Lying down on the job? Well yes, actually! But there’s far more to this story of a friendly neighborhood cop lying on the sidewalk than meets the eye.
When emergency services received a call about a gas leak outside a Mecklenburg Manor apartment in South Hill, Virginia, 42-year-old police corporal C.B. Fleming was part of the investigation team. When they arrived, Fleming spotted children playing nervously on the street.
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The leak was quickly deemed harmless, but Fleming wanted to make sure the children felt safe. So, going above and beyond the call of duty, he rolled up his sleeves and lay down on the sidewalk to play the children’s game with them. The children, successfully distracted from the false alarm, inducted the kindly policeman into their imaginative game with a collection of figurines.
The kids’ mother, Iesha Roper-Boswell, recorded the touching interaction and
posted it on Facebook to the delight of thousands of viewers countrywide.
Fleming will soon be celebrating his 15th year on the force, and it seems that community engagement is at the top of his list of personal priorities. “When I got into this job, I knew there was something different, other than just writing tickets and being the bad person all the time,” he
said, speaking to
WTVR. “I figured if I could be that bright spot in someone’s day then that’s all that mattered.”
Roper-Boswell thinks that Fleming’s interactions with the children enriches the community. “People need the positivity,” she
said, speaking to the news cameras. “Some of the other children here were afraid of cops. So when he came and played with them, I captured that moment, not because I thought it would go viral, but it was amazing that my niece didn’t break out into tears.”
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Fleming’s kindly actions have clearly had a lasting impact, far beyond the roadside game of dolls: he is singularly reinforcing the positive reputation of the South Hill Police Force, and providing the South Hill kids with a figure to look up to.
Fleming himself hopes that both his actions and the actions of the South Hill Police Force at large will lead to positive change. He wants the local community to trust their law enforcement. “We had a lot of calls here when I first started,” Fleming
recalled. “I figured if I could let them know that I was an anchor point, that they could come and talk to me and trust me, then I could do some good.”
This message extends to all parents as well as the children, although we’re willing to bet that the roadside games will be reserved for the littlest members of the community!
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Roper-Boswell is grateful for Fleming and the time he took to comfort her kids: “He’s changed my daughter and niece’s lives,” she
said. “For him to make my child feel like she’s safe, she doesn’t even have to call 911, she just has to call C.B. if she’s in trouble. I’m glad he made this part of his job.”
It sounds like Fleming will be giving Batman a run for his money. We can almost see the shield-shaped “bat signal” in the sky as we speak!
Every community needs a local hero like Corporal C.B. Fleming. “It’s just amazing, the bond he has with the children,” Roper-Boswell
concluded. “They need someone who they feel is a superhero.”
Who is your community hero? Share this article with everybody you know and love—together we can spread C.B Fleming’s community spirit far and wide!
