Initially it sounds like a terrible incident begging the question how could the cops be so aggressive and wrong to mistake a ten-year-old as the robbery suspect? When you look a little deeper into the issue you uncover that the kid is large for his age and after the police lost sight of the suspect they encountered the ten year old who was running away from them.  According to the boy and his family, he was playing basketball when his ball went into the street and when he saw the officers running he assumed it was for him for playing in the street and he ran.

My take is two fold regarding the incident in Newark.

First, this is a great indicator of how the aggressive policing is working in Newark under the leadership of Mayor Ras Baraka and his director of public safety Anthony Ambrose.  They call is “Quality of LIfe” policing and it’s helping get the crime problem under control.  Yes, they did catch the original suspect.

The second thing is how negative the culture has turned on police officers.  When you’ve got families telling kids to be scared of police because of a few tragic incidents (all of which have a reasonable explanation) the vicious cycle of increased racial tension and rising crime continues.  According to the FBI, 80% of crimes are gang related.

  That means the cities are exactly where you need aggressive policing like Quality of Life, Broken Windows, Stop & Frisk.

Young boys in the impacted neighborhoods need to build a trust and respect with the officers charged with making those neighborhoods safe.  Shame on black leaders who are cultivating an irrational fear of police among black youths.  The entire movement started on the lie from Ferguson “Hands Up Don’t Shoot” and has been perpetuated by isolating certain statistics to paint a picture of cops preying on unarmed blacks.  Young black kids and me need to help the police track down the criminals.

They need to be running toward the police...not away.

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