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DBQ Question

Daniel Gizzi

AP US History
Mr. Fiorillo
June 14, 2010

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Document-Based Essay Question (DBQ)
Directions: The following question requires you to construct a coherent essay that
integrates your interpretation of Documents A G and your knowledge of the period
referred to in the question. High scores will be earned only by essays that both cite key
pieces of evidence from the documents and draw on outside knowledge of the period.
1. How have social changes, political changes, domestic threats, and issues
altered the American law enforcement system from the late 18th century to
the present?

Document A
Source: Table of Immigration Statistics

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Document B
Source: 1794, The US Congress, message on the Whiskey Rebellion
Gentlemen,
The Governor having received information that a daring and cruel outrage has been
committed in the county of Allegheny by a lawless body of armed men, who, among
other enormities, attacked and destroyed the house of Gen. Neville on the 17th
instant, request, in the most earnest manner, that you will exert all your influence
and authority to suppress, within your jurisdiction, so pernicious and unwarrantable a
spirit; that you will ascertain, with all possible dispatch, the circumstances of the
offence; and that you will pursue, with the utmost vigilance, the lawful steps for
bringing the offenders to justice. Every honest Citizen must feel himself personally
mortified at the conduct of the rioters, which, particular if it passes with impunity, is
calculated to fix an indelible stigma on the honor and reputation of the state....

Document C
Source: 1823, John Marshall, letter about Judicial Review
That gentleman [Senator Richard M. Johnson], I perceive has moved a resolution
requiring a concurrence of more than a majority of all the Judges of the supreme
court to decide that a law is repugnant to the constitution....
If Congress should say explicitly that the courts of the Union should never enter into
the enquiry concerning the constitutionality of a law, or should dismiss for want of
jurisdiction, every case depending on a law deemed by the Court to be
unconstitutional, could there be two opinions disputing such an act?....
When we consider the remoteness, the numbers, and the ages of the Judges, we
cannot expect that the assemblage of all of them [a unanimous decision]...will be of
frequent recurrence. The difficulty of the questions, and other considerations, may
often divide those who do attend. To require almost unanimity is to require what
cannot often happen, and consequently to disable the court from deciding
constitutional questions.
A majority of the court is according to the...common understanding of mankind, as
much the court, as the majority of the legislature, is the legislature; and it seems to
me that a law requiring more than a majority to make a decision as much
counteracts the views of the constitution as an act requiring more than a majority of
the legislature to pass a law.

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Document D
Source: Records of the Supreme Court of the United States; Record Group 267; National
Archives

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Document E
Source: Excerpt from: Candace McCoys Observations on the Study of Police
Accountability.
Mostly, that is indeed what happened. Professionalism changed American
policing in fundamental ways, and police managers and officers today are more attuned
to the requirements of law and ethics than they were prior to the 1970s. But it is possible
that, precisely because the professionalism movement mostly succeeded in shaking police
out of traditional practices and procedures, complacency about accountability to the law
could set inafter all, the problem had been dealt with. When serious legality
problems arose in new ways in the 1990sracial profiling, wrongful convictions,
brutality by rogue police unitsit became clear that accountability had not, in fact, been
dealt with entirely successfully.

Document F
Source: Police brutality cartoon.

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Document G
Source: Daily Record, Rochester, NY, September 11, 2006.
I
intend to continue to pursue more resources to help you, and I hope to be able to provide
additional training, investigators and prosecutors to address traditional crimes. We must
remember, however, that while there are more than 800,000 state and local law
enforcement officials in this country, there are only 12,000 federal law enforcement
officials.
In a post 9/11 world, the number one priority of federal law enforcement agencies must
be the prevention of another terrorist attack - a mission that I know you understand we all
share.
No one can truly be free to pursue the American dream - even in neighborhoods free of
drugs, gangs and violent crime - if they live in fear of a terrorist attack. All of us in
government - in law enforcement, in intelligence and in the military - have accomplished
a great deal to protect our neighborhoods over the past five years because we didn't wait
to act. We began thinking through our response on the very day of the attacks.