A 2,000-year-old terracotta warrior from China had one of its thumbs stolen while in an American museum. The suspected thief was caught on camera sneaking into the warrior’s exhibit, taking a selfie with the statue, and then breaking off its thumb. The camera then caught him pocketing the terracotta thumb and taking it.
Not important but also interesting: the thief burgled the museum during an ugly0-sweater party being held there!
On the way home from the party, a suspect named Michael Rohana bragged to his friends about successfully stealing part of a warrior. A month later the FBI went to his house and questioned him which lead to the return of the missing thumb. As a result he was charged with multiple crimes including “concealment of an object of cultural heritage stolen from a museum” (meaning that he knew the thumb was stolen from the museum yet he kept it like it was his own belonging.)
The warrior statues were discovered by a Chinese farmer in 1974 but originally date all the way back to 209 BC. Sculptures like the one that had its thumb stolen were created in order to protect the tomb of China’s first emperor. At the time of the theft, the statue was worth $4.5 million. Additionally China has to send two experts to the United States to try and repair the thumb.
Chinese officials and citizens are upset at both the museum and the United States for the lack of security for the sculptures and for failing to protect the warrior from harm. Users of China’s Facebook-like service Weibo left critical comments about the incident, including one user who noted that the warriors “are kept far away from the public” (in China) and asked “How come the sculptures in Philadelphia are not displayed inside glass cases?”
The man – Michael Rohana – made a quick decision to mess with the terracotta warrior’s display to try and impress his friends. Now he has to face consequences starting with going to court, though he’s likely to face much worse than that!
————————– Questions:
1) Given the fact that the damaged item was originally worth $4.5 million and that the thumb portion of it was taken illegally, what are the lowest criminal charges or consequences the suspect can face (if they were charged in Nevada)?
2) The artifact was being borrowed while it was damaged. If China decides to take action against the US, what court would the case be taken to (China’s? American Federal Court? An American State Court?) and what charges could the US government face, if any? If not the government, who would end up in court and why would it be a criminal or civil case (pick one or the other and explain why you chose that way)?
3) Everyone know of someone (maybe even themselves) who’ve just done what the thumb-thief did: failed to think about the consequences and just quickly acted on an impulse. What is something you saw – or even did – that could have resulted in a lot of big trouble all because you or that person you saw just didn’t stop to think, and then act? What could the consequences have been?
Controversial White House Tape & Records…
In 2018!?
One of the things the 1969-1974 Nixon Presidential Administration will always be remembered for are the controversial tape recordings made in the Whitehouse. Now thought of as a matter of history, at the time the taped recordings made at the White House were highly controversial. These taped records of conversation in the White House are credited as having played a major role in the resignation of President Richard Nixon.
Given all of that history, a situation where tape, record, president, and white house can be used in the same sentence is one that most administrations would try to avoid. The 45th president of the United States however has a reputation for doing things differently, which may be why we have this interesting story to share with you:
The Presidential Records Act of 1978 states that all presidential records must be preserved. You may not be familiar with the law, since you’re not President of The United States. So, you know – that’s fair.
When someone is elected to the Presidency of the United States for their first term, there’s a transition period during which they are taught about policies, procedures, and laws they need to abide by.
Despite measures like the briefings given to a president-elect, President Donald Trump apparently has a habit of ripping up things like notes, memos and other papers when he has finished with them. White house staffers have reportedly been taping these documents back together after the President has torn, ripped, or shredded them so that the administration remains in compliance with The Presidential Records Act of 1978.
Invitations, letters and newspaper clips with notes are regularly torn up by President Trump. Clear scotch tape was given to employees to piece the ripped documents back together. One employee who was fired early on in 2018 that had claimed he put papers back together on the job said “We’re making more than $60,000 a year, we need to be doing far more important things than this. It felt like the lowest form of work you can take on without having to empty the trash cans.”
The employee who was fired claims that when he left the office, employees were still regularly engaged in the practice of taping documents back together. Some White House staff called the ripping habit Trump’s ‘unofficial filing system.’ The White House had no comment on the situation when asked.
————————– Questions:
1) In America, no person – including – the president is not above the law. Everyone needs to #PlayByTheRules. That being said, if the documents are able to be pieced back together, does President Trump’s tearing up documents count as ‘document destruction’? Could it be successfully argued that tearing up documents is just a really bad system of organization that makes records preservation harder?
2) What if the president were to go further though? Imagine instead of liking to tear up documents when being done with them, a president preferred to set them on fire. Clearly then, the document would be destroyed. What would the legal consequences be for violating The Presidential Records Act of 1978?
3) Pick a side: Do you think that there are any laws a president should be exempt from?
– If you agree: What laws should a president be exempt from, and what are the reasons for exempting the president?
– If you disagree: Why should the president have to follow the same laws as everyone else? Are there benefits, and if so what are they? Is is simply to avoid risks, and if so what risks are being avoided by making presidents follow every single law that everyone else has to follow? Give a thoughtful, detailed, response!
Be sure to provide full explanations for each of your answers. For more details, you can read the article this piece was sourced from here:
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/10/trump-papers-filing-system-635164
Contributed by- J. Plummer
ATM Stolen From Courthouse:
Criminals Cash Out on The Law!
Thieves in one Texas community attempted to steal courthouse ATMs three times in just one week! During the third attempt, thieves used a stolen pickup truck to smash the back door of the courthouse, attached some sort of strap to the ATM and dragged the machine out of the building.
It is unknown if the suspects who stole the ATM on the third attempt were behind the previous two incidents, but the timing is certainly suspicious. Whether they were the same people or different ones, the people behind each of those incidents will face serious consequences once they are caught!
If the thieves had taken the time to think about their actions or if they’d been fortunate enough to know some basic things about the law, they’d realize the risks that come with getting caught involved with these heists are ridiculous!
Very few criminal charges result in a trial for the defendant. That means the accused rarely has a chance of being acquitted (being declared ‘not guilty’ of the crime he or she has been charged with). That’s because trials are expensive and don’t guarantee an outcome. Most of the time, lawyers for both sides will negotiate a deal to avoid a trial and to guarantee they get the best outcome they could hope for if things did not go their way in court. In criminal cases, a lot of time that can mean the person being charged still ends up going to prison, they just go for less time than they would if they had been found guilty in a trial.
One of the tools a prosecutor has to motivate defense teams to negotiate is their ability to ‘stack charges’. In the ATM story, you might think “Ok, the thieves will be charged with stealing the ATM”. It’s not that simple though!
Consider all these things that we already know about the ATM theft incidents:
– The thieves stole a truck to use for the ATM theft
– The thieves used a stolen truck to commit the ATM theft
– The thieves were trespassing in the courthouse after hours
– The thieves broke into a property
– The thieves damaged a property
– The thieves broke into a courthouse, which may interfere with courthouse proceedings
– The thieves damaged a courthouse which may interfere with courthouse proceedings
– The thieves used a vehicle to intentionally damage a courthouse
– The thieves stole the court’s property
– The thieves stole an item worth thousands of dollars
– The thieves stole an ATM, which can also be considered a form of bank robbery
– The thieves may have spent the money in the ATM
Those aren’t just 12 facts about the case – they are 12 possible charges that could be filed against a person for one criminal incident. That means the person would be charged with 12 crimes from the one event! That also means the defendant would face 12 different punishments if they were found guilty of each charge!
Don’t forget: Thieves had attempted to steal ATM’s from courthouses in the area 3 times that week! If someone was convicted on all of the charges for just one of those incidents, an angry judge could sentence them to spend what would likely be the rest of their lives in prison. If they were found guilty of all the crimes related to all 3 ATM incidents that week, things might be even worse for them!
———————— Questions:
1: What is the minimum punishment a person could receive from the state if they were found guilty of all 12 charges for one incident, if it happened in Nevada?
2: What is the maximum punishment a person could receive from the state if they were found guilty of all 12 charges for one incident, if it happened in Nevada?
3: What is the maximum punishment a person could receive from the state if they were found guilty of all 12 charges for all three ATM incidents, if they happened in Nevada?
4: What federal laws were broken by the ATM thieves, and what is the maximum federal punishment they could receive?
5: If the thieves were caught and found guilty of all charges related to the final robbery in Nevada’s state court, and then they were found guilty of all the possible federal charges in Federal Court, what is the maximum penalty they would face?
In April 2017, President Trump’s administration launched a hotline for crime victims to call if they believe they were the victims of crimes committed by people that are in America illegally. The White House’s goal was to create a means for Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) agents to prioritize cases to research and follow up on.
Social activists with a sense of humor felt that the President’s administration and the leadership team at ICE have been wrongfully demonizing immigrants. Since immigrants are often referred to as ‘illegal aliens’, thousands of outraged citizens began calling the hotline to leave messages reporting plotlines from classic films featuring extraterrestrial aliens (”A small creature with a long neck, wide body, and glowing finger stole my Reese’s Pieces” or “Something jumped on my face and now I feel like my chest is about to explode” were common examples).
The subject of immigration and enforcement of immigration law is at the heart of many national debates across the country. In fact, people are very passionate about their feelings on the subject and can often react with anger and shouting. While the hotline may have been well intentioned, it was clearly perceived as offensive by some segments of America. With the national debate being as intense as it is, it is nice to see that this act of protest chose humor over shouting as a way to express feelings that conflict with people on the other side of the debate. Hopefully more laughs will help heal a divide created by divisive subjects in national conversation.
————————– Questions:
1) How do you feel about the hotline, and what causes you to feel that way?
2) Do you think there could be some benefit or are you entirely against it, and why do you feel that way?
3) What about the protesters’ decision to use humor to express their dissatisfaction with a national policy – Why and how do you find their tactics either effective or just silly?
Be sure to provide full explanations for each of your answers. For more details, you can read the article this piece was sourced from here:
‘Your Government’ Sent You a Follow Request.
Do You Accept?
China’s government has begun to implement a system that ranks its population with a score based on their ‘social credit’.
The Chinese social credit score is similar to a financial credit score – it moves up or down depending on the behavior of the person being scored. The program is already being piloted for millions of Chinese citizens, and China’s government hopes the system will be in place for all of its citizens by 2020. The program was first announced in 2014. According to a government document, the system is meant to support the national ideal that “keeping trust is glorious and breaking trust is disgraceful.”
Any number of actions can impact a person’s social credit score in China’s program like trying to ride a train without a ticket, smoking in a non-smoking area, lingering in public spaces without explanation. Those are all reasons someone’s social score might be lowered, and they may seem reasonable – but there are other reasons that seem more troubling.
Whether someone buys unnecessary items, the amount of time they spend playing video games, what they post on social media, and if they spread what the government deems to be fake news are also sources of social score point reductions.
If you’re not already familiar with the Chinese Government’s definition of ‘fake news’, Google ‘China Government Tiananmen Square State News’, find a reliable source to learn from, and read an article or two about it. Then, think about their social scoring system again. (Spoiler Alert: If the Chinese government doesn’t like a story, they just delete it and can arrest the person who wrote it)
Refusing military service can also have a negative effect on your score.
If someone happens to get a bad social credit score, they could face barriers such as restricted travel. Meaning if your score is low enough you could be prevented from buying domestic flight tickets and business-class train tickets. You could also be barred from enrolling in higher education, unable to continue your studies and may not be able to enroll your kids in private schools.
Think about that: If you’re a straight A student that plays a lot of video games, you could be barred from enrolling in higher education because of how much you enjoy gaming – despite your good grades!
Having a good social credit score can also provide rewards like speeding up travel applications, receiving discounts on energy bills and even getting more matches on dating websites! Some citizens in China claim that the system has already made people’s behaviors improve.
————————– Questions:
1) If a system like China’s ‘social credit score’ program were to be implemented in America by the US Government, how would the program violate or not violate American citizen’s constitutional rights?
2) Constitutional rights aside, why would you want to live or not live in a country with a social scoring system?
3) If you were forced to live in a country with a social scoring system, what protections would you put in place to make sure everyone was treated fairly by the system? For example: If someone proposed points should be awarded to people that participating in sports, would that be fair to a quadriplegic? Should quadriplegics get bonus points? Is that fair for people that just don’t like sports? This sounds challenging, but in the context of the questions above, pretend that somehow the system could be made to be fair: what are the first 3 steps you would take?
A Montana Prosecutor Wants to Jail
Moms-To-Be Who Drink or Do Drugs
On January 24th, 2018, the prosecutor’s office in Big Horn County, Montana is cracking down on any expectant mothers who use drugs or drink alcohol. A court attorney is fighting to seek restraining orders against those pregnant women and is encouraging the public to report drug or alcohol incidents to the sheriff department.
The reason behind this movement is to limit child abuse during labor and to make the mother accountable for her actions. According to the article, roughly half of all U.S. states now consider substance abuse during pregnancy to be child abuse. One way it is child abuse is a birth defect called ‘sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).’
On the flip side, if the government intervenes on the well-being of a mother and her baby, it will cause a slippery slope that will jeopardize with the well-being of the mother and the fetus. Another aspect is that a woman will refuse to seek help if they feel they will be reprimanded for their outreach, which causes a discrepancy within the health provider’s field.
When it comes to the aspect of law and justice, many roles are filled by police officers, prosecutors, and judges. Police officers are tasked to patrol certain areas and stop, and or prevent crime from happening. If there is probable cause or reasonable articulable suspicion, the officer has a right to issue a stop and act accordingly per state laws and policies. As for Prosecutors, if a person is charged with a crime, the prosecutor reviews all of the evidence that is presented within a case. Lastly, for the judge evaluates all of the aspects of the case and pleads the defendant guilty or not guilty.
————————– Questions:
1. Why do you think it is or is not ethical to prosecute expected mothers who use drugs or alcohol?
2. How is the mother hurting the unborn child while using drugs or alcohol?
3. Do you think the judge’s policy will help reduce the number of cases of SIDS in the community, have no impact on the number of cases, or cause an increase in the number of cases, and why do you think the policy will have that effect?
4. Why do you feel the judge’s plan is the best one for the community, or what better solutions would you recommend and why would you recommend those over the one the judge has come up with?
Be sure to provide full explanations for each of your answers. For more details, you can read the article this piece was sourced from here:
Real Heroes Don’t Always Wear Capes: #BlackPantherChallenge
Finally kids can see a movie where the main superhero looks like them (without having to sneak into an R-rated vampire flick or sitting through a Razzie-winning Catwoman). People are so excited, that over 100 GoFundMe pages have been created to send young children (primarily of color) from low income families to see Marvel’s Black Panther…
These movie-ticket drives are happening across the nation in droves.
GoFundMe accounts have multiplied into the hundreds with politicians, entertainers and the director of the Black Panther movie contributing.
The original drive was originated by New Yorker Frederick Joseph, who found that that the feature film Wonder Woman empowered girls, thought the Black Panther movie would do the same for students primarily of color. He started the original #BlackPantherChallenge early last month and so far has raised $430k to send over 30,000 children to the movie.
Cities supporting the GoFundMe drives for the #BlackPantherChallenge range from Detroit, Michigan to San Diego, California.
————————– Questions:
1)Wonder Woman empowered young women when it was released, and it had been a long time since there was such a successful superhero movie featuring a lead female superhero. Given those conditions, why weren’t there similar fundraisers to take young women to see Wonder Woman?
2) How do superheroes (or just other really generous and community-minded people) inspire you to do things like organize a trip to the theater for a large group of children?
3) Are the many #BlackPantherChallenge campaigns inspiring you to do something to improve your community? If they are, tell us what you plan to do!
Be sure to provide full explanations for each of your answers. For more details, you can read the article this piece was sourced from here:
Is a $50 Traffic Ticket Worth
Losing your Independence Over?
Angry because of a ticket resulting from a minor traffic infraction, a Maryland man, Eugene Matusevich, began relentlessly harassing the officer who wrote the ticket through texts, social media and more. These texts ranged from jokes about donut runs to sensitive personal details. How did he obtain this information?
A friend of his.
Zak Nicholas Thompson, who worked at a financial services company, had access to the officer’s name, phone number, home address, Social Security number, his financial information (including salary information)…even the make and model of the officer’s personal vehicle. He took that information and gave it to Matusevich.
The officer quickly became deluged with texts and phone calls soliciting offers from companies, including a drug rehabilitation center. Insulting messages about the officer were also posted to his family’s Facebook accounts along with demeaning messages about the neighborhood he lived in, and even the type of car he drove.
At one point, he received 17 texts in less than an hour from Matusevich.
Thompson’s lawyer explained his client’s intent wasn’t to aide Matusevich in a full blown harassment campaign of a law enforcement officer. The lawyer implied that Thompson thought the information would only be used for an angry message or two by his friend.
————————– Questions:
1) The lawyer stated that this was not the case, but do you think that Thompson knew what he was doing when he provided his friend the police officer’s personal details and contact information?
2) Why do you think Thompson either realized or didn’t realize that by giving this information to his friend that he would be held responsible, even though he never contacted the officer?
Be sure to provide full explanations for each of your answers. For more details, you can read the article this piece was sourced from here:
Volunteers Feed The Homeless,
Get Arrested By Police
On January 14th of 2018, 12 people from a volunteer group were arrested for handing out food to the homeless.
To provide some backstory to this situation, a community group called “Break The Ban” were distributing food and other items to the homeless population at a park in California. According to the police officers that arrived, they were violating a ban on sharing food in city-owned public areas, which was recently passed by the City of El Cajon in 2017. The reason for this ban was to stop the spread of Hepatitis A. the police cited some of the volunteers to jail but did not take them. But, for the two volunteers they arrested are scheduled to appear in court. The group was outraged by the act and is planning to fight the citations and the food-sharing ban.
There was another case in which this incident has occurred. According to Forbes, in Fort Lauderdale, police arrested a 90-year old man and two ministers in 2014 for trying to share their food with the homeless. In October of 2014, the city enacted an ordinance that bans sharing food in public parks, unless they have a permit from the city. As a result of this situation, the organization arrested (Food Not Bombs) sued the city of Fort Lauderdale on the basis of the ordinance violated their right to free speech and free association, and the ordinance was “unconstitutionally vague.” At first, a federal district court dismissed the case since food sharing events were outside the scope of the First Amendment since it did not convey a “particularized message.”
But, under that line of reasoning, that sounds like the First Amendment is confined to expressions conveying a particularized message. So, as a result, the case was ruled that Food Not Bombs does have a First Amendment right to share food. The case was sent back down to the lower courts to determine if the city’s ordinance was in violation of those rights. The city of Lauderdale has not responded to the request yet.
————————– Questions:
1) How does the First Amendment apply to these news stories?
2) Why do you feel the ordinance being issued to prevent the spread of Hepatitis A was or was not justified?
3) Are there laws in your community restricting feeding the homeless, if so what are they, how do you feel about there being or not being laws about this activity in your community, and what can you do to support/change those local laws/policies?
4) (High School Students only) Even if you disagree with the policy in this case, imagine that there are some activities that people volunteer for or donate to that are meant to ‘make the world a better place’, but which should be managed or limited by local laws. How should local governments and law makers decide if an activity requires them to get involved in those activities (ex: Should sheltering homeless animals and feeding the homeless face the same kinds of restriction)?
Be sure to provide full explanations for each of your answers. For more details, you can read the article this piece was sourced from here:
Experts Say Leaking Information is
as American as Apple Pie?!
In some cases, leaks have changed the course of American history while shaping the nation’s laws. There are a number of statutes that criminalize leaking information, yet not all leaks are necessarily criminal.
Leaks in modern history that are certain to remain historically notable include those of Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning, Shadow Brokers’ NSA Hacking tools data dump, and the early days of The Trump Presidential Administration. Despite taking up significantly more air time in media outlets, the majority of leaks from the offices of President Trump remain unsubstantiated. The leaks of Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning, and the Shadow Brokers have had an immediate and lasting impact on American history.
In the case of Edward Snowden, we encourage students to read our book ‘The Government, Privacy, and You’ (free copies of which can be requested using the ‘OUR PROJECT’ section of our website – which you’re already on). As of the publication date of this post, Mr. Snowden remains in Russia with the possibility of being charged with treason, espionage, and criminal release of classified information hanging over his head.
Chelsea Manning – who was recently released from prison following a presidential order of clemency issued by President Barack Obama in his last days in office – released information to WikiLeaks that had significant impacts on American foreign policy. Most notably, Manning released a video of an airstrike in Afghanistan in which over 80 civilians were killed by US forces after the details of the operation had been held back from public release, and the release of diplomatic communications which (upon their release) resulted in many of the ‘Arab Spring’ uprisings of 2010-2012.
The Shadow Brokers was a hacker collective that released reports and files created by the NSA. The information included a number of tools and exploits that could be used to monitor or control people’s personal electronic devices. Following the Edward Snowden leaks (which revealed the US government had digitally programs that involved at least the possibility of domestic surveillance), the implication of the Shadow Brokers release was that the NSA had tools for spying not just on terror suspects but American citizens.
These are just a few examples of leaks that changed the history of America and the perception of the administrations in power at the time of their release. Republican, Democrat, Independent, Liberal, Conservative, or Moderate – information leaks have impacted administrations and governments of all types throughout American history.
————————– Questions:
1) What is a government leak you’re already familiar with? If you don’t know one, research one and summarize it in 1 – 6 sentences:
2) Regarding that whistleblowing incident – who do you believe was ‘right’ in the situation, and what about what you know about that whistleblowing incident leads you to that conclusion?
3) Whistleblowing is a challenging subject for the people coming forward: They might have legal protections to their job and their freedom, but how can they be expected to stay at a place where they betrayed the trust of the organization (even if the organization was doing something bad)?
4) Whistleblowing can also be a challenging subject for people being reported on: What if the whistleblower is wrong and what the company/person was doing is allowed? If they fire the ‘whistleblower’ they can face major punishments (financial penalties) for firing the person (it’s called retaliation). What can be done to prevent situations of false / improper whistleblowing? An example would be people posting videos of how fast food is made on Tick Tock. If a company isn’t pretending the food is ‘natural and organic’, why should (or shouldn’t) their employees really be allowed to post videos of that process?
Be sure to provide full explanations for each of your answers. For more details, you can read the article this piece was sourced from here:
Thank you for letting us experience court for the first time. It was the best experience ever, thank you for everything. You really made me think about being a judge. Thank you
-Mina L [ Twitchell Elementary - Grade 5]
Project Real
2020-12-16T22:04:09+00:00
Thank you for letting us experience court for the first time. It was the best experience ever, thank you for everything. You really made me think about being a judge. Thank you -Mina L [ Twitchell Elementary - Grade 5]
My favorite part of the fieldtrip to the courthouse is when I got to play the part of Ron. I got to go on the witness chair and speaking. I helped Potter to be not guilty. Thank you for the great opportunity.
- Johnathan M [Harmon Elementary - Grade 4]
Project Real
2020-12-16T21:47:04+00:00
My favorite part of the fieldtrip to the courthouse is when I got to play the part of Ron. I got to go on the witness chair and speaking. I helped Potter to be not guilty. Thank you for the great opportunity. - Johnathan M [Harmon Elementary - Grade 4]
Thank you for letting us watch the civil case! It was cool because it was a real case and not one played out. I had a lot of fun watching the other kids act out a session. Thank you for your time.
- Kaylie [Hewetson Elementary - Grade 5]
Project Real
2020-12-11T20:39:35+00:00
Thank you for letting us watch the civil case! It was cool because it was a real case and not one played out. I had a lot of fun watching the other kids act out a session. Thank you for your time. - Kaylie [Hewetson Elementary - Grade 5]
