Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Good Morning!
Saturday was part of a larger immigration integration effort
with our community-based organization partners: Center for Intercultural Organizing (CIO)
and the Community Alliance for Tenants, also including the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability. And what those organizations did is partner up with our mutual
assistance associations in a couple of communities of refugees from Burma, Spanish-speaking families,
and Nepalese from Bhutan.
And the effort was to get in our East Police Precinct and get folks feeling like that precinct belongs to them, those officers work for them, and want
to help them make their neighborhoods safe and livable.
It's an opportunity for them to meet the police officers which serve the community. They get
to see us and break down some of the barriers, get past the uniform, look at the police officers
and see they're just like the community. You know, we're moms and dads, we're parents.
We raise children here, our kids go to school here. We simply are people like they are but
we wear a uniform and have chosen this profession. We've done a good job when folks are going
home happy and chattering about the police officers they've met; about the business cards
in their hand with the phone numbers; with the ride-alongs they've got scheduled with
street cops in the weeks to follow. We have to know the people to help solve problems.
They need to have trust in their police force, and if we can develop that relationship, trust
develops, and barriers break down, and we get a neighborhood that's more vibrant, more
livable. And it's a win for everybody.