31 Days: Day 4 - When the Cops Come

It's no secret that many of the kids and even adults in our community have a negative opinion of cops.
There are many slang names thrown around and I have even had tiny children tell me that cops are bad. (Guess where they are getting that from?)

Savannah has been plagued with crime lately. We are an incredibly beautiful city with a toxic disease that is rampantly moving through our streets. There have been so many shootings and lives lost this year and many of them are teenagers and young adults. Officer involved shooting stories have seemed to hold a top spot in the news this past year. I'm not excusing behavior when it is wrong, but I also believe that not all cops are bad cops. I also don't think that it is helpful for little children to be taught to fear them.  I believe that Savannah is around 150 cops short for our city. That is a lot. There are Facebook groups and opinions flying everywhere about what to do with the "problem kids" causing all the problems.

Might I suggest a step in the right direction?

We were inside tonight helping students with projects when we heard a ton of cheering coming from outside. We opened the door to see some local officers shooting hoops with some of our kids. It was not the game alone that made my heart happy...it was all of the high fives happening with all of the neighborhood boys afterwards.....some who have told me that all cops are bad.

Check out the video here.

I'm not posting this to glorify the police or say that it makes any pain or wrong doing done by law enforcement acceptable, but what if we stopped using  the words ALL or NONE with these men in uniform? What if some of our at-risk kids learned to engage with them on a basketball court rather than in the street?

I personally know one of these guys and he is good people. This is not the first time he has done this and he does not do it for ANY recognition, but because he cares about each of these kids in our community.

In a time when there is so much crime and negative news, I thought I'd share a little positive.

This is part of a #write31days Blog series entitled "31 days in the Life of an Urban Missionary." 
To start from the beginning of this blog series click here.
To learn more about the ministry of The Dream Campaign visit our website.