Comments on: Social Power and Stand Your Ground

By: Lauren

Lauren — Sun, 16 Feb 2014 19:12:39 +0000

I also agree that social power infiltrates the legal system, and often has awful consequences. These issues with social power mentioned above derive from the faults of people, who unknowingly made decisions based of off social power. I also think that the way the legal system has been created allow for these injustices to occur. For example, when a person is on trial they are supposed to get a jury of their peers. Is a black man on trial, with a jury of mostly white females really getting a jury of their peers? While we hope that people wouldn’t take race into consideration, we have read about the implicit racism and stereotypes that occur, especially regarding African American men and crime. These decisions based off of social power happen, often times without the person realizing it, and the way the system is set up allows for these injustices to be made.

By: rachelbrookland

rachelbrookland — Fri, 14 Feb 2014 18:28:07 +0000

Brianna, I remember when i first watched on the news about the Marissa Alexander case right after the Zimmerman trial and being completely appalled at how everything was handled. It is disturbing to think that a women who did not even harm anyone is sitting in jail for 20 years while Zimmerman is walking free after killing an innocent black teenager boy. I could not agree more that this all revolves around the concept of social power. It is interesting to think how the trial could have gone differently if Zimmerman had a last name that closer symbolized his ethnicity or had darker skin. In my opinion, I do not think that social power will ever not having a pull on the legal system. I think this is something that people are not willing to admit is a factor that plays a role in trials and without people owning up to this fact, how can anything ever be stopped?