Dear Next President,

Police brutality is a serious issue and it’s completely wrong because mistreating people in any aspect is not acceptable nor humane.

In an article for the Huffington Post, Julia Craven shows a video of Keith Lamont Scott, a Black man exiting his car and walking backwards and then getting shot three times. The police officers didn’t have to fire. The police officers could have gone up to him and arrested him but instead they were on high alert and saw the situation differently. They shot an innocent man. These police officers need to avoid shooting people because guns are extremely dangerous; they need to learn how to assess multiple situations so that they know how to handle themselves depending in the situation they’re in.

Andres Jauregui’s article for the Huffington Post shows a video of a pregnant Black woman, Lucinda White. Lucinda calls the police about a fender bender. The police come and look at the situation and then the situation escalates very quickly and both Lucinda and Thomas who is the boyfriend get tased. Even when the police hear that she is pregnant they still continue. This situation could have been handled with ease but these officers did not handle the situation properly. Police officers need be more reasonable and less authoritative. This would help tremendously.

In Peterson Times, there is an article where Jayed Rahman shows us a quote of the victim's brother, ‘“She just ran up on him and shot him. She didn’t ask no questions or nothing,” said the brother. Wade also said the officer did not ask any questions, but fired a shot.’ Larry Bouie a Black man said to be ‘“acting erratically”’ was shot at the spot without even talking to the guy to see what was going on. That right there is not correct because no one should be shot just because they start acting in an odd way. Learning how to assess a situation should be taught to every police officer so that these instances are prevented.

Being treated in such ways is very unfair and uncivil. Ever since I heard about such police officers I started to see each officer differently. This issue matters to me and I would like to see these issues solved. I want to see utmost civility from police officers. Better training is something that would be beneficial in the mindset of a police officer.

This issue is not insignificant, it is very serious and it will not stop until police officers are trained to treat people like people and not mistreat them; they should face consequences so that they learn to end their unacceptable behavior. Being treated like a criminal when you’re not is not fair; especially if you're a minority in this country. We’re civilians and we don’t have equal authority as cops, it makes us civilians feel threatened and scared. This needs to end and in order for people to have a trusting relationship with police officers we need better training and a better relationship between cops and the community. I hope you look into this serious issue with compassion.

Thank you for your consideration

Rafael, Grade 12

Tukwila, Washington