GlobalizationPaper

GANG WARFARE: Violence and Poverty

On August 28^th federal agents and local police stormed into Chelsea, Somerville, and East Boston in search of suspected members of the infamous Salvadorian gang, the Mara Salvatrucha. The raid was in response to an escalating rise in violent crime in the area, which has mainly been attributed to gang related activity.

Fear, Loathing and Globalization: The Vilification of Brown Bodies

There are two ways to define globalization; one being from a free market perspective in which globalization would begin in roughly the 1940’s with the spread of multi-national business, or by a more socio-historical definition in which globalization is viewed as the Western expansion beginning in 1500 and defined by expansionist or colonialist ambitions. By defining globalization as a period marked by an ethnocentric urgency to “civilize” other nations and peoples, then we are able to view the Spanish and Portuguese crusades, the British colonialism, and American Imperialism as all being variant forms of the same sort of outward expansion.

Locked into Violence: Gangs, Incarceration, and Racial Profiling

A recent report released by the Justice Policy Institute entitled Gang Wars: The Failure of Enforcement Tactics and the Need for Effective Public Safety Strategies has brought to light some interesting issues in regards to gangs and gang policy in the United States. The report concluded that many of the law enforcement and incarceration tactics aimed at reducing gang violence are actually exacerbating the problem of youth engagement in gangs.

1st Class Soldiers, 2nd Class Citizens

When Alex Jimenez first went missing during his term in Iraq, there was an outpouring of support, prayers, and vigils from the community and from around the country. Letters of solidarity and prayer and admiration flooded into the Jimenez household, all praising Jimenez as a national hero and a soldier of the highest merit.