Dear Future President,

I am concerned about the police officers in America today. These men and women give all they have and dedicate their lives to help keep America safe. Despite this, there has been an increase in police violence and many feel the police are no longer fair especially to people of color. I believe that we need to come together as a community to support our police officers because in many cases the police are acting in a way to protect themselves and other citizens.

In many cities, gun violence has gone up so police officers are working in a more dangerous environment. Many U.S. citizens have more access to guns. For every one hundred people there are, you will find 101.5 firearms in America. This is concerning and feels like an extreme amount of guns. In 2014, nearly 33,600 people were killed in the USA due to guns. There is an overpopulation of guns in American, and as a result, our police are having to deal with people who have more guns and are  using them against police. In 2015, almost 1,000 people fired a gun at a police officer. Police officers are dealing with more violent people that have guns today.

In the past few years, there have been a number of cases where police officers did not act right and killed people that should not have been killed. I believe we should move forward from these mistakes because most police officers are doing the right things and care about the neighborhoods and communities they support. We should learn from these mistakes and teach others so they do not repeat them. We cannot blame the people who are police today for the mistakes that happened before. Many police officers care a lot and take their jobs very seriously, and I believe we need to recognize this and not be angry at all police officers.

Finally, the media also plays a role in this issue. People have access all over the world to news and can find out what is going on immediately. They can check their phone, computer, and TV. They also make news stories seem bigger than what they really are so people follow their stories. This sometimes gives people a fake impression of what is really going on. Many news reporters don’t like to report on good things that are going on. They report on only the bad news because it gives them more attention and many people think they are over average.

Terrence Cunningham, The International Association of Chiefs of Police leader, said in a recent speech, “It is my hope that by working together, we can break this historic cycle of mistrust and build a better and safer future for us all.” It is my belief that we need to come to together as a community to support our police officers because they keep our communities stay safe, they put their own lives on the line every day, and blaming them is not the answer. So please help the officers and try to keep them safe .

Sincerely,

Alex B.