ePortfolio:

Im Joshua Chorneyko, and I wanted to start off by writing to say thank you to Dr. Kyburz for being an outstanding and intelligent professor. Over the course of the fall semester I came into this class nervous thinking that there would be endless papers, and crazy assignments due every week. I was surprised yet at the same time grateful of course to realize how much I truly learned over the semester. I have always wanted to be a law enforcement officer, and I have recently started to work in the field so I have that first hand experience and knowledge. This course strengthened my barriers and made me look at issues in a different conceptual way, and understand things from different points of view. This class has done nothing more than strengthen my rhetoric skills as well as taught me vital aspects dealing with police report writing. I enjoyed blogging weekly, and that was my favorite part of this class. The blogs were always so fun and exciting to do, and they really got me involved in finding interesting topics to provide feedback on and share with the class as a whole. I came into this class thinking I was a strong writer (other than struggling with grammar and punctuation) I am able to format a paper and not struggle with it. The one assignment we did was a documentary project. I chose to watch the movie Cartel Land and write a summary of the movie. This summary was different than I had ever done before because it was analyzing what actually happened step by step in the film rather than my own opinion. I was able to learn how to write a well developed summary leaving my personal opinion out of it. I enjoyed coming to this class everyday and learning new things. I had a lot of fun in this class and met some wonderful people. The class got side tracked a few times during the presidential election, but I did not mind it. I actually enjoyed talking about current events and implementing the course into them because no matter what the topic was it always had a connection to law enforcement in some shape or form. This class has made me a better individual overall, and I think one of the biggest things I learned from it was to accept others opinions and learn from them. I have always been hard headed and set on myself and my mind, but this class opened a new door for me, and I am glad I got to experience that. In all honesty, I do not care what the course objectives were or what the course wanted me to learn because I am completely happy knowing that this course has improved me both in the field of law enforcement and rehotorically. I really did enjoy the blog aspect. Other classes professors will make you write papers every week, but just being able to blog and share current events to the class in itself is its own class. Just by blogging I have learned so much about my fellow classmates, and I have learned so much about current events and topics that are big in the media that I had little information about. Sharing my experiences with law enforcement to both the class and Dr. Kyburz was awesome because I got to teach them about contemporary law enforcement issues I see first hand in real life. To end, I wanted to say thank you to my classmates and Dr. Kyburz once again for making this semester one to never forget! I had an absolute blast getting to know everyone, and I am definitely going to give Dr. Kyburz 5 stars on rate my professor, and hopefully sign up for future classes with her. 

This blog post has to do with another Chicago police shooting. This was one that took place over the holiday weekend, but was the most contoversial one. On Novemeber 23rd, 19 year old Kajuan Raye was shot in the back in West Englewood by police Sgt. John Poulos. Poulos claims Raye pointed a gun at him and he fired during a foot pursuit however no evidence of a gun can be found. This is Poulos's second officer involved shooting in his career both involving unarmed African Americans. He was stripped of his police powers by Chicagos Superintendent Eddie Johnson due to this incident.
This is a sad topic however we need to keep in mind all of the facts and fully wait till it is investigated before jumping to any conlcusions. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-chicago-police-shooting-lawsuit-met-20161129-story.html

Here is my narrative assignment:

On 11/29/2016 at approximately 11:21p.m. I was on patrol in a marked squad car in a full uniform on division street heading northbound. I noticed a black Toyota corolla run the stop sign on division and turn east on state. I activated my emergency lights and initiated a traffic stop. As I approached the vehicle I noticed the two occupants to be moving around a lot and shuffling items around. I ordered them to place their hands on the dash when I noticed one occupant had drugs in his hand. The driver later identified as (Johnson, Michael 10-23-1980) started to resist so I drew my fire arm for safety. I then used OC spray to control the driver. However, he started the vehicle and took off almost running me over. I initiated a pursuit using my emergency lights and sirens and asked for backup. Officer Ramirez #909 from the east side of town responded first to assist me. The vehicle underwent many traffic infractions during the duration of the pursuit which lasted around 2 minutes. The vehicle went off road and both occupants fled in which a foot pursuit was initiated. The passenger identified as (Brown, Jason 11-15-1982) was taken into custody. The pursuit ended as we took both occupants into custody and charged them with various charges as stated on the face sheet for: possession of a controlled substance, eluding, resisting arrest, reckless driving. 

Over the past holiday weekend there was an increase in shootings across the United States, but more specifically in Chicago. In the past 10 days Chicago police have fatally shot 4 suspects. The most recent case happened late Sunday night on the west side. This shooting occurred on the 4500 block of West Washington. A man was shot by police after officers responded to a domestic battery and found a 26 year old pregnant women shot in the abdomen. The man then aimed his gun at the police and shot twice giving the police a provoked response to shoot and kill him. Many are saying this is a suicide by cop event however it is still under investigation, and the women is in critical condition.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-person-shot-by-police-on-west-side-20161127-story.html

Snapshot of what it is like to be in a police pursuit. I rode along with the Kane County Sheriff Department, and went on the third watch or midnight shift. I rode along with a very cool deputy who explained to me how county opperates and the difference between municipal police and county police. One difference is the amount of back up you have. In a town you have access to back up more easily but working in a county you soley rely on yourself most of the time or have to have friends in other departments so you need to be extra good at talking to de-escalate a situation. The night was fairly slow other than a few traffic stops for a friday night however, it got interesting towards the end of the night when an exciting pursuit broke out and we got involved.

I wanted to write my blog on this because I watched this video in my professionalism and ethics class. The shooting of 18 year old Paul O'Neal was recently released. In the video you can see the officer step out of his vehicle, and after almost being run over he opens fires at the car which is against departmental policy. He also shoots as an oncoming squad car is approaching putting those officers in the line of cross fire. O'Neal was shot because officers believed he was armed with a gun. You can see after he is shot and bleeding out they handcuff him to the ground. Justified or not this shooting is going to bring much more attention to the news.

In terms of different kinds of notebooks for police work I found three different styles of notebooks.

The first notebook is a police report style notebook. It offers a template to keep your facts organized, and it is not too small and not too big. That type of notebook would be my first choice most likely in a situation. 

The second notebook is a basic mini notebook. Most officers I know choose this one because it is so small and easy to carry with you. Currently, I carry this on my uniform because it has the right set up and space to record the facts you need. 

The third notebook is a larger journal style notebook. I do not like this one because it is too big. I can only see myself using this notebook if I had to design a crime scene or was using it for a big major investigation. 

After viewing the video of the Chicago Police Officer get beaten a lot of questions came too thought. The video is very sad seeing the officer getting thrown to the ground, and then having to hear the superintendant of the police speak about how she chose to not shoot him because of her family, and the department. I think this is officer took one for the team because if in fact she did shoot him whether it was justified or not she would probably wind up losing her job, and her family and the department would be scrutinized. I wonder what would have happened if she did shoot him, or what would happen if she was killed? Thankfully, the worst outcome in this situation were injuries sustained from trauma and no one was killed. I wonder why the taser was ineffective on the man? I know being on drugs plays a large role in the electricity impact on your body especially the one he was on, but how was it that hard for officers to use non-lethal force to subdue him? I feel bad for the officer, but its sad to say in this day and age with all the recent shootings she made the right choice by taking one for her family and the department and sparing this mans life.

This blog is dedicated to the acts of heroism and kindess seen in police officers across the whole world. I watched this video, and it is touching and heart warming especially with the media and events currently going on with society today. I think we all need to reflect on the positive aspects done by law enforcement officers, and not so much the few negative events. Although, we shouldnt overlook the negative events we need to see the positives because I didnt know any of these events happened until watching this video.

After watching bits and pieces from last nights debate and doing my own personal research on the two candidates I have become less and less interested. I personally believe both candidates are not as strong as they should be and they both have flaws. During the debate I did like how Trump would answer questions and use the questions to his advantage by attacking Hillary with them, and calling out her flaws. On the other hand, Hillary would answer the questions and use her personal history to her advantage attacking Trump. Both candidates were very heated in all topics. In reading articles about Trump, and his standpoint on certain issues with law enforcement he is very firm in his descisons. He agrees that black lives do matter however, he is a firm believer for a strong police presence. Hillary on the other hand being a liberal she of course sees things in a different light. From this LATimes article she talks about how we need a criminal justice system reform in which almost condems the killings of police officers.http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-baton-rouge-police-killed-live-hillary-clinton-condemns-killing-of-1468861505-htmlstory.html

In all honesty, it was very hard to watch the debate and listen to both speak on the issues regarding law enforcment. If you want my opinion I personally believe the law enforcement and criminal justice system is fine other than a few bad apples, and once those bad apples are removed it will be 100% perfect again, but that is impossible as it is with every career and field. There will always be bad people no matter what that will put a negativie image on the whole group. In terms of the comments that were released from Trump I have no comment because that has nothing to do with the issues regarding law enforcement, as well as the scandoulous evidence of Hillary has nothing to do with law enforcement. The debate was a 2 hour question and answer session with Trump answering the way a republican would and Hillary answering the way a Democrat would. Both however did agree that the killing of unarmed African Americans is becoming a massive crisis that needs to be dealt with.

I decided to blog about this because with all of the violence going on in the media with police involved shootings its becoming so repetitive. The amount of good things that the police do is looked to the side because of the select negativie events that happen. Whether the shootings are justified or not they still become the center of media, and the police get a negative image. I put this on my blog because I found it to be quite funny seeing the situations and people the police have to deal with. Im fairly certain my remained blog posts are all going to be aimed towards the positive things the police do for people because I am getting sick of the media portraying the police as a bad group of people.

This blog entry is a direct response to Dr. Kyburz video of "What Do You Think of the Police".
What is the effect of these interviews? The effect of these interviews is interesting because they interview people from all over the world, and get opinions on the police from multiple different countries. For the most part it seemed like majority of the people respected the police forces in there countries. However, for example when we look at Mexico during the inteviews with citizens from Mexico City they are in fear of the police, and do not like them. Doing my own research and just visitng on vacations and asking questions to cab drivers and citizens we can see that Mexico has one of the most corrupt police forces out in the world, and the way they handle situations is very different and aggressive compared to how it would be handled somewhere else. These interviews make you either appreciate the police or realize there is something wrong with out modern day law enforcement agencies. 

Is this a good tool for getting people talking and thinking about the complexities of Law Enforcement? Why? Why not? This is a good tool for getting people talking about the complexiites of law enforcement however it doesnt seem to be that beneficial if you compare the police in the United States to the police force in Mexico. Law enforcement is complex and always will be complex its the select negative actions of police officers that lead citizens to think negative and or positive about the police.

Was there a particular comment that struck you? Why? How? There was two comments that struck me in particular. The first one was that the boy in the beginning saying how "Just because youre wearing a blue uniform people fucking hate you". This comment stuck out because I was told by many police officers that people disrespect them and hate them for what they are wearing not for who they actually are. Its sad, but that comment is true and I wish it changed. Another comment that stuck out to me is the comment on how we should disarm police officers. That comment doesnt make sense because we will never take guns off the street 100% so what happens when the police dont have weapons to keep us safe?

I wanted to write about this video I found on YouTube because it shows a positive encounter with law enforcement and the public. In the time of how it is when law enforcement is viewed so negatively on the news and social media this story really brings out the positive aspects of law enforcement, and it shows that not all police officers are bad people. In Lowell, Michigan the police department conducted traffic stops on minor violations, and in return helped the public by providing them with Christmas presents. During the stop the officers would find out what kind of presents the adults were shopping for, and they actually had people go and get the presents to give them. In the video, you can see that the people are shocked and super excited to see the police care especially after telling the officers that money is tough this year. At the end of the video, a note says "Lowell Police Department is not encouraging minor traffic violations, but it is important for police departments to take the time to show they care".

image source

I am writing about my opinions on reflecting back on the video of the Laquan McDonald shooting that we viewed in class last week. The video is a dash cam of the former Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke brutally gunning down McDonald 16 times. I am not a police officer, but I know that in the academy you are to use your firearm to take someones life. The way Officer Van Dyke used his firearm was to the extreme. The ammount of bullets discharged from the firearm was a gross number. It would have been more justified if the officer had only fired at max 2-3 times, but the fact he shot him so many continious times even when the threat was over was outrageuous. You can see in the video that even after McDonald fell to the ground the officer was continuing to shoot him as you can see McDonalds body twitch and move after each shot is put into him. I think in this situation the way the shooting happened due to the severity of it makes it a wrongful act, however I cant exactly agree on one or anothers side because I wasnt there at the time of the shooting, and I didnt know what was going through the officers head during the incident.