A little clue, about a painful reality, and an update

It happens close to home, not just on tv

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East New York is a cop show on CBS, now 18 episodes in. It’s a station house story, set in the fictonal 74th Precinct in, not surprisingly, East New York. It has received some criticism from church groups and community advocates, who see the series as a source of negative messaging about their neighbourhood.

As in many jurisdictions in North America, people in the real East New York are looking at alternatives to traditional policing to address social issues.

This provides context for a moment in this week’s episode. Detective Crystal Morales, played by Elizabeth Rodrigues, is seen in her “Class A” or formal dress uniform, outside her son’s school. She is all set to speak to his class mates for Career Day, until his teacher informs her that “some of the other parents” have objected.

Morales’ son is a scholarship student at an elite private school, where the parents of privileged children are concerned that her presence in the classroom could be “triggering” to their children.

In a later scene, Morales tells one of her colleagues that her son is actually very proud of his mother’s role as a police detective, and has not yet learned to be ashamed of her.

De-funding the police, to re-direct resources to other ways to address social issues is one thing.

The idea that children of serving officers learn to be ashamed of what their parents do to serve and protect the community is something else, altogether.

I think about the officers I know, who serve the communities where I live and work. I hope they and their families do not face this.

Update: When I wrote this post I expressed the hope the situation depicted in the fictional East New York would not happen closer to home.

Turns out, it does. I am including here a link to a Toronto Sun article, about something a father in Brantford faced. He’s a serving OPP member.

“Last week, the (Grand Erie District School Board, which serves Brantford, Ontario) was asked to explain why they had told a student whose parent was an OPP officer that the parent couldn’t attend career day.”

https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/ontario-school-board-bans-cops-until-shamed-by-public-outrage