Positive Sociology

Troy Davis was executed last night around 11pm EST.  I don't know the ins and outs of the Davis trial, but feel that there is significant doubt surrounding his guilt.  Different accounts have shown that 7 out of 9 key state witnesses have since recanted statements that were used to convict Davis.  Some accounts have said that witnesses felt coerced by police to sign bogus statements.  Others have implicated one of the other key witnesses--"Redd" Coles--as the person who actually killed off-duty police officer Mark MacPhail.    Troy Davis: Did the state have enough evidence to execute him? According to a NY Times article , Troy Davis maintained his innocence until the very end.  Moments before he was killed via lethal injection, Davis looked directly at MacPhail's family and said, " I did not personally kill your son, father, brother.  All I can ask is that you look deeper into this case so you really can finally see the truth."  Davis als...

Tupac: Revolutionary, Problem, or Neither? It's been 15 years since Tupac Shakur was killed in a drive-by shooting.  While perusing news websites, blogs, and my Facebook status feed, I began to think about a larger moral debate that often comes together around Tupac and other rappers. On one side, there are journalists and academics who are guilty of "Tupac worship."  I'm paraphrasing, but there are tons of journalistic and academic accounts that treat Tupac as if he were a "revolutionary" or "visionary" who changed the face of the music industry.  The more ambitious accounts like to argue that Tupac has forever changed the face of American culture. I'm uncomfortable with the revolutionary tag and feel that people throw around this term too casually and liberally.  I'm also ambivalent with the visionary label, particularly since I think it's hard to really assess how a single artist has impacted something as vast as the music in...

Recently, I've had some interesting conversations with friends and colleagues about the police.  One friend shared personal stories about being racially profiled by cops.  Two other friends described what it's like to live in a city that feels "under siege" by police officers; this is all on the heels of a string of incidents in which police officers have shot and killed young black and brown men riding public transit.  Unfortunately, it seems that these kinds of incidents are all too common, particularly in cities with large racial-ethnic minority populations.  Like my friends, I am also outraged by police brutality.  I've personally experienced and witnessed a number of incidents in which officers seemed to be using racial profiling to make traffic stops/arrests.  I've also collected data on numerous episodes of police brutality during my fieldwork in Los Angeles; these range from young black men getting "roughed up" and harassed by officers, to ...

The National Rifle Association (NRA) is filing a lawsuit against the Burearu of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) .  In a nutshell, the NRA is protesting a federal law that would require gun vendors to report bulk sales of AK-47s, AR-15s, and other semiautomatic rifles.  Representatives from the NRA claim that semiautomatic rifles aren't explicitly covered under existing gun control laws (which require vendors to report bulk sales of handguns), and therefore, want vendors to retain ultimate discretion over reporting/not-reporting semiautomatic rifle sales. The AK-47: The gun of choice for revolutionaries across the world The ATF is arguing that these policies would curb the illicit flow of guns--particularly high-powered rifles--into the hands of Mexican drug cartels.  This law is one of many that reflects a growing awareness of how much criminal groups (and individuals) rely on "straw buying" to get their guns.  For those who aren't familiar, st...

I got choked unconscious yesterday.  Don't worry, I wasn't a victim of a serial strangler.  Instead, I fell victim to a bow-and-arrow-choke (see below), a nasty submission move in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I've been training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) for the past 6 months.  I love it.  I haven't loved a physical sport/activity as much since I first got into popping, back in 1999.  I train about 5-6 times per week at Balance Studios in Philadelphia, PA.  I can't say enough good things about Balance Studios.  People are very friendly; the instructors are top-notch; the atmosphere is low-key and unpretentious; and to top if off, people are really good at BJJ!  World Champ, Ruben "Cobrinha" Charles does a bow-and-arrow choke Typically, classes begin with about 30 minutes of drilling techniques.  This is a part of class in which you pair off with someone and work on a series of techniques.  On some days, you learn a sequence of submission ...

How did this guy become famous!? I was channel surfing last night, when I happened to stumble upon a pretty good 3-hour block of reality programming.  Amidst the glut of bad reality tv starring Guy Fieri (e.g. Minute to Win It; Diner's, Drive-Ins, Dives), I found 3 very entertaining reality-based shows on MSNBC.  Below are some short summaries followed by some thoughts: 1) The first show was a made-for-TV documentary called "Inside a Crackhouse."  The premise for this documentary was simple: Police outfit a crackhouse with hidden cameras; viewers get to see the inner-workings of a crackhouse.  While much of the documentary focuses on the organization and eventual demise of a Chicago-area drug-dealing ring called the "Titanic Stones," there are also small snippets of the film that show how the fall of this drug gang has impacted family members and friends of dealers.  For example, one interview features the mother of the gang's leader talking about her...

What do kung fu masters, inner-city armed robbers, and Jose Canseco have in common?  More than you might think... My new book project , Wounded: The Aftermath of Gun Violence , is an ethnography of gunshot victims.  To say the least, this research has lead me to some pretty interesting areas of the city.  In the past 1.5 years, I've spent time with numerous young men who have been shot in armed robberies.  While many are random victims of gun violence, some victims were themselves offenders in the past. One of the victim/offenders in my study, Paul, was a former stick-up boy who used to rob drunken patrons stumbling home from bars and nite clubs.  While hanging out near his old haunts, Paul has taken me to different areas of the city in which he used to wait for the unsuspecting passerby.  One such spot is a shaded awning that wraps around the side of a low-income apartment building.  Using the natural cover provide by the awning and the lack of li...