This woman is a model cop
Today is a special day. In perusing my thread I came across two stories that were simply heart warming, especially in these times of turmoil.
The first story I ran across was a Facebook post that went viral about a you black man that was packing who was stopped by a cop. He had a concealed weapon and a concealed weapon’s permit. Suffice it to say he is still alive and his encounter was actually pleasant with the police officer.
The second story was even more impactful. The Washington Post reported it as follows.
On Monday afternoon, D.C. police officers broke up two groups of fighting teenagers. A few minutes later, a female officer approached the lingering crowd and told the teens to disperse.
That’s when Aaliyah Taylor, a 17-year-old senior at Ballou High School, walked up to the officer and started playing “Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)” on her phone. Then she did the Nae Nae dance.
The officer, according to Taylor, laughed and said she had far better dance moves than that.
What happened from there on the 200 block of K Street SW was a rather impressive dance-off between the police officer and the teen, and an example of positive community policing at a time when national attention is focused on discriminatory and abusive police tactics. The onlooking teens caught the dance battle on their cell phones while a song by rapper Dlow played in the background.
Why is this more impactful? The teenager who danced with the cop, Aaliyah Taylor, said it was the first positive encounter she had ever had with the police. She said all of her sisters and brothers have been arrested for non-violent offences like breaking curfew. Her siblings told her that the officers acted unnecessarily rude and rough.
Those are the lens through which many communities view the police. This positive experience gives this teen, her friends, and her community another perspective. A cop can be one of them. A cop can be just like them. We need more officers like the cop in the video.
The officer did not want to be identified. She did not want the story to be about her. Officers like her must be uplifted. One hopes it gives some of the marginal officers an incentive to be better as the hoodlums are weeded out of America’s police force.
(h/t DailyKOS)