Wednesday, January 29. 2014

Today's schedule is B-A-D-C

B Block Social Studies 10 - Today we'll continue with our family heritage assignment presentations. I have the notebooks available for you if you need them to present and I'll ask for volunteers rather than voluntolds to present today. I look forward to see where your family falls in the history of Canada that we've looked at this year.

A Block Criminology 12 - Today I'll have you continue presenting your criminology topics for our seminar presentations. I sincerely look forward to what you found interesting about Criminology. Don't forget if you are interested UFV, VIU and SFU (including the CrimOne first year expertience program @ SFU Surrey) offer Criminology degrees here in British Columbia. You can also find Criminology diploma programs at Douglas College, North Island College (here in the Comox Valley) and Kwantlen Polytechnic University. You can also find programs on policing and criminal justice at the Justice Institute of BC.

D Block Law 12 - Today is day one of your two day exam and you'll tackle the selected response answer section. I know that you are prepared and am certain that you'll do well. Breathe, relax and dazzle me with what you know.

C Block Crime, Media and Society 12 -  Yesterday we watched "Lie to Me" in order to further examine the trend in crime media about police incompetence. From tvtrope "Unlike just one Dirty Cop, or a small group of them, Bad Cop/Incompetent Cop describes an entire precinct where police are monolithically terrible. Maybe they're all corrupt. Maybe just a few are corrupt, but the rest are so incompetent that they completely ignore the swath of abuse, violence, and destruction the corrupt cops leave"...

Patrick Jane helps the CBI (now the FBI in the current season) on The Mentalist, Richard Castle helps the NYPD on Castle, Neal Caffrey helps the FBI (kind of) on White Collar, John Reese and Harold Finch supplant the NYPD, the FBI, the CIA and the NSA on Person of Interest, Nate Ford and his team of criminals take the role of police in Leverage, Cal Lightman is the expert on Lie to Me and Sherlock Holmes helps the NYPD on Elementary (or Scotland Yard in London on the BBC series). Up until the 2000's these people would have been portrayed as private eyes (Magnum P.I. or the Rockford Files) and would have been on the margins of police work where the police were still competent at their jobs. Now, the police have no clue as to how to solve crimes and they need to go to "outside experts" who can help cover their incompetence. So my question was:

Why do you think there is a trend in crime media involving the inadequecies of the police? Look at Elementary, Lie to Me, the Mentalist, Person of Interest Leverage, and the Dateline episodes to Catch a Predator or to Catch a Con Man. Each one of these shows involves a private consultant or specialist that helps the police solve their crimes that they apparently cannot solve on their own. What subtle or overt messages about policing and authority do these shows portray? Why do you think this is a popular trend in crime media?
In order to help today we'll watch an episode of The Mentalist from Season 1 called "Red Handed" (A severed hand is found on the California-Nevada state line, that belongs to a murdered hotel casino owner. While the CBI team suspects a mafia hit, Patrick Jane uses the investigation as an opportunity to win at the cards tables) and tomorrow we'll watch an episode of Person of Interest from Season 1 "Cura Te Ipsum" (The Machine gives up the number of Dr. Megan Tillman, a promising young physician, and Reese undertakes 24-hour surveillance of the doctor to determine the threat against her. Meanwhile, Fusco runs afoul of the Torero Cartel when they come looking for the drug money that his former partners stole from them)