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    Thank Goodness for Cops Stopping Kids! (Tempe, AZ Version)

    Just what we needed — for real. This comes to us from a reader named Steve, and ABC15 in Tempe, AZ.  

    A young guy is out and about. Alone. After curfew. Trespassing!
     
    Cops get out of their squad car to approach warily, but what comes next?
     
    Option 1: Kid appears to be armed and/or uncooperative, inviting tragic consequences? Nope.
     
    Option 2: He’s fingerprinted and booked into a juvenile facility on delinquency charges? Again, no.
     
    Option 3: CPS is notified of a neglected child, followed by him being held incommunicado in the back seat of a squad car for an hour or three? C’mon, that would be silly and outrageous.
     
    How about none of the above? The boy is respectful and responsive​, never mind the compromising circumstances in which he was found. Officers show him respect in return, hearing him out, giving him a ride home to discuss the dangers of trespassing. The conversation reveals that he might not be growing up in a mid-to-upper-middle-class family with parents who are studying child development theory in their spare time, and yet his family is genuinely concerned and doing their best for him with what they’ve got.
     
    Intervention was still worth pursuing, in the minds of the cops. So, they brought the hammer down… by pooling their money, getting the kid a skateboard, boosting him and encouraging his family to be well and watch out for each other.
     
    Thank goodness for great men and women in their painted cars with flashing lights!
    Damn, I love this. And I love remembering that there are all kinds of parents, kids and cops. – L.
    .
    What happened when cops stopped a young man who was trespassing just may make your cry...in a good way.
    Cops stop a young man who’s trespassing. What they did next  just might make your day.  
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    14 Comments

    1. Kimberly on

      While doing my college internship for my Justice Studies degree, I worked with a probation officer (several actually) that constantly used his own money to ensure that the children of his probationers had shoes that fit, food on the table, and warm jackets. Fortunately stuff like this happens a lot more than all the “bad cop” crap we hear about. Unfortunately, warm and fuzzy doesn’t bring viewers to the nightly news.

    2. Bob Davis on

      Here in my area, the Alhambra PD was investigating the report of a homeless man wandering around with no pants on (presumably he was in his skivvies). Did they run him in? No, some of the officers pooled their money and bought the man a new pair of trousers. I recall hearing that the scholar Maimonides said that the giving of alms is a blessing, but it is even more blessed when they are given before one is asked.

    3. Michelle on

      Unfortunately, it doesn’t feel like the system is set up to reward / encourage good cops like this while rooting out the bad ones.

    4. Amy on

      Love love love this

      What infuriates me the most about the Maryland couple (the other parents judging them rather). Is what happened to the day where we as mothers didn’t criticize each other’s parenting. Instead we supported it. We actually watched out for each other’s
      Children rather then waiting for them to screw up so we could feel complete and superior in our own parenting.

      What happened I the day that you could
      Help wipe the knee of a crying child at the park? Now parents just watch in haste thinking ‘well maybe if there parents were here to help them!’

      People say ‘I can’t believe what the world has become’. Well wake up folks! We put it there

    6. Kay on

      My 14 year old daughter and some friends were in the wash behind our house (where they shouldn’t be due to multiple wasp nests, but that’s beside the point). A neighborhood kid thought it would be funny to tell a smaller boy to flag down a police officer who happened to be down the street, and tell him that the kids in the wash were doing drugs. Instead of interrogating the group of teenage girls, he stopped at the end of the wash, observed them for a minute, and told them he could see they weren’t doing anything wrong. I didn’t even hear about the incident until the next day.

    8. Reziac on

      Maybe if we had more stories about good cops, it would encourage more cops to behave that way, and help those on the fence buck the parts of the system that encourage or allow bad behaviour.

    10. Emily Morris on

      Getting the kid out of where he ought not to be at helping to fix the root of the problem. Good job!

    11. dave cottrill on

      Why do these cops, the everyday heros not get in the news, or put in the lublic eye? These guys get a bad rap for offenses and crimes comitted by other cops. Good cops are out there and we need more of them. Lets crack down on the criminals wearing badges, but dont forget to thank the good cops and give them the credit they deserve.

    12. sexhysteria on

      When I was 12 I was stopped and interrogated by detectives investigating a claimed rape by a 14-year-old friend, and although I felt their investigation of our sex play was unnecessary and frightening, they correctly determined the complaint to be unfounded and no charges were ever filed. If that happened today I wonder how many law enforcement officers would have the courage and good sense to just leave kids alone and let parents do their own job.