considered risky. The mystery so to speak is intended to preserve the authoritative mystique of the Law as distinct from ordinary politics. The film exposes the viewer to the reality that the legal process is not based upon certainty, that even after a six day trial for murder, the essential facts of the case remain open for interpretation. The verdict is a calculated gamble, an educated guess. If respect for the law depends upon the public thinking, the legal system is infallible, then crime stories like this one will seriously erode that respect. The law is not a robotic mechanism, the law produces different things and is made by people and is capable of human error.
According to Lenz, what were some important social trends of the "transitional period"?
The transitional period was the mid 60's-70's. The most important background factor in shaping these works was the decline of public confidence in American institutions. The transitional period examined here roughly coincides with decreasing confidence in public institutions due to: · Killing of Kennedy, MLK, Bobby Kennedy, and increased political violence among the civil rights movement. The transitional legal fiction reflects changing public opinion about crime, specifically decreasing support for the liberal model of justice and the public policies that were based on it. Liberal and conservatives at this time hated the government and were skeptical of government because they just lie, and don't actually have our best interests in mind. There was also conservative skepticism involved. Politicians were weak, patriotism was dead, and the troops continued to not be respected. The transitional era everyone was questioning the validity of our government.
What, according to Lenz, is the importance of San Francisco as the context for Dirty Harry, and how does that film parallel other political differences between conservatives and liberals at the time?
This film is set in San Francisco during a time when the city epitomized liberal radicalism. San Francisco was the epicenter of the cultural revolution. During the 1960's-70's, liberals advocated loosening traditional legal restrictions on drugs and social restrictions on sexual behavior. Therefore it is not surprising that a conservative film would portray the city's sexually permissive culture as one of the root causes of the behavior that threatens good public order. The sexually deviant scenes in DH are associated with the decay of social order. The negative images of the city's political and police leadership are intended as criticism of liberalism because the mayor and chief inspector are portrayed as having gone soft on crime, and being soft on crime meant being liberal. The film's primary message is that constitutional rights have been unreasonably interpreted to provide suspects with so much due process of law that criminals can get away with murder. When Callahan threw his badge away, he was symbolically throwing away the law that he had become disgusted with. Harry is portrayed as a old school crime fighter trying to achieve justice against this oppressive mass of liberal red tape. He is surrounded by liberalness and still trying to fight it. A lot of conservative were also very bitter that we performed so poorly to pacify Vietnamese hostility. We lost sight at what makes America strong and the movie clearly advocates conservative solutions to the social decay that breeds criminal behavior. The portrayal of liberalism as soft on crime and conservatives as hard on crime is actually part of a broader debate between soft-liners and hard-liners. Callahan is a hard-liner who believes that the world is a dangerous place, that force and violence are sometimes the only way to respond to threats. In contrast, liberal idealists assume that people are basically good, and that problems should be settled peacefully, without resort to force or violence. Overall message: the film portrays the crime control model of justice as a viable alternative to the due process model of justice at a time when conservatives actually were advocating law and order.
According to Lenz, how did Dragnet affirm both liberal and conservative values? How, according to Lenz, did depictions in Dragnet conflict with reality?
Throughout the show on TV, the series consistently advocated with the conservative values that are associated with the 1950's: Individual conformity; deference to authority, particularly institutional authority; and the importance of rules as a means to achieve social order. The police officers are straight arrows, by the book cops who would not think about bending the rules or breaking the law in order to catch the bad guys. These cops are rule followers. The liberal values showed were cops portrayed as following orders from the Supreme Court by abiding by the Miranda ruling. Dragnet's emphasis on legal professionalism reflects its commitment to one of the liberal modes of justice's most important values. The commitment to professionalism is evident in the way the series portrayed cops abiding by the Miranda ruling. The conservative aspect of the show was that the cops always got their man and that criminals were taken off the street and given the punishment they deserved. Overall, the series portrayed the police and the rest of the criminal justice system as efficient and effective, as generally being on top of the crime problem. It misses however, that it was brutal specifically police brutality. A big problem with this show is that it has nothing to do with the reality of what actually was happening in LA at the time. The LAPD was known for being brutal and racists and this was not depicted accurately in the show.
Movies that depict the liberal view in Hollywood:
To Kill a Mockingbird and Twelve Angry Men
Conservative View of the Criminal Justice System
Values executive discretion, allowing police, prosecutors, and correction officials to do their job without close legal supervision. This model of justice believes that punishment of offenders is the primary reason and focal point of any crime issue. That offenders manipulate the system of parole by claiming rehabilitation in order to be released early, and so conservatives believe in limited government intervention like due process and the 4th and 6th amendment. It is a model of crime control, not due process. → Crime control, Government powers, Punishment, Determinate sentencing, Legislative/Executive supremaVigy, responsive law, and political accountability. It's focus is not whether the offender is innocent, but whether the victim is able to get justice. "We like those words, but the problem with the bill of rights is that pedophiles are getting off in court" = Conservative
What is the relative power of vigilantism in American society, according to Lenz, and how is this reflected in the nature of our political and legal institutions?
Vigilantism is much more important and controversial topic in the U.S than it is in other western nations. One reason for the difference is the fact that the U.S maintains much stronger connections between politics and law, between the political and legal systems. In the U.S there is a greater commitment to public participation in the administration of justice through the use of jury trials and the election of sheriffs, prosecutors, and judges. In theory: vigilantism is democracy in action, the purest form of popular justice, justice without law; in practice, vigilantism has historically meant injustice without law. The gap between the theory and practice of vigilantism or mob justice is one of the reasons why vigilantism has always been an intriguing subject in American legal fiction. Vigilantism rises to the top of American culture—ITS BIG. Vigilantism streak is a very potent notion Americans have. This is reflected in legal institutions by showing we are a geographic divided society, and this localism is reflected in vigilantism. Belief that we want justice on our own local terms, but do not care about other cities.
