I remember when I was in kindergarten my mom and other parent’s that were police officers would come to my class for a show and tell. They would come dressed in their uniforms, drive up in their patrol car, and usually bring a canine for everyone to pet and play with. My mom and her partner would explain what their job was and hand out police badge stickers to us while we climbed into the patrol cars to see how uncomfortable it was to sit in the back seat. The officers would tell us how their job was to protect us and keep everyone in our city safe. I remember looking up to my mom with admiration and pride as she stood up their in front of all my classmates.

I still look at my mom in the same way as I did when she used to come in to show and tell. Growing up with a police woman as a mom was the absolute best. My friends have always told me how cool it was that she was an officer and how intimidating it was first meeting her, but how relieved they were when they realized how funny and caring she really is. I had grown up only ever hearing positives about my mom and other police officers. I knew there were people in the world who didn't like her because of the job she had, but the amount of people who expressed positivity about her job overpowered any negativity. Having a mom as an officer has always been something I was proud of and even today I am still proud of her and her career.

What has changed from those happy memories in kindergarten to today is the amount of negativity surrounding police officers now. It angers me to know that there are officers out there who may not be doing their job the right way, and it also fills me with sadness whenever I see a story about another officer being put into a negative light because it affects the representation of all officers even though it shouldn’t. There are so many police officers out in this world who are doing their job right, yet get the hate from people just because they are all grouped into one.

And that is the problem right there. It’s like any group of people—one person does something they aren't supposed to do and all of a sudden that whole group of people are given the title of “bad”. I understand that there are bad people in this world and because I understand that I understand that that means there are going to be police officers who aren’t going to act in the right way all the time. That is something I wish all people could understand and remember all the time, but especially in times when an incident happens that fills people with anger. Just because some officers don’t do the right thing, does not mean all officers are the same. Think of it from my view: my mom is a police officer. She is strong and proud of what she does. She would never harm anyone unless she felt her life was being put into danger. My mom is a good person and she is a police officer. My mom is a police officer and she knows the difference between right and wrong. My mom is a police officer and she does not deserve to be seen in a bad light because of the actions of others just like any person should not be seen negatively because of the actions of another human being.

This country has recently experienced a lot of violence within the black community and the police community. This world is always going to have bad things going on, and it is unfortunate that that is the case. It is a tough time when anyone is harmed, but especially when someone is harmed unnecessarily. It saddens me to know that so many lives have been lost within the past couple weeks. In times when so much is going wrong it is often hardest to stay positive and have a clear head, but it is also the most important time to remember to see the whole picture and to try and remember how terrible events such as the recent ones affect everyone and not always in the same way.