Police Force and Discretion :: Public Safety, Police Discretion

The degree of force that officers use is heavily influenced by police discretion in real-world situations rather than espoused by a certain agenda. Discretion can be classified into four different categories where administrators, the community, and the individual police officer exercise differing degrees of influence in decision-making. What is needed to help officer discretion is a central ethos that will guide discretion when all other rules fail to help. Normal force is distinct from legal and brutal force (Hunt, 1985). Legal force is taught in police academy. It pertains to being able to subdue, restrain, and control a suspect if the officer is threatened with great bodily harm. Legal force also encompasses the use of deadly force if justified. Normal force is learned when the officer hits the streets and is conditioned to buy more effective weapons, which produce more damage to the suspect. In the academy recruits are taught not to hit a person on the head or neck because of their vulnerability, but on the street officers must hit the suspect wherever they can to control them. Peer approval further justifies this treatment. Thus, when police use the necessary amount of force they are not held accountable for a needed increase, but in fact will be looked down upon by fellow officers if a rookie does not show the necessary aggression. Police use discretion through weighing the costs and benefits of each situation (Wilson, 1968). The helpfulness of their choice is much more important than obeying their duty or moral. Thus, when normal force is explained it is done under the pretense of justifiably. To recap, normal force is simply the force used under police discretion that is neither legally taught nor brutal (Hunt, 1985). Normal force is justified by taking responsibility for their actions, yet denying they were wrong because of situational or abstract events. At other times officers use excuses for normal force and recognize their use of force as inappropriate. They will recall emotional or psychological states as a reason for such inappropriate actions. Police discretion is structured and controlled by the kind of situation that the police must deal with (Wilson, 1968). Wilson (1968) delineates four different situations. Police-invoked law enforcement, citizen-invoked law enforcement, police-invoked order maintenance, and citizen-invoked order maintenance. In police-invoked law enforcement police initiate action against crimes that usually do not have victims (Wilson, 1968). Police Force and Discretion :: Public Safety, Police Discretion The degree of force that officers use is heavily influenced by police discretion in real-world situations rather than espoused by a certain agenda. Discretion can be classified into four different categories where administrators, the community, and the individual police officer exercise differing degrees of influence in decision-making. What is needed to help officer discretion is a central ethos that will guide discretion when all other rules fail to help. Normal force is distinct from legal and brutal force (Hunt, 1985). Legal force is taught in police academy. It pertains to being able to subdue, restrain, and control a suspect if the officer is threatened with great bodily harm. Legal force also encompasses the use of deadly force if justified. Normal force is learned when the officer hits the streets and is conditioned to buy more effective weapons, which produce more damage to the suspect. In the academy recruits are taught not to hit a person on the head or neck because of their vulnerability, but on the street officers must hit the suspect wherever they can to control them. Peer approval further justifies this treatment. Thus, when police use the necessary amount of force they are not held accountable for a needed increase, but in fact will be looked down upon by fellow officers if a rookie does not show the necessary aggression. Police use discretion through weighing the costs and benefits of each situation (Wilson, 1968). The helpfulness of their choice is much more important than obeying their duty or moral. Thus, when normal force is explained it is done under the pretense of justifiably. To recap, normal force is simply the force used under police discretion that is neither legally taught nor brutal (Hunt, 1985). Normal force is justified by taking responsibility for their actions, yet denying they were wrong because of situational or abstract events. At other times officers use excuses for normal force and recognize their use of force as inappropriate. They will recall emotional or psychological states as a reason for such inappropriate actions. Police discretion is structured and controlled by the kind of situation that the police must deal with (Wilson, 1968). Wilson (1968) delineates four different situations. Police-invoked law enforcement, citizen-invoked law enforcement, police-invoked order maintenance, and citizen-invoked order maintenance. In police-invoked law enforcement police initiate action against crimes that usually do not have victims (Wilson, 1968).

Plot Summary: Young Goodman Brown

The story begins when the young Goodman Brown is saying goodbye to his wife, Faith. She asks him to stay with her, saying that she feels scared when she is alone. Goodman Brown tells her that he must travel for one night and reminds her to say her prayers and go to bed early so she will safe. Goodman Brown walks on a road through a forest. He looks around, afraid of what might be behind each tree, thinking that there might be Indians or the devil there. He soon comes upon a man in the road who greets Goodman Brown. More Summary of Devil at My HeelsThe man is dressed in regular clothing and looks normal except for a walking stick with a serpent carved that he carried. Goodman Brown and this mysterious figure go into the dark forest, the man offers Goodman Brown the staff, he says that it might help him walk faster, but Goodman Brown refuses. He says that he came to their meeting because he promised to do, but does not wish to touch the staff and wants to return to the village. Goodman Brown tells to him that he feels ashamed to socialize with him because he and his family members is Christian and good people.The man replies that he knew Goodman Brown’s family and other members of churches, and even the governor of the state. The purpose of their journey is to join in a ritual. Goodman Brown expresses reluctance, not only once but several times. He refuses because he says that he wants to return to his house for Faith. At that moment, there is a woman come and Goodman Brown knew that she i s Goody Cloyse, who he knows to be a pious, respected woman from the village. He hides, ashamed to be seen with the man. She identifies him as the devil and reveals herself to be a witch, on her way to the devil’s evil forest ceremony.The man gives Goodman Brown his staff then the man tells him that he can use it for transport to the ceremony if he changes his mind. Then he hears the voices of the minister of the church and Deacon Gookin, they are also on their way to the ceremony. Goodman Brown swears that even though everyone else in the world has gone to the devil, for Faith’s sake he will stay true to God. And, he hears voices coming from the ceremony and thinks he recognizes Faith’s voice. He screams her name, and a pink ribbon from her cap flutters down from the sky.After he knew that Faith has turned to devil and there is no good in the world, Goodman Brown gets the staff, which brings him quickly through the forest to the ceremony. When he arrived at the ceremony, he looks around to the forest, the trees are on fire, he sees his father, his mother, the minister, Deacon Gookin, Goody Cloyse and Martha Carrier. He and Faith approach the altar and they are to be anointed in blood to seal their alliance with wickedness. He tells Faith to look up to heaven and resist the devil, but suddenly he finds himself alone in the forest. The next morning Goodman Brown returns to Salem Village.Everyone that he passes is seems evil to him. He sees the minister and he refuses to accept the blessing from the minister who blessed him. He hears Deacon Gookin praying and he calls him as a witch. He sees Goody Cloyse quizzing a young girl on Bible verses and snatches the girl away. He sees Faith at his house and refuses to greet her. It’s unclear whether the meeting in the forest was a dream or not. But, Goodman Brown is changed. Now, He can’t believe the words of the minister, doesn’t trust anyone in his village, and doesn’t fully love his wife as before. He lives in the rest of his life with gloom and fear.

Biography of Queen Nefertiti, Ancient Egyptian Queen

Nefertiti (c. 1370  BCE–c. 1336 or 1334  BCE) was an Egyptian queen,  the chief wife of Pharaoh Amenhotep IV, also known as Akhenaten. She is perhaps best known for her  appearance in Egyptian art, especially the famous bust discovered in 1912 at Amarna (known as the Berlin Bust), along with her role in the religious revolution centering on monotheistic worship of the sun disk Aten. Fast Facts: Queen Nefertiti Known For: Ancient queen of EgyptAlso Known As: Hereditary Princess, Great of Praises, Lady of Grace, Sweet of Love, Lady of The Two Lands, Main Kings Wife, his beloved, Great Kings Wife, Lady of all Women, and Mistress of Upper and Lower EgyptBorn: c. 1370  BCE in ThebesParents: UnknownDied: 1336  BCE, or perhaps 1334, location unknownSpouse: King  Akhenaton  (formerly Amenhotep IV)Children: Meritaten, Meketaten, Ankhesenpaaten, and Setepenre (all daughters) The name Nefertiti has been translated as The Beautiful One  Is Come. Based on the Berlin bust, Nefertiti is known for her great beauty.  After the death of her husband, she may well have ruled Egypt briefly under the name pharaoh Smenkhkare (ruled 1336–1334 BCE). Early Life Nefertiti was born about 1370 BCE, probably in Thebes, although her origins are debated by archaeologists and historians. Egyptian royal families were always tangled by the intermarriage of siblings as well as by children and their parents: Nefertitis life story is difficult to trace because she went through several name changes.  She may have been a foreign princess from an area in what became northern Iraq. She may have been from Egypt, the daughter of the previous Pharaoh Amenhotep III and his chief wife Queen Tiy. Some evidence suggests that she may have been the daughter of Ay, Pharaoh Amenhotep IIIs vizier, who was a brother of Queen Tiy and who became pharaoh after Tutankhamen. Nefertiti grew up in the royal palace at Thebes and had an Egyptian woman, the wife of a courtier of Amenhotep III, as her wet nurse and tutor, which suggests she was of some importance in the court.  It seems certain that she was brought up in the cult of the sun god Aten. Whoever she was, Nefertiti was set to marry the Pharaohs son, who would become Amenhotep IV by the time she was about 11 years old. Wife of the Pharaoh Amenhotep IV Nefertiti became the chief wife (queen) of the Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep IV (ruled 1350–1334), who took the name Akhenaten when he led a religious revolution that put the sun god Aten at the center of religious worship. This was a form of monotheism that only lasted as long as his rule. Art from the time depicts a close family relationship, with Nefertiti, Akhenaten, and their six daughters depicted more naturalistically, individualistically, and informally than in other eras. Images of Nefertiti also depict her taking an active role in the Aten cult. For the first five years of Akhenatens rule, Nefertiti is depicted in carved images as being a very active queen, with a central role in ceremonial acts of worship. The family most likely lived at the palace of Malkata in Thebes, which was grand by any standard. Amenhotep Becomes Akhenaten Before the 10th year of his reign, Pharaoh Amenhotep IV took the unusual step of changing his name along with the religious practices of Egypt. Under his new name of Akhenaten, he established a new cult of Aten and abolished the current religious practices. This undermined the wealth and power of the cult of Amun, consolidating power under Akhenaten. Pharaohs were divine in Egypt, no less than gods, and there are no records of public or private dissent against the changes Akhenaten instituted—during his lifetime. But the modifications he made to the hide-bound religion of Egypt were vast and must have been deeply unsettling to the populace. He left Thebes, where pharaohs had been installed for millennia, and moved to a new site in Middle Egypt that he called Akhetaten, the Horizon of Aten, and which archaeologists call Tell el Amarna. He defunded and shut down temple institutions at Heliopolis and Memphis, and co-opted elites with bribes of wealth and power. He established himself as a co-ruler of Egypt with the sun god Aten. Corbis via Getty Images / Getty Images In court artwork, Akhenaten had himself and his wife and family depicted in strange new ways, images with elongated faces and bodies and thin extremities, hands with long fingers curving upwards and extended bellies and hips. Early archaeologists were convinced that these were true representations until they found his perfectly normal mummy. Perhaps he was presenting himself and his family as divine creatures, both male and female, both animal and human. Akhenaten had an extensive harem, which included two of his daughters with Nefertiti, Meritaten and Ankhesenpaaten. Both had children by their father. Disappearance—or the New Co-King After 12 years of reigning as the beloved wife of the pharaoh, Nefertiti seems to disappear from recorded history. There are multiple theories about what may have happened. She may, of course, have died at that time; she may have been assassinated and replaced as a Great Wife by another, perhaps one of her own daughters. One tantalizing theory growing in support is that she might not have disappeared at all, but rather changed her name and become Akhenatens co-king, Ankhkheperure mery-Waenre Neferneferuaten Akhetenhys. The Death of Akhenaten In the 13th year of Akhenatens rule, he lost two daughters to the plague and another to childbirth. His mother Tiy died the next year. A devastating military loss deprived Egypt of its lands in Syria, and after that, Akhenaten became a fanatic for his new religion, sending his agents out into the world to remake all the Egyptian temples, chiseling out the names of the Theban gods on everything from the temple walls and obelisks to personal objects. Some scholars believe Akhenaten may have forced his priests to destroy the ancient cult figures and slaughter the sacred beasts. A total eclipse occurred on May 13, 1338 BCE, and Egypt fell into darkness for more than five minutes. The effect on the pharaoh, his family, and his kingdom is unknown but may have been seen as an omen. Akhenaten died in 1334 during the 17th year of his reign. Nefertiti the Pharaoh? The scholars who suggest Nefertiti was Akhenatens co-king also suggest the pharaoh that followed Akhenaten was Nefertiti, under the name of Ankhkheperure Smenkhkare. That king/queen quickly began the dismantlement of Akhenatens heretical reformations. Smenkhkare took two wives—Nefertitis daughters Meritaten and Ankhesenpaaten—and abandoned the city of Akhetaten, bricking up the temples and houses of the city and moving back to Thebes. All the old cities were revived, and the cult statues of Mut, Amun, Ptah, and Nefertum and other traditional gods were reinstalled, and artisans were sent out to repair the chisel marks. She (or he) may also well have selected the next sovereign, Tutankhaten—a boy of just 7 or 8 who was too young to rule. His sister Ankhesenpaaten was tapped to watch over him. Smenkhkares rule was short, and Tutankhaten was left to complete the re-establishment of the old religion under the name of Tutankhamen. He married Ankhesenpaaten and changed her name to Ankhesenamun: she, the last member of the 18th dynasty and Nefertitis daughter, would outlive Tutankhamen and end up married to the first of the 19th dynasty kings, Ay. Legacy Tutankhamens mother is noted in records as a woman named Kiya, who was another wife of Akhenaten.  Her hair was styled in the Nubian fashion, perhaps indicating her origin. Some images (a drawing, a tomb scene) point to the pharaoh mourning her death in childbirth.  Images of Kiya were, at some later time, destroyed. DNA evidence has surfaced a new theory about Nefertitis relationship to Tutankhamen (King Tut)—he was clearly the child of incest. This evidence might suggest that Nefertiti was the mother of Tutankhamen and a first cousin of Akhenaten; or that Nefertiti was his grandmother, and Tutankhamens mother was not Kiya but one of Nefertitis daughters. Sources Cooney, Kara. When Women Ruled the World: Six Queens of Egypt. National Geographic Books, 2018.  Hawass, Z.  The Golden King: The World of Tutankhamun.  (National Geographic, 2004).Mark, Joshua J. Nefertiti.  Ancient History Encyclopedia, 14 Apr 2014.Powell, Alvin. A different take on Tut. The Harvard Gazette, Harvard University, February 11, 2013.  Rose, Mark. Wheres Nefertiti? Archaeology Magazine, September 16, 2004.Tyldesley, Joyce. Nefertiti: Egypts Sun Queen. London: Penguin, 2005.Watterson, B.  The Egyptians.  (Wiley-Blackwell, 1998).