Crimes and Punishment - Essay Example

Rather than being focused upon something as simple as racial prejudice, class envy, or a type of god complex, the three exemplifications that will herein be discussed engendered elements of these; however, the root cause can ultimately be traced back to a fundamental deficit of respect and appreciation for the rights, wellbeing and life of another. With regards to the situation involving the police brutality that was exhibited in Edward Mason and Tom Mashberg’s piece entitled “Police Misconduct”, the situation ultimately hinges upon the manner in which the Boston Police Department formerly utilized a system known as the Early Intervention System (EIS).

This system, 15 years old and all but out of use at the time of the incident that the authors related occurred, was a tool whereby the shareholders within upper management and oversight at the Boston Police Department could keep track of those officers that had a high level of complaints and grievances filed against them. As a function of this, the department would be able to seek to provide al level of administrative oversight, discipline, or reassignment based upon the nature and content that the reports which were gathered and tallied on each and every officer of the force.

However, rather than keeping such a system up to date, the department allowed it to lapse; ultimately, the fact of the matter was the blame with regards to how the system broke down and allowed for the violent outburst of Officer Gerald L. Cofield (Mason & Mashberg 2). However, what is interesting about this particular case is the fact that what ultimately caused the situation was a lack of respect on both the part of the officer as well as a lack of respect on the part of the Boston Police Department.

Though it is clear that the lack of respect on the part of the officer was what caused the given situation, the fact of the matter is that the lack of respect by the Boston Police Department was what convinced the officer that behaving in such a way in the first place would have few if any real repercussions. In this way, the lack of respect for the citizens by both parities allowed a situation in which a lack of oversight encouraged an already unhinged officer to behave in an incomprehensible fashion.

Similarly, but not within the same vein, the second story deals with a situation in which both the police and the responsible medical personnel showed a complete lack of respect and/or concern for the African American Garth. Rather than providing him the immediate medical attention he would have required to ensure that his life was preserved, the medical professionals reasoned, in the words of the author, that he was merely “just another nigger” and of little importance (Bartholmae 711). Such an incidence has a profound and lasting effect on Robby as he begins to describe that the world is nothing but “stone cold hard bitch” (Bartholomae 713).

The disenfranchisement with the world ultimately led him to lose respect for society as well as the individual within society. Although he ultimately ends up in prison, the reader cannot definitively put the blame of this all upon Robby. Rather, there remains a level of culpability with