Caleb Williams

Mrs. Debock
English IV Honors
February 25, 2017
Essential Question
Working Thesis
Refined Thesis

Annotated Bibliography

Anonymous. "Police Chiefs Should Be Given the Authority to Discipline Officers." Police

Brutality, edited by Louise I. Gerdes, Greenhaven Press, 2004. Current

Controversies. Opposing Viewpoints in Context, Accessed 21 Feb. 2017.

My article touched on police chiefs being allowed to discipline police officers due to

injustice in the police system. This is a major issue that needs to be addressed. Officers are

subject to less discipline and scrutiny for their actions contrary to everyday civilians. This is due

to a more lengthy and difficult process when it comes to incriminating a police officer. When a

civilian attempts to tell on a police officer they must sign many forms and are pressured in the

other direction making it hard to ever hold them responsible for their actions. As stated in the

article this process needs to be changed making it easier to hold officers responsible for their

actions.

Alters, Sandra M. "Firearms and Crime." Gun Control: Restricting Rights or Protecting People?,

2009 ed., Gale, 2009. Information Plus Reference Series. Opposing Viewpoints in

Context, Accessed 22 Feb. 2017.

 All crimes committed using a firearm or other type of weapon are generally dealt with

and reported to the FBI. The FBI uses data to organize which weapons are used most in crimes

and which are used least. Handguns are listed as the most commonly used with knives coming in

a close second. A distant third is blunt objects. While the FBI attempts to organize and collect all

crime data involving weapons they are not always spot on. An estimated one out of every three

crimes involving a weapon go unsolved each year. Also reported, vast majority of crimes

involving weapons are committed by males rather than women. Despite the vast majority of

crimes being committed with weapons the FBI looks to continue to attempt to minimize the

number.

Ponnuru, Ramesh. "Spending Can Be Controlled Only by Cutting the Size of

Government." Government Spending, edited by Mitchell Young, Greenhaven Press, 2009.

Opposing Viewpoints. Opposing Viewpoints in Context, Accessed 22 Feb. 2017.

Originally published as "Spendaholics," National Review, 24 Oct. 2005, pp. 32-34.

Reducing Government spending is a very difficult yet necessary task. As stated in my

cited article there are a few ways to go about achieving this goal. Initially the main point would

be to cut spending across the boards regarding everything but defense and homeland security.

Everything else would be up for grabs. Next would come abolishing programs in order to help

limit government. This has always been a goal of the U.S., to limit government and would be

further achieved with taking this action. Although this strategy involves higher risks and rewards

it would ultimately be highly beneficial if executed correctly.

Ochs, Colin. "Police Brutality Is a Growing American Epidemic." Police Brutality, edited by

Michael Ruth, Greenhaven Press, 2016. Opposing Viewpoints. Opposing Viewpoints in

Context Accessed 22 Feb. 2017. Originally published as "The Police Brutality Epidemic

That Is Sweeping the Nation," gsccompass.org, 29 Jan. 2015.

Police brutality as commonly known is a big issue across the United States. Collin Ochs

states Expecting a cop to be held at the same level of accountability as your average, everyday

citizen should not be much to ask for. While majority of cops are law abiding good citizens

there are the few that are not. 1,103 people were killed by police in 2014 alone. Thats averaging

3 a day, an astonishing number. While this remains to be a great issue many plausible solutions

are in site.

Zindler, Frank R. "Religion Harms America." Religion in America, edited by Mary E. Williams,

Greenhaven Press, 2006. Opposing Viewpoints. Opposing Viewpoints in

Context, link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/EJ3010231243/OVIC?u=scschools&xid=21575e00.

Accessed 23 Feb. 2017. Originally published as "A Government in Thrall to

Religion," American Atheist, vol. 41, Winter, pp. 14-15.

This article touches on how religion can be harmful to our country and the plausible

reasons why. A main concern is religion interfering with science. Science has always been a great

benefactor to humanity and the author fears this could be interfered with by religion moving

forward. It is hoped that the government will never become too reliant on God in which case

failure may be highly possible. Although this article is heavily opinionated against God and
religion I feel that there is a need to incorporate God and religion in politics and government but

only to an extent. There is a fine line and it needs to be discovered moving forward.

Malanga, Steven. "Government Efforts to End Urban Poverty Are Counterproductive." Urban

America, edited by Roman Espejo, Greenhaven Press, 2011. Opposing

Viewpoints. Opposing Viewpoints in

Context Accessed 23 Feb. 2017. Originally published as "We Don't Need Another War on

Poverty," City Journal, vol. 18, Aug. 2008

The government has been attempting to end poverty with their war on poverty for quite

some time. These extreme efforts may all be counterproductive. When one crunches the numbers

it becomes evident that a different approach is needed. Attempting to shift towards the new

approach cities are beginning to take necessary steps. In Milwaukee after much uproar from

civilians over children not being treated to equal educations, school systems have begun to shift

towards equality. Another reform being altered is one focused on further improving public safety.

New York City has encouraged officers to enforce broken window policy in which police go

back to reinforcing long time doormat laws.