“Tonight, I was stopped by a police officer.
No, he didn’t pull his gun.
No, he didn’t mace/tase me.
No, he didn’t yank me out of my car.
No, he didn’t pull me over.
Tonight I was fixing one of my banners on Hinkleville Rd. This officer pulled up and asked me, ‘Is everything okay?’ When he saw who I was, a candidate for mayor of Paducah, he asked me if we could talk.
This officer and I stood outside and talked for almost an hour about my campaign, protest, and current issues our nation is facing.
I have great respect for this officer who took the time to ask me, a minority, my thoughts about the issues we are facing and my thoughts on how we can fix them.
I commend this officer (who is a training officer for PPD) and the Paducah Police Department of Kentucky for producing some of the best officers I have ever personally met.
As a leader in our community, moments like this need to be shared. Because as he and I both agreed, if we want our country to find peace, we need our leaders to speak up and tell the police to RESPECT the people, and the people to RESPECT the police.
And we need our leaders to condemn the unjust killings we are seeing.
It takes our leaders to guide us to unity.
Tonight marked a step forward in ensuring Paducah continues to keep their officers professional and inclusive in the community.
Police officers are humans, and tonight proved to me something I already knew: not all officers are bad.
Other cities need to visit PPD and get schooled on how to treat citizens and conduct themselves in stressful situations. As he told me, PPD is strict on who they hire, and some people are NOT cut out to be cops.
Pray for our nation, pray for the mourning families that have lost loved ones, and pray for officers like this one, who follow their oath to PROTECT AND SERVE.”
This story was submitted to Love What Matters by Dujuan Thomas in Paducah, KY. Submit your own story here and be sure to subscribe to our free email newsletter for our best stories, and YouTube for our best videos.
Read more stories like this:
Do you know someone who could benefit from reading this? SHARE this story on Facebook with family and friends.