Kid's friends want to be police officers -- how to handle

[Anonymous]

I just wanted to add that, there are many situations, especially in the case of people who are armed and have power over others, where there are horrible abuses. Think back to Abu Gharib and the torture that went on there. However, I don't think many people would say it was wrong for a 4 year old to say that they wanted to be a soldier in the aftermath. I agree that we are over-policed and over-militarized, and that there's a lot of abuse in both. But that doesn't mean we don't need some military and some law enforcement. It is ok for kids to want to go into those fields, we need good, reasonable, ethical people to go into both fields.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My preschool kid wants to be a giraffe when she grows up. I am also very deeply concerned. How is someone with a long purple tongue ever going to gain admittance to an ivy?

She will be picked up by the NBA, given a billion dollar bonus and half a billion a year with a 20 year contract. The NBA does not care if her tongue is green. I envy you. My kid wanted to be a rock!

[Anonymous]

Your mentality, just like the stupid New York Times article about chase the paw patrol police dog, Is what makes a mockery of BLM. You don’t want bad police officers out there, what you want is good cops who want to serve and protect the community and if those preschoolers want to be the good kind of cops when they grow up then more power to them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A child wanting to be a police officer who helps and protects people is good, OP. Not offensive or controversial or bad.

+1

[Anonymous]

You don’t want bad police officers out there, what you want is good cops who want to serve and protect the community and if those preschoolers want to be the good kind of cops when they grow up then more power to them.

I don't know if it is that simple. I agree we need some police officers, and that it is ok for preschoolers to say that they want to be police. But I don't think it is as straightforward as good vs. bad people. When you have a situation where a group of people is routinely viewed as other or less or dangerous, there is an incentive for even officers who are not inherently "bad" to dehumanize those people and act in violent and bad ways. I think we need more training, more accountability, and possibly rotations through more community-focused (vs. crime focused) assignments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

“I heard Larla say that she wanted to be a police officer during the end of year video. A lot of people think police help people, but a lot of the time they hurt people more than they help. If I were Larla’s mommy I’d ask her to pick a different job that helps everyone.”

And what job would you suggest that be? I'm sure you've read the numerous articles about many teachers disproportionately punishing black students, correct? Or many doctors taking the pain of black patients less seriously? Are those jobs "helping everyone?"

Totally not the same thing. Teachers don’t exist for the explicit purpose of upholding unjust laws and protecting a racist power structure. But if you’re asking seriously...teacher, doctor, professor, baker, farmer, chef, writer, author, musician...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

You don’t want bad police officers out there, what you want is good cops who want to serve and protect the community and if those preschoolers want to be the good kind of cops when they grow up then more power to them.

I don't know if it is that simple. I agree we need some police officers, and that it is ok for preschoolers to say that they want to be police. But I don't think it is as straightforward as good vs. bad people. When you have a situation where a group of people is routinely viewed as other or less or dangerous, there is an incentive for even officers who are not inherently "bad" to dehumanize those people and act in violent and bad ways. I think we need more training, more accountability, and possibly rotations through more community-focused (vs. crime focused) assignments.

These are preschoolers...

[Anonymous]

I can't believe all you idiots fell for this ridiculous troll post

[Anonymous]

“I heard Larla say that she wanted to be a police officer during the end of year video. A lot of people think police help people, but a lot of the time they hurt people more than they help. If I were Larla’s mommy I’d ask her to pick a different job that helps everyone.”


And what job would you suggest that be? I'm sure you've read the numerous articles about many teachers disproportionately punishing black students, correct? Or many doctors taking the pain of black patients less seriously? Are those jobs "helping everyone?"


Totally not the same thing. Teachers don’t exist for the explicit purpose of upholding unjust laws and protecting a racist power structure. But if you’re asking seriously...teacher, doctor, professor, baker, farmer, chef, writer, author, musician...

Then we need to change the laws and the way that they are enforced. Some of the laws that police enforce are valid. I'm sure you don't want the US to be like some countries that rely on private police forces that only protect the property and lives of the affluent, correct? And frankly as an aside, I have found my son's teachers to be the worst in terms of racism. He is half black and half Asian, and much of what we have had to deal with has been appalling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't believe all you idiots fell for this ridiculous troll post

I can't help but think the same thing. A+ troll work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

“I heard Larla say that she wanted to be a police officer during the end of year video. A lot of people think police help people, but a lot of the time they hurt people more than they help. If I were Larla’s mommy I’d ask her to pick a different job that helps everyone.”


And what job would you suggest that be? I'm sure you've read the numerous articles about many teachers disproportionately punishing black students, correct? Or many doctors taking the pain of black patients less seriously? Are those jobs "helping everyone?"


Totally not the same thing. Teachers don’t exist for the explicit purpose of upholding unjust laws and protecting a racist power structure. But if you’re asking seriously...teacher, doctor, professor, baker, farmer, chef, writer, author, musician...

Then we need to change the laws and the way that they are enforced. Some of the laws that police enforce are valid. I'm sure you don't want the US to be like some countries that rely on private police forces that only protect the property and lives of the affluent, correct? And frankly as an aside, I have found my son's teachers to be the worst in terms of racism. He is half black and half Asian, and much of what we have had to deal with has been appalling.

I mean, we’re going to change the laws, but we’re also going to abolish the roving bands of armed lunatics who call themselves cops.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our preschool just sent around a year end video. Part of it was asking each kid what they wanted to be when they grew up. This was done at home, so the parents recorded the video. I'm not sure whether it was done pre George Floyd's death or not.

Two of the kids stated that they wanted to be police officers and talked about how they help/protect people. I'm not sure how to react.

First, should I say anything to my kid to offer a more balanced perspective, or should I just let it go? Should this change the degree to which I let me kid play with those kids, or should it change my interactions with the parents?

Especially if this was done post-Floyd murder (although let's not pretend the same thing has happened repeatedly in recent and less recent history), it seems at best tone deaf to submit those videos of the kids idolizing the police. It is very easy to redirect a five year old and I am sure the parents could have encouraged their kids to say something less controversial. I don't know whether this was intended as an overt political statement, but it is surprising they wouldn't realize how at least some people would view their kids' statements and I wonder more broadly what they are teaching their kids.

I think these other parents should be concerned about letting their kids play with yours, or interacting with you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

“I heard Larla say that she wanted to be a police officer during the end of year video. A lot of people think police help people, but a lot of the time they hurt people more than they help. If I were Larla’s mommy I’d ask her to pick a different job that helps everyone.”

And what job would you suggest that be? I'm sure you've read the numerous articles about many teachers disproportionately punishing black students, correct? Or many doctors taking the pain of black patients less seriously? Are those jobs "helping everyone?"

Totally not the same thing. Teachers don’t exist for the explicit purpose of upholding unjust laws and protecting a racist power structure. But if you’re asking seriously...teacher, doctor, professor, baker, farmer, chef, writer, author, musician...

Umm, I work in education, and some of them explicitly exist for this purpose sadly. Very tied to an elitist structure in the independent school domain. Also, many cops are implicitly enforcing this structure, and are susceptible to kill people. Thus, not all of these deaths and abuse of power is because of explicit racism arguably. A cop with implicit racism (which I think is probably the majority) will hopefully not kill someone in the tortuous way that George Floyd died, but may probably react like the cop who killed Michael Brown because their immediate reaction to Black bodies is feeling threatened. By the way OP, you do realize that this has been going on forever? And this may be your moment of realizing this, but when people have mentioned police years ago, it still landed on Black people the same?

[Anonymous]

I would suggest getting some therapy, OP. Once travel starts being a possibility again, you should take some trips to countries in South America where the functioning police are essentially mercenaries hired to protect specific businesses. Don’t forget to come back to tell us all about it to prevent the next unstable person from having these ideas. And in the meantime, for gods sake stop watching so much CNN.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't believe all you idiots fell for this ridiculous troll post

I can't help but think the same thing. A+ troll work.

The sad thing is, the left is moving so far off the field that you can’t even tell anymore.