Trusting Relationship With The Police example essay topic

The course of life is dependant on the decisions a person makes, whether to trust or mistrust a person can be one of the most crucial decisions a person will make in his lifetime. Andy Rooney has made the assertion that our society can, and would not exist without unwritten contracts of trust between the people that make up our country. He states that there are contracts of trust in all aspects of society; this statement could be true, if Mr. Rooney had stated it fifty years ago. In this modern age, it has been proven repeatedly that the people who were once trusted can no longer be trusted. Mr. Rooney's assertion of those unwritten contracts is now outdated; those contracts of trust continue to be broken in today's society, leading to distrust among these groups of people. It is true of course, that America's economic success can be chiefly attributed to our large corporations and the success of the stock market and that trust relationships were what the stock market was founded upon.

When a new company is formed, or incorporated, it establishes a set amount of stock, which is worth about as much as the paper it's printed on. This is where the new corporation must convince prospective investors to buy their stock. These investors trusted that their money would be put to good use in several things including research, expansion, or in this case to help a company build itself from the ground up. These investors trusted that their money would be used to benefit the company so that the worth of the company could increase and the stock would be of more worth towards the investor. This is the way it started, and there was a strong and working trust relationship between corporation and investor. Now however, things have begun to shift from trust to distrust.

This trust relationship has been violated by such companies as the energy giant Enron and the leading cable service provider Adelphia. Adelphia serves as the perfect example in how the trust relationship between corporation and investor has been violated. Adelphia in Greek literally means brothers, and in essence that is who is in charge of Adelphia, John J. Rigas and his three sons. This gives the cozy impression of a "family owned and operated" company, but the accounting practices of Adelphia were far from cozy. The Rigas family treated the company as their own personal piggy bank. They took the money given to them by investors, and instead of using it for the good of the company; they used it to build a golf course in their backyard.

This is not only unethical but it is also highly illegal. The money investors gave to the company belongs to the company, and using that money for personal reasons can be constituted as stealing. These usurpations, made not only by Adelphia but many other large corporations, have become the driving force behind the government's policy for cracking down on such acts. Trust once existed between company and investor, mistrust and deception has forced government officials to monitor the accounting practices of these corporations more closely. The public trusted them, only until they gave the public a reason not to. Nobody denies that police officers are the law enforcers of our society.

Their sole purpose is to serve and protect the citizens of the community. In order to do this police are given a certain measure of power and authority greater than the average citizen. A police officer has the right to carry a firearm, a baton, a pair of handcuffs and various other law enforcing utilities that can be used by an officer to help bring criminals to justice. People have always trusted that the police are outstanding citizens and always do the right thing.

However with the recent outbreaks of police brutality against the public, the trust between law enforcers and the public has deteriorated. In New York, excessive force from the police is far from uncommon. With officers such as Bernard Crowley, carrying the nickname "The Mechanic", named for his tendency to "tune people up" (beat them); it is not too hard to see why. In the case of Abner Louima, it is made obvious that the trust between police and the citizens they protect has been torn apart.

In the early morning hours of August 9, 1997, police officers arrested Abner Louima, a legal Haitian immigrant, outside a Brooklyn nightclub following disputes between police and other people attending the club. During the trip to the station house, officers stopped twice to violently beat Louima, who was handcuffed and thus helpless to defend himself. At the station house, two officers, Justin Volpe and Charles Schwarz, began shouting racial slurs at the man after which Volpe shoved a wooden broom handle into Louima's rectum and mouth. Volpe reportedly borrowed gloves from another officer and walked through the station house with the broom handle, which was covered with blood and excrement; only the gloves were ever recovered.

Louima was placed in a holding cell, where other inmates began complaining about his excessive bleeding. After being held in that cell for three hours, an ambulance was eventually requested to take him to a hospital. Once at the hospital is injuries were closely examined by a doctor. His internal organs were ruptured, and his front teeth had been broken, the doctors claimed that his injuries were clear evidence of the beatings. Even with the horrifying evidence, the officers were never punished for their crimes.

This type of ruling against police brutality is not uncommon, it has led to the creation of local groups such as the Panther Eyes and many web pages have been created defending our civil rights against police officers. Many communities have also formed government funded groups specially for monitoring the police, and some have even placed cameras in every police vehicle. Little children were taught to find a police officer if they were separated from their parents, that they could be trusted. This has instilled in us a trusting relationship with the police since we were young. Now however that trust relationship has been broken, and steps have been taken to monitor the activities of police officers more closely, to ensure that they do their job the way they are supposed to. Not all police officers are bad, but it is appalling when we look and see just how many of them really are.

Past centuries have proven that religion was founded upon a strong foundation of trust as well. Before the Renaissance, priests were thought to have all the answers and never be wrong. If someone asked why water got hard when it was cold, it was because Father Bob said so. This relationship of trust between church officials and religious followers has continued since the beginning of civilization.

Now however, the trust that people have in religious officials has been declining over the past year. This drop is due to the molestation of altar boys performed by church priests. After a few children told officials about their local priest molesting them, it started a trend of more and more children speaking out, and telling officials about their disturbing encounters. Many of these priests pled the fifth when confronted by the media, and denied it all in court under oath. However, not all of them are denying it. Robert Burkholder, a former Catholic priest, admitted he has had homosexual relationships with as many as two dozen young boys, but he says there was nothing wrong with what he did because "it was consensual".

Charges were filed Tuesday against Burkholder. He was charged with two counts of criminal sexual conduct with a 13-year-old boy. The charges were made after the boy, now an adult, recently reported the incidents to police. Burkholder claimed "It takes two to tango and that it was always a two-way thing. The boys work in the rectory with the priest and you just get friendly. It's a mutual deal an affectionate thing and a friendly thing".

Burkholder admitted to fondling and oral sex with boys, which he called acts of affection that the boys wanted and agreed to. He spoke openly about his acts of homosexual child molestation, but tried to justify what he did. He tried to put some of the blame on the boy by saying that he complained about feeling lonely and it seemed to him that the boy needed some affection. This is not only an example of someone taking advantage of another's trust, but it is also manipulation of human mental and sexual development. In a report on adolescent sexual growth and development, it details that a twelve-year-old child is prone to engage in sexual activities similar to those conducted by the accused priest, except it has been deemed natural for these things to occur with friends of the same gender and age group. The priests try to justify what they have done by saying that it was the child's fault; they try to blame the victim.

These offenses would have never occurred if the members of the church going community had been more cautious and not as trusting towards their priests. The priests preach that their God is to be trusted, and to have complete faith in him or her. Some people neglect to remember that a priest is no Supreme Being, and does not deserve complete faith, especially after the heinous acts carried out by these alleged "righteous" men. It can be said that our trust was based on "good guy" and "bad guy" and the differences between them could be seen as plainly as the difference of black and white. Now however, our society has gone gray with age. As our society has become older, and the trust contracts are broken, the differences between good and bad are no longer so apparent.

The two, opposite, colors have now blended together, and choosing whom you, trust has become a far more difficult task. When Mr. Rooney made his assertion, he must have been living in the past, and with some of the things going on in today's world, it does not sound like such a bad place to be.