A Memphis, Tennessee, police officer saw a group of kids on their knees and begging for their lives, and he said it left a lasting impression on him.
Memphis Police Department Officer Rico Donald said he was driving by a children play in their yard. However, as he passed by, they got to the ground on their knees, putting their hands over their heads, as if they thought they were going to be arrested. He said they were also begging for their lives.
Donald said the children shouldn’t be afraid.
“If they keep that scared mentality when they’re young, as they get older it’s going to be, ‘Ok, I’m not scared, but I don’t like the police any more,’” he told WREG News last month.
He added, “I was just trying to assure them, you don’t have to be scared of us, we’re your friends. No matter what you might see, you can depend on us,” reported LocalMemphis.com.
After chatting with the children, they threw around a football. “The youngest one wanted to be a police officer,” Donald said, speaking about one of the children. “The second one wanted to do sports, and the young lady, she wanted to be a teacher.”
“It made them feel so good,” Jamie Wilson, mother of one of the kids, told the website. “It made them feel great that he stopped and talked to them.”
Donald added that being a cop is also about letting people know they’re there to protect---and not just about issuing tickets and making arrests.
“Kids cry when the police officers come because they’re scared—it’s like we replaced the boogeyman,” Donald noted. “I need you to feel that if you need me, if no one else comes, I’m going to come. I want them to feel comfortable.”
NAACP President Reverend Keith Norman agreed with his sentiment.
“Had he not stopped, those kids would have continued to believe that the police are bad,” he told WREG.
(H/T - Americanow)
