Extra Credit 4: Inside the Megastorm

I watched the documentary Inside the Megastorm on Nova the other day. When I came across this film I immediately wanted to watch it. My family lives on Long Island so although I was away at school when the storm hit, I still heard about the devastating news that was going on at home. Hurricane Irene happened last year and it did not hit as hard as the news told us so this time, many people did not evacuate when they were told to do so. This documentary really gave me an insight as to what happened to New Jersey, New York City and Long Island.

            A weather service in the UK predicted it would hit as hard as it did eight days before it happened. Hurricanes rarely hit the coast; they usually go out to sea due to a high-pressure system over Bermuda. Hurricane Sandy had many factors that contributed to it becoming this terrifying hurricane. The sea levels are higher, the sea temperatures are warmer, and the change in jet stream pattern and it collided with a Nor’easter. When Sandy was still a tropical storm in the Caribbean, it had 70 mph winds and killed 70 people. The countless stories of people fearing for their lives in this film was heart wrenching. According to the fire commissioner in NYC, there were about 20,000 calls made to 911 per hour. Nine million people in New Jersey and New York were without power. People used social networking sites like Twitter to reach out to rescue services when their phone lines were not working. In Breezy Point one hundred houses burned to the ground and fire fighters were trapped and could not respond to the fires. Even twelve hours before the storm hit land there was record high flooding. Waves higher than forty feet accompanied by eighty mile per hour winds devastated the East Coast.

            Hurricane Sandy took the lives of 200 people. It left eight million people with out power for almost three weeks and even burned entire towns to the ground. The New York Stock Exchange closed for the first time since September 11^th. As I watched this film I only imagined how terrified my family and friends at home must have been. The video images and interviews in this documentary are something you would see in a horror film. The worst part of this is that according to storm services and scientists, hurricanes in the future will hit less frequently but due to high sea levels and warm temperatures, will hit harder then ever before. 

Blog Two: Contestant No 2

            The documentary Contestant No 2 tells the story of a young Arab-Israeli teenager named Duah Fares. Duah is from Rama and her religion is Druze. Duahs dream is similar to that of many teenagers all over the world, she desires to be famous. Duah will allow nothing to come between her and achieving her goal so she becomes involved in a beauty pageant called Lady of All the Arabs. Young ladies from all over Israel can partake in this pageant and the contestants are usually from all different cities and there are often a wide variety of religions. The Druze religion prohibits women from dressing and acting a certain way, which causes a major dilemma for Duah and her family when she decides to join the beauty pageant Miss Israel.

            The location of this documentary took place in Israel. This is a key factor in the meaning and conflict of this documentary because religion shapes the culture and every day lifestyle of Israelis. If Duah grew up in a country where religion was not a predominant factor, the documentary would basically lose its purpose. Religion has always been important in Israel history. There are various types of religions practiced in Israel, but all citizens take their religion very seriously.

            Duahs mother, Dalia, shared the same dream as Duah when she was younger however she gave up that dream and works as well as runs the household. Her father, Marwan, was arrested for ten years for a nonviolent crime and we never learned of his occupation. Duah also has six siblings who are seen throughout the documentary watching the news as it spoke of the threats against their older sister and even practicing their catwalk on lines of tile in the kitchen. The family is very supportive of Duah and her dream, however her parents are strict when it comes to following tradition. When she’s unsure if she is crossing the line and pushing her limits, she will consult her parents for advice.

            Economics did not play a huge role in this documentary until it came time for Duah to decide whether or not she wanted to quit Lady of All the Arabs to be a finalist in Miss Israel. She wanted to be involved in Miss Israel because it was more prestigious and could lead her to be famous. The problem was that it would cost $5,000 for her to quit Lady of All the Arabs. She ended up quitting Lady of All the Arabs and was fully involved with Miss Israel. When the finalists of the Miss Israel beauty pageant needed to take a trip to Bangkok to promote their pageant, Duah and her family did not have the money. Marwan, Duahs father, committed robbery for $200 to help pay for the trip and was arrested. The arrest led to tabloids and news coverage of Duah and her dreams. As the story became more popular, the people in her community and her religion became furious.

            Politics became a crucial factor towards the end of the documentary. When Sheikh Muafak Tarif, the Druze leader, became involved with the Fares family, they had no choice but to have Duah leave the competition. The family could not disobey the Sheikh and what he told her to do. At that point, the threats to kill Duah were getting out of hand and there needed to be an end to it. Three arrests were made, her uncle and two accomplices, planned to murder Duah for her behavior.

            Culture was very important in this documentary. Duahs religion limited her abilities to fulfill all the requirements of the competition. In the beginning of the film when Duah has a conversation with her mother she says that the problem is that the older generation is too stuck in old traditions. The Druze religion and its believers are so strict that there are often murders of young females. Duahs dream put her life at stake as well as her families because of the religion and how her society wants her to act.

            I was so surprised to see a different view of beauty pageants in this film. Beauty pageants and fame are just a simple part of our culture. I actually cried when Marwan read a story to Duah when she visited in jail. So see him so upset over what had happened really broke my heart. All this young lady was trying to do was achieve her goals. Every day kids in our society are told to follow our hearts and dreams. Duah tried to do that and she was very passionate about it but unfortunately life is different in Israel. 

Extra Credit 3: Post Mortem

            I just finished watching the documentary Post Mortem on frontline. This documentary goes into details about coroners and forensic pathologists. In the documentary we learn of many examples and cases of forensic pathologists and coroners who perform multiple autopsies every day but have no training and don’t know what they are doing. Many Americans have false impressions of forensic pathologists, coroners and autopsies from media and entertainment. Many shows like CSI, SVU and House give viewers false perception of what really happens post mortem.

            All over the country there are incorrect autopsies given. 1300 counties across the country elect politics to carry out death investigations. These coroners have barely any requirements to hold this job. In South Carolina there was a coroner who was in practice for forty-seven years and was blind. The only requirement for coroners is that they have to have received a high school diploma. There is no federal oversight of death investigators any where in the country. In Massachusetts it was reported that body parts would often go missing during autopsies. In Michigan many of the coroners and forensic pathologists missed very obvious things during autopsies. For example, one practice didn’t find the bullet on the side of a deceased persons neck. In Nebraska many murders have walked free because the autopsies were incompetent. On the other hand there has been a shockingly high number of innocent people in jail as the result of a terrible autopsy.  

            The geography in this documentary was all across the United States. Many of the cases talked about during the documentary took place in California and New Orleans. One practice in LA, California says that out of the 60,000-70,000 deaths a year, they only see about 20,000. Forensic pathology is a very difficult field and there are not that many qualified pathologists. In New Orleans Dr. Frank Minyard was elected for ten, four-year terms. He is often being accused of being bias to police force and many of his autopsies are completely wrong. Politics are involved in this because in many counties the coroner must be elected and also the coroners try to protect the police force.

            Economics plays a huge part in the incompetency of autopsies and the people who administer them.  Coroners and forensic pathologist practices are very poorly financed. This results in terrible facilities and those who administer the autopsies are not paid very high so they give poor quality examinations. Many autopsies are done in garages with barely any light and there are often no refrigerators to hold the bodies. When a survey was given a couple of years ago, 10% of the practices did not have an x-ray machine.

            This documentary was very disturbing and really surprising. I was shocked to learn how unjust and unqualified coroners can be. Autopsies are very important in society and I believe they need to pay more attention and increase qualifications. In California, it is legal that a doctor can sign off on the death certificate without even reviewing the body. I really hope that this area in the medical improves as soon as possible. Every person can be affected by the incompetency of coroners, forensic pathologists and autopsies. 

Extra Credit 2: Forensics on Trial

            I just finished watching Nova’s documentary Forensics on Trial. This was an extremely fascinating documentary about how the techniques that forensic scientists use are very flawed. It goes into detail about how finger printing, bite marks and blood splatter are not as scientific as we thought. They are more of an art rather then a science. In the documentary there is also an example of a case in which these techniques were wrong. It also has new advanced technologies that are being used to improve these techniques.

Fingerprint

            On March 11, 2004 in Madrid, Spain there was a terrorist attack that planted ten bombs in trains that killed 191 people and left 1800 people wounded. In a van nearby, police found a blue plastic bag that had bomb-making materials in it. Scientists realize that lines and ridges of fingerprints are made from sweat and oil and can easily be wiped off or distorted. When scientists matched the fingerprint obtained from the plastic bag, the match was Brandon Mayfield, a lawyer in Oregon. He recently represented a convicted terrorist and it was said that his fingerprint was “an absolute match.” When on trail, he even hired his own fingerprint analyst who said that it was a match. Brandon Mayfield was sent to jail for fifteen days before Spanish police found that fingerprint belonged to a known terrorist. Akhlesh Lakhtakia, a professor at Penn State, is working with a team to invent a tool that takes the “geography” of the ridges and uses a gas that does not chemically alter the prints. This device shows very prominent features so its simply matching patterns.

            On May 23^rd 1991, in Auburn NY, a farmhouse was set on fire. Originally the owner of the house, Sabina, was missing. But Coe Ecker, the sheriff’s investigator, found her not far from the home, killed, nude and with bite marks on her breasts, belly and back. Bite marks are bruises with patterns. Forensic odontology makes wax impressions of bite marks to try to get a match. In the Auburn case, Ray Brown was convicted of the murder. The original scientist to take the odontology report said that even though Brown was missing two teeth, he probably twisted and obscured the bites. So Brown was sentenced to 25 years to life. While in jail, Brown went over the case. He noticed that Barry Bench who was a firefighter and ex brother in law of the victim, that his statement did not make sense. He had been fighting with Sabina over the possession of the farmhouse. On his statement he said that he was downtown and went home about 1:30am. If that were true, he would have noticed the farmhouse on fire because he had to pass that. Brown wrote Bench a letter and five days later Bench laid down in front of a train. Police then reinvestigated and found that Barry Bench’s DNA matched the DNA found on the victims t-shirt. Roy Brown was released from jail and sued and won.

            In Sweden they are now using visual autopsy reports. It is a combination of CT scans and MRI’s that produces a 3-D model of the body. Examiners can then give virtual autopsies without having to touch the actual body. Using this technology, persons involved in solving a mystery can see the dead as clearly as the day they died. When doing a hands-on autopsy, cutting open the body releases gases, which is often a big mistake that alters the autopsy report especially in cases related to strangulation. Designers are now making a portable application that can be used anywhere.        

            On June 13^th 1994, in Brentwood California, police found a woman whose throat was slit so deep that her head was almost decapitated. The woman was Nicole Simpson, estranged wife of football player O.J. Simpson. Her friend Ronald Goldmen was dead nearby with at least 20 stab wounds. Within hours of the discovery, police and reporters were walking throughout the crime scene, smearing and tracking blood everywhere. O.J Simpson’s trial lasted nine months but the jury came to their decision in less than four hours. They found him not guilty because there were too many things that did not add up. The police contaminated the scene, photos of the crime scene were not the same and most importantly justice cannot be served if the crime scene is contaminated or moved.

            It is imperative that forensics improve their techniques because murderers are walking free and innocent people are being sent to jail based on interpretations of fingerprints, bite marks, autopsies and blood splatter. Doctors across the world are working on new tools to use to improve these techniques. One new invention, the I See Crime, partners with video gamers to produce a 3-D scan of the crime scene. This gives detectives the opportunity to have a permanent record of the original crime scene. As technology improves, the accuracy of convictions should too. We have the resources to improve old techniques. It is unbelievable the technologies that can be used in forensics now. I never realized how unreliable the forensics techniques can because I am so used to them being used today. It’s crazy and scary to imagine how many innocent people can be in jail because of similarities in fingerprints to the actual murderer but, it’s even scarier to think of how many murders are walking free because of a crime scene or evidence that is contaminated. Slowly but surely the flaws in forensics science is being corrected. The common techniques are being improved and becoming a science rather then an art. 

Extra Credit 1: The Confessions

            I recently watched the documentary The Confessions on frontline.org. This is a criminal justice documentary that is based on the murder of a navy sailor William Bosko’s wife.  Four men confessed to committing the crime but none of them actually committed the murder. This documentary interviews the four men, Daniel Williams, Joe Dick, Eric Wilson and Derek Tice. We get to hear their side of the story and we learn why they confessed to a murder that they did not commit. Three other men were also charged with participating in the murder however their charges were later dropped.

            The documentary gives us an insight as to what happens during an interrogation. Tamika Taylor, a friend of the victim, told detectives to look into Daniel Williams because he seemed “obsessed” with the murder. Ford, a fierce “pit-bull-like” detective, interrogated Williams for eleven hours. After eleven hours, Williams gave a false confession that was very inconsistent. When DNA results came back four months later and showed that he was not a match, the police and investigators kept this a secret. Next detectives questioned Joe Dick because he was Daniel Williams’ roommate. Ford questioned Joe and just like Daniel Williams, Joe gave a false confession. Ford showed Joe a picture of the crime scene and that’s where Joe got information for his false confession. Eventually DNA results came back and he too was not a match. Investigators kept questioning Joe until he gave them the name Eric Wilson. Eric Wilson was arrested right off of his Mediterranean cruise and his DNA test came back negative also but they kept him in jail too. Then Joe gave Derek Tice’s name and his polygraph test came back negative but they did not let him go. After eleven hours he too gave a false confession. Then three other men were charged with gang rape and murder but their charges were dropped. Finally a man named Omar Ballard wrote a letter from jail to his girlfriend expressing that he killed Michelle Bosko. Even after Omar’s DNA match came back positive and confessed he acted alone the police did not let the others out of jail. Ultimately, the false, rehearsed confessions the men gave is what kept them in jail.

            The murder took place in July 1997 at a naval station in Norfolk Virginia. The population of Norfolk at that time was mostly naval men with their young wives and family. The crime rate there was not particularly high. The demography of the people involved in the case was all young white men, who were in the navy.  The victim was an eighteen-year-old female. Omar Ballard, who says he committed the murder and had his DNA matched was an African-American male who had a history of assaulting women charges.

            Although there was not much pertaining to economics in this documentary, all of the accused requested a lawyer besides Daniel Williams. Derek Tice requested a lawyer but never received one. The politics that I found in this documentary was the work the investigators and prosecutors were doing. They were keeping polygraph tests and DNA results a secret, feeding the accused information about the crime to enhance their confessions and denying lawyers. All of the acts mentioned must be illegal however everyone in the justice department allowed this to go on.

The four men who gave false confessions

            This documentary shocked me. I find criminal justice stories to be very interesting and I have seen many. This is the first story though that had so much evidence in favor of the accused that the police force ignored. It’s very unjust and unfair what happened to these accused men. Ford knew what he wanted the men to tell him and he would not give up. At one point in the documentary, Derek reenacted how Ford would interrogate them and broke down crying because it was too hard for him to remember. I’ve never seen such an obvious case before but these police would not admit that they were wrong. Even when John Danser had a very legitimate alibi, Ford still charged him with gang rape and murder. All of the confessions were obviously false, some even had to give seven plus confessions to get it to exactly what the police wanted to hear. I feel that if this case happened in present days, the men who gave false confessions would not have been locked away for so long. The false confessions the men gave have turned their world upside down and inside out. Even now when they were all released from jail, they have to register as sex offenders. The justice system is very much needed in society however there are definitely many faults within it.