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Ellen L

The Oppression of Black People, The Crimes of This System and the Revolution We Need - 1 views

  • Conventional wisdom says that while some disparities remain, things have generally advanced for Black people in America and today they are advancing still. People like Obama and Oprah are held up as proof of this.
  • Take employment: Black people remain crowded into the lowest rungs of the ladder...that is, if they can find work at all. While many of the basic industries that once employed Black people have closed down, study after study shows employers to be more likely to hire a white person with a criminal record than a Black person without one, and 50% more likely to follow up on a resume with a “white-sounding” name than an identical resume with a “Black-sounding”2 name. In New York City, the rate of unemployment for Black men is fully 48%
  • Black infants face mortality rates comparable to those in the Third World country of Malaysia, and African-Americans generally are infected by HIV at rates that rival those in sub-Saharan Africa. Overall the disparities in healthcare are so great that one former U.S. Surgeon General recently wrote, “If we had eliminated disparities in health in the last century, there would have been 85,000 fewer black deaths overall in 2000.”5
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  • Or education: Today the schools are more segregated than they have been since the 1960s6 with urban, predominantly Black and Latino schools receiving fewer resources and set up to fail. These schools more and more resemble prisons with metal detectors and kids getting stopped and frisked on their way to class by uniformed police who patrol their halls. Often these schools spend around half as much per pupil as those in the well-to-do suburbs
  • People rebelled in hundreds of American cities,25 and the revolutionary stance of leaders like Malcolm X and forces like the Black Panther Party resonated with millions in the streets and campuses of the U.S. Many things fed into this—including, again, the international situation which, as pointed out earlier, was marked by a great upsurge in national liberation struggles and the influence of a socialist China under the leadership of Mao.
  • ome African-Americans were given opportunities to enter college and professional careers, and social programs like welfare, community clinics, and early education programs were expanded. Government spending for training and jobs that would employ Black people increased. Some discrimination was lifted in credit for housing and small businesses. Most of this was in the form of small concessions—not only did this not begin to touch the real scars of hundreds of years of terrible oppression, but discrimination continued in all of these arenas. Nonetheless, these advances were hardly insignificant.
  • To put it another way, the ’60s showed that when masses rose up in rebellion against the powers-that-be, and when that was coupled with a political stance that called out the system as the problem, and when a growing section of that movement linked itself to and learned from the revolutionary movement worldwide…well, when all that happened, you could radically change the political polarization in society
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    The most relevant parts of this article are the introduction and the 60's section. These discuss the struggle of the black population and the impact of leaders like Malcolm X on society. 
Evan G

Black Men Can't Get Jobs | DarkOneSun's Blog - 0 views

  • 5-10 calls per day from interested job recruiters.  It’s all good until they hear my voice on the phone, and they can tell that I am a black man.  In spite of having a stellar resume, it all goes downhill from there.
  • I have had to watch as colleagues that I went to school with found jobs before I did with the same damn degree I had; and I graduated a year before they did!
  • People LAUGHED at the black man’s economic situation.  However, now that white America, and everyone else is feeling the sting, all of a sudden, they want to start a damn movement, and they expect US to join?
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  • As for the black people who are actually joining this Occupy Wall Street movement, and especially black men, I don’t even know why they are even bothering.  Black folks are ALWAYS trying to be a part of something; a part of something that doesn’t really give a damn about you.
  • I am seeing niggas out here trying to be martyrs in the Occupy movement.  These cats must be crazy.
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    Although this is a kind of ghetto site, it hit hard because it was a lot like Malcolm himself. In a protest to the blacks joining the Occupy Wall Street Movement, the author comments that he has been denied countless jobs, only because he is black. Despite having better credentials than many of his white friends, once employers discover his color, it's all over. Also, like the Nation of Islam and the Bro Hood, this guy talks about how the poor whites in the Occupy movements are only in it for themselves, and once they get what they want, they'll just forget about the black members. Unfortunately, this is modern, contemporary stuff that is going on now.
Ellen L

Courts Try to Maximize Jury Diversity - July 2007 - The Third Branch - 0 views

  • But a study ordered in 2005 by Judge Nancy Gertner (D. Mass.) found that wealthier towns with few minority residents did a better job of keeping accurate residency lists than more diverse communities. The result: a higher percentage of jury summonses sent to minorities came back as undeliverable or went unanswered.
  • “The perception of fairness counts. A white jury may be fair, but a non-white defendant likely will think ‘the jurors can’t be fair because they don’t understand me.’”
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    This page discusses the importance in having a racially and culturally mixed jury in order to make fair decisions. The importance of have many differing perspectives gives the case a more concrete ambiance, thus increasing a ruling' rationality. In In Cold Blood, and all the other books, we see this common thread of truth through the many opinions of others, thus augmenting the importance of a multiperspective show. In the In COld Blood trial, there is a very monotonous showing of a jury, as all the people are white, christian landowners. 
Evan G

The Great Depression - 1 views

  • Farm prices dropped to record lows and bitter farmers tried to ward off foreclosers with pitchforks. By the dawn of the next decade, 4,340,000 Americans were out of work. More than eight million were on the street a year later. Laid-off workers agitated for drastic government remedies. More than 32,000 other businesses went bankrupt and at least 5,000 banks failed. Wretched men, including veterans, looked for work, hawked apples on sidewalks, dined in soup kitchens, passed the time in shantytowns dubbed "Hoovervilles," and some moved between them in railroad boxcars. It was a desperate time for families, starvation stalked the land, and a great drought ruined numerous farms, forcing mass migration.
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    Although it's just a basic summary of the Depression on a website, it actually has some good statistical figures that might be included in essays to add effect or impact, or "concrete details" for Mrs. Furphey.
Ellen L

The Great Gatsby And The American Dream - Discuss Anything - 0 views

  • On the surface of The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald portrays a romantic love between a man and a woman, but inside the real meaning is much deeper. Fitzgerald depicts the 1920’s as a time of decay social and moral values, evidence of this is the greed and the pursuit of pleasure. Jay Gatsby’s constant parties epitomized the corruption of the American Dream as the desire for money and worldly pleasures overshadowed the true values of the American Dream.
  • It’s written in the American Constitution that every individual has the right to “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”. This right it seems has taken a twisted turn in the early 1920’s.
  • . These materialistic values consequently led the decay of the American Dream. The new American Dream described by Fitzgerald portrays a world where greed, the pursuit of money and pleasure are above all else. Fitzgerald portrays a world that has lost its way in the corruption of the American Dream.
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    "The pursuit of happiness soon turned into the pursuit of wealth and ultimately to greed" This relates to the capitalist business model seen in FFN, GOW, TJ and NaD in which all the business owners work to gain a profit, despite the situation they place their employees. Material wealth is seen taking over the ideals of society, a concept that the members of the Eggs exhibit through their ostentatious parties and affluence. 
Zaji Z

McDonald's Worker Arrested for Serving Cop Salty Hamburger - 1 views

  • A McDonald's worker in Union City, Ga., was arrested and jailed Thursday night for putting too much salt and pepper on a police officer's hamburger
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    You know something wrong when someone cannot even assemble a frozen hamburger. When all it takes is to season a burger and a worker cannot even accomplish that property, it means that the workers are not so passionate in performing well in their job, which leads to a conclusion that perhaps there aren't too many incentives for the employee to even bother trying. 
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    You also know something is wrong when someone gets arrested for seasoning food wrong. If it was such an obvious problem, the cop should have addressed it before eating the rest of the hamburger and getting sick. I think this shows irresponsibility on both the side of the business and the side of the government.
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    I would just like to say I read this and actually laughed out loud. This is absurd, and I agree with both of you! It shows how little training workers get if they can't even prepare the (almost entirely precooked) burger properly. The manager must not be well trained either, because he didn't do much to help. On the other hand, the cop didn't have much reasoning for arresting Bull. This seems like a cop using his power excessively.
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    Yeha, it's ironic because the there are so many scandals that occur in the fast food industry already that the government ignores. Yet a worker is arrested for not seasoning a burger the right way. Ridiculous
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    See, it's all about da profit. Mickey D's can't even spend the money or time to teach its employees how to put seasoning on a premade and pre-flavored (by chemicals) patty. But I think it's even more pathetic that this guy got arrested for it.
Zaji Z

WA Minimum Wage Soon to Top $9 an Hour - 0 views

  • The minimum wage in Washington state goes up 37 cents on Jan. 1, to $9.04 an hour. Washington is one of only 10 states that ensure by law that their minimum wage keeps up with inflation
  • For a full-time worker, the higher minimum wage will mean about $770 more dollars a year.
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    While many of modern society's economic talk, including Ehrenreich's experience, are of the injustice corporations and the government impose on the people with low wages that cannot even sustain a family for a month (or barely, at least)... they are overlooking the smarter state governments that do adjust their minimum wage policy to match inflation. Even if it may only be a few cents of a raise per hour, one can nearly earn a thousand, which definitely helps in sustaining a family. 
Ellen L

Ethical Issues in Genetic Engineering and Transgenics (ActionBioscience) - 0 views

  • What are the long-term effects on the environment when transgenics are released in the field?
  • What ethical, social, and legal controls or reviews should be placed on such research?
  • Will transgenic interventions in humans create physical or behavioral traits that may or may not be readily distinguished from what is usually perceived to be “human”?
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  • If we create a being that has the ability to speak and perhaps even reason but looks like a dog or a chimp, should that being be given all the rights and protection of a human being? Some bioethicists argue that the definition of “human being” should be more expansive and protective, rather than more restrictive. Others argue that definitions that are more expansive could be denigrating to humanity’s status and create a financial disincentive to patenting creations that could be of use to humanit
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    This article discussed the controversy on what it means to be a human being. As the field of genetic engineering is quickly growing, ethical concerns arise, particularly what constitutes a human being. If scientists were to create entities that functioned like humans, but did not look like them, there is a question to how they would be treated. This is much like the monster Frankenstein creates, who functions much like a normal human, but is denied equal treatment by others. 
Sarah Sch

(6) Personality Development - 0 views

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    "Personality development is the development of the organized pattern of behaviors and attitudes that makes a person distinctive"
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    "...all experts agree that high-quality parenting plays a critical role in the development of a child's personality"
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    "When parents understand how their child responds to certain situations, they can anticipate issues that might be problematic for their child. They can prepare the child for the situation or in some cases they may avoid a potentially difficult situation altogether"
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    The article examines the formation of a person's character. The parent's influence on a child's personality is incalculable. A parent can shape a child by either protecting or exposing that child to certain events. The monster never has a parent to shield him. If Victor was a responsible parent, he would have help shaped the monster into a compassionate creature. This article supports an essay discussing the familial ties in Frankenstein.
Vivas T

Gale Power Search - Document - 0 views

  • After his parents separated, Smith lived with an alcoholic mother who became a prostitute; a brother and sister who committed suicide
  • and a father whose fanciful dreams kept Smith moving from place to place, unable to continue his education past the third grade.
  • In his twenties, Smith has a falling out with his father. They had built a hunting lodge in Alaska, a venture which quickly failed, and after a Page 183  |  Top of Article violent episode where each tried to kill the other, they parted ways.
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  • it also concentrates the reader's sympathies on Perry Smith, who, abused and abandoned as a child
    • Vivas T
       
      This article illustrates Perry's encounters with abuse and the negative treatment that his father gave him.
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    This shows the troubles that Perry has in his early childhood. It also shows the isolation he faces and the poor parenting and lack of support. This motivates him to go on a life of crime
Ellen L

A safe place for kids to grieve ~ Kidsaid.com - 0 views

  • It is important to remember that a young child's perception is oriented in the five basic senses. It is concrete, short-range and based on what is felt in the moment. A young child does not comprehend the concept of death. A person is gone; then a person is there. When a person is gone and then still gone and then still gone, a child may grieve at each moment when he or she feels the person's goneness.
  • Children may ask questions repetitively. The answers often do not resolve their searching. The searching itself is part of their grief work.  Their questions are indicative of their feelings of confusion and uncertainty. Listen and support their searching. Answer repetitively. You may have to tell the story over and over and over again.
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    This site discusses the grief process of young children. In a normal situation, kids are typically suppose to do a lot of questioning to somehow rationalize the situation. In AILD, however, we see that Vardaman is unable to ask these questions, which is detrimental to his growing process. 
Evan G

SparkNotes: The Jungle: Themes, Motifs & Symbols - 0 views

  • Every event, especially in the first twenty-seven chapters of the book, is chosen deliberately to portray a particular failure of capitalism, which is, in Sinclair’s view, inhuman, destructive, unjust, brutal, and violent.
  • The slow annihilation of Jurgis’s immigrant family at the hands of a cruel and prejudiced economic and social system demonstrates the effect of capitalism on the working class as a whole
  • Instead of a land of acceptance and opportunity, they find a place of prejudice and exploitation; instead of a country where hard work and morality lead to success, they find a place where only moral corruption, crime, and graft enable one to succeed materially.
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  • The family itself has been subject to swindles, grafts, manipulation, and rape. As the corruption motif recurs with increasing levels of immorality, it enhances the sense that things are growing worse and worse for the family. Sinclair heightens the atmosphere of grim tragedy and hopelessness to such an extent that only the encounter with socialism in Chapter 28 can possibly alleviate Jurgis’s suffering and give his life meaning.
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    Yet again, Sparknotes is a fairly decent source, describing various themes for potential essay topics including the failure of capitalism, corruption in businesses, treatment of the [immigrant]  worker, etc. It's very short, to the point, and concise, talking about how awfully workers are manipulated, and the utter torment they go through on a day-to-day basis, merely trying to survive.
Zaji Z

Video: Money Makes a Woman Go Round - 0 views

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    This is sad. What Woolf describes in her essay, that a woman must have means and money to be able to think freely, one would think that a woman in a modern society, where no continent is neglected of technology and accessible tools for the creative space, is able to share her own thoughts and words to express her mind. No-- her concerns nearly a century ago ring true today, women are commodities, sold to slavery, prostitution, forced marriage, social censorship, many women of the world are trapped in a system constantly exploited by men. 
Evan G

Frankenstein's Monster: A Product of Society - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com - 0 views

  • Frankenstein continually views the monster as an ongoing experiment. This encourages a feeling of ostracization and contempt in the monster
  • he monster never experienced true growth with a mother and/or father.
  • wants to be accepted by his creator, and when he does not receive this acceptance, he desires a female companion, perhaps as a direct result of the lack of a mother figure in his life.
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    This source discusses the role of parenthood (both father and mother) in the novel. It mentions the fact that Frankenstein does not view his monster as a son, or even friend; instead regards him as an IT, a soulless, emotionless being, leading to feelings of isolation and alienation in the monster. This results in the rage and hatred, and possible insanity that the monster undergoes.
Evan G

The Outsider Writers' Book Review: Upton Sinclair: The Jungle - 0 views

  • Sinclair's book is a muckraking expose of the institutionalized inequality, corruption, privilege, sickness and slavery needed to keep the machine running that runs beneath he thin veneer of the American dream of freedom and success.
  • It's a losing battle, of course, and work in the packinghouses brings poverty, disease, death, injury, injustice, rape, jail and exploitation to the Rudkus family.
  • In the drive for even a half-penny of profit spoiled meat is bribed past inspectors, men are crushed and killed, waste is driven wholesale into public drinking water and, like the meat the process, every ounce of worth in a human being is taken before being discarded in favor of fresh meat
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  • Jurgis also is glad that he is not a pig – only to realize at the end that he and all the working men were treated as cruelly and as senselessly as the animals, driven to the point of death to churn out meat faster and faster and then discarded.
  • better to be a homeless vagrant than in service of the Trusts.
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    This site is AMAZING for topics regarding treatment of workers. It literally describes in vivid detail the cruelty and carelessness of the corporations, as well as the insignificance and disposability of the worker. No one matters; the companies see people in terms of dollars, not faces or names. People are just a means to an end, a way to get profit. Once the profit ceases, the people are discarded in search of even better workers, which will be discarded in their time as well
Zaji Z

McDonald's Admits Huge Gap Between Exec, Worker Plans - 1 views

  • company coughs up only between 10% and 20% of hourly store workers’ insurance premiums, while it picks up a generous 80% for most corporate employees and restaurant managers. Making matters worse, hourly workers not only shell out most of the cost of their McHealthcare — amounting to $710 in 2011 — but they’re entitled to coverage of only $2,000 a year. Corporate employees, on the other hand, have unlimited benefit allowances.
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    The argument of who is in more risk of an occupational hazard: a McDonald's part time employee or the chain manager, it's a difficult decision to realize... of course, that was a sarcastic statement. Corporate giants and its executives have been indulging themselves in countless benefits including the benefit of proper health care while its typical kitchen employees struggle to keep up with quota demands set by greedy managers, providing an education for themselves and trying to raise children in order to maintain a family. This excerpt is clear proof of the sickening business ethics large corporations now follow: not to protect its workers, but rather the privileged who wallow in their own wealth. 
Ben R

McDonald's denies intentional wrongdoing, wants cheese lawsuit dismissed | West Virgini... - 0 views

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    MORGANTOWN - McDonald's denies any intentional wrongdoing in the now famous $10 million dollar cheese lawsuit and seeks to have the case dismissed.On Aug. 31, the McDonald's Corporation answered a lawsuit filed by a man who seeks $10 million from the company after he has a severe allergic reaction when he bit into a sandwich that had cheese on it.
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    The executives of the large corporations such as McDonalds do many things to avoid getting into these kind of situations, but when they finally do arise they address them differently than any small company would. If you were injured because of something you ate at a mom and pop restaurant they would cover your medical expenses and likely settle out of court, but since McDonalds is concerned not with the well being of the consumer but the fact that they do not lose money not only have the not covered the mans medical expenses they are moving for immediate dismissal of the charges.
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    While massive lawsuits are not the greatest thing in the world, I love it when a customer screws a fast-food restaurant for millions of dollars. The reason why our coffee cups now say, "CAUTION: CONTAINS HOT LIQUID" is because someone has beat the system and made a profit. When companies like McDonald's have no sympathy for their workers and only wants to make a profit, why should we have sympathy for McDonald's and not aim to make a profit off them?
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    This is ridiculous though. As much as I have learned to hate McDonald's by reading FFN, you need to admit that it's not Mickey D's job to know what that guy's allergies are, even if he asked not to have cheese. He should have checked his food first if he was so concerned. Waiters and/or the kitchen make mistakes at every restaurant.
Ellen L

No Union Please, We're Wal-Mart - 0 views

  • As I'm checking out, the elderly man in front of me says to the young woman running the register: "It's so sad to see your favorite store like this." She just shrugs.
  • A media capital Jonquière is not. And yet Wal-Mart's abandonment of this north Quebec outpost in the spring of 2005 made news from Tokyo to São Paulo as an object lesson in the lengths to which America's largest company will go to throttle the threat of unionization. Wal-Mart closed its store here a few months after it was certified by the Quebec government as the only unionized Wal-Mart in North America.
  • Discretion was essential, for they knew that there were workers who either truly liked their jobs without benefit of a union or were so fearful of losing them that they would oppose unionization.
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  • The store soon was riven into bitterly opposed camps. Management began holding mandatory anti-union meetings and issuing dire warnings about the future of the store. Complaints of intimidation and harassment cut both ways, as pro-company employees told of organizers pestering them at home at all hours.
  • Two months later, just as the UFCW and Wal-Mart representatives were preparing to begin mandatory contract negotiations, Wal-Mart Canada issued an ominous press release from its headquarters near Toronto. "The Jonquière store is not meeting its business plan," it declared, "and the company is concerned about the economic viability of the store."
  • Not long ago, Lavoie's 10-year-old daughter came home crying from school after she had been harangued by the child of a former Wal-Mart manager. A hero to some and a villain to others, Lavoie insists that she had no choice but to fight. "Je ne regrette rien," she says. "I regret nothing."
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    This article reports on the thwarting of a unionized Wal-Mart in Quebec. As the first unionized North American Wal-Mart, the leaders went out on a limb to gain support for their cause (although the percent of unionized workers in Canada is greater than that of the US,) and were inevitably shut down for reasons relating to poor value, although few believed this to be true.
Ellen L

Racial Diversity Improves Group Decision Making In Unexpected Ways, According To Tufts ... - 0 views

  • esearch from Tufts University indicates that diverse groups perform better than homogenous groups when it comes to decision making and that this is due largely to dramatic differences in the way whites behave in diverse groups--changes that occur even before group members begin to interact.
  • In a study involving 200 participants on 29 mock juries, panels of whites and blacks performed better than all-white groups by a number of measures. "Such diverse juries deliberated longer, raised more facts about the case, and conducted broader and more wide-ranging deliberations," said Sommers. "They also made fewer factual errors in discussing evidence and when errors did occur, those errors were more likely to be corrected during the discussion."
  • "Diverse groups show a number of advantages and benefits when it comes to this type of decision making."
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    This article discusses a study that was done which concluded that diverse juries spend more time deliberating, thus making fairer, more thought out decisions. Unlike with a jury of equals, a diverse jury argues over beliefs and values, thus increasing the value and fairness of the decision. 
Ellen L

The Insanity Defense - 0 views

  • Years from now, when socialist historians of the future examine the dead carcass of US capitalism, they will pay special attention to the growing barbarism of the penal system in the late 20th century. While most attention will obviously be paid to the reintroduction of the death penalty and a racist judicial system that incarcerates minorities disproportionately, there will also have to be close look at the tendency to treat mentally ill people as common criminals.
  • The insanity defense was first used in the case of an 1843 assassination attempt on British Prime Minister Robert Peel by a psychotic individual named Daniel M'Naghten. When a physician testified that M'Naghten was insane, the prosecution agreed to stop the case and the defendant was declared insane despite protests from Queen Victoria and the House of Lords.
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    Originally used in 1843 for an assassination case, the insanity plea has been used by many cold killers to save their lives in return for being labled as a sociopath. Both Dick and Perry undergo psychological evaluations to determine if they, too, qualify for this sentence.  Interestingly enough, this defense now seems to be a thing of the past, as some courts require their jury to answer whether or not a criminal understood his actions.
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