Advantage to the use of tasers by law enforcement officials Essay

Advantage to the use of tasers by law enforcement officials - Essay Example As Hemenway and Weil explain, â€Å"guns in the United States currently exact a terrible toll: over 1,500 accidental deaths per year, close to 12,000 homicides and more than 17,000 suicides† (94). In other words, apart from the deliberate use of guns in the commission of crimes, guns are responsible for thousands and thousands of preventable deaths per year. Despite this, however, the very notion of banning firearms is unrealistic. The American public believes that it has an inalienable right to bear arms for the purposes of self-defence and, given Constitutional provisions supporting this right, it is unrealistic to assume that any gun ban proposal will ever successfully pass into federal legislature and be effectively implemented (Hemenway and Weil, 94-96). Added to that, if law enforcement officials are to effectively fight the crime pandemic, they must be armed. The situation, as described, presents policy makers and law enforcement with a paradox. Our nation’s crime rates are soaring. A Department of Justice publication reports that almost 1,500,000 million violent crimes were committed in 2005 (FBI, 2006). Approximately one million and a half murders, rapes and armed robberies were committed across the United States in a single year. Not only does this figure evidence the extent to which crime has reached pandemic proportions in the country but underscores the nature of the on-the-job dangers which law enforcement officers confront every singe day. To confront the crime pandemic, law enforcement officers must

American government Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

American government - Essay Example Age is another factor where the young tend not to vote considering perhaps that their voting would not make a difference showing a lack of understanding or trust in the system. Older voters, over the age of 45, tend to vote more as an age group. More recently, statistics have shown that citizens over the age of 60 have voted more than in the past (Cummings and Wise 328). Religion plays a role in voter participation as religious groups tend to reach out to their communities in organized action (Cummings and Wise 328). Finally, another socioeconomic factor is behavior of marginalized groups, who like religious groups, would gravitate towards community based campaigns. Also, a number of marginalized groups may feel disenfranchised and not participate in voting at all (Hay 20). Objectivity and bias in the press and the Court’s protection of its freedom: Objectivity in reporting means that the reporter strips away any personal bias and produces a report which is based on facts, is convincing, espouses human values, presents a fair context and has views from all parties concerned. In practice, however, it is easier said than done. When the founder of Christian Broadcasting Network, CBN, Pat Robertson, lost in his bid to win Republican nomination for presidential candidate in 1988, he came back to his network and accused the â€Å"liberal media establishment† of â€Å"masking their basic bias† while claiming objectivity (Vaughn 98). CBN is a network that appeals to the Christian right and conservative political agenda. The â€Å"establishment† he referred to were the three major networks considered liberal, ABC, CBS and NBC. So which side was biased ? It seems the answer lies in what the reader or viewer himself believes in but it is still important for a journalist associated with any organization to have made an attempt to be objective (Hachten XV). On another