Nathanael Klose

Blog Posts
So you want to be a Cop, or a
Detective or a U.S. Marshall,
Undercover or a......?
From cruising streets to walking beats to dispatch and the courts. whether its working
city, state, or federal, contracted or private, entry level or subprofessional there are
many many jobs and positions available in the criminal justice sector. But I am getting a
bit ahead of myself. Let me take a step back and explain a little more about this degree.

What does a Criminal Justice Major study?

At the very basics a criminal justice major will study what the law is, how it is
created, and how it is implemented in our world. After this it tends to branch
off into two different sides with one being more about how to find
and apprehend law breakers, while on the other side is more concerned
about court proceedings and ensuring that the criminal is given a fair and

Nathanael Klose

speedy trial. There is also psychology and other mental health courses that
these students will take, but while i find the quite fascinating others may not
be so amazed so if you would like to learn more about the classes a Criminal
Justice major will take head over to the NDSU Criminal Justice Undergrad Page.

What jobs are available for a Criminal Justice

Major?
The amount of jobs that are available for Criminal Justice Majors is ridiculous and is
only impeded by the want of a student to succeed and the level of degree they posses.
At the very entry level would be basic security for hotels, malls, and resorts and even
positions in dispatch centers. For these jobs all you would need is a High School
Diploma. Next you have your local police, correctional officers which normally require at
least an Associates Degree whose jobs. Moving up the food chain is the federal law
enforcement agencies such as the DEA, FBI, CIA, and Homeland Security just to name
a few. and then above that is those with master and doctorates who either work for the
federal government or choose to spend their time teaching criminal justice courses at
universities. IF you want to see the rest of jobs I left out or are curious about pay scale
and other things of that nature click this link right here.

Nathanael Klose

Why Criminal Justice? What makes

others want to pursue this
degree? What our the shared
goals of this group?
Being employed in the criminal justice field or even any job in this field is
very stressful. Between the near death experiences, the wondering and
waiting around, and the chance that your going to miss another one of Little
Johnny's Birthday Parties many wonder why anyone would ever want this job.
In order to work in this field you really have to want to help the community
and have a goal of to make this world great again. We want to ensure that
the cities that we live in our safe, and that the men and women who are
deemed dangerous are not allowed to walk the same streets as our friends
and family. This job very very stressful, but in the end it is one that is
completely worth the amount of time put into it.

On my honor, I will never betray my badge, my integrity, my

character, or the public trust. I will always have the courage
to hold myself and others accountable for our actions. I will
always uphold the constitution, my community, and the
agency I serve.
References
IACP What is the Law Enforcement Oath of Honor? (2016). Retrieved October
05, 2016, from www.http://www.iacp.org/What-is-the-Law-EnforcementOath-of-Honor

North Dakota State University (2016). Retrieved October 5, 2016,

from https://www.ndsu.edu/cjps/criminal_justice/

Nathanael Klose
State, B. (2016). Criminal Justice Careers 2016. Retrieved October 05, 2016
from http://www.criminaljusticedegreeschools.comcriminal-justice-careers/

Nathanael Klose

Coulrophobia:

of

The Fear

CLOWNS

For those of you who use social media, you have probably heard about the
recent creepy clown epidemic. For those of you who live under a rock, here's what's
going on in the country this month. According to the Oakland Press News with the recent
story titled More Clown Sightings Have Police on Edge, clown sightings have been on the
rise with some being hoaxes and others being legitimate. The true sightings range from
clowns just walking around town and being of little to no disturbance to others carrying
weapons and disturbing the peace to one robbing a convince store at gun point.

Why is this a serious issue?

Nathanael Klose

While I personally feel that having clowns running free in our society is a good
enough reason for this to be an issue that's just me. Anyways, as a police officer your
job is to serve and protect the community from danger and answer the call for duty at
times when danger or strange things happen. While it is perfectly legal for people to
dress up as clowns and walk through the park they are still going to get a few strange
looks from by passers and is not an issue. When people think its fun to dress up as a
creepy clown, trespass onto private property with weapons, and attempt to intimidate
the general population and psychologically scaring young children is when there is a
problem Due to this massive surge of suspicious individuals police departments are now
being forced to allocate more of their resources of officers to calls such as these.

But there have been a lot of fake clown

sightings. How do these fake calls effect the
police?
It is true that there have been a lot of fake clown sightings with some even being in
Fargo. From my research I found that from all of the calls of clown sightings in Fargo
only one of them actually led to a clown. This sighting turn out to be nothing as the man
dressed as a clown actually works as a clown as merely driving from job sites while in
costume. Yet, when you add all of these fake rumors and hoaxes into the mix it creates
a lot more calls for police who now have to try and find these alleged clowns that do not
exist which wastes even more time and causes even more resources to be wasted. I feel
confident in saying that this is a serious issue for the police.

Nathanael Klose

Clearly this effects the police but how does it

effect everyone?
Whatever happened in their life that caused them to have a fear of Bozo and his Clown
Squad there are people in this world that are completely terrified of clowns. For these
people to have to go outside when the thought of seeing or being terrorized by a clown
is unbearable. It's not just these people as I feel that if most of the population saw a
clown in a parking lot late at night with a cream pie in one hand and a baseball at in the
other they would most likely run away out of fear and think twice about going outside at
night. In the end this is a major problem for those who work in the Criminal Justice
sector and needs to be resolved before someone seriously gets hurt.

Nathanael Klose

References:

Reports F. S. (2016 October 04). Fargo police say clown sightings nothing to
worry about. Retrieved October 11, 2016, from http://www.infourm.com/news/4129037fargo-police-say-clown-sightings-nothing-worry-about
Jakowatz,

J. B. (2016, October 05). More clown sightings have police on edge.

Retrieved October 11, 2016

from http://www.theoaklandpress.com/generalnews/20161005/more-clownsightings-have-police-on-edge

Nathanael Klose

Ethics behind the legalization of

marijuana according to a criminal
justice major.
I know, this is a real touchy subject, but being a Criminal Justice Major the topic of
marijuana legalization comes up a lot on both the criminal, medical, and recreational
side of a the debate. While I hope everyone knows that marijuana is illegal, do you know
what piece of legislation caused this ban? I think its time for a short history lesson. Back
in 1937 The Marihuana Tax Act (yes that is actually how they spelled marijuana in 1937)
was signed which made the usage and distribution of marijuana illegal unless you had a
special tax stamp. That is until Colorado decided to legalize the recreational use of
marijuana even though it is still illegal under federal law. Marijuana use and whether to
legalize has been a hot topic in the courts as well as for police officers for many years.
Lets look at some pros and cons of marijuana legalization.

Why legalize it?

There have been numerous reasons as to why the legalization of marijuana would
benefit this country and the the one that gets thrown around the most is the tax revenue
that could be obtained from sales. During the 2015-2016 fiscal year Colorado saw $129
million from marijuana tax revenue alone, which when compared with the $55.2 million
from tobacco taxes and the $42.6 million from liquor taxes is more than these
two combined (Rittiman 2016). Another reason for its legalization is to be used as a
from of medicine or pain killer for those who would like to use it as such.
On the legal side if marijuana was legalized it would free up a lot of police resources.
The amount of money spent on the war on drugs since Nixon began this policy has
finally hit the $1 trillion mark (O'Connel 2015) and is just going to keep climbing. Just
legalizing it alone would help shutdown a lot of the violence due to the drug trade. In a
study done in 2012 it was determined that if we were to legalize marijuana it would
cause a lot of the cartel trading in America to end much like how the problems with
bootleggers ended after prohibition (Hoover 2016). There are many other reasons for
legalization that range from medical use, to growing hemp, to "hey man it's my right".
But even with all the potential, there are a lot of cons.

Nathanael Klose

Why not legalize it?

Just as there are many reasons to legalize marijuana for recreational use, there are
many reasons as to why it should stay illegal. First, you have the "is it really
safe" dilemma. While it may be safer to use than tobacco, there is no certain
guarantee that marijuana will not cause some sort of damage to the body
whether physical or mental. For every source that you can find that said marijuana does
not cause mental issues there is another saying that it does. It's to convoluted and
needs to be researched more.
Secondly there is the legal side to it. Marijuana is illegal federally, and will probably stay
this way for awhile. Even in states that it is legal, businesses can fire you for failed drug
tests due to it being illegal federally, which was determined in the the Colorado State
Supreme Court Case Coats v. Dish Network (Bielawski 2016). Even if it never gets
legalized federally, you may still have a hard time finding a professional job if you choose
to use. If these are not enough of cons you think about the amount of time, effort, and
money that it costs to have marijuana legalized at a state level. I don't see federal
happening anytime soon, so it going to take a lot effort to get all states to legalize
marijuana, and that is going to take a long time.

Nathanael Klose

My opinion.
When you look at the business ethics of drug use in the work place, I do not think
federal legalization would hold up. Businesses that are drug free are not doing it just to
be drug free, they are doing it make sure that their employees are safe and as liability
coverage. This is similar to businesses that are gun free so they are not liable for
firearms accidents in the work place, but thats an entirely different debate. I do support
legalization on the medical side, the problem is that people would still find ways to cheat
the system. The system is always cheated though so I would like to see more medical
testing and hopefully advances with the use of medical marijuana.

References
Hoover, D (n.d.) 4 Reasons why legalization of Marijuana could be the
solution to America's Problems. Retrieved October 14, 2016
from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/desirae-hoover/4-reasons-whylegalizing_b_11870030.html
M. (February 2016) Marijuana legalization could rewrite employee
drug-testing-rules - Watchdong.org. Retrieved October 14, 2016,
from http://watchdog.org/256084/drug-testing-vemont-marijuanalegalization/

Bielawski

Nathanael Klose
Rittiman,

B. (2016, August 15). Where does all that Colorado pot tax
go? Retrived October 14, 2016 from http://www.9news.com/news/wheredoes-all-that-colorado-pot-tax-go/298554132
K. (2015, November 1), Over $1 Trillion Spent Since Nixon Began The
War On Drugs. Retrieved October 14, 2016,
from http://www.mintpressnews.com/war-on-drugs/211217/

O'Connel

Nathanael Klose

A Look At the Differences

Between the Mexican and
American Court Systems.
In the Criminal Justice when working as a police officer the ability to
communicate is of utmost importance. In the Criminal Justice system when
working in the courts the ability to communicate is the most important skill of
the trade. Without an ability to properly communicate a police officer would
not be able give his count of the crime, a defendant would not know what to
explain their reason of innocence, lawyers would not know how to fight for
their clients, and a judge would not be able to issue a verdict. While
communication is important in the court system, no two countries have the
exact same court system. For this blog post I will delve into the differences
that the Mexican and American Court Systems have as well as some of their
similarities. While this blog post does stray away from my usual police
orientated posts, the legal system is still very important for an officer of the
law to know.

Nathanael Klose

How the Mexican Court System is

Different
While i could easily bore you with the court hierarchy or even the different categories of
offense, I think that would be best to explain the differences that everyone would easily
understand. First off, the idea of "innocent until proven guilty" is not a thing in Mexico. In
the deep south you are guilty until you can prove yourself innocent in the court of law,
much unlike our own country Further more, in Mexico if a law is
deemed unconstitutional, this law is only deemed unconstitutional for the person who
manage to scrape up the money and pay for a lawsuit (Mexican Legal System, n.d.).
Finally, the use of litigation (fancy word for legal action) in the Mexican court system
happens very little. The reason for this is that court fees and everything else required for
these actions is very expensive and even those who do get a monetary or rewards for
winning cases don't see anything close to what we as American's see in civil court
cases.

How the American Court System

is Different

Nathanael Klose

I hate to say it this way, but we are very much a sue happy country. If someone has the
ability to sue someone else and gain millions of dollars you better believe that there is
going to be a civil case in the future. If you don't believe me I know for a fact that there is
a South Park episode based on this whole premise which sums up this ideology in a very
nice thirty minute production.. We in this country also have a innocent until proven guilty
style of judicial system and we also posses a death penalty unlike our southern
neighbors. who do not have the death penalty. Finally in our court system the judge is
merely there to listen to the trial and give a verdict. In Mexico the judge is in charge of
discovery (finding evidence) as well as selecting a jury. To me this sounds a lot like
bribing a judge will get to where you need to go.

Similarities
Even with a lot of major differences the American and Mexican court system there are
some similarities that can be found. The court system are both ran with a State and
Federal Level of courts, as well as having a Supreme Court used for reviews of previous
cases. That is about the only similarity i could find. I mean sure I could break it down to
"they have judges" or "they have lawyers", but that's just ridiculous. It literally comes
down to that the American style of the legal system is meant to be fast paced (way faster
than Mexico),

and is more run by lawyers who want to protect their clients. Now in

Mexico its a very slow moving style of trial and legal system where a judge controls all
the evidence and can put you in jail forever if he does not like you. Why it is this way I
am not sure, but it could be that the Mexican culture has something to do with it.

Nathanael Klose

References
Introduction to the American Legal System | LexisNexis. (n.d.). Retrieved October
21,2016 from http://www.lexisnexis.com/en-us/laws/prelaw/intro-to-american-legalsystem.page

Mexican Legal System Overview - MEXonline (n.d.) Retrieved October 21, 2016,
from http://www.mexonline.com/lawreview.htm