Statement to Media

 There is not enough space in this forum to comprehensively cover this topic. Suffice it to say that no conversation about group behavior is complete without discussing its relationship to power, politics, and media. Your goal here in this passage is to emphasize and caution each other regarding the dynamics of each construct. This is important because each construct is tangentially connected to your perception of the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Police officers and correctional personnel are the only individuals vested with the authority to legally deprive you of your constitutional rights. They use power to distribute compliance. This power is ceded to them by the people, who have the authority to withdraw that consent if government runs afoul with such authority. The people use politics to accomplish this. The First Amendment of the Constitution affirms the right of the media to freely report any malfeasance on the part of government in this regard. This description, however, is what should occur within a perfect U.S. society. Throughout American history, people seem to fail effortlessly at meeting such a valiant standard. First, there is the public failure (ex. police beating a handcuffed suspect); then, there is the cover up (ex. police officers lying about what occurred). What follows is endless media speculation and commentary. The facts and remedies become forgotten as you learn more about the next spectacle. Rodney King, Ferguson, Baltimore, are just a few. A shrewd administrator knows the stakeholders involved in each situation and understands the power within the framework of humility. This person exercises this through expert power. Expert power is the notion that the power recipients expect the power holder to have specialized knowledge in a specific area which allows the compliance to occur. If you are now wondering why you decided to pursue a doctorate in criminal justice to one day become an administrator instead of a teacher, this is probably it. If you as a criminal justice administrator are to effectively protect, secure, and safeguard the rights of U.S. citizens, you should judiciously leverage your knowledge to gain compliance in situations that desperately require it. Whether the media chooses to acknowledge this concept or not, it is a pure interpretation of power and politics when it comes to a more enlightened view of justice and social change. In a situation, for example, where officers have used force and a suspect has died in custody, stakeholders will expect the police to justify their response by claiming the suspect violated the law and placed the officer’s life or the life of another in jeopardy. Stakeholders will claim that police exceeded their authority by violating the civil rights of the suspect. This is an oversimplification of the legal situation at hand. As you will find out in this week’s assignment, such situations are heavily nuanced. Be sure to review this week’s resources carefully. You are expected to apply the information from these resources when you prepare your assignments. Resources: Adams, T. (2016). Factors in Police Misconduct Arbitration Outcomes: What Does It Take to Fire a Bad Cop?. ABA Journal Of Labor & Employment Law, 32(1), 133-156. http://proxy1.ncu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ofs&AN=124986694&site=eds-live Barker, J. (2013). Police Encounters With the Mentally Ill After Deinstitutionalization. Psychiatric Times, 30(1), 1-11. http://proxy1.ncu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=108020543&site=eds-live