Street Fight Paper

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School

University of Kentucky *

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110

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Political Science

Date

Oct 30, 2023

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Hitesman 1 Cheyenne Hitesman Dr. Alkhatib POL 140 20 October 2021 Street Fight Reaction Paper This documentary shows the details of the mayoral campaign by City Council member Cory Booker. This documentary shows many of the issues that plagued the minority communities in the city of Newark, New Jersey, and shows how the current government of the city has failed to address many of the issues. In the documentary, Cory Booker and his campaign workers can be seen walking through the streets of Newark, New Jersey, knocking on doors to speak to the residents. This was a bit surprising to me, since I can’t remember any political candidates coming to my house at any point in my life. However, I do understand why Cory Booker would do this, and I think it’s a good thing. Political candidates are supposed to work for and represent the people. So, I think it’s a good thing that he was trying to get to know the people he wanted to represent. At one point, the person filming the documentary goes to an event where Sharpe James, the then mayor of the city of Newark, announces he is rerunning for the position of mayor. During this event, Sharpe James noticed the man recording and spoke to his security. Then, four policemen approached the man recording and told him that he would need to be authorized to be there or he would be arrested. Even though the man filming said that he had been authorized, the police officer asked him to stop recording and remove the film from his camera. They went outside to speak and the police asked for identification. The police officers wrote down his license plate number and his home address. This part of the documentary surprised me. I couldn’t think of a reason why the

Hitesman 2 mayor and the police officers would not want the man there. It didn’t seem like he was causing a distraction or disturbing the peace, and it didn’t seem as if he was trying to incite violence. Then, the man filming mentioned that he was not the only person having trouble for being around Cory Booker. Next, the film showed a man who had been told by police his business was illegal. The man said he had not had a problem with the police or his business until after Cory Booker went to the man’s house to speak to him. This, also, was shocking to me. I couldn't understand why this would happen. People running for office should be allowed to campaign, and the citizens that are voting should have the right to listen to the political candidates without having to worry about the consequences. I wondered if this also had to do with Sharpe James in some way, or if he had played some part in it, like with how it was at the event. I also wondered, if Sharpe James did have a role in this, why he would be against Cory Booker speaking to the people. It is understandable that he wants to win the election, but political candidates should have an equal playing field when it comes to campaigning, and all political candidates should understand and respect that. One candidate should not be able to stop another from campaigning, nor should they be able to have any way to punish the citizens for listening to other candidates speak. The man who created the documentary then went on to explain a few other instances where similar things happened. He mentioned howa police officer that supported Cory Booker got put on night patrol in a very dangerous area, a minister that had his church threatened by Code Enforcement after he criticized Sharpe James. I think it's scary to think that people could face negative consequences, just for supporting one political candidate, or for speaking out against another. This was such a big, impactful part of the documentary for me. I had to stop watching for a little bit to think about the situation. As US citizens, we should be allowed to speak to or openly support

Hitesman 3 whichever political candidates we want without having to worry about how that support could affect our businesses or our lives. The documentary also mentions some accusations that were made against Booker, one being that he is trying to buy the election. The documentary shows multiple clips of Sharpe James speaking about how Booker is going to try to buy the election, even though he had no evidence of that. Sharpe James mentioned that Booker had $10 million he was going to buy the election with, but even that wasn’t true because his fundraising effort had only raised about $3 million. I’ll be honest and say I wasn’t overly excited to watch this documentary, but after seeing it, I’m really glad I did have to watch it. I feel like it gave me more insight into illegal voter suppression and the corruption with some politicians. While I had heard of this stuff happening before, it was surprising to see how much it was happening in just one area, and it shocked me to think that this could happen just around 20 years ago. Overall, I think it was a wonderful, really well made documentary, and I think it was very important for me to watch it.

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