Lately, I've been thinking about how to continue to teach my children to trust police in the face of so many police shootings. It feels like a once a week headline:
POLICE SHOOT UNARMED BLACK MAN
This week is no exception.
FBI LOOKING FOR WITNESSES IN SHOOTING OF UNARMED BLACK MAN BY POLICE TRAINEE
It's constant. I know these are the minority of police, and the minority of police encounters, but they have come to represent the public/media face of policing.
For my children, we don't watch TV news. They are fortunate to have a friend who's dad is an officer and often comes out in uniform. So in that way they're both sheltered and exposed to the better side of law enforcement. But they still will hear about the violence, and it's my duty to prepare them.
My 5 year old thinker helped me yesterday to start the conversation.
"Mom? Do policemen ever litter?"
"I think there are probably policemen who do litter. They're people, and some people are jerks. So some cops are jerks too. Most of them are good guys, but some are jerks."
And with that, our first simple lesson in police corruption is done. Enough to spark a longer future conversation.
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