O.A.L.A.E.H.O An unpopular opinion of Mass Media's influence on how we view Crime & Punishment

By Hay-B

An unpopular opinion of Mass Media's influence on how we view Crime & Punishment

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hay-B
• Release date: Dec 31, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463404560

Hay-B

Hay-B is graduate of Pfeiffer University, where he double majored in Exercise Science and Athletic Training. He discovered his ability to write during an elective writing class while at Pfeiffer. Although writing was not his passion, he displayed a natural talent for story telling via manuscript. Born in New York City in 1970, he has lived in numerous states including South Carolina, North Carolina, California, and Texas. It was his life experiences within these environments that helped to shape his viewpoint of American society, in addition to his curiosity of other cultures and ethnicities. Hay-B has made it a point to interact with as many people as he possibly can outside of his ethnicity in an attempt to understand the struggles and successes of others compared to his own.

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O.A.L.A.E.H.O.

(Opinions Are Like Assholes Everybody Has One)

An unpopular opinion of Mass Media’s influence on how we view Crime & Punishment

By: Hay-B

Copyright 2016 by Hay-B

Published by Hay-B/FairShare ENT at Smashwords

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

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Jamesville, NC 27846

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work of this author.

CHAPTERS

Forward

Chapter 1- Intro

Chapter 2- The Influence of Mass Media

Chapter 3- The People vs. O.J. Simpson

Chapter 4- Rodney King

Chapter 5- Christopher Dorner

Chapter 6- Justice & Just Us

Chapter 7- Ferguson, Missouri

Chapter 8- What Does It All Mean

References

About Hay-B

Foreword

First and foremost I’d like to thank everyone who has downloaded and purchased this book. Thank you for taking time out of your life to read my opinions. It is greatly appreciated.

Why did I write a book? Well, that’s really a story in and of itself.

On January 2nd of 2013, my life as I knew it changed forever. As a result of an unsuccessful medical procedure, I found myself disabled and unable to return to the workforce. Unwilling to accept being disabled and settling for life on Social Security Disability, I thought endlessly as to what I could do in my current state to generate income.

Day in and day out as I lay in bed in intense pain feeling somewhat depressed and hopeless with the Internet, cable television, and a feline named Sly to provide a distraction from my misery. I wondered; what could I do?

Then along comes Fox News analyst Megyn Kelly on her television show making a statement/comment regarding Santa Claus and Jesus Christ being white and that it’s a fact. Being shocked by her statement but more appalled that she was passing her opinion off to her viewers as a fact, I wondered how many people accepted what she said as the absolute truth.

At that moment I thought to myself, this woman is probably making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, if not millions, stating her opinions. And here I lay, full of opinions and flat broke. How can I do what she’s doing?

What were my chances of going from this bed directly to the TV screen? None! I would have a better chance of hitting the lottery. However, I knew that television was not the only way to communicate your opinions to the masses and generate income in the process. Thus, for me, the question became which form of communication was the most realistic method I could carry out.

When all was said and done, I decided writing would be my best vessel to generate an income by voicing my opinion. Writing would be the lowest risk, highest reward thing that I could do as a means to obtain the financial stability I once had when I was able-bodied.

As for which avenue related to writing I would go down, I hadn’t decided. I figured once I started writing, the writing would determine that for me. However, I did know it would either be blogging or a book. I figured if I could write a sentence, I could write a paragraph. If I could write a paragraph, I could write an essay, and blogging would be sort of like an essay a day. If I could write an essay, I could write a book because I view a book as a collection of essays or a long continuous essay.

Instead of stressing over which direction I would go, I just started writing about topics in the media where I felt mass media or public opinion got it wrong.

After writing for about a week, I felt as if I was writing in circles. I felt as if I needed to settle on certain topics and stick to them versus trying to voice my opinion on everything all at once. In order to maximize my efforts, I needed to get organized.

Ironically, the more structured I became, the more pleasurable and therapeutic writing became. With each day that passed, all of my pent-up anger and frustrations slowly started dwindling away.

Knowing who I am and how I think was vital to taking on this task. It was imperative that I selected topics that would not only hold my interest, but also spark emotion from whomever decided to read my writings. Furthermore, I believed conveying my opinion wasn’t enough. I needed something to compare my opinion too. What better opposition for my opinion than the superior mass media? Since it was mass media’s alleged factual reporting that was truly the foundation for my opinion.

From my point of view, it’s one thing to write a blog or a book, but it’s a whole other thing to sell one. To sell a blog or book, you need to write about subject matters that society at large are either interested in or can relate to. You need a hot or controversial subject matter, as it makes it easier to sell what you have written.

At the time I started writing this book, the hot topic was crime & punishment and how it applied to minorities. Thus, my focus for topics came from nationwide highly publicized issues where it was apparent (to me) that mass media shaped the popular opinion but my life experiences and common sense told me otherwise.

With me being a minority, the overall subject of crime & punishment and how it applies to minorities was right up my ally. Not only could I form an opinion on the information that was coming from mass media, I could call on my personal true life experiences to support or debunk the narrative that mass media conveyed to the masses.

Whatever opinions I had or have would be viewed as unpopular knowing that I seem to see matters of crime and punishment differently than most. However, I’ve come to understand why my opinions vary so much from popular opinion. Where most people are just looking at the surface of an issue, I tend to look beyond what’s given to me and question why said information is being provided, as well as question what information is being withheld. For whatever reason, I’m just not one to gobble up information provided by mass media at face value.

In life, I have observed that when your opinions or ideas don’t jive with the majority, people attempt to talk over you or suppress your thoughts in other ways. However, when that unpopular opinion is written out, there really is no way to stop it from being expressed, especially in the age of the Internet.

By scrutinizing the information provided by mass media as it’s related to crime & punishment, I quickly realized that mass media was quick to subtly hint at someone’s guilt but hesitant to call out the criminal justice system for misconduct, even when there was undeniable proof of wrongdoing.

Additionally, I noticed that mass media seemed to look to report only those crime-related stories where they could create a societal divide through race, religion, fear, or hate. Yet, when those four factors had no bearing on the crime committed, mass media seemed to put more emphasis on those intangibles than the crime or the punishment.

One topic I felt would always get a rise out of people was the O.J. Simpson case. Since my opinion is almost the exact opposite of public opinion, I felt I was certain to light a fire in many with it. What’s more, I hoped to get you, the reader, to re-think your opinion by placing yourself in the defendant’s chair, then deciding guilt or innocence based strictly on the Prosecution’s case and the Defense’s rebuttal. If you ignore the agenda of mass media, I’m willing to bet how you view this case comes down to how you view police. You either believe they are on the up-and-up or you don’t.

I also believe how you view police will determine how you view the debacle or incident in Ferguson, Missouri, resulting in the death of Michael Brown at the hands of Officer Darren Wilson. If you are open-minded enough to place yourself or a loved one in the shoes of Michael Brown and/or Darren Wilson, I feel you would come to the conclusion that this entire situation could have, and should have been avoided. Michael Brown did not have to die and Officer Wilson, although well within his right (based on Missouri law), did not have to kill him. Yet again, how you view police officers will weigh heavily on your opinion.

Some people that read this book may feel I am anti-police. For the record, I’m not. I don’t advocate harming police in any way, shape, or form. Our society needs law enforcement, but more significantly, we need law enforcement officers to respect and honor the uniform and badge they wear in the same manner they expect us to revere their authority.

A law enforcement officer that abuses his or her power is no different than your common criminal, in my opinion. I understand they do an extremely dangerous and difficult job; a job that most in society just aren’t cut out for. However, what all of society needs to see from the law enforcement community is the police officer that’s on par with the image and less of the type of officers that beat Rodney King and gunned down Walter Scott.

If you have ever, as a law-abiding citizen, had a police officer place a gun to your head, then instead of apologizing for his error, insinuate that you should be used to being treated in this manner, you would share my view of police officers.

If you, as a law-abiding citizen, have ever had a police officer draw his weapon on you and threaten to shoot you, claiming you made a move on him, when you submissively turned your torso to ask him a question, you would share my view of police officers.

If you as a law abiding citizen, have ever had a police officer outright lie in a court of law against you or someone you know, you would share my view of police officers.

If you have ever seen 4 off-duty police officers come staggering drunk out of a restaurant, hours after closing, boasting that no one is going to stop them from driving drunk because they are the law and they run this town, you would share my view of police officers.

I have personally experienced all of these things and much more at the hands of law enforcement officers. So, when I hear an officer say he or she was in fear for their life or that an alleged criminal was reaching for their gun, I take it with a grain of salt.

Based on my life experiences, I’m incapable of blindly trusting the narrative of law enforcement. I’ve seen with my own eyes, live and in living color, some of the scandalous things some police officers will do, just because they can and get away with it. And it is because of my experiences that I don’t instinctively trust police officers; and I’m quite fearful of police officers and the power they wield.

I know for a fact that you don’t have to be breaking the law to have