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Michael Cox

Sara Knox

Criminal Justice 1100

December 2, 2012

Critical Analysis of Chapter Six: Police and Law

For this assignment, I have chosen to write a critical analysis of articles that I think relate

to chapter six in the Criminal Justice in America textbook. The title of chapter six in the text

book is titled Police and Law. What really stood out about this chapter was that it is a very

informative chapter of what powers the police have in regards to the law. This chapter

specifically mentions the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of

America, probable cause, the Miranda warning, and police corruption. I have chosen articles

from CNN that I think relate to this chapter based on corruption in the police force, the use of the

Miranda warning, and the use of the exclusionary rule.

The first article I have chosen to write about is from CNN titled “FBI: Puerto Rico Cops

Protected Cocaine Dealers.” I chose this article because it talks about a major issue we are

having right now in the United States and that is police corruption. According to this article, “it

was the biggest crackdown on police corruption in the FBI’s 102-year history; authorities

charged a total of 133 individuals in Puerto Rico. Also, of the 133 individuals charged 89 were

police officials.” (CNN Wire Staff) The article goes on to break down how the corruption

happened. I believe this article relates well with chapter six because in chapter six it talks about

two different types of corrupt police officials: “grass eaters” and “meat eaters.” According to

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chapter six, “grass eaters are officers who accept payoffs that the routines of police work bring

their way, and meat eaters are officers who actively use their power for personal gain.” (Cole, pg.

190) I believe that most of the police officials mentioned in the article could be described as

meat eaters because most of them used their power to get what they wanted.

The second article I chose is also from CNN and is titled “Divided Court Rules for Police

on Miranda.” This article relates to the chapter because in the chapter it talks about the required

situations in which the Miranda warning should be given to people before being questioned or

arrested by the police. The Miranda warning is as follows “suspects must be told four things:

they have the right to remain silent, if they decide to make a statement, it can and will be used

against them in court, they have the right to an attorney present during interrogation or to have

the opportunity to consult with an attorney, and if they cannot afford an attorney, the state will

provide one.” (Cole, pg. 180) This article discusses how “a police officer in California did not

state the Miranda warning to a suspect because he feared the suspect would die from his

wounds.” (Mears, Bill) I feel that this was the right decision to make because in some situations,

at the police officers discretion, there may not be time for the officer to recite the Miranda

warnings to suspects. I feel this is one of those times because the officer used his discretion and

feared that the suspect was going to die from his injuries and needed the information from the

suspect.

The final article I chose to write about is from CNN and is titled “Police Don’t Have to

Knock, Justices Say.” This article relates to chapter six in the book because it is talking about the

exclusionary rule used in search-and-seizure cases. “The exclusionary rule is defined as the

principle that illegally obtained evidence must be excluded from trial.” (Cole pg.183) According

the book, “there are two exceptions to the exclusionary rule the “good faith” exception and the

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inevitable discovery rule.” (Cole pg. 184) “This article discusses a Supreme Court case in which

an officer did not knock on the door and wait a “reasonable” amount of time before entering.

Furthermore, the article states that the police entered the home and found drugs and the suspect

was eventually convicted of drug possession.” (Mears, Bill) In my opinion this would fall under

the inevitable discovery rule because no matter how long the officers waited at the door for the

suspect to answer the door, the drugs would have been found in the course of executing the

search warrant.

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Works Cited

Cole, George, and Christopher, Smith. Criminal Justice in America. California: Wadsworth,

2010. Print.

CNN Wire Staff. "FBI: Puerto Rico cops protected cocaine dealers - CNN.com." CNN.com -

Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News. N.p., n.d. Web. 2

Dec. 2012. <http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/10/06/puerto.rico.arrests/index.html?

iref=storysearc h>.

Mears, Bill. "CNN.com - Divided court rules for police on Miranda - May. 27, 2003." CNN.com

- Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News. N.p., n.d. Web. 2

Dec. 2012.

<http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/05/27/scotus.miranda.questioning/index.html?iref=stor

ysear ch>.

Mears, Bill. "CNN.com - Police don't have to knock, justices say - Jun 15, 2006." CNN.com -

Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News. N.p., n.d. Web. 2

Dec. 2012. <http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/06/15/scotus.search/index.html?

iref=allsearch>.