This week we watched a documentary about the Russian girl group, Pussy Riot. Many emotions went through my mind while watching because it blew my mind in so many ways. Here was a group of girls who formed a group in almost 6 months and had followers in the short amount of time. They were very smart in how they did things and it shows how even in a country that proclaims freedom like ours, how similar we see injustices with countries like Russia who are stricter.
When the documentary first showed the video of what happened, I was personally confused as to why they couldn’t pick a better place to perform the song. Going into a sacred place and singing the song that they sung, did go a little to far. They could have done this outside of the church instead. However, the 3 bandmembers should have not gotten punished the way they did.
Even though I saw what they did offensive, the way witnesses or other Orthodox followers blew what had happened way out of proportion. They were saying that they ruined the building and acted as if they burned the cathedral down. Having a whole day of prayer against the Pussy Riot girls also made me think.
While watching the documentary my mind went to trials like Emmett Till and more currently the me-too movement. The documentary made me think about how even in America something like this could happen and it does. People every day get sent to jail for crimes they either did not commit or commit misdemeanors and get sentenced like a felony. They have bias witnesses who aren’t fully telling the truth, and everything is feeling based instead of facts. This is what happened for the Pussy Riot trial.
The members of Pussy Riot did not deserve to get 2 years more in jail. There was no clear evidence on what they were convicted of. There was just witnesses who were offended and things they brought up from the past to make them look worse. The judicial system does the same thing in America. If a minority is at trial, prosecutors will find every little bad thing that person has done in the past to make them look bad.
Overall, the documentary really opened my eyes on what is going on in the world outside of our country, however it showed how our judicial branch needs work. The more documentaries that are made the more we can see the inside of these problems.
I really appreciated this post because all things considered, it's true. Often we fail to recognize the problems within our own society in comparison to those of other nations. We constantly write off injustices in countries like Russia as problems unique to those areas, but unfortunately, in reality these issues are not uncommon at all. We live in a country where the prison system is treated like a business. Those in power profit from the imprisonment of less fortunate people. In a nation priding itself on freedoms such as freedom of speech, we find political activists such as Mumia Abu-Jamal convicted for crimes on uncertain evidence and given the maximum penalty.
ReplyDelete