Economic and Political Power in Savannah

Kaleb Stephens
Nov 4 · 5 min read

Power is defined as “the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of others or the course of events.” Power is a hierarchical construct where individuals follow specific rules, social policies or social constructs. Across the globe, power and those who hold power varies from country to country. In the United States, our government and government officials such as police officers, federal agents, lawyers are seen in the eyes of American citizens to hold power. Any person in a position of power means that that individual has the ability to directly or indirectly influence the quality of life for a given person with less “power”.

For our field work, originally our idea originally was to juxtapose the power dynamics of SCAD and the political and economic effect it has locally in Savannah, GA. Due to the lack of power amongst all three of us in the group, we were unable to meet or discuss any local issues and ideas with the Mayor Eddie DeLoach or interview SCAD President Paula Wallace. This difficulty gave us a new insight as to how power can be used as an advantage to benefit certain individuals or harm others. We were unable to speak to the mayor as he was too busy running for reelection locally. As for Paula Wallace we did not feel comfortable approaching her and we had a difficult time contacting her asking to see if she could meet us for an interview.

Fig. 1 Chatham County Courthouse located on 133 Montgomery St, Savannah, GA

In Savannah Georgia, power is shown through law enforcement, local government and city officials such as meter maids, utility companies, banks, attorneys, and judges. Our groups fieldwork consisted of a visit to the Chatham County Courthouse and Savannah Police station. During our time at the courthouse we were surprised to see how serious the courthouse took security and rules. Before entering the main entry way everyone had to go through a security checkpoint and state your intentions for entering the court house. We were able to get in and began asking were we might be able to find officials to interview. Unfortunately, as court was in session we were unable to meet with a judge. The courthouse police officer working in the front told us to ask our questions to a higher up official as we would get better answers. The officer directed us to an anonymous official who declined to give us his name or position when we began interviewing him.

Fig. 2 Flame of Freedom located in front on the Chatham County Courthouse
Fig. 3 Courtroom located inside Chatham County Courthouse

We asked the anonymous official to define a position of power and he said “Someone who has authority to make decisions that impact the general public”. The next question we asked him was can you give us some examples of power is displayed in the workplace and he said “Judges have the power to sentence people once there convicted and there are mandatory guidelines to follow some judges are lenient and some will convict to the full power of the law depending on a number of factors such as past history of crime, the crime they are being judged on etc”. The last question we asked him was how you believe one rises up to a position in power and he said “individuals that work in an organization need to work hard to obtain power compared to elected officials who are elected and automatically put in a position of power”. After the interview we asked if he knows anyone in the courthouse that we could interview and he said that we could go to the 3rd floor to talk to the Magistrate Court Clerk. So we went to the 3rd floor but was unable to interview anybody on the 3rd floor. So we left to go to the Savannah Police Department.

Fig. 4 half taxi and police car located in front on the Savannah Police Department

We arrived at the Savannah Police Department hoping that we can interview any off duty police officer but the customer service supervisors up front said that most of the police officers are on duty. So we asked if was anybody else that we can interview and they said we can call the person in charge of knowing of any officers off duty. But we asked if we could interview them even though they aren’t officers. One of the supervisors said we could interview her so we began interviewing her.

Fig. 5 No parking paper found under the windshield wiper

The first question we asked customer service supervisor was to define a position of power and she said “person who runs everything dictates instructions is a leader”. The next question we asked her was can you give us some examples of power is displayed in the workplace and she said “that might be above me”. And the last question we asked her was what is economic power and she said “economic power is controlled by someone or some group. Economic power can be unevenly distributed Because of the people in power having personal biases which can then affect a group or population as a whole”. After we interviewed her we took some pictures of the building with a half taxi and half police car. Then we walked back to the vehicle and noticed that something was under the windshield wiper. It was a no parking paper for them having a Rock-n-Roll Marathon so they needed the parking lot empty. We were glad that we didn’t get a ticket at the Savannah Police Department. We called the number that the customer service supervisors gave us but the number was out of service.

The power varies from place to place. Like in the courtroom people are elected into power. But at the police department people can work their way into power. We realize that it is hard to get interviews with people in power and so we were only able to get two interviews even though we went to different buildings. Even on Fridays which seems to be a busy day in the courtroom and for the police department they had an event called the Rock-n-Roll Marathon that takes in their parking lot. So we came to the conclusion that it is hard to interviews with government officials, especially on a Friday.

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