Letter to Next President

Dear Next President, I think you should hold more social events to build stronger relationships between communities and police, so that more people will be educated on the actual job of police. I feel that the police and the community are becoming more distant from each other. Lots of people are beginning to doubt the police because of a bunch of controversial shootings. As a result, lots of younger people think that every single time you talk to a cop it will be bad. According to a 2015 NewsWorks article “Police officers and the people they protect must make closer bonds” states that “The youth of this great city, must understand that there is nothing wrong with talking to officers. There is nothing wrong with asking an officer for help; not all interactions with them will be negative.” This explains that more younger people are beginning to trust the police less, every time something bad happens with the police. . Next I think that more people should be trying to mend situations and bring the community and cops together instead of taking sides. Most people nowadays are seeing all of these cases of police brutality and are getting anxious and taking sides instead of looking at the big picture. But when people turn from peaceful to harmful and start hurting or killing police/police hurting or killing people then most of society takes sides. Peaceful protests are not peaceful when they are hurting people, and if people are hurting police, then obviously police are going to put them in jail with force. By taking sides and not seeing it from anyone else's P.O.V. then nothing is going to get fixed. It is true that not all cops are good, and it's not right that the bad cops ruin and tarnish the image for the rest of the good cops out there who are sacrificing their lives for other people. According to this 2016 The Federalist article by Rachel Lu “You Don’t Have To Be Black Lives Matter To Support Police Accountability” states that “Most importantly, we should always be looking for ways to make things better. Don’t we want to halt the evident deterioration of relationships between citizens and the police in many of America’s higher-crime neighborhoods. It’s bad for all concerned when residents and cops feel like mutual enemies. Our interest in addressing that problem should outweigh our anxiousness.” This is proving my statement that cops and citizens should not be head to head or else justice won't be served and it will be very dangerous for both citizens and cops. More people should be trying to change things like the communities reactions to police brutality, protest methods, social groups to unite community and police, police training, and police protocol. If everyone were to do beneficial things rather than throwing bottles, rioting, and assaulting, then more could be changed faster. Lastly, I feel that more people should be educated about the job of the police. Police aren’t just garbage bins for criminals, they are to protect and serve the community in a lot of other social ways. Nowadays, these social duties are being lost from minds and flooded with media content of so many crooked cops. According to a 2016 The Federalist article “Some policy makers and citizens believe that law enforcement is mainly "crime fighting.” That's only partially true. Crime prevention is not an officer's only responsibility. Officers also take the pledge of social service, but that tends to get lost among their many duties”. Police officers are the same as citizens except they took an oath to protect and serve wich makes it their sworn duty to help anyone in need with more than just a common robbery, so that means police can help with a variety of different tasks. Now that you have read my suggestions Mr./Ms. Next president, I hope that you will make more social organizations that will bond police and citizens back together. And you should help inform more people about the true job of a cop and make a safer America for everyone. Sincerely, Dante Grade 10 Mendota Heights, Minnesota