RoboCop: The Relation Between Politics and the Economy Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 cult classic about futuristic Detroit being overrun by corruption and crime paints a very dim picture of what could be the forthcoming America. On the same side of the coin, what some nations go through on a day to day basis. The other side tells us a lot of political theory especially the interaction between the State, or holders of authority, and the economy. In general the themes speak to capitalist privatization, the monopoly of power, and authoritarianism. Using these as guidelines for our analysis, we can see how RoboCop uses political theory to depict its image of an uncertain and oppressive society. In its time, RoboCop was set in a near future in the American …show more content…
Traditionally, the state (for our sake let us call Detroit a state) always has the monopoly of power. It’s actually a very fundamental characteristic of being a state itself (Neil, 2007). As we see in the movie, the city of Detroit doesn’t own the police force, OCP does through a contract. A state’s ability to exercise its authority is very important to uphold the laws and is an active political tool for both the authorities and the public. When the state no longer has this power it loses its legitimacy and in this case, OCP has free reign to do as it pleases. The chairmen and executives at OCP are not publicly elected and therefore cannot be held politically responsible or answer in a forum for their actions or …show more content…
OCP is advertised everywhere and are the sole provider of a lot of products. RoboCop himself has a cult following due in part to OCP making Murphy visit different groups of people to increase his popularity and likability. The idea of the Delta City being a perfect utopia by being completely state controlled is a very strong message for single party or rule by the few policy. Corruption also plays a part when we learn that Dick Jones is a partner with crime boss Clarence Boddicker who he uses to do dirty jobs and bring in money for personal ventures. All of these characteristics and subplots within the movie play into the authoritarian
Police institutions depend on being considered legitimate by the public in order to continue working for the public. However, with recent cases such as the streetcar killing of Sammy Yatim, the legitimacy of police has begun to be questioned. For the purpose of this essay, I will focus on how this case has brought forth conversations regarding police culture—including use of force and the visibility of police in the age of technology—and ultimately how this has shaped public perception of police.
In the essay “ The Paranoid Style of American Policing” by Ta-Nahisi Coates, Coates argues against police brutality in Chicago and the way the government handles policing in the state. At the start of the essay,Coates compares how his father would resolve conflicts without violence to the way police these days solve conflicts with violence,for example killing or beating, most of the time when it is not necessary. Police, Coates explains, are given too much power by the government as they are able to resolve dilemmas brutally without any sort of punishment. With all the events that happen between police and citizens the author states it is very hard for the people in Chicago to trust their policing, which is seen in text when the brother of
The police stations were so old that they were infested with rats. These working conditions had to be improved. No policeman could work to there fullest potential in a place where the rats chewed leather off of the policeman’s helmets. The cities government did absolutely nothing to improve these places. This was not a place where the people that maintain peace in the city should have had to work in.
Good evening Katelyn, good post. I agree with your response. Privatization of police in America is effcient in a way that it allow both public and private police agencies to work together to deter/prevent crimes, investigate a crime/incident, and respond to a hostage situation. A perfect example of private and public agencies working together including government agencies is the Virginia Tech shooting. During the shooting, virginia tech camous police did what they can to keep the situation under control and eliminate the threat. Public police was call to assist as well. After the shooting the FBI including the State Police both arrive on the scene to help provide aid for those in need and made sure the threat was eliminated. Both public and
Police have killed 1,001 people in the United States this year. Black people were 26% of those killed despite being only 13% of the population, but why is this? This was the objective Jelani Cobb was trying to figure out when developing the film “Policing the Police”. The film was recorded in Newark, New Jersey due to its plagued by drug trafficking and gang violence and its homicide rate which is nine times higher than New York City. Forty-nine years prior to this film, a riot broke out in downtown Newark due to the beating of an African American cab driver by the police and the Newark police responded by killing people who protested.
Despite the fact that some cops may utilize their energy to undermine and behave in any way they if it's not too much trouble there are numerous officers that serve and secure; taking the guarantee that they pledged to truly, which is the thing that larger part of the populace today neglects to figure it out. Verging on consistently, cops are tasked out to restore arrange or recover peace in rushed circumstances and are confronted with the test to utilize power without it being viewed as a "lowlife" or danger to the group or far more terrible accused of a wrongdoing of Police mercilessness. More regularly than any other time in recent memory, daily papers, sites, and TV have dialed in on these
Police officers are a sign of protection, safety and justice. Their presence around a community is to help establish the feeling that the community is under watch all the time, helping some feel at ease, while making others feel tension and hatred. The past activities of a police force have left everlasting impressions in some people’s minds, making them feel that the police is out to get them, not help them, then pushing these feeling of animosity onto the next generation. This type of behavior is a continuous chain reactions, making the police out to be the bad guys, making the police work harder to prove that the past does not define the present or the future.
The article then explains how police in Meridian/other cities are getting an angry backlash from the public after all the police killings of unarmed African-Americans. The community thinks it’s a time for officers to do some soul-searching and revamp training, but many officers think they’re being stereotyped as racist or brutal. Officers and their families are worried that they could
Police in America began as the night watch system that protected cities from crime, fire, and disorder. Of course early policing was influenced by the British, and so was American Law which derived from English common law. This would also form a correlation to American policing policies that diverged from the English’s Magna Carta and as well the French. The French established a centralized government that entailed men to take an oath of loyalty. The police in America started as night watch groups, then employment changed to police officers being political appointed which was very corrupted, but throughout the years things changed again to serve the public. Instead of a political selected police force that earns it’s pay through bribes and
In light of recent events, Minneapolis finds itself within heat of national topic, police brutality. Jana Kooren of ACLU of Minnesota writes in The Hard Truth of the Minneapolis Black Lives Matter Protests: Communities of Color Have No Trust in Their Police Force. The authors main point of the article was to articulate the disaster that affects African Americans disproportionately. Jamar Clark is one in a thousand this year who have died in the hands of police who have overexerted their power. He sadly became another member of this deadly year, when two police officers shot him when he allegedly interfered with emergency responders helping an assault victim. She continues to emphasis how this problem is not local at it’s root, but national.
Crime was also always a large problem in Detroit. A huge crime problem was the riots of the 1960’s. Riots in the 1960’s began because of a raid in a blind pig.(The Detroit Riots-1967) Many police officers of this time would purposely raid pubs. “The big four or the Tac squad roamed the streets, searching for bars to raid and prostitutes to arrest” (The Detroit Riots-1967). The riots main cause was the unrest in Detroit which in end caused police abuse, houses many could not afford and much more including quick demographic change. (The
In Ta-Nehisi Coates essay “The Paranoid Style of American Policing,” he briefs the readers on the rise in police violence against the black community and the lack of trust people have for the officers causing this crime. He concludes by saying “A state that allows its agents to kill, to beat, to taste, without any real sanction, has ceased to govern and has commenced to simply rule.” Almost all would agree with this statement, for it does has many examples supporting its authenticity.
Dystopian science fiction films of the past have frequently presented a critical dystopia, by projecting future cities that perpetuates corporate capitalism’s prominent features. Examples of these features are urban decay, commodification, overcrowding, highly skewed disparities of wealth and poverty, and authoritarian policing. An example of a Dystopian science fiction film that project cities that perpetuates
Due to the rise of robotics and automation, capitalism isn’t sustainable. Automation will result in approximately 5.1 million jobs lost in the world's top 15 economies in the next five years.(Hirschler) Many renowned intellectual minds have agreed that capitalism is the immediate threat to our stable society, due to this society revolving around capitalism. Albert Einstein wrote an article titled, “Why Socialism?” in 1949 and, more recently, Stephen Hawking has decided that the most impending threat in our society is capitalism. Social democratic movements such as “Occupy Wall-Street” and Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign seem to be the future, but they are equivalent to putting a Disney Princess Band-aid on a decapitation victim. The problem is not in the flaws of capitalism; capitalism in and of itself is a
As per Article 124, the President should appoint Supreme Court judges after consultation with such judges of High Courts and the Supreme Court and the Chief Justice of India is to be consulted in all appointments barring his/her own. Similarly, Article 217 provides for the appointment of High Court judges in consultation with the CJI, Governor, and Chief Justice of the High Court concerned. However, in S P Gupta Vs President of India, also known as the ‘First Judges Case’, the Supreme Court ruled that the recommendation made by the CJI to the President can be refused for “cogent reasons”, thereby tilting the scales in favour of the executive. In the ‘Second Judges Case’, the decision by a nine-judge bench in the Supreme Court ‘created’ a