Your Protectors

The Heroes without powers.

Police officers are heroes just like Superman and Batman, but without powers. Police officers are people that can help you especially if you are in trouble. However, just like superheroes, some police officers make bad decisions, just like the Hulk. The Hulk was a hero who helped save the world. After he did that, he got mad and tried to hurt the people of Earth. Just like him, some officers have hurt people and it caused families to get angry at all police officers.  

Why this happens.

Police officers should not scare you or make you nervous. You should always feel comfortable around them. Police officers are good people who sometimes make bad choices. Some people think it has to do with the color of their skin, or what they were wearing, or even who their friends are. The term used for that is Racism. That is what makes some people so mad when a police officer hurts or can even kill someone. Sometimes police officers are put into bad situations and they get scared of what could happen to them. So when they get scared, they can sometimes hurt someone really badly, and the fact that they can make that decision scares people. Sometimes if a person dies because of what a police officer did, he/she gets in trouble, but sometimes they don’t, and that is when people begin to get mad and try to get justice for what the police officers did. It is okay to get sad or upset after a police officer hurts someone else because most of the time it’s wrong. But you need to show your sadness and anger in a peaceful way. You can’t be mean or rude to a police officer just because another person who has the same job as him/her did something bad. Not all police officers are bad and not all police officers are scary. 

What to Remember

Before these officers became a policeman, they were a person, and they still are a person who just has a harder job than most of our moms and dads. They make decisions that can change both their lives and the lives of other people. Those decisions could be as simple as if they arrest someone or pull someone over while they are driving, but they also get more difficult like if they have to hurt or kill someone so that they do not get hurt. When a police officer gets the feeling that they might get hurt or killed, they are supposed to make sure that the person they are confronting does not have any weapons on them. Sometimes they do have a weapon on them, but sometimes they don’t. A lot of the time, when people get shot they do not have a weapon on them, but the officer thinks that they do. This is another reason why people are afraid of police officers and the power they have on someone’s life.  

Why We Shouldn't be afraid

Police officers do not want you to be afraid of them; they want you to follow all the laws that the people in charge set so that we can all be safe. Just like in school, our teachers have rules for the classroom that you have to follow, so do police officers. The rules police officers want you to follow are more strict and important than your classroom rules, but those rules are still super important. If you follow all the laws, then you will not have a problem with police officers. However, if you break a law or do something you’re not supposed to do, then you can get in serious trouble and even get arrested. Police officers have feelings like being scared or angry or happy and sad just like all of us. However, when they are put in the situations they sometimes get into, they make quick decisions that are sometimes not the right ones. But they do what they can to stay safe just like they try to make everybody else safe.

References

“Diana Bee Dash Bee Tries Really Hard .” Diana Bee Dash Bee Tries Really Hard, Aug. 14AD, 2014, beedashbee.com/category/police-brutality/.

Lopez, Stephanie. “Durham Police Officers Pass out Freeze Pops to Kids.” ABC11 Raleigh-Durham, WTVD-TV, 23 June 2016, abc11.com/news/durham-police-officers-pass-out-freeze-pops-to-kids/1398605/.

“Resources for Youth & Children .” Toolkit , Rochester Racial Justice Toolkit, 2016, thetoolkit.wixsite.com/toolkit/for-youth-children-1.

Taylor, Jeff, and Rebecca Carrell. “This Fort Worth Officer Is A Real-Life Superhero.” 90.9 KCBI FM, www.kcbi.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/fort-worth.jpg.