Violence at School

Topic: Violence


Source: Tuesday, December 2011 in my photography class, around 8am. Also, December 2 during the robbery


Relation: Observing how violence has changed so many lives and it's relevance throughout history.


Description: I noticed that this week has been filled with cases of violence. The first violent act that occurred was the robbery/assault that happened on campus in the Sunset dorms. Three men tied and beat one other student and then robbed him. I heard around school that they weren't even looking for the man they beat up but his roommate and that they broke the victims ribs and arm then ran away.

While also learning about violence in Anthropology class, I continued to view violence in my Photography class. We often watch short videos or documentaries about WeeGee, a Photographer in the depression era who lived in New York and became famous for his pictures of violence, mainly gang violence in New York. This documentary we watched showed how WeeGee was scared for life from the pictures h took and the life style he had to live to be able to capture these pictures.

One of WeeGee's most famous pictures of a shooting

Biography of the photographer WeeGee:
http://www.biography.com/people/weegee-40873 


Analysis: In class, we learned about violence in South Africa starting in the 1960s when the African National Conference turned to a violent campaign. The ANC started out as peaceful but then turned violent because they didn't think their peaceful protesting was working. Nelson Mandela was one of many who was sent to jail at this time.
Also in the 1960's in Sharpeville, people were peacefully protesting then the police killed 69 people, among them, 50 women and 8 children. While people ran, the police shot them.
In the 1970s, Steve Biko was killed in police custody because he was beaten to death due to his anti-apartheid activism.
Also in the 1970s, children were killed by police for their involvement in student protesting.

All of these examples of violence in South Africa during the 60s and 70s began with a peaceful protest and ended with violence, hate, and death. I think that most acts of violence start out with some sort of peaceful protest,argument or conflict that could have been solved through a much more peaceful alternative.
For example, the robbery/beating that occurred at school last week definitely could have been avoided by peacefully talking their issues out and finding a solution to their problems.
The video I watched about WeeGee showed that violence, even when WeeGee didn't take part in any of them, still effected his life in some ways.
This week I learned a lot about violence, examples of it around school, examples of how it can effect someones life, and examples in history.