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assignments are listed on the date assigned, not the day due

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CLASS 1: Friday 1/31

Welcome to the Course!

Assigned Reading: CLAIM/EVIDENCE/WARRANT (SHOULD TAKE 30 MINUTES TO READ)

Assigned Writing: (due 2/07 by 11:59 PM through Blackboard) HW1: Claim/Evidence/Warrant and Quotations  (this written homework should take one to one and half hours)

(be sure to follow the course’s file naming convention; -5% if you do not. This assignment will be HW 1)

How to submit homework through blackboard done by my five-year old

NOTE: Because the skill this assignment refines will be used throughout the semester and, in fact, is essential for workplace as well as academic writing, this assignment is worth 15% of your semester grade. Moreover, if you receive less than an 85% on this assignment you will be obliged to redo the assignment for a new grade. In short, caring about the quality of your work on this assignment matters.

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Crime and Corruption on the Docks, part 1

CLASS 2: Friday 2/07

Assigned Viewing due 2/14 Because NYC’s port has lost its economic significance, it’s easy for us to forget both how essential were Gotham’s docks and how they gave rise to crime. So, two quick background videos (and yes, this material will be on the quiz!)

So, watch all of this 12-minute film from 1949

and the first 3 minutes of this Port of New York (1949) perhaps the first major-release drug trafficking film:

Assigned Reading due 2/14: : “A City Built for the Mob” from Hortis (2014), The Mob and the City; to find a downloadable pdf of book, see our Blackboard site under “Course Materials”

QUIZ 1: to be completed on Bb; you will have from 6 AM on Friday to 6 AM on Saturday to complete the quiz; but remember you will only have an hour and half to do the quiz itself.  Directions will be sent to your e-mail on record with Blackboard (so be sure you know what e-mail Bb has on record and that you check it)

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Crime and Corruption on the Docks, part 2

CLASS 3: Friday 2/14

Assigned Viewing due 2/19 at 11:59 PM: On the Waterfront (1954). This giant of a classic is widely available, but you will be taking a quiz on the video AS YOU WATCH IT so you need to watch it through our Bb site.  Directions will be sent to your e-mail on record with Blackboard (so be sure you know what e-mail Bb has on record and that you check it). As you watch, the video will stop at various points to ask you questions. You will need to supply answers.

(just the trailer below; you will need to watch whole film)

Assigned Quiz 2 on film due 2/19 at 11:59 PM: (see above)

Assigned Writing due 2/21: Essay 1 (hw2); (due 2/21 by11:59 PM by Blackboard) (be sure to follow the course’s file naming convention; -5% if you do not. This assignment will be Hw 2); How to submit homework through blackboard done by my five-year old

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The Crime Rise and Heroin

CLASS 4: Friday 2/21

Assigned Reading Due 2/28: Excerpts from Umbach, Modern New York in 50 Crimes (forthcoming); see our Blackboard site under “Course Materials”

QUIZ 3: to be completed on Bb; you have from 6 AM on Friday to 6 AM on Saturday to complete the quiz; but remember you will only have an hour and half to do the quiz itself.  Directions will be sent to your e-mail on record with Blackboard (so be sure you know what e-mail Bb has on record and that you check it).

 

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Organized Crime’s Second Wave

CLASS 5: Friday 2/28

Assigned Reading due 3/07: Excerpts from Hortis, The Mob and the City (2014), p. 104 (“The Myth of Generational Decline”) to p. 128 (that is, stop at the start of chapter 6). see our Blackboard site under “Course Materials”

Also, we will read Gladwell, “The Gangster’s Guide to Upward Mobility | The New Yorker” (2014) to see why crime helped lift many Italian mobsters out of poverty (and crime) in mid-century NYC, but hasn’t done the same for other groups since.

QUIZ 4: to be completed on Bb; you have from 6 AM on Friday to 6 PM on Saturday to complete the quiz; but remember you will only have an hour and half to do the quiz itself.  Directions will be sent to your e-mail on record with Blackboard (so be sure you know what e-mail Bb has on record and that you check it).

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Police Corruption

CLASS 6: Friday 3/06

Assigned Viewing due 3/13: Serpico (1973) This film, another classic, can be found on numerous platforms, including Amazon. If hunting on youtube, be sure to find the full-length movie at 2h 10m.

(this is just the trailer–you will need to watch the whole film)

Assigned Reading due 3/13: Excerpts from  Armstrong, They Wished They Were Honest: The Knapp Commission and New York City Police Corruption (2012). You will be reading the preface and chapter 23.  The readings are available as an ebook from John Jay’s Library.  See here on to find the reading (short youtube).  (See also various materials on Bb re: the film and “numbers running” from my book)

QUIZ 5: to be completed on Bb; you have from 6 AM on Friday to 6 PM on Sunday to complete the quiz; but remember you will only have two hours to do the quiz itself. Directions will be sent to your e-mail on record with Blackboard (so be sure you know what e-mail Bb has on record and that you check it).  I’ve posted various materials to Bb to help you make sense of the film–make sure you know what “numbers running” is and where it appears in the film (if you don’t the quiz will be unnecessarily difficult).  Again, you will be writing an essay that will require 12 direct quotations from the reading & film, so skimming the reading or not watching the film with care will make doing well on the quiz particularly difficult.

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CLASS 7: Friday 3/13

Document Exercise: The Rise of Open Air Drug Markets

Assigned Writing: Essay 2 (Hw 3); (due 3/20 by 11:59 PM–yes a minute before midnight–by Blackboard) (be sure to follow the course’s file naming convention; -5% if you do not. This assignment will be HW 3)

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Crack and the High Tide of Crime

CLASS 8: Friday 3/20

Assigned Reading Due 3/27 Bourgois,  In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio. (1995) Excerpts from Introduction and Chapter 4; see our Blackboard site under “Course Materials”

QUIZ 6: Given the current circumstances, the quiz window will be from Sunday at 6 PM until Saturday at 6 PM, but remember you will only have forty minutes to complete the quiz.  The reading is longer this week and so the quiz is both multiple choice and shorter. Directions will be sent to your e-mail on record with Blackboard (so be sure you know what e-mail Bb has on record and that you check it).  The quiz will require a thorough and careful understanding of the author’s arguments.  I recommend paying attention to the author’s use of CL/EV/WA.  Look for the leading idea in paragraphs.  I also recommend taking notes on those leading ideas; you can do so directly on the PDF–if you don’t know how to to do that contact me.

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CLASS 9: Friday 3/28

Unexpected Responses

Assigned Reading Due 4/17: Michael Javen Fortner, Black Silent Majority (Harvard, 2015), introduction and chapter 4 (on our Blackboard site under “Course Materials”)

Assigned Listening Due 4/17: (yes, will be on quiz): here

Quiz 7: to be completed on Bb; you have from 6 AM on Friday (4/03) to 6 AM on Saturday on 4/18 to complete this 24-minute multiple-choice quiz.  Quiz will cover both reading the audio file above.  Directions will be sent to your e-mail.

 

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SPRING BREAK

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The Mafia Contained

CLASS 9: Friday 4/17

HOMEWORK CANCELLED!

 

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The Demise of Open Air Drug Markets

CLASS 10: Friday  4/24

Assigned Reading Due 5/01: Curtis, “The Improbable Transformation of Inner-City Neighborhoods: Crime, Violence, Drugs, and Youth in the 1990s” (1998);  See our Blackboard site under “Course Materials”

Quiz 9: to be completed on Bb; you have from 5 PM on Tueday 4/21 to 6 AM on Saturday 5/02 to complete the quiz; but remember you will only have three hours do the quiz itself.  Directions will be sent to your e-mail

CLASS 11: Friday  5/01

Assigned Reading Due Next Class (5/08): Zimring, The City That Became Safe: New York’s Lessons for Urban Crime and Its Control (2013).   Also, excerpts from Sharkey, Uneasy Peace: The Great Crime Decline, the Renewal of City Life, and the Next War on Violence (2018); see our Blackboard site under “Course Materials”

Quiz 10: to be completed on Bb; you have from 6 AM on Saturday 3 May to 6 AM on Saturday 9 May to complete the quiz; but remember you will only have an hour and half to do the quiz itself.  Directions will be sent to your e-mail.  ALSO SHORTER EXTRA-CREDIT QUIZ OPTION DUE 6 AM 9 MAY; SEE BLACKBOARD UNDER “COURSE MATERIALS”

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The City that Became Safe, part 2

CLASS 11: Friday 5/08

Assigned Reading Due 5/16 (yes, 5/16): Zimring, The City That Became Safe: New York’s Lessons for Urban Crime and Its Control (2013); see our Blackboard site under “Course Materials” Look for “Zimring, second reading”

Quiz 11: to be completed on Bb; you have from 6 AM on 5/09 to 6 AM on 5/17 to complete the quiz; but remember you will only have an hour and half to do the quiz itself.  Directions will be sent to your e-mail

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Backlash and the New Policing

Extra-credit: due through blackboard, May 22, 11:59 pm (minute before midnight). Up to 15 extra-semester points.  Filename: xx_yy_extracredit.See here.