We Can't Breathe- Day Five

Today when I pulled in to the parking lot at school there were seven police cars. Recent national news caused my brain to immediately jump to the worst possible conclusion. When I stepped in the front door there was a boy in the office screaming, not a great sign.

I walked to the second grade class that I spend my first hour of work with, and sitting in the front of the room reading a book about stranger danger was a police woman. Today, the local police force was at school to demonstrate to elementary school students that police officers are to be trusted, and strangers are not.

Listening to her read I felt conflicting emotions. Are second graders really the people we should be convincing the police are good? There are grown-ups all over the country who feel the complete opposite is true, and juries who refuse to do anything about it.

After the policeman who shot Michael Brown wasn't indicted, and the police officer who chocked Eric Garner to death was cleared of any wrong doing- I don't know. I've been staring at this sentence for five minutes and I don't know. It's hard to feel safe in the presence of people who would choke a man to death on camera after he said eleven times "I can't breathe!"

I want to put my hands up in protest. I want to hold a sign that says "we can't breathe."

There is no lesson here. There is no happy ending. We live in a messed up world. I don't know what the answers are. When I see a police car on the freeway or parked at school I don't want to automatically assume the worst. I want to know that the police are protecting people, and not that people need protecting from the police.

I'm not one to post my political feelings on the internet, when I found police officers at school this morning I didn't expect to have the reaction I did. I just feel frustration, and like I am too small to be able to make any kind of change myself. I really like the what Jon Stewart said about the issue earlier this week: