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My political ideology is represented by all these posts and has developed to be liberal and democratic overtime mainly because of my family, my friends, and the current events that are happening today. As a person of color, I've always believed that this concept of meritocracy and the chasing of the American Dream is not equal for all races in America. Though I have not been a victim of police brutality, I cannot just stand by and say I should care until it affects me. Standing idle while there's racial injustice is contributing to the systemic racism that's present in our society. Nothing can be solved unless the people voice their need for change and reform. Morally I have always believed in the right thing which applies to supporting position issues such as LGBQT rights, the woman's right to choose, and affirmative action. I think that to vote against these issues is a conservative way of thinking that represents the past. Times are changing in the 21st century, and I think it is important that my generation voices their support and votes for candidates that support these issues because everyone deserves the right to pursue the life and happiness that they want to.

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In the 1790's I would most likely support the Federalists because . In the 1820's-1850's I would most likely support the Whigs because I did not like Andrew Jackson as a president. I believe that he was the president responsible for the genocide of many Native-Americans. From the 1860's-1877 I would support the Republicans because of their opposition to slavery. From 1877-1932 I would support the Democrats because of the need to increase government involvement and programs created in the New Deal during the Great Depression. From 1932-1980 I would most likely support the Democratic Party because of their support of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

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I align most with the Democratic Party. Regarding police brutality and the Black Lives Matter Movement, the Democratic Party has been trying to push legislation for police reform. I would register to vote as a Democrat and have voted as a Democrat since I was 18.

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Post #5 My Political Socialization - Current Events

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Post #5 My Political Socialization - Current Events

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The currents events in the US have largely impacted my political socialization as a young adult because I strongly disagree with President Trump's political and social views. I think President Trump's response to many controversial issues has incited division and hate in our country. As a person of color, I support the Black Lives Matter Movement and the idea that legislation needs to be passed in order to reform the police. I'm also a supporter of LGBQT rights, the woman's right to choose, protection of undocumented immigrants and the concept of affirmative action because I believe that everybody should have a fair and equal opportunity.

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Post #4 My Political Socialization - Family

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Post #4 My Political Socialization - Family

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My family has had a major influence on my political socialization because my parents and grandparents were immigrants from the Philippines. Since my parents are democratic, my siblings and I have adopted a democratic view on American politics. We have always been part of the working class and have leaned liberal towards most social, political, and economic issues. Having been a family of immigrants I do not support Republicans/conservatives because they are generally against immigration. I also lean liberal because of having many family members that are apart of the LGBQT community and support pro-choice because of the influence of my mom and sister.

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Based on my political beliefs I am liberal. For example, I believe in pro-choice which tends to be a more liberal view. In addition, LGBQT rights is important to me which reflects a more liberal view. With respect to my policy issue, my solution reflects a liberal view because in the eyes of many Republican/conservative supporters, defunding and enacting police reform would not be good legislation.

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Post #2 Song: The Bigger Picture (Lil Baby)

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Post #2 Song: The Bigger Picture (Lil Baby)

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Reflection: The Bigger Picture is about the issue of police brutality and BLM. The message of the song is that police brutality against African-American is rooted from the systemic racism set in place in the US. This issue matters most to me because there needs to be legislation or some type of police reform that stops police brutality against people of color.

Quote: "I guess that mean hold him down if he say he can't breathe
It's too many mothers that's grievin'
They killin' us for no reason
Been goin' on for too long to get even
Throw us in cages like dogs and hyenas
I went to court and they sent me to prison
My mama was crushed when they said I can't leave
First I was drunk, then I sobered up quick
When I heard all that time that they gave to Taleeb
He got a life sentence plus
We just some products of our environment"

- Lil Baby, "The Bigger Picture", 2020

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Lil Baby - The Bigger Picture (Official Music Video)

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Reflection: I learned that you can find many articles that are related to the current issues that are prevalent today in the US. You can also find court battles and US Supreme Court cases filed by the ACLU.

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This OpEd was first published in Slate.

Americans have just completed another round of one of our grimmest national rituals: shaking our heads while cops who killed an unarmed Black person get away with murder. This time the victim is Breonna Taylor, whose name has galvanized nationwide protests for racial justice, but whose family will receive no justice themselves. Yesterday, Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron announced a single charge from the grand jury against only one of the three officers involved in her shooting, and even that was for shooting a wall, not Breonna Taylor. The other two will walk. And a community that has already waited six months for closure will just keep waiting.

Many are rightly pointing out that these cops should not avoid charges based on self-defense when they created the danger in the first place. Accordingly, whether the grand jury result makes sense under the criminal law will be hotly debated in the coming days. But even when there is substantial evidence of wrongdoing, police officers are almost never prosecuted, let alone convicted. And with each press conference announcing that an officer's actions were justified, the public's faith in the law - and in the prosecutors tasked with enforcing the law - erodes just a little bit more. Prosecutors often claim they are simply hamstrung by the law, which does confer a great deal of protection on police. But there are many actions a prosecutor can take to create lasting, systemic police accountability-if they want to maintain any credibility with the people they're supposed to serve.

Prosecutors-both the local elected versions and Attorneys General at the state level-can and must do so much more. The work starts well before an officer causes harm. The everyday working relationship between police and prosecutors is inherently conflicted; prosecutors rely on police for case leads and in-court testimony, and police need prosecutors to win cases and boost clearance rates. (Sadly, trial wins and not public health outcomes are still the coin of the criminal justice realm.) Prosecutors must institutionally separate themselves enough from police to judge them objectively. This means refusing police union donations during their own elections. It means mandatory reporting of cops to ethics investigators when the cops screw up. It means putting a hard stop on lobbying in lockstep with police unions to thwart reform, as prosecutor associations so often do.

Prosecutors who are serious about accountability should also lobby for efforts like civilian oversight of police, shrinking law enforcement-including their own offices-and reinvesting in communities.
Second, prosecutors till the ground for police violence when they ignore or actively cover up misconduct or corner-cutting in everyday cases. This happens all. The. Time. For example, right after a suspect is arrested, prosecutors have to decide whether to take the case forward or " screen" it out. A substantial number of those cases involve uncorroborated police testimony, manufactured defendant resistance, outright violence or coercion, or just plain uncertainty. If prosecutors go along to get along, taking virtually all those cases forward (even if they drop them later), this validates predatory police tactics that ought to be discouraged. As that case moves forward, a prosecutor may also offer the defendant a deal to plead guilty to lesser charges, which then avoids judicial scrutiny of police misconduct. The prosecutor may also knowingly allow the officer to lie on the stand, a practice so common it's got a nifty portmanteau: testilying. Don't believe that these underhanded tactics occur? Consider that Louisville prosecutors offered Breonna's ex-boyfriend, Jamarcus Glover, a supremely lenient plea deal if he would just implicate Breonna in an " organized crime syndicate." This was a dirty trick to smear her name and bolster the cops' story-and it only failed because Glover, heroically and against his own interest, turned down the deal.

These day-in, day-out violations of public trust are virtually impossible to catch, but help create the bond between police and prosecutor that makes independence so difficult. To stop it, elected prosecutors and legislators need to ratchet up the professional penalties for prosecutors who cover for their friends to the detriment of the community. And we need to create standalone legal proceedings-a sort of constitutional small claims court-for victims of police misconduct that don't depend on the prosecutor to represent those victims.

Finally, when police do commit violence against the American people, prosecutors at the local, state, and federal levels must inflict far more fulsome, lasting accountability that is not limited to criminal prosecution. Of course, the local prosecutor and maybe even the state AG, who all work directly with the offending cops, should be recused from any criminal investigation; this much is table stakes. Any appointed, independent prosecutor should also consider foregoing a secret grand jury so the community can be confident that they made the strongest possible case. (We are already seeing calls for AG Cameron to release the grand jury evidence in Breonna's case.)

But then the state Attorney General or the US DOJ should open a mandatory civil rights investigation that results in both resignation and decertification of the individual officers plus systemic changes to the office. That settlement would also require the local prosecutors to put the officers on a standing, public list and commit not to call them to testify in any case going forward. Police chiefs and mayors often complain that union contracts and arbitration makes firing bad cops so hard. Prosecutors can and should do it for them. And they should do it regardless of whether a grand jury returns an indictment.

Of course, prosecutors won't altruistically take on all these reforms voluntarily. These fundamental changes would make churning out convictions much more difficult, would strain their mutually beneficial relationship with the cops, and create more red tape. But that strain and that red tape is worth preventing the senseless loss of another Black life. The people marching in the streets can push both police and prosecutors to to conjure a vision of justice broader and deeper than criminal prosecution. Breonna Taylor deserves it. We all do.

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True Justice for Breonna Taylor Won't Come From Criminal Charges Alone

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This OpEd was first published in Slate. Americans have just completed another round of one of our grimmest national rituals: shaking our heads while cops who killed an unarmed Black person get away with murder. This time the victim is Breonna Taylor, whose name has galvanized nationwide protests for racial justice, but whose family will receive no justice themselves.