Gary Slutkin 'The Interrupters'

Improved Essays
As Gary Slutkin put it, “there violence is their disease.” As these individuals “the Interrupters” travel the streets of Chicago trying to diffuse and modify the way we think about violence, but there are deeper social problems then what meets the eye. Upon watching the documentary my choice of person is Caprysha. I believe Caprysha is stuck in the remembering and applying stages of learning. Throughout her story, she often reminisces on how her childhood evolved, behaviors that surrounded her, certain responsibilities put on her young shoulders, and absentee parents. Unable to advance herself into a worthwhile life. Given that, she is 18 years old, and has been to fifteen different youth homes, which all were surrounded by violence and criminal

Related Documents

  • Great Essays

    Tamir Rice Argument Essay

    • 1769 Words
    • 8 Pages

    In recent years there has been an uprising against police violence and shootings in various communities in the United States. Many of these communities are determined to make a change and are standing firm in the fight against injustice. Things were no different in Cleveland, Ohio in 2014. Twelve-year-old Tamir Rice, a residence of Cleveland, lived with his mother and siblings on the west side of the city. November 23, 2014 was a rather normal Sunday for Tamir.…

    • 1769 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Family is a common factor, visibly prominent in people's lives. To many, the definition of family varies. “Families differ in terms of economic, cultural, social, and many other facets, but what every family has in common is that the people who call it a family are making clear that those people are important to them in some way.” Katherena Vermette’s The Break revolves on a community of families whose lives intertwined with one another.…

    • 956 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Eye on Diversity: Social Construction of Delinquency “Me facing Life: Cyntoia’s Story” is a documentary about a little girl sentenced to life for a murder that she committed when she was sixteen years old. At a young age Cyntoia’s biological mother gave her to a foster mother and father. Growing up she was always being judged by her mother, she wanted her to grow up being perfect like her sister with no problems. She was abused by her father and was then introduced to prostitution as a get away from her problems. Cyntoia never came around to telling people who loved her about what was going on in her life because she did not want to be judged.…

    • 765 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Inspirational, uplifting, and informational are three words I choose to describe the memoir: Becoming Ms. Burton wrote by Cari Lynn and Susan Burton. It’s not every day you get the chance to read a book that is able to enhance your own perspective on life, but Ms. Burton’s book did just that. The story, Ms. Burton’s story, give reader’s a major glimpse into the life of a woman suffering from her unearned disadvantages and the consequences that are tied to those disadvantages. The beginning of the story starts with Susan, Ms. Burton’s former self, and takes the reader’s on a journey through Susan’s life full of hardships from growing up in a crime-ridden neighborhood, to her introduction to crack cocaine. As the book moves forward, Susan’s story evolves into a bigger story that is connected to multiple social problems such as poverty, abuse, and racial discrimination in the justice system.…

    • 743 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In his novel, fist stick knife gun, Geoffrey Canada outlines a short history of the escalating violence in our cities. Taking place particularly in the South Bronx, his recounting of the virtually obligatory acts of violence that he witnessed committed on the streets of New York is truly an eye opener. He provides an earth shattering account of the truthful conditions and causes behind the atrocious acts committed by today's poverty-stricken youth, and offers the well-thought out solutions and opinions of a seasoned professional who has dealt with these issues first-hand. Geoffrey's first encounter with the violence that would soon come to dominate his youth took place during his early childhood years in the South Bronx.…

    • 946 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    (Topic Sentence) It’s no easy job for anyone to get up and clear their mind when bullies envelop their entire surrounding. (Background Information) Jamie Nabozny, a former student from a small Wisconsin community, had to deal with a set term of bullying because of his sexual orientation. His school did not serve as an asylum, as he repeatedly got abused by the same bullies throughout his education career.…

    • 845 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Sandy Massaro Essay

    • 489 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Born in New York, but not entirely raised there, Alessandra “Sandy” Massaro was constantly moving throughout her childhood. Her father, an alleged mafioso, was taken from her by the law at a young age. Her mother was never really there for her. No one cared if she ate her meals, completed her homework, or attended school. In fact, no parental figure cared if she did or didn’t do anything.…

    • 489 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Harlem, New York City, is known for the renaissance movement of art and music that emerged during the early 20th century. The “New Negro Movement” embraced African American culture and pride in opposition to the institutionalized and popular racism that followed many black people from the south. Extremely high rents kept tenants in Harlem poor and in this atmosphere, the cycle of oppression and violence was nearly impossible to escape. In the novel The Street, author Ann Petry illuminates the effects of consistent poverty and crime on a young boy named Bub. Petry demonstrates how the cyclical patterns of oppression and violence in impoverished communities desensitizes children as their innocence makes them fall victim of the cycle.…

    • 992 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Angie Thomas’ intriguing novel, The Hate U Give associates with police brutality, more specifically a teenage girl who has witnessed the act more than once. The main goal of the protagonist, Starr Carter, is to get justice for Kahlil, a sixteen year old black boy who was murdered at the hands of a police officer. As an act of police brutality, many people believe that Officer Cruise made the immediate assumption that Khalil was holding a weapon, simply because of his skin color. When Khalil was fatally shot Starr was the only person present to witness the act. Now that this was the second time in Starr’s life of seeing someone murdered as an act of police brutality and racism, she knew she had to speak up and help get justice for Khalil and…

    • 1495 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Anderson talks about how kids and young adults who live in violent communities and poverty-stricken environments are often more likely to develop aggressive behavior. He goes on to talk about how families who live in lower income neighborhoods often do not have a father present, and their mother is a “sporadic mother,” a mother who leaves her children to learn to fend for themselves when it is necessary for them to eat or find a means to an end (Anderson, 83). The children of these “sporadic mothers” are more likely to work for drug dealers or become addicts themselves. The children growing up in the “streets” lack supervision entirely and learn to fight and defend themselves from an early age. The adults they are surrounded with often want very little to do with them and leave them with very little to look up to or learn from.…

    • 1425 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Tallahassee Crime

    • 433 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Tallahassee is not as safe as families may think. Recent Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) reports have shown that Tallahassee, Leon County has a shocking total crime index due to it’s rather small population compared to cities like Miami and Jacksonville. With a total population of 287,671 in 2016 there was a total number of 16,269 crimes accounted for during 2016. Many families, college students, and citizens did not realize how awful crime was in Tallahassee. “I’ve lived in this city all of my life, I have a family here.…

    • 433 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Dr. Taylor’s From #BLACKLIVESMATTER to Black Liberation, A Movement, Not A Moment she argues in chapter six that young African American people are getting killed for nothing, and how the African American culture should stand together to transform these social conditions. African Americans are supposed to be living in a world of equality, but all they’ve been getting is racial inequality & racial profiling. In order for those changes to be made they need an event that will drive people out from isolation, and join the movement. The truth about racism and police brutality is that it has broken through the veil of segregation that has concealed it from public view. Dr. Taylor starts building her credibility with her personal experiences, the emotional appeal to her readers making young people question is it safe to go outside with actual cases that deal with police brutality; however,…

    • 871 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Steven Pinker’s “Violence Vanquished” is an article that focuses on the decline of violence since the start of the twenty-first century. He argues that violence today is relatively nonexistent in comparison to that of the past. However, deaths from rapes, shootings, and fights are still occurring today. Pinker uses a chart that estimates the deaths of people from the twentieth century to the twenty-first century (Pinker 701). The early 1900s included countless deaths from wars, slavery, and other violent conflicts.…

    • 826 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    She has tried taking her son to get help, but has not had a diagnosis or any other progress made. It is like she is stuck in bureaucratic runaround type of situation where she is attempting to get her son help but nobody involved knows or cares enough to do anything. Her exasperation reaches its peak when she simply writes “I need help” on the treatment expectations form. She feels conflicted as she loves her son, but is also terrified of him. She feels like her son is capable of hurting himself, her family, or other people and that it just hasn’t happened yet.…

    • 1375 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the 1960s, the Vietnam War pressured the American society and culture into the anti-war movement. A new culture was founded to protest against the entrance of the war. Through the eyes of a drafted man, a passionate protester and a political author, the audience learns different responses to the movement. Their contrasting expressions of the spirit of the time provokes a similar message together. David Lance Goines, Ann Charters and Susan Sontag demonstrate their approach to support the anti-war movement through their personal views.…

    • 1379 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays