Point and shoot: Police media labor and technologies of surveillance in End of Watch

2021 ◽  
pp. 174165902110207
Author(s):  
James Alexander McVey
Keyword(s):  
Police Officers ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
Test Case ◽  
Rhetorical Invention ◽  
Cultural Impact ◽  
Found Footage ◽  
The Face ◽  
Media Work ◽  
Police Visibility ◽  
Crucial Test

This article analyzes the 2012 found-footage buddy-cop film End of Watch. The author analyzes the film’s production, plot, para-textual materials, audience reviews, and audience-generated media to examine the film’s rhetorical strategies and cultural impact. The author shows how police media work inspired the film’s creation, influenced the film’s production, and shaped the film’s messages. End of Watch is a crucial test case for understanding how police collaborate with the entertainment industry to respond to public crises of police visuality. Police media labor shaped the creation, production, and performances of the film, helping create a media product branded simultaneously as a realistic look at police life and a positive correction to negative media representations of police officers. End of Watch breathes cinematic life into commonplace hegemonic tropes of police backlash rhetoric. This article argues that End of Watch uses surveillant narration to humanize police and dehumanize the subjects of police violence. It also demonstrates how End of Watch served as a source of rhetorical invention for pro-police publics who drew on images and tropes from the film to defend police in the face of the crises of police visibility that emerged in the years following the film’s release.

Un/re/production of Old Age inThe Taking of Deborah Logan

Somatechnics ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 178-194
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Kotwasińska
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Horror Film ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Loss Of Control ◽  
Found Footage ◽  
Progressive Loss ◽  
The Face ◽  
Female Embodiment ◽  
Main Protagonist

The article offers a re-examination of abjected femininity and old age through a close reading of The Taking of Deborah Logan (2015), a found footage horror movie centered on spectral possession. While to a large extent the movie replicates an infamous monstrous old woman trope, it also effectively questions typical Alzheimer's disease (AD) narratives, which tend to portray life with AD as a story of unmitigated loss and debility. In The Taking of Deborah Logan, potentially destabilizing moments occur when in the face of progressive loss of control, memory, and bodily functions, the main protagonist is momentarily experienced as resisting the dehumanisation and loss of agency conventionally associated with AD and possession alike. The aim of this article is thus three-fold. The first part sketches the processes through which possession narratives generate a highly ambivalent space for aging femininity in horror film, and how aging, disability, and AD intersect both in popular understanding and in film. In the second part, the author examines how The Taking of Deborah Logan, as a found footage horror, shapes a discussion about selfhood, agency, and monstrous embodiment. Finally, the author argues that it is through the concept of transaging that one can find ways to destabilise traditional understandings of old age, female embodiment, and AD, and offer new narratives that highlight monstrous, if ambivalent, agency.

“The Greatest Thrill I Get is When I Hear a Criminal Say, ‘Yes, I Did it’”: Race and the Third Degree in New Orleans, 1920–1945

2016 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-44
Author(s):  
Jeffrey S. Adler
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Medical Care ◽  
New Orleans ◽  
Police Officer ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Constitutional Protection ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Face ◽  
A Cell ◽  
Short Time

On May 11, 1938, two New Orleans policemen entered the Astoria Restaurant, marched to the kitchen, and approached Loyd D. T. Washington, a 41-year-old African American cook. They informed Washington that they would be taking him to the First Precinct station for questioning, although they assured the cook that he need not change his clothes and “should be right back” to the “Negro restaurant,” where he had worked for 3 years. Immediately after arriving at the station house, police officers “surrounded” Washington, showed him a photograph of a man, and announced that he had killed a white man in Yazoo City, Mississippi, 20 years earlier. When Washington insisted that he did not know the man in the photograph, that he had never been to (or even heard of) Yazoo City, and that he had been in the army at the time of the murder, the law enforcers confined him in a cell, although they had no warrant for his arrest and did not charge him with any crime. The following day, a detective brought him to the “show-up room” in the precinct house, where he continued the interrogation and, according to Washington, “tried to make me sign papers stating that I had killed a white man” in Mississippi. As every African American New Orleanian knew, the show-up (or line-up) room was the setting where detectives tortured suspects and extracted confessions. “You know you killed him, Nigger,” the detective roared. Washington, however, refused to confess, and the detective began punching him in the face, knocking out five of his teeth. After Washington crumbled to the floor, the detective repeatedly kicked him and broke one of his ribs. The beating continued for an hour, until other policemen restrained the detective, saying “give him a chance to confess and if he doesn't you may start again.” But Washington did not confess, and the violent interrogation began anew. A short time later, another police officer interrupted the detective, telling him “do not kill this man in here, after all he is wanted in Yazoo City.” Bloodied and writhing in pain, Washington asked to contact his family, but the request was ignored. Because he had not been formally charged with a crime, New Orleans law enforcers believed that Washington had no constitutional protection again self-incrimination or coercive interrogation and no right to an arraignment or bail, and they had no obligation to contact his relatives or to provide medical care for him.

European Strategic Autonomy: The Test Case of Iran

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 443-477
Author(s):  
Sascha Lohmann
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Test Case ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Special Purpose Vehicle ◽  
The Face ◽  
Global Peace ◽  
Security Actor ◽  
Strategic Autonomy

Abstract The ideal of the European Union (EU) as a global peace and security actor is increasingly clashing with the reality of a multipolar world defined by militarised conflict, and a loosening of the formerly close trans-Atlantic relationship with the United States. European policy-makers have identified strategic autonomy as a possible remedy in the face of a growing number of internal and external security threats. This paper adds to the conceptualisation of strategic autonomy by contextualising its current usage and political genealogy. Empirically, European strategic autonomy is examined concerning the efforts to preserve the Iranian nuclear deal after the Trump administration had ceased US participation in May 2018. In particular, the paper assesses the European response to counter the re-imposed unilateral United States (US) sanctions against European individuals and entities by updating the so-called blocking regulation, and setting up a special purpose vehicle (spv) for facilitating trade with Iran. The results show that the European struggle toward achieving strategic autonomy has largely failed, but that it holds valuable lessons to approximate this ideal in the future.

100 Years of the Police in the Face of Petty Offences

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-15
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Sadło-Nowak
Keyword(s):  
Police Officers ◽  
General Public ◽  
Fair Trial ◽  
Public Order ◽  
Drinking Alcohol ◽  
Surrounding Area ◽  
Important Principle ◽  
Sense Of Security ◽  
The Face

Police in the face of petty offences - that is, a few words about how the law of petty offences has developed and what role of the Police is (and has been) in fighting against them since Poland regained its independence. Petty offences are minor acts and there are many of them in the surrounding area . These are actions that are very burdensome for residents and affect their sense of security. A petty offence is the most frequently committed prohibited act that society is, and has historically been, confronted with, and the main reason for citizens to report to police officers. Petty offences, in particular those related to disturbing public order, quiet hours , littering and drinking alcohol in prohibited areas are, due to their nature and frequency, the most burdensome acts in society. These acts are often combined with each other and are committed simultaneously. Due to the prevalence of petty offences, they affect the general public. The Code of Petty Offences contains a catalog of penalties and a number of other ways of responding to petty offenses committed. The ways in which the police react and practice have changed over the years, just as the whole of the broader law of petty offences has changed. Its development began after Poland gained its independence in 1918. The Constitution of March 1921 did not directly decide on the model of adjudication in cases of petty offences, but adopted an important principle - the citizen's right to a fair trial (Articles 72 and 98).

Emmanuel Levinas and the Problem of Meaningless Suffering: the Holocaust as a Test Case

Horizons ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-84
Author(s):  
Marie L. Baird
Keyword(s):  
Emmanuel Levinas ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Test Case ◽  
Christian Spirituality ◽  
Johann Baptist Metz ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Individual

AbstractJohann Baptist Metz has exhorted Christian theologians to discard “system concepts” in favor of “subject concepts” in their theologizing. This revisioning of Christian theology recovers the primacy of the uniqueness and irreplaceability of the individual from totalizing doctrinal formulations and systems that function, for Metz, without reference to the subject. In short, a revisionist Christian theology in light of the Holocaust recovers the preeminence of the inviolability of individual human life.How can such a revisioning be accomplished in the realm of Christian spirituality? This article will utilize the thought of Emmanuel Levinas to assert the primacy of ethics as “first philosophy” replacing ontology, and by implication the ontological foundations undergirding Christian spirituality, with the ethical relation. Such a relation is the basis for a new Christian spirituality that posits the primacy of merciful and compasionate action in the face of conditions of life in extremity.

scholarly journals THE INEVITABILITY OF CORRUPTION FOR A STABLE PAKISTANI SOCIETY IN THE LIGHT OF QURAN & SUNNAH

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (01) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dr. Ahmad Raza ◽  
Dr. Hidayat Khan
Keyword(s):  
Police Officers ◽  
Religious Leaders ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Illegal Behavior ◽  
The Face ◽  
Pros And Cons ◽  
The Masses ◽  
Day By Day

Corruption is a dishonest or illegal behavior especially by powerful people such as government officials or police officers. [i]Corruption is a distraction to the face of society, and society has become a victim of recent misery. Every other person in our society is suffering from this disease. Political leaders, religious leaders, teachers, judges, employees, businessmen and the masses are suffering from this disease. While it is true to some extent that some political leaders have set records of corruption, it is not right to put it on the politicians alone. Corruption has reached its peak in every sector and institution here. Due to corruption, the wealth of the particular classes is increasing day by day and there is no one to hold them accountable. In such a dire situation, the oppressed and the masses are being humiliated in the oppression mill. Therefore, this curse should be abolished by Pakistani society and individuals should play their full role in the society as a whole. The key question is: What are the pros and cons of corruption in Pakistan and how is it possible for stability in the light of Islamic teachings to end corruption? Recommendations have also been compiled at the conclusion of the dissertation.

scholarly journals Using child-friendly movie stimuli to study the development of face, place, and object regions from age 3 to 12 years

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederik S. Kamps ◽  
Hilary Richardson ◽  
N. Apurva S. Ratan Murty ◽  
Nancy Kanwisher ◽  
Rebecca Saxe
Keyword(s):  
Developmental Change ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Functional Change ◽  
Test Case ◽  
Data Retention ◽  
Early Maturity ◽  
Subject Specific ◽  
The Face ◽  
Child Friendly ◽  
Posterior Superior Temporal Sulcus

Scanning young children while watching short, engaging, commercially-produced movies has emerged as a promising approach for increasing data retention and quality. Movie stimuli also evoke a richer variety of cognitive processes than traditional experiments - allowing the study of multiple aspects of brain development simultaneously. However, because these stimuli are uncontrolled, it is unclear how effectively distinct profiles of brain activity can be distinguished from the resulting data. Here we develop an approach for identifying multiple distinct subject-specific Regions of Interest (ssROIs) using fMRI data collected during movie-viewing. We focused on the test case of higher-level visual regions selective for faces, scenes, and objects. Adults (N=13) were scanned while viewing a 5.5 minute child-friendly movie, as well as a traditional experiment with isolated faces, scenes, and objects. We found that just 2.7 minutes of movie data could identify subject-specific face, scene, and object regions. While successful, the movie approach was still less effective than a traditional localizer. Having validated our approach in adults, we then used the same methods on movie data collected from 3-12-year-old children (N=122). Movie response timecourses in 3-year-old childrens face, scene, and object regions were already significantly and specifically predicted by timecourses from the corresponding regions in adults. We also found evidence of continued developmental change, particularly in the face-selective posterior superior temporal sulcus. Taken together, our results reveal both early maturity and functional change in face, scene, and object regions, and more broadly highlight the promise of short, child-friendly movies for developmental cognitive neuroscience.

Offensive Language Crimes in Law, Media, and Popular Culture

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elyse Methven
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
Criminal Sanction ◽  
Public Place ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Dominant Ideologies ◽  
The Media ◽  
Offensive Language

In Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom, public order laws criminalize the use of swearing, offensive, or abusive language in a public place. Police officers use these laws as tools to assert “their authority” or command respect in public spaces where that authority is perceived to be challenged via the use of profanities such as “fuck.” Alongside the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary, representations of swearing in the media influence ideas about whether swear words warrant criminal punishment. A particular “common-sense” assumption about language (language ideology) prevalent in media representations of offensive language crimes, echoed by politicians and police representatives, is that disrespecting or challenging police authority via “four-letter words” warrants criminal sanction. However, popular culture can counter dominant ideologies with respect to offensive language, police, and authority. This article examines how the use of swear words in N.W.A’s popular rap song “Fuck tha Police” (1988) and in the HBO television series The Wire (Simon & Burns, 2002–2008) can inform and challenge legal assessments of community standards with regards to offensive language.

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