Weapons and Arrest Authority of U.S. Federal Agencies

More than a few eyebrows were raised in 2010 when the U.S. Department of Agriculture bought 85 fully automatic submachine guns. However, the USDAÂ  is just one of 73 federal government agencies employing full-time law enforcement officers who are authorized to carry firearms and make arrests in the United States. Brief Overview According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics latest (2008) Census of Federal Law Enforcement Officers, the combined federal government agencies employ about 120,000 full-time law enforcement officers who are authorized to carry firearms and make arrests. That is roughly the equivalent of 40 officers per 100,000 U.S. residents. By comparison, there is one member of the U.S. Congress per 700,000 residents. Federal Law Enforcement Officers are authorized by law to perform four specific functions: conduct criminal investigations, execute search warrants, make arrests, and carry firearms.From 2004 to 2008, the number of federal law enforcement officers with arrest and firearms authority grew by 14% or about 15,000 officers. The federal agencies also employ nearly 1,600 officers in the U.S. territories, primarily in Puerto Rico. The Census of Federal Law Enforcement Officers does not include data on officers in the U.S. Armed Forces, or the Central Intelligence Agency and the Transportation Security Administrations Federal Air Marshals Service, due to national security restrictions.The number of Federal Law Enforcement Officers has increased rapidly in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Since the 9/11/2001 attacks, the ranks of Federal Law Enforcement Officers grew from about 88,000 in 2000, to about 120,000 in 2008. Front Line Federal Law Enforcement Agencies Excluding 33 Offices of Inspectors General, 24 federal agencies each employed more than 250 full-time personnel with firearm and arrest authority in 2008. Indeed, law enforcement is the main function of most of these agencies. Few people would be surprised to see field agents of the Border Patrol, FBI, U.S. Marshals Service or the Secret Service carrying guns and making arrests. The complete list includes: U.S. Customs and Border Protection (36,863 officers)Federal Bureau of Prisons (16,835)Federal Bureau of Investigation (12,760)U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (12,446)U.S. Secret Service (5,213)Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (4,696)Drug Enforcement Administration (4,308)U.S. Marshals Service (3,313)Veterans Health Administration (3,128)Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (2,636)Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (2,541)U.S. Postal Inspection Service (2,288)U.S. Capitol Police (1,637)National Park Service - Rangers (1,404)Bureau of Diplomatic Security (1,049)Pentagon Force Protection Agency (725)U.S. Forest Service (644)U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (598)National Park Service - U.S. Park Police (547)National Nuclear Security Administration (363)U.S. Mint Police (316)Amtrak Police (305)Bureau of Indian Affairs (277)Bureau of Land Management (255) From 2004 to 2008, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) added more than 9,000 officers, the largest increase at any federal agency. A majority of the CBP increase occurred in the Border Patrol, which added more than 6,400 officers during the 4-year period.Officers of the Veterans Health Administration need arrest and firearms authority because they provide law enforcement and protective services for over 150 VA medical centers located nationwide.At the Cabinet department level, component agencies of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), including U.S. Customs and Border Protection, employed about 55,000 officers or 46% of all federal officers with arrest and firearms authority in 2008. Agencies of the Department of Justice (DOJ) employed 33.1% of all officers, followed by other executive branch agencies (12.3%), the judicial branch (4.0%), the independent agencies (3.6%) and the legislative branch (1.5%).Within the legislative branch, the U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) employed 1,637 officers to provide police services for the U.S. Capitol grounds and buildings. With full law enforcement authority in the area immediately surrounding the Capitol complex, the USCP is the largest federal law enforcement agency operating wholly within the nations capital.The largest employer of federal officers outside of the executive branch was the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AOUSC). The AOUSC employed 4,696 probation officers with arrest and firearm authority in its Federal Corrections and Supervision Division in 2008. The Not-So-Obvious Federal Law Enforcement Agencies In 2008, another 16 federal agencies not so typically associated with police powers employed fewer than 250 full-time personnel with firearm and arrest authority. These included: Bureau of Engraving and Printing (207 officers)Environmental Protection Agency (202)Food and Drug Administration (183)National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (149)Tennessee Valley Authority (145)Federal Reserve Board (141)U.S. Supreme Court (139)Bureau of Industry and Security (103)National Institutes of Health (94)Library of Congress (85)*Federal Emergency Management Agency (84)National Aeronautics and Space Administration (62)Government Printing Office (41)National Institute of Standards Technology (28)Smithsonian National Zoological Park (26)Bureau of Reclamation (21) * The Library of Congress Police ceased operation in 2009 when its duties were assumed by the U.S. Capitol Police.Most of the officers employed by these agencies are assigned to provide security and protective services at the agencys buildings and grounds. Officers employed by the Federal Reserve Board of Governors provide security and protective services only at the Boards Washington, D.C. headquarters. Officers serving at the various Federal Reserve banks and branches are hired by the individual banks and were not counted in the Census of Federal Law Enforcement Officers. And the Inspectors General Finally, 33 of the 69 federal Offices of Inspectors General (OIG), including the Department of Educations OIG, employed a total of 3,501 criminal investigators with firearms and arrest authority in 2008. These 33 Offices of Inspectors General represent all 15 Cabinet-level departments, as well as 18 other federal agencies, boards and commissions.Among other duties, officers of the Offices of Inspectors General often investigate cases of improper, wasteful or illegal activities, including theft, fraud and wrongful use of public funds.For example, OIG officers recently investigated the General Services Administrations outrageous $800,000 team-building meeting in Las Vegas, and a series of scams being perpetrated against Social Security recipients. Are These Officers Trained? Along with training they may have received in the military or other law enforcement agencies, most federal law enforcement officers are required to complete training at one of the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) facilities. In addition to training in basic to advanced law enforcement, criminology, and tactical driving, FLETCs Firearms Division provides intensive training in the safe handling and justifiable use of firearms.

The Khrushchev s Influence On The Soviet Revolution

Nikita Khrushchev, by Hayden Kennedy Khrushchev was born on April, 15, 1894 in Kalinovka, a small town near the Ukraine border. He joined the communist Bolsheviks in 1918, which was more than a year after they seized power in the Russian Revolution. During the Russian Civil War, his first wife died of typhus, leaving him with 2 children. He remarried and had four more kids. Khrushchev rose through the communist ranks after moving to Moscow in 1929. He eventually entered Dictator Stalin’s inner circle. By that time, Stalin had been instituting his power in removing possible enemies. In World War II, Khrushchev organized troops to fight Nazi Germany in the Ukraine and Stalingrad. He helped rebuild the countryside while at the same time†¦show more content†¦Until the speech, it was still considered unthinkable to say anything negative about Stalin. At the time, his revelations were groundbreaking. Starting in 1957, Khrushchev made some minor attempts to restore Stalin’s image. But he changed tactics in 1961, when the city of Stalingrad was renamed and Stalin’s remains were removed from Lenin’s mausoleum in Moscow’s Red Square. On the domestic front, Khrushchev worked to increase agricultural production and raise living standards. He also reduced the control of the Soviet Union’s feared secret police; released many immorally accused political prisoners, released control of artistic censorship, opened more of the country to foreign visitors, and commenced the space age in 1957 with the launch of the satellite Sputnik. Khrushchev had a complex relationship with the West. A strong believer in communism, he also preferred peace with capitalist nations. He even visited the United States, unlike Stalin. Good relations between the two superpowers decayed a little in 1960 when the Soviets shot down an American U-2 spy plane deep inside their territory. The following year, Khrushchev allowed the building of the Berlin Wall in order to prevent East Germans from fleeing to capitalist West Germany. He once flew to a summit in London in a half-completed prototype passenger jet to demonstrate the advanced

Cinema In a World of Its Own Essay Example For Students

Cinema In a World of Its Own Essay The main question aimed to answer here is precisely if cinema is indeed a world of its own. Apparently simple, this question comprehends a wide range of aspects and specifities not only related to cinema but also to previous visual devices such as photography. Throughout the analysis of arguments, some opposing, some backing up the concept of cinema as a second world (Frampton, 2006: 1), other relevant issues will arise such as the way in which is possible for us to engage with film if we consider that it represents a world other than our own. In order to answer to the proposed question, one must first understand cinema as a technical visual device, perhaps one of the most effective when considering its capability of affecting individuals and society in general. When cinema appeared, and as noted by Crary (1988), it founded a new paradigm in the visual culture by causing a rupture with all the previous optical devices: cinema does not try to mirror any pre-existing reality; instead, cinema produces a new reality where its own realism, truth and objectivity are put to work. However, in the beginning of the 19th century there was still who believed that film promised the registration of pure materiality sans subjective intervention (Dasgrupta in Colman, 2009: 340), a expectation previously placed upon photography. Rancire eliminated this expectation by affirming that if the eye of the camera wants nothing, as previously stated by Epstein, that why it is made to want something by the film-maker (Rancire quoted in Dasgrupta, 2009: 340). This equally represents a turning point caused by cinema as it, contrarly to photography and even to the perspetive technique in painting, never denied its subjetive dimension, going even further by re-incorporating the human vision and accepting that the production of images is unavoidably connected with the establishment of points of view. In order to understand whether film is a reflection of reality or a distorted mirror of that same reality (Frampton, 2006: 3) one must analyse the not so short path of film production. In the analysis Baudry and Williams (1974) made about how the technical cinematographic apparatus can be used to conceal the ideological contents in film, they establish the moments in which that same apparatus intervenes in the film production. The authors recognised two key moments in which an instrumental base intervenes during film production: the first, identified as decoupage, happens between objective reality and the camera, consisting in the breakdown of the scenes which will be shot; the second moment happens between the inscription and the projection, in a process which is commonly known as post-production (1974: 40). The camera is here understood as an instrument which occupies an intermediate position, not undermining it as the operator of a key mutation of the signifying material (1974: 40). All these stages are considered by the authors to be part of the cinematographic specificity, which they assume, consists in transmuting the objective reality into the film itself. That transfiguration further includes the dynamization of space and, accordingly, spatialization of time (Panofsky in Cohen and Mast, 1974: 154) meaning that a film is capable of portraying events which took place during days, months or even years in a time frame of about 120 minutes. This technical approach to cinema and its instruments corroborates Framptons conception of film as its own world with its own intentions and creativities (2006: 5). Frampton himself approaches the act of cinematographic production as a process which transmutes reality, not denying that film uses it at an early and fleeting stage. However, that reality is almost instantly submitted to the film-mind which, as Frampton describes it, is the film itself (2006: 7), including its intentions. The first aim of the film-mind is to create a believable environment for the action (Perkins, 1993: 94) by including elements in the film-world which can be recognised by the spectator (Frampton, 2006). Secondly, the film-mind through the film-thinking is also responsible for designing and refiguring the film-world (Frampton, 2006: 7). Perkins gives a very relevant example of what is meant by film-thinking when, attributing that thought to the films director, shows he/she can control what happens within the image. The director is able to produce a personal treatment of the script situation by controlling the action, in detail, organization and emphasis (1993: 74). Plato's Two-World Theory EssayTaking into account all of films specificities and processes involved in its making, it becomes almost impossible to deny Framptons conception of it as a different world with its own rules (2006: 5). However, one can easily question how we engage with film to the point of feeling pleasure and enjoyment if it depicts fictional or even fantastical situations impossible to observe in our own world. Furthermore, how can film influence our emotional lives and also figure into the process by which a culture educates its members (Platinga in Allen and Smith, 1999: 398). Perkins denies theories of illusion which suggest that film can cause the spectator to engage with it to the point of making him forget that what is being presented on screen is not real (1993: 71). Platinga shares this view by stating that the spectator must have consistent awareness that what he views is artificial and that he is outside of the fictional world (1999: 379). Both authors are then obviously denying the ultimate characteristic of the simulacra (Deleuze, 1983; Debray, 1992), in what regards to film: the illusion and the interaction it produces, even when taken to a new level by the use of new technologies and film formats like the 3D display system and IMAX, are not enough for the spectators to perceive film as something which is within our reality. Platinga (1999: 376) also refuses to accept Neo-Freudian theories, like the one presented by Laura Mulvey who suggests the illusion of looking in on a private word as the main source of pleasure for the audience by letting them unwind their voyeuristic phantasy (in Hollows, Joanne et al, 2000: 241). By using a cognitive approach while studying the spectators involvement in films, Platinga (1999: 378) suggests that the emotional states experienced while watching a film depend on the cognitive response each individual has towards the situations portrayed. While referring to the thought theory, which proposes that we can have real affective responses not only to actual events but also to those we image, Platinga justifies how filmgoers have emotional responses while watching a film (1999: 380). Film can even have an impact outside the cinema, changing peoples values, behaviours and even their way of perceiving reality. That impact is achieved through repetition and promotion (making the scenario seem natural, morally correct, or in accordance with advanced tastes and attitudes) (Platinga, 1999: 389). By way of conclusion, it is now possible to state that, although not being the same, our world and the film world share a connection in the form of a symbiotic relation. Bibliography: Crary, J. 1988. Techniques of the Observer, October, Vol. 45, pp 3-35 JSTOR . Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/779041 Baudry, J.L. and Williams, A. 1974. Effects of the Basic Cinematographic Apparatus, Film Quarterly, Vol. 28, No. 2, pp 39-47 JSTOR . Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1211632 Dasgrupta, S., 2009. Jacques Ranciere. In: Coleman, F., Film Theory and Philosophy: The Key Thinkers. Durham: Acumen, pp. 339-348 Debray, R., 1992. Douze thses sur lordre nouveau et une ultime question. In: Vie et mort de limage. Paris: Gallimard, pp. 491-506 Deleuze, G., 1969. Plato and the Simulacrum. Translated by: Krauss, R., 1983. October, Vol. 27, pp 45-56 JSTOR . Available at: http://jstor.org/stable/778495 Frampton, D., 2006. Introduction. In: Filmosophy. London: Wallflower, pp. 1-12 Harris, M., 2008. The Oscars Which editing is a cut above. The New York Times (January 6). Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/movies/awardsseason/06harr.html?_r=0 Mulvey, L., 2000. Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. In Hollows, Joanne et al, The Film Studies Reader. London: Arnold, pp. 238-248 Panofsky, E., 1974. Style and Medium in the Motion Pictures. In: Cohen, M. and Mast, G., Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings. London: Oxford, pp. 151-169 Perkins, V. F., 1993. The World and Its Image. In: Film as Film: Understanding and Judging Movies. Da Capo Press, pp. 71-115 Platinga, C., 1999. Notes on Spectator Emotion and Ideological Film Criticism. In: Allen, R. and Smith, M., Film Theory and Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 373-393 Gravity, 2013 . Directed by Alfonso Cuarn. United Kingdom and United States: Warner Bros., Esperanto Filmojm and Heyday Films.

Survivors Tale And Spiegelman Essays - Raw, Adult Comics

Survivors Tale And Spiegelman There is an old saying that a picture says a thousand words. Art Spiegelman's series Maus: A Survivors Tale proves this saying to a tee. Added to the dialogue, a million possibilities arise. The series is a biographical comic book about his father's experiences during the Holocaust. It uses cats, mice, and other animals to present this very delicate subject. The first book in the series received tremendous adulation and received the National Book Critics Circle prize in biography. However, the critics involved in this prize were forced to ask two questions. ?Does a comic book represent the World Wars well or not?' and ?Was Spiegelman right to use the humor of a comic book to express the Holocaust?' I will attempt to answer these questions by focusing on Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began. Using artwork combined with pictures serves many purposes. It allows the author to develop characters with a visual reference. It serves to fill in the blanks by cutting down the necessity to read between the lines to understand the big picture. These can be seen as pros and cons. So Spiegelman attempted to reduce the gap between the dialogue and the pictures. I didn't want people to get too interested in the drawings. I wanted them to be there, but the story operated somewhere else. It operates somewhere between the words and the idea that's in the pictures, which is in essence what happens in a comic. This direct quote from an unknown interview done with Spiegelman shows that he meant to use the pictures only as a tool to express his ideas. If too much emphasis were put on the pictures, then whole story would not be shown. However, if the pictures and the dialogue are read as one, then the entire story is expressed. Spiegelman says in the quote that he doesn't want people to focus on the artwork, he just uses them to help the story along. To help him with keeping the focus off the drawings, you can notice an extreme uniformity in the drawings. The appearance of characters are shown the same throughout the comic book, the facial expressions never change with emotion either. The author uses the uniformity in the pictures to eliminate the over descriptive nature of pictures. Instead, there are still things left to the reader's imagination. Spiegelman needs this uniformity throughout the comic book so that Holocaust does not come across as a creative medium for writing. Instead of using the drawings as a medium to show expression, he uses the drawings also help him to express ideas that he does not want left to the imagination. For example, on page 70 in Maus II, there is a map of the crematorium buildings. This eliminates any disparity between what he wants the reader to see, and what the reader will actually believe. As well as eliminating this disparity, the drawings can be used to accentuate ideas that Spiegelman has tries to express. There are pictures in Maus II that can be described as simple disturbing, but show the atrocities of the Holocaust well. A picture of some of the unfortunate mice burning in a mass grave is present on page 72 of Maus II. You simply could not express the horror experienced by the unfortunate humans that were forced to go through this by using words to describe it. Hitler once said, ?The Jews are undoubtedly a race, but they are not human.? In essence the cartoon lets Spiegelman show a distinct metaphor. Spiegelman uses mice as the Jewish people, cats as the Germans, dogs as the Americans as well as other animals. By using the difference in size and visual ferocity, he is better able to express this is a highly controversial metaphor. This displays the stratification of the entire European culture as a whole. The realization of Hitler's racism, as well as the Americans, is shown to the fullest extent. In the end of the book, the Americans are shown as dogs, and drawn as very fierce creatures. Obviously, he is trying to show the Americans as more powerful than the Germans and the Germans more powerful than the Jewish. This shows how Spiegelman used the analogy to express the stratification that was present during this period of time. Spiegelman successfully used the cartoon medium to express Hitler's quote. The Holocaust is obviously a very sullen event in world history. Just talking about the event can be disheartening to anyone. Using the pictures and the humor of

Electoral College Essays - Electoral College, Faithless Elector

Electoral College Essays - Electoral College, Faithless Elector Electoral College The framer's intent of setting up the American Government will never be know for sure, but it is gathered that they preferred a republic over a democracy. In the constitutional convention the drafters had to decide how much power they would entrust with the people of the United States, and how much should be controlled by representatives. They chose to have Congress Make the laws, and congress would be selected directly by the people. But another branch of government, the executive branch, needed a sole president and the framers had to decide how to choose this president. They chose from three main systems: elect the president by congress, the people, or electors. The electoral college system has been in place for over 200 years and Americans are still not sure how it works or if it is the best system. Many Americans feel they go to the polls every year and vote for the president, and in the long run they are in control of the fate of our executive branch. This third system was to have electors that could not be a member of congress vote for the president. The elector system was voted down twice, once as the electors to be chosen by state legislatures, and the other time as the electors to be chosen by direct vote. Finally it was passed under the system of letting state legislature decide how to choose the electors. Another compromise had to be made about how many electors each state would have. This was agreed upon by the electors equaling the total of the states representatives and senators. States went three main routes in choosing electors: the legislative system, where state legislatures choose the electors; a district system, where electors are selected by the people of each congressional district; and the general ticket, or a winner-take-all system, where a popular vote was held in the entire state, and the winner took all electoral votes. Many have tried to reform by making a more uniform system state by state, but the constitution is very clear that it is each state's own decision of how to choose electors. The legislative system eventually failed because of too much bargaining, promises, and payoffs. The district system eventually lost popularity because it encourages third parties. This left the general ticket system as the dominating system. However, the framers originally intended electors to be chosen by the people and then vote for what they thought was best. There are two states that still use the district system, but the remaining 48 states use the general ticket system. Most all states no longer show the electors' names on the ballot. The voter votes for either the president or the party that they wish to hold office. This causes a problem of the unfaithful elector. Electors are expected to ratify the people's choice by voting for candidates winning the popular election. Electors that do not vote for what they are expected to vote for are considered faithless or unfaithful electors. This has not traditionally been a problem in the history of the electoral college but it could possibly be a problem. Less than 1% of electors have ever misrepresented their community. 26 states do not require an elector to vote for what they have pledged to vote for by state law. Although these states are still considered under the general ticket system. Basically the electoral college system works like this today. Every ten years the census figures adjusts how many representatives each state has. This number plus two, representing the two senators, equals how many electors each state has. Also, DC has 3 electors. Then each state has the right to decide how to select these electors. Forty eight states use the general ticket system, two, Maine and Nebraska, use the district system. The general ticket system is suppose to operate as follows. There is a direct vote election held in each state and the winner of the vote is suppose to get all of that states electoral votes. In Maine and Nebraska there is an election held in each congressional district. The winner of every district gets one electoral vote, and the candidate with the most electoral votes gets the remaining two electoral votes. Then all of the votes are counted, and if a candidate gets more than half the votes, he/she becomes the new president. If there is no majority then the election gets thrown into the House of Representatives. There each state is given one vote and they

Why Some Student Cheat Essays - Misconduct, Cheating, Morality

Why Some Student Cheat Essays - Misconduct, Cheating, Morality Why Some Student Cheat Why Some Students Cheat Nowadays, there are many popular ways for students to cheat in exams. Some students take their notes into the examination rooms. Some students ask their friends the answers by whispering while taking the exams. And some students just try to copy the answers of students who sit in front of them without caring how similar to giraffes they are. It is interesting to focus on the question that why some students still keep cheating in exams even though they know that the punishments of university are getting so tougher and tougher that every single semester many students have to drop their education. There are three main reasons why some students cheat in exams; being afraid of failure, having no ability, and wanting to take risks. Being afraid of failure is the most important reason for some students to cheat in exams. Some students think that if they fail the exams, they will have a lot of the following problems. For example, their parents will complain them about bad grades, their friends will look down and laugh at them, and they guess that the light of their educational futures will be darker too. They will get stressed if they cannot do the exams as well as they hope. And those factors will lead them to cheat in exams. In short, some students are afraid that they will have many problems if they fail the exams, so they start to cheat. Having no ability to do exams is the next reason that causes some students cheating. There are a few cases for this reason. Some students do not have their own self-confidences. Some students cannot do the exams because they are too difficult. And some students unreasonably judge themselves that they are not smart enough to pass the exams. Instead of studying hard, paying attention to classes, reviewing lessons, and doing exercises, they try to cheat in exams. In fine, some students do not try hard enough to pass the exams and it is terrible that their solution is cheating. The final reason why some students cheat the exams is because they want to take risks. It sounds unbelievable and crazy but it truly happens. Some students just want to show-off to their friends. To show their abilities is looked like fun activity for teenagers. Without thinking thoroughly, they try to show their dishonest tricks in the examination rooms. These students probably think that cheating the exams is challenging and makes them cooler. Besides, they will get incredibly good grades if they succeed their cheating plans too. Therefore, to dare the punishments, some students cheat in exams for their pleasures. In conclusion, there are many reasons for students to cheat in exams, being afraid of failure, having no ability, and wanting to take risks, including the reasons which I did not state. And until today, we still cannot guarantee that there are ways to help students stop cheating. However, to those who are thinking to cheat the exams, you should think about the punishments. No matter what your reason is. Does it worth for being caught and got punished from both university and society? You all know the answer. Although you are not smart enough to have excellent grades, you should be proud of yourself that you try to get good grades by your own abilities, not cheating.

The Potential Contributions of Human Resource Case Study

The Potential Contributions of Human Resource - Case Study Example British Airways also supports other additional jobs through its supply chain, and all this generates annual revenues of approximately 7.8 billion (Whitelegg 2000, BA 2005). British Airways contributes to economic growth in the UK as it is part of a transport infrastructure on which many other parts of the economy depends on. For example, better transport links between cities have expanded markets, allowing for economies of scale, increased specialisation in areas of competitive advantage and stiffer competitive pressures on companies (OEF 1999, Whitelegg 2000). This also means that British Airways supports foreign direct investment into the United Kingdom and this introduces new technology into the country, as well as improves networking to bring on more innovation (OEF 1999). As with any other industry, the key challenge facing British Airways is future growth and development, especially in light of low-cost airlines and climate change. Despite the impressive record of consistently delivering improvements in energy efficiency, British Airways is once again faced with a multitude of environmental and other factors, which could potentially erode its human resource based, which it has created. In order to understand the potential contributions British Airways makes to the human resource function, it is important to conduct environmental and internal analyses. II. PESTLE Analysis II. i. Political This airline industry is heavily subsidized, however the high cost of labour in the UK has made British Airways look at more cost effective ways of creating jobs, such as automated ticket machines and check-in machines. At the same time the construction of Heathrow Terminal 5 exists to meet the rising demand, which puts pressure on the government in terms of planning, and allocating more runway space in other areas of the country. The conflict in the Middle East has also meant increased fees for flying with British Airways to cover the cost of fuel price increases, which could cost the organization dearly. II. ii. Economic The crisis in the Middle East has resulted in reduced passenger numbers for some routes, and whilst it may not affect all of British Airways routes, a reduction in passenger numbers means significant losses in terms of profit. If passenger growth falls at 3.5% per year instead of the predicted 4%, the UK's GDP would be reduced by 2.5% by 2015 or the equivalent of 30 billion (OEF 1999, BA 2005). In 1997 UK travelers abroad spent 13.4 billion and foreign travelers to the UK spent 9.9 billion (OEF 1999), therefore the importance of the economy cannot be downplayed. II. iii. Social There has been an increase in recreational flyers, or the use of private airplanes, since September, 11th and this has affect passenger numbers slightly (BA 2005). This is also due to the rise of disposable income and specialization of leisure pursuits at small air fields and air