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During the critical opening stretch of new administrations, watch first 100 days starting Monday, April 14th at 8 p.m. Eastern on C-SPAN 2 or online at C-SPAN.org. | |
| C-SPAN, Democracy Unfiltered. | ||
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| Sparklight supports C-SPAN as a public service along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. | ||
| Nearly 3,500 students across 42 states and DC participated in this year's C-SPAN Student Cam documentary competition. | ||
| This year we asked students to create short videos with messages to the president exploring issues important to them or their communities. | ||
| Oh, this month we're featuring our top 21 winning entries. | ||
| One of this year's second prize high school west winners are three ninth graders from Long Beach Polytechnic High School in Long Beach, California, where C-SPAN is available through Spectrum. | ||
| Their winning documentary is titled Crime, Perception versus Reality. | ||
| Americans feel like crime is on the rise. | ||
| Communities are ravaged by smash and grabs, leaving small businesses exposed. | ||
| With social media, the spread of news and information is the fastest it's ever been, and everyone is made aware of crimes the moment they occur. | ||
| Is this the cause for the national panic of crime, or is the crime actually skyrocketing in the U.S.? | ||
| Even if crime isn't growing, it is still obvious in our communities with repeat criminals committing crime without fear of repercussions. | ||
| What steps are large cities such as Long Beach, California doing to combat theft and robberies? | ||
| And what is the federal government doing to support them? | ||
| Second, we will surge federal law enforcement resources to the places that need them most. | ||
| There are certain places like places that I know very well here that are just absolutely out of control. | ||
| I mean, if you walk down certain streets here, you have a 50-50 chance of not ever seeing your home again. | ||
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Breaking and entering is skyrocketing. | |
| Once every other week, we are getting an attempted break-in. | ||
| We've had our building breached a few times, but our contractor got his building back into and he got fully robbed. | ||
| I know a bunch of other industry folks that have been robbed. | ||
| I don't believe the crime statistics because I live in the real world. | ||
| It's worse than it's ever been. | ||
| And if they're just going off reported crime, you know, if it was three, four years ago, I reported every crime that we were a victim of. | ||
| Now, I don't even bother. | ||
| And I don't think the police are bothering to write a report. | ||
| So I personally probably could attest to, you know, 10, 12 unreported robberies myself that didn't get into whatever statistics are doing. | ||
| live in Long Beach, California, a city known for its beautiful, calm beaches, historic landmarks such as the Queen Mary, its economically vital port, and its vibrant downtown district. | ||
| And yet, like many cities in the U.S., whenever the local news is turned on or someone picks up their phone and goes to social media, they are likely bombarded with reports of break-ins and robberies. | ||
| We are exploring how crime affects our community and what the local and federal governments are doing to help. | ||
| And if crime has really gotten worse or if people's perception has just changed. | ||
| And do you think that crime is really getting worse or there's something else going on? | ||
| Well, perception and then data. | ||
| And for perception, for many people, it's more real than the data. | ||
| When I was growing up, everything felt safer. | ||
| Why? | ||
| Because you didn't know in the immediate moment every time something happens anywhere near you. | ||
| Today, you can get an alert on your phone through Ring on anytime a package is stolen off of a front porch. | ||
| And that influences your perception of crime. | ||
| We have real-time access to real-time data. | ||
| That's just the evolving nature of social media and connectedness now. | ||
| But oftentimes, you have a feeling that things are getting worse, and sometimes they are, oftentimes, they're getting better, and you just have no conception of that because you're so attuned to using anecdote and feelings to evaluate trends. | ||
| Local business owners feel like crime is on the rise, while statistics show an overall decrease in crime. | ||
| Even if crime is just being perceived as an increasing issue, it is still happening in our community. | ||
| What are federal and local governments actually doing to help this issue? | ||
| How have recent California propositions helped shape the criminal reform system? | ||
| Proposition 47 was a well-intentioned criminal justice measure that was voted on by the people of California 10 years ago, and it has not been amended in those 10 years. | ||
| In Los Angeles County, which is the largest county in California, if you are charged with the misdemeanor in Los Angeles County, you will never serve time in jail. | ||
| So Proposition 36 changed the law to say if you continue to steal, if you've been convicted already twice of petty theft or any type of theft, the third one can be elevated to felony level, which is a more serious crime. | ||
| And if you're charged with a felony, you actually do have a chance of going to jail. | ||
| On one hand, there were those that said, hey, if you're guilty of possessing methamphetamine, for example, there was a time where, let's say you had, that person had two strikes or had a strike prior. | ||
| That the minimum that that person would be in prison, the minimum would be 32 months in prison for possession of methamphetamine. | ||
| That was maybe about 10, 15 years ago. | ||
| We lock more people up than anywhere else in the world, literally, in California, more than anywhere else. | ||
| And it doesn't make us safer. | ||
| The recidivism rate in prison is 70%. | ||
| 70% of inmates commit more crime after they've been released. | ||
| You contrast that with Norway, for example, and the recidivism rate is 20%. | ||
| And why? | ||
| Because their systems of incarceration are focused on rehabilitation. | ||
| They're not focused on being punitive. | ||
| They're focused on actually what makes communities more safe. | ||
| Many people feel crime is getting worse despite many experts and statistics showing a decrease in crime. | ||
| Even if crime is getting worse, isn't it still the president and the federal government's job to ensure that their citizens feel safe? | ||
| The president and the federal government must not only ensure that crime may contain a job, but they must make certain that their citizens feel safe in their communities. | ||
| Be sure to watch all of the winning entries on our website at studentcam.org. | ||
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