The Northampton Police Department was forced to shutter its popular “High Five Friday” program by School Superintendent John Provost this past week. The program, which started last December, took a poke at forging a positive relationship between children and the police officers in their community. Rather than creating an elaborate social media “dance challenge,” posting Pokemon Go! pictures on the police department Facebook page, or any of the other impersonal and occasionally patronizing attempts to “humanize the badge” through social media that I have grown to despise, Northampton PD decided to make a real outreach attempt by lining up outside of elementary schools once per week to give the kids high-fives as they entered their building.
If the program sounds completely harmless, you’re right. It is. But not everyone felt that way in the city of Northampton, which brings us to where we are today. After just three months, a number of complaints came in. Rather than doing the right thing — or simply having a backbone — the school board caved to the dissenting minority due to political correctness. We live in a society today where it is a risky political move to support the police.
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Yes, up is down and right is left in our school systems if you haven’t seen the million other examples of it over the past few years.
According to Northampton Police Chief Jody Kasper, the program was designed to “build relationships with young kids.” While many parents, some of whom attended the brief weekly events with their kids, seemed to enjoy the gesture, there were those who viewed the outreach by police officers as unwelcome.
I can imagine that the same parents that complained to the school board are the ones who teach their kids to fear the police by pointing at me and telling them that I will “lock them up” if they don’t behave. They’re probably the same parents who are still holding a grudge against all police for that one speeding ticket they received that one time. To folks like these, all cops are bad actors because one of us picked them up for their outstanding arrest warrant at some point.
Most importantly, these virtue-signaling parents complaining about the program being problematic for “black and Hispanic students, or those elementary school aged children who have had negative experiences with police,” are the same types of people who line up and protest everything from our country’s president to a glass of spilled milk. In 2017, these are the types of people we ought not to be listening to and augmenting public policy for.
Police departments from all over the country have a long history of community outreach programs. Police Athletic Leagues take kids off the streets to develop their social skills and athletic ability in all different types of sports. The number of professional boxers who got their start through pad work with a cop or firefighter is staggering.
A program designed to be nothing but positive for them has been scrapped and some police chiefs may see this as a reason to not create similar outreach programs in the future.
Having taken part in the Atlanta Police Department Police Athletic League’s work for several years, I have seen firsthand the sacrifice officers make to benefit kids who need the company of a supportive adult the most. It’s not only the boxing training that benefits these kids, it’s the life coaching that makes a real lasting impact. I’ve been part of conversations with teenagers who have a rap sheet longer than an NBA center’s wing span and a kid or two by the age of 17. I’ve seen officers treat these teenagers with the respect and dignity that most won’t.
In the gym, every kid matters regardless of what they have done so long as they are trying to better themselves. First, second, and third chances are given when these kids demonstrate that they are worthy of them.
“Officer Joe” was my first real exposure to a cop outside of my dad and his friends when he came to my school and taught Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) several times per month during my fourth grade year. From what I can remember, he seemed like a genuinely good guy. I remember he had a box kids could drop questions in that they were afraid or embarrassed to ask in front of the class. When this ill-advised attempt to teach us something we might not have otherwise learned turned into an endless string of vulgar, obscene, and utterly ridiculous questions having nothing to do with the class, Officer Joe maintained his friendly disposition and kept a positive outlook on the work he was doing.
I can’t even imagine how many times the poor guy probably read, “Go f*** yourself” or, “How many times per day do you smoke weed?“ written in the chicken scratch of a fourth grade boy that year. Despite this, he represented himself and the badge well. I personally thought about Officer Joe when I accepted a position as a School Resource Officer (SRO) with Atlanta Public Schools during my last year with the department.
My experience working in that high school as an SRO was a strange mixture of some of my worst and some of my finest moments as a cop. My partner and I took a few kids under our wings and did pushups every day at lunch while talking about their plans after graduation and how to deal with some problems they were having at home. I helped coach the wrestling team in its first official year. We didn’t win a team match and most kids quit — but the ones who stayed learned that they weren’t made of glass and will be better men for it. And I felt proud and honored when one of the girls volleyball players asked me to walk her onto the court during senior night because her father didn’t show up.
I like to think I had a pretty good working relationship with most teachers and administrators, but the principal and her cronies liked to try and use my partner and I as attack dogs to sick on unruly kids. I couldn’t count the number of times I had to explain I was there to enforce laws and be an added resource for kids rather than to enforce school rules. I was forced to make more arrests for serious crimes committed in the halls of that school than I ever dreamed I’d have to. It was a constant balancing act between being helpful and supportive and being a regulator in a school that sees almost as many drop outs as they do graduates.
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A year after I left, Atlanta Public Schools ended its relationship with the Atlanta Police Department and created their own internal police force.
Getting back to the issue in Massachusetts, I feel as if only bad things can come of it. The lives of the police who took the time out of their day to high-five youngsters will go on without this program. Superintendent Provost dealt with the headache caused by complaints from the “can’t be pleased” crowd by capitulating to them and endorsing the message that police are inherently dangerous or threatening to children — but his life and career will go on without being affected for better or worse. The ones who will really miss out are the children. A program designed to be nothing but positive for them has been scrapped — and some police chiefs may see this as a reason to not create similar outreach programs in the future.
Nevertheless, as political correctness-crazed children in adult costumes get in the way of police reaching out to citizens and their children with a message of positivity, Northampton PD wants people to know that they still accept high-fives, low fives, and fist bumps — and if you see any of them out there on the streets, to feel free to ask for one.
T.B. Lefever is a police officer in the Atlanta area and an OpsLens contributor. Throughout his career, he has served as a SWAT hostage negotiator, a member of the Crime Suppression Unit, a school resource officer, and a uniformed patrol officer. He has a BA in criminal justice and sociology from Rutgers University in New Jersey. This article from OpsLens is used by permission.
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