Law and Violence

IDIS: Information Literacy

14 October, 2013

Law and Violence

            The law can contribute a big deal to how crime is just, simply, ignored. The government and/or the police do not put all effort into stopping crimes and, sometimes, actually contribute to breaking the law. In the article, Law and Violence, author, Christoph Menke discusses how the law is supposed to put an end to crime, but it, merely, does not. The article states, “Law is justified violence” (Menke, 2010, Pg.1). Law is power and too much power could be taken advantage of. Many political figures ignore the violence that takes place in their cities, but avoiding a situation does not make it better. “Law is about power, its own power” (Menke,  2010, Pg.1).

            My conflict, the Mexican government vs. the Mexican drug cartels, relates to the article in many ways. The article states that the law is not doing its best to stop crimes and that is, also, what was stated in another article about the Mexican government. Enrique Pena Nieto is the president of Mexico and believes that should work closely with the U.S. in terms of the drug war, but has so far failed in that effort and actually distanced himself farther from the U.S. Nieto’s effort is not what is expected from a president that is supposed to care for the well-being of his country. Menke (2010, Pg.1) writes, “That the concept of law entails the idea of justified violence and that this is the formula of a problem, not of a solution” (Menke, 2010, Pg.1). The law is not doing their best in order to prevent the crimes that are committed, but they are not trying hard enough. (P.C)

    In the Colombian Drug War, rebels and guerrilla members have united over the past several decades based on the idea of not following government law.  They have been very successful in their very violent and illegal activities.  Menke states in this article that “law is justified violence” however it is through the greater cause of this violence to enforce the law.  Violence is the opposite of law, in the Colombian Drug War it is clearly seen that the violent members of the cartel are acting primarily to overthrow the law that has been established.  “And I say this as the president of the country that has suffered more deaths, more bloodshed and more sacrifices in this war, and the country that has also achieved more results in the fight against this scourge and the mafias that underpin it.”  Colombia’s current president, Juan Manuel Santos recently shared this statement with the press.  He shows his determination to end this ongoing conflict, and has two ways to do so.  He is allowing the guerrillas to decide if they would like to accept Colombian law, or it will be forced upon them through violence.  This is one of the main idea’s of Menke’s article.  (D.G.)

    This article relates to the Trayvon Martin case in many ways. One of the things that stand out the most about it is the quote “Law, so its critics say, does not show a way out of violence; it only continues it in a different way,” (Manke, 2010, pg 1). I relate this quote based off of the reaction that arose after the reading of the verdict. There were many protests and press conferences that were saying that Zimmerman being found not guilty if a form of injustice. Manke is saying that even though the law is here to “help”, it doesn’t always do the good it was supposed to, sometimes doing the exact opposite and in the end, the law will always be a contradictory system. (D.B.)

This article relates to my conflict City gang violence “Chicago” because it is dealing with violence in general. In the article it says “law is itself a kind of violence; because it imposes a judgment that determines its “subject” like a curse” (Menke, 2010, para. 3). This is showing how laws and violence is like a curse because you can never get rid of it. Being in a gang is like having a curse because there is no way out of it. (B.J)

My conflict, The BART shooting of Oscar Grant, relates to the article because in paragraph 2, the article focuses on the comparison of the two statements. It reflects on how the law is supposed to reduce violence and be so against it, yet they bring it into the world themselves. The writer states that the law itself is a kind of violence and that the decision making could exert violence both physical attacks and inner violence which reflects back to my conflict. The officer who shot the victim in my conflict made a decision along with a judgment, a judgment who most define as a racial thing. The purpose that the officer gives about even confronting the victim was because he was bringing violence to citizens however, was it right to fight violence with violence? No. in an end result, there was a dead body on sight, Oscar Grant. Because of the incident, there then were riots, protests, many which ended in violence and plenty of deaths. The law doesn’t grasp the fact that their actions and decisions that they make will have an effect on future events. If the one officer of the “law” genuinely wanted to follow the law and make the streets a better and safer place, he would have played that incident out differently. This just goes to show how much the “law” is being valued or just human rights in general. It appears to me that the law is being less and less valued as time goes on.   (T.B.)

This article relates to my conflict, gang violence, because it shows how the law effects what happens to the gangs and the gang members in terms of how they are brought to justice because the law is the deciding factor in what happens to them after they commit these violent crimes “law is the opposite of violence, since legal forms of decision-making disrupt the spell of violence generating more violence.”(Menke, 2010, Pg.1). Law and violence always seem to go together because violence always seems to follow the gangs and the law. The police or the law are always trying to find the gangs or gang members that terrorize certain neighborhoods of Washington D.C. and in order to do this it ties back to how you can’t really completely get rid of the violence with the gangs because it constantly follows them. (F.C.)

 

References

Menke, C. (2010). Law and Violence. University of California Press, 22(1), 1-17.