Lately, it seems all the news outlets and individuals on social media care to talk about these days is the actions of the police forces in black neighborhoods. African American police officer, Anwar Sanders, spoke out on this and how it has affected him as a member of both the black community and the police force.
Sanders took the opportunity to write an open letter about how he feels that, as a black man, he can point out that he thinks that the movement and rallies are too quick to criminalize all officers and assume that they have bad motives. He touched on how he felt uncomfortable even writing the letter because, he can not pick a side between his career which he loves and his community which he thrives in. The two sides are at such extreme odds right now, that he mentions his fear that he may be ousted from one... or both for speaking his opinion.
He even shared some ideas of how to strengthen relations between the black community and the police forces in their areas. Sanders encourages people to get to know their officers and form relationships with them in an attempt to break down invisible barriers.
I think this is a very courageous attempt by Anwar Sanders to unite two very important parts of his life after they've become nearly opposites in recent months. However, I do not think his plan is completely effective, although i do not have the answers, I think that at this point, the conflict is so deep rooted that some individuals attempting to brush shoulders with the police will not be good enough to fix what has happened, but at this point anything is worth a shot.
A link to the story about Anwar Sanders' open letter:
http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/11/opinion/sanders-police-officer-ferguson-garner-protests/index.html?hpt=ju_t3
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