blog # 12

final paper outline

movie = Serpico
new york in the movie = 1967-1971
new york during the filming = 1973
during both years of 1971 and 1973 nyc was going through very hard economical times

movie was based on actual events that happened and made you wonder as to why more cops didnt resort to taking side money from criminals in order to survive with growing expenses and tough economical crisis.

blog#15

While this is a unique yet scary concept, I would have to say that the Jeffrey from September would be a little more outgoing and social than the Jeffrey from today. Intellectually I would definitely say I’m a lot smarter or should I say more informed than when I started the semester. When it came to the English topics we covered many of the things we discussed in class was taught to me in high school. It’s just been so long since I was in school that I simply forgot a lot of the subject matter. The Jeffrey from September would have never been as social with his classmates. This is the first time I have ever dealt with a cluster in college and it was a nice experience, it actually is like when your growing up and going to elementary school where you have the same classmates for all your classes and for the duration of the year but in our case the semester. It was a welcome experience because since we got to know each other and dealt with the same subject matters it helped us to socialize and know each other in some sort of a personal capacity. I’m usually this way, when I’m new to a certain place or with people I’m generally quite but once a bond is formed I tend to be more social and outgoing because there is a trust and comfort level formed. When we first started this semester I was really skeptical about all the work that was being done on the web. This was a new experience for me in terms of school work, I had a difficult time remembering to check the blogs for English and the discussion boards for the media class. Now it’s like second nature and I’m actually hoping that more of the classes I take will be in this type of setting. Not many things have changed with me personally but I must say that with the birth of my nephew I have grown to love kids a bit. I’m not saying that I hated them before but he has quickly become one of the most important people of my life and I love him as he was my own. The best part of it all is that since he isn’t my son I can quickly give him right back to my brother when he starts to act up. Looking at things now I can clearly see that the Jeffrey from now is a much better person in more ways than one.

ENG103 Research Paper (final draft)

Jeffrey De La Cruz
Professor Vasileiou
ENG103
November 28th 2010

Doesn’t everyone have a price? Not Frank Serpico

The film Serpico certainly does show New York City in its “true colors”. This is no doubt due to the fact that it was filmed in various locations throughout the five boroughs, but it’s mainly due to the fact that it’s based on the true story of Frank Serpico. The director of the film Sidney Lumet was able to successfully reenact Serpico’s story because it was shot only two years after the films main plot has happened. Serpico was able to capture the real culture of people partying and the major issue to tarnish New York City which was police corruption.
The movie Serpico was filmed in the year 1973. It wasn’t a real big hit in terms of box office sales, as it only managed to gross $29,800,000 domestically (boxofficemojo.com). it stars Al Pacino as the main character of NYPD officer Frank Serpico. The film’s opening scene is of Frank Serpico in the back of a police car bleeding from a gunshot wound to the face. He is being taken to the Greenpoint hospital in Brooklyn. When the doctors start performing surgery on him is when the movie goes into a flashback of his life leading up to this tragic event. Frank Serpico is now seen in the graduation ceremony for the NYPD. He is now assigned to patrol for the 81st police precinct in Brooklyn. Frank Serpico is very naïve in believing that cops are all honest. His first encounter showing him otherwise is when he’s introduced to the deli owner where he and his partner patrol. Serpico is offered a free soup, but instead asks for a sandwich. This in turn gets the deli owner upset and he proceeds to give Serpico the worst sandwich he has ever seen. Serpico’s partner quickly calms him down because they only get free food due to the fact that they let the deli owner get away with being double parked when he is handling deliveries. The main focus of the movie is when Frank Serpico receives an unmarked envelope from a fellow police officer which contains $300 inside. This prompts Serpico to report the incident to higher officials. While he acted very honest, this act also made Frank Serpico an outsider among the rest of the police officers who were taking illegal money from people. Serpico being socially different didn’t help his cause either, he always wore nontraditional police attire and seemed to embrace the 1970’s. Due to constant harassment Serpico eventually had to get transferred out of the 81st precinct and go into the plain clothes division of a precinct in The Bronx. It wasn’t long before Serpico would realize that the corruption wasn’t just going on in his old precinct, but that it was a problem throughout the police force. Frank Serpico was often offered a lot of illegal money from his fellow police officers but as usual never accepted it. The vicious cycle of not being trusted and mistreated started to occur in the new precinct as well. Due to his co-operation with higher city officials trying to stop the police corruption Frank Serpico was very much disliked. Serpico was set-up one day by his fellow police officers, they went to make a drug bust and as Serpico tried to force himself into the apartment his partners didn’t help and that resulted in him being shot point blank in the face.
1971 was a very tough year on the city of New York and its citizens, according to the statistics from (New York Crime Rates 1960-2009) not only had the population in the city increased to its highest point in the six years but every major crime in the city had risen as well. From the years 1965 to 1971 multiple categories of crime increased including Murder, Robbery, Aggravated Assault & Burglary.
Year Population Index Violent Property Murder Rape Robbery Assault Burglary Theft Theft
1965 18,073,000 554,050 58,802 495,248 836 2,320 28,182 27,464 183,443 253,353 58,452
1966 18,258,000 609,465 62,561 546,904 882 2,439 30,098 29,142 196,127 286,409 64,368
1967 18,336,000 692,528 75,124 617,404 996 2,665 40,202 31,261 219,157 314,472 83,775
1968 18,113,000 829,453 98,515 730,938 1,185 2,527 59,857 34,946 250,918 375,143 104,877
1969 18,321,000 837,210 105,870 731,340 1,324 2,902 64,754 36,890 248,477 367,463 115,400
1970 18,190,740 904,314 124,613 779,701 1,444 2,875 81,149 39,145 267,474 386,553 125,674
1971 18,391,000 935,022 145,048 789,974 1,823 3,225 97,682 42,318 273,704 388,612 127,658
1972 18,366,000 804,605 138,542 666,063 2,026 4,199 86,391 45,926 239,886 321,096 105,081
1973 18,265,000 814,349 135,468 678,881 2,040 4,852 80,795 47,781 246,246 320,307 112,328
1974 18,111,000 911,703 145,427 766,276 1,919 5,240 86,814 51,454 271,824 390,357 104,095


On the flip side of things police officer’s salaries weren’t up to par in terms of being able to support a family in the city. This is the main reason why a lot of the police department would turn to corruption. The investigation into the corruption uncovered the biggest scandal the NYPD and New York City have ever gone through. I guess you could say that certain items were very affordable in 1971 but you must also take into effect that pay rates were very low also. For instance on (1970 Economy/Prices) you could get a new home for $28,300.00, the cost of a stamp was only .06 cents. A gallon of gas was .36 cents. The 1980 Census shows that (“1980 Census”) out of the total population of 17,558,072 79.5% were white and only 13.7% was black. 32.2% of the population attended college and unemployment was at 7.1%. The inflated average income for a household was $47,210. The inflated average of rent was $609.
There is a scene in Serpico when Frank is in the Bronx apartment of his assigned partner where he asks “so what do you think Frank, about the money?”. Serpico then tells him “I’m not broke and I don’t have a family so why stick my neck out?”. His partner replies by telling him “it’s already out Frank for not taking the money.” To me this shows the exact problem that was happening in the city at this time. The dilemma was finally made public by Serpico when he went to the New York Times in order to get his story heard, since he felt like all his complaints were falling on deaf ears. After he went public the city quickly established what was known as the Knapp Commission (the Commission to Investigate Alleged Police Corruption) on the Daily News website (Maeder) it says that the commission consisted of Whitman Knapp, District Attorney Frank Hogan, Board of Education President Joseph Monserrat & U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Cyrus Vance. They did end up doing what was asked of them in getting rid of the corruption for the time being but it was looked at in a funny matter because they really just used fellow cops to police themselves instead of getting hired outside help to really deal with the issues.
I spoke to my brother about how he felt this major issue has influenced the force since he is a police officer. He told me that this has led to many different practices and approaches within the department to hopefully prevent future instances like this. One of the measures placed was the Patrolman’s Benevolent Association (PBA) which is there for anything you feel like you need to express without feeling like you will be exiled or mistreated for. It could be corruption, racism or any form of discrimination.
While if you ask many people today about what they thought about New York City during this era, you would probably get a lot of negative responses. I on the other hand see that even in today’s times we have many issues to correct. Sure Serpico didn’t help the image as a whole because if the city was horrible and you couldn’t trust most cops then what was the bright spot? In many ways Frank Serpico was. Its like the old tales of a knight in shining armor who is here to save the day. Well I guess then you can say that the corrupt cops were like Robin Hood in the sense that they stole from the “rich” (pimps or hustlers) and gave it back to the “poor” themselves.

Citations:
Maeder, Jay. "BLUE FLU Cops on strike, December 1970 - January 1971 cHAPTER 384." Daily News (2001): n. pag. Web. 2 Dec 2010. .


"disastercenter.com." New York Crime Rates 1960 - 2009. N.p., 010012010. Web. 2 Dec 2010. .

"1970sflashback.com." 1970 Economy/Prices. N.p., 010012010. Web. 2 Dec 2010. .

"www.socialexplorer.com." 1980 Census. N.p., 010012001. Web. 2 Dec 2010. .

ENG103 research paper

blog 13 rough draft

The film Serpico certainly does show New York City in its “true colors”. This is no doubt due to the fact that it was filmed in various locations throughout the five boroughs, but it’s mainly due to the fact that it’s based on the true story of Frank Serpico. The director of the film Sidney Lumet was able to successfully reenact Serpico’s story because it was shot only two years after the films main plot has happened. Serpico was able to capture the real culture of people partying and the major issue to tarnish New York City which was police corruption.

The movie Serpico was filmed in the year 1973. It wasn’t a real big hit in terms of box office sales, as it only managed to gross $29,800,000 domestically (boxofficemojo.com). it stars Al Pacino as the main character of NYPD officer Frank Serpico. The film’s opening scene is of Frank Serpico in the back of a police car bleeding from a gunshot wound to the face. He is being taken to the greenpoint hospital in Brooklyn. When the doctors start performing surgery on him is when the movie goes into a flashback of his life leading up to this tragic event. Frank Serpico is now seen in the graduation ceremony for the NYPd. He is now assigned to patrol for the 81^st police precinct in brooklyn. Frank Serpico is very naïve in believing that cops are all honest. His first encounter showing him otherwise is when he’s introduced to the deli owner where he and his partner patrol. Serpico is offered a free soup, but instead asks for a sandwich. This in turn gets the deli owner upset and he proceeds to give Serpico the worst sandwich he has ever seen. Serpico’s partner quickly calms him down because they only get free food due to the fact that they let the deli owner get away with being double parked when he is handling deliveries. The main focus of the movie is when Frank Serpico receives an unmarked envelope from a fellow police officer which contains $300 inside. This prompts Serpico to report the incident to higher officials. While he acted very honest, this act also made Frank Serpico an outsider among the rest of the police officers who were taking illegal money from people. Serpico being socially different didn’t help his cause neither, he always wore nontraditional police attire and seemed to embrace the 1970’s. Due to constant harassment Serpico eventually had to get transferred out of the 81^st precinct and go into the plain clothes division of a precinct in The Bronx. It wasn’t long before Serpico would realize that the corruption wasn’t just going on in his old precinct, but that it was a problem throughout the police force. Frank Serpico was often offered a lot of illegal money from his fellow police officers but as usual never accepted it. The vicious cycle of not being trusted and mistreated started to occur in the new precinct as well. Due to his co-operation with higher city officials trying to stop the police corruption Frank Serpico was very much disliked. Serpicoo was set-up one day by his fellow police officers, they went to make a drug bust and as Srpico tried to force himself into the apartment his partners didn’t help and that resulted in him being shot point blank in the face.

blog # 13

I honestly believe that society should look into ethical solutions when it comes to security of the people. In Minority Report sure it was nice that we could have the ability to stop all predetermined murders, but as we saw later on in the movie this was a flawed system as most are in real life. One of the main flaws of the system in the movie was that even though they used three people to help determine the time and place of the murders, two of them usually got wrong images and the entire system depended on the one more powerful female for it to work. This fact here just proves that nothing is full proof. I’m a firm believer that we are destined to do certain things in life, but I must agree that until an action is committed you still have the option or right to change your mind. When tom cruise used the example of the red ball compared to a human he was wrong. Yes the human was about to commit a crime but unless if he gets to the scene too late he will never really know if it’s going to happen. The red ball on the other hand is rolling on the table and rolling to the end. It doesn’t have a choice but to fall because it simple can’t make its own decision. Even in today’s society the whole “innocent until proven guilty” is a joke at times. Sometimes you get people who have all the evidence proving that they are guilty of a crime and get away with it scotch free. Others are falsely imprisoned and left in prison to die without getting a fair shot at pleading their case. I think ethics only gets you as far as your money can provide it. In the article we read “Free Will and Determinism in the World of Minority Report” the author uses an example of how most people who have a heart attack need to get cpr or proper attention within the first three minutes of the attack or they risk the chance of dying. He says that if you knew this information and were encountered with a victim and you knew it was four minutes since the attack, some people wouldn’t even bother. I think that’s wrong, there are so few things in the earth that are 100% full proof, I would personally do the cpr just for the slimmest chance and the hope that I naturally have that I could actually help the person stay alive.

MoMI blog

The narrative of the visit was kind of like being in order of how media in history has evolved. We started off viewing still pictures as photography was one of the first major mediums of entertainment. We then moved onto using two images to help create patterns of movement. One example was the object that looked like a lamp, the inside of it had patterns of snakes and the outside had gaps to view the inside of it. When it was lit up and you spun the outer object it made the images of the snakes appear as if they were actually moving. The coolest thing I did see in the museum was the bigger version of this same type of object. It was a bigger scale model of what I just wrote about. Instead of having gaps it was given the same effect by having a strobe light. The first object was a faucet with a water drop, then underneath it was a missile, followed by a hand, and then it turned itself into a plate that ended up in a box. When it was in motion it was very a smooth effect. The other level was showing earlier forms of video games, they had an actual model of pong. The visit then started to focus on Hollywood and how film transitioned from New York to California. They had an entire section showing off how actors took head shots in order to get roles, these photographs often led them to get type cast for certain films. After was how makeup and special effects was incorporated into films. They had a few examples like Mrs. Doubtfires body suit and the torn sweater from A Nightmare on Elm Street movie. The evolution of movie cameras was pretty interesting; they have gotten a lot better and more advanced to help make films more realistic. Another cool aspect from the trip was when they had us do the voice over for the animal film Babe. In all the museum was set up very good in order to get its point across of teaching and informing us about how we began and how we got to the current state of film technology.