April 27, 2020
St. Zita (1218-1278) whose feast day is today was born at Monte Sagrati, Italy, became a servant in the household of a wool dealer at nearby Lucca when she was twelve, and was initially disliked by the other servants for her diligence, holiness and austerities but in time won them over. She was credited with many miracles, worked to alleviate the misery of the poor and criminals in prison, and died on April 27th after having been a servant in the Fatinelli family for some forty-eight years. She was canonized in 1696 and is the patroness of domestic maids and servants. Dante referred to her in his writings.
I have been taking Criminal Justice 101 this spring semester. I just finished my final thoughts and reflections paper. For all I strive to do in Criminal Justice, St. Zita, pray for me.
Final Reflections
Criminal Justice 101
Mary C Podlesak
Dr. Fundack
Cecil College
Monday April 27, 2020
There are four primary lessons or takeaways that I draw from this course in Criminal Justice. As you know, I signed up for this course in Criminal Justice because I wanted to take the higher level forensics courses that require this primary course. I did believe, and still do, that there are valid grounds for an investigation of my mother’s death, particularly for an exhumation and autopsy of her cadaver, and thus the need for a forensics course.
1. Once I signed up for Criminal Justice, I realized how valuable the knowledge of Law Enforcement, the Justice System and corrections would be. This should be a required course for every high school and college student. Every citizen should cover this material at some point in their academic lives.
Drawn from the shock and trauma of seeing my dead mummified mother, half naked, with her tongue protruding enormously, sprang my need for answers. Who do I go to for reliable information, an honest investigation, and an accurate assessment of what happened? Neither homicide detectives in Lancaster, nor the New York State Attorney General’s office were interested in interviewing me. The Lancaster detectives literally took my name, phone number and address and were interested in nothing else I had to say. Yes, I could have hired an investigator but I couldn’t find a forensic pathologist who would examine her body while she was still in the morgue. Now that she’s buried it is more difficult. So I decided to take the long view and learn about the criminal justice system. I bought Vernon Geberth’s Practical Homicide Investigation to learn police detective techniques. This Criminal Justice course has set these police investigative techniques within the context of the entire judicial system
2. My father died 23 years ago. He was President of the Buffalo AFL-CIO. He was not enamored of government unions, in particular, police officer’s unions. They were and are overbearing, demanding, feeling entitled to special treatment and masonic in both structure and action. They require the unquestioning compliance and acquiescence of their membership. Unfortunately this initial course in Criminal Justice deals very lightly with the FOP or in the case of Lancaster, NY, the PBA.
My father also saw prison labor as being in competition with unionized labor, to its detriment. As you have pointed out, the absurd levels of imprisonment of the US population make prisoners ripe for slave-like exploitation. My father detested this and hoped for a political solution. The prison industrial system is lightly touched on in this course.
3. The theories of criminology, some of which I studied in psychology many years ago, piqued my interest. Not a single one of them dealt with virtue. A criminal theory that doesn’t deal with virtue is like a car without an engine or a computer without software. A criminal justice theory that promotes the acquisition, retention and integration of natural virtue drives reform, societal rejuvenation and personal fulfillment. This is NOT impossible. I have many books on the saints. That is precisely what they did with the help of the Sacraments. Natural virtue can be acquired by anyone, criminal or not, Sacraments or not. If I continue in criminal justice I will pursue my own theory of criminal justice in a PhD program.
4. Our class, our college and our lives have been interrupted by the greatest fraud foisted on the citizens of the world of all time, committed by a conspiracy of state, finance, medicine and media. The objective appears to be to kill as many people as possible, steal their stuff, and make it impossible to earn a living independently from the government. Coronavirus is real and can kill in vulnerable subpopulations and according to medical sources can reinfect the immunologically weak. It seems to target the elderly, the sick and the disabled. There have been reports of Covid19 patients being deliberately moved into nursing homes for the elderly in Italy, where many deaths later occurred. One of my sources found an audio of a phone call made by a Dominican lady from a NYC hospital in which she tells her husband that she and a roomful of other patients were injected with something that resulted in death within minutes for all those so injected. She was the last to get the shot and knew she would die so she called her husband. Other types of fraud are being reported by doctors and other medical personnel. Best medical protocols are not being followed or are forbidden. It is acknowledged that few victims of this fraud are autopsied. Autopsy is the only provable way to diagnose cause of death. It has been reported numerous times, by medical authorities themselves, that anyone dying with Covid19 will have Covid19 listed as the cause of death. A more solid culture of autopsy would stop a fraud like this.
The economic shutdown caused by this fraud will provoke civil unrest. The origins of this must be investigated by objective independent (financially and otherwise) authorities. Dr. Luc Montagnier, discoverer of HIV, has stated recently that there is no doubt that coronavirus is manufactured. There never was any probable cause for believing a crime was committed by the vast majority of citizens which would force house arrest of all and a shutdown of business in restraint of trade. Only an organized group under the leadership of the loyal police or military can reinforce the Bill of Rights in the states to fight this tyranny.
I was never in favor of the death penalty. The criminal justice system and prosecutors can too often manipulate judges and juries to convict the innocent, overlook evidence and produce a “feel-good” death sentence that throws raw meat to the masses. However, in the case of this world-wide criminal conspiracy, which has had real world consequences for the innocent, I withdraw my objections to the death penalty. This conspiracy and these conspirators are the very definition of enemies foreign and domestic. They are so dangerous they can only be dealt with by example through the death penalty. These people are guilty of treason, not simply to our constitution, but also by crimes against nature and humanity—and crimes against God.
If what you taught in criminal justice has any worth in the real world, it must lead to the conclusion that Truth matters. Government and its representatives must not lie.
Cathy logan April 24, 2021 at 2:48 pm
mary_podlesak 