With all the scrutiny the police are facing after the death of George Floyd, a heartwarming encounter between a cop and a young girl is sending some positivity into the whole situation.
10-year-old Nevaea Brown from West Seneca supports the Black Lives Matter Movement, but after seeing the violence, she was filled with fear of the police. But that all changed when she met an emotional officer in Niagara Falls State Park.
“Nobody could survive in a chokehold for like longer than ten minutes,” said Nevaea, “I just wanted to be there for Floyd because it’s just not fair.” Her mother added, “She said she wanted to peacefully protest,” said Nevaea’s mom D’Andra Brown.
D’Andra is from Jamaica and they have family in law enforcement back home, and so she didn’t want her daughter to be afraid of those who are supposed to help. She was happy to see her daughter’s opinion change on Thursday when New York State Park Police Officer Janine Kloetzer drove by.
“As I approached she kind of froze up, looked very terrified, and put her hands up,” said Officer Kloetzer.
Officer Kloetzer said she couldn’t just go on her way and had to say something, not as an officer, but as a mom.
“It just broke my heart to see how terrified she looked just to see the police car,” Officer Kloetzer said, “I would be horrified if my children had to go through that same type of situation of being terrified just walking around in a park.”
Officer Kloetzer and Nevaea’s emotional encounter in Niagara Falls State Park was captured on camera and D’Andra shared the moment on Facebook and the video has since been shared over 23,000 times. “She went out of her way while on duty to approach us and just explain you don’t have to feel that way about all of us,” D’Andra said.
This is what just happened while we were walking through the parked. This patrol car stopped and my daughter immediately put her hands up 😭 she got terrified thinking we did something wrong when a female police officer approached us with tears in our eyes. She said that her child is the same age and she didn’t want her to feel threatened by all cops. 🖤❤️🤎🤍💜🧡💛💛💙 #BlackLivesMatter#RIPGeorgeFloyd#PeaceLoveEqualRightsandJustice
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Posted by Goal Digger on Thursday, June 4, 2020
Nevaea said she has changed her opinion about the police officers and all are not bad. “I just thought it was good that not all police officers are bad,” said Nevaea. “I did not expect it at all. I’m glad in a way it did because at least we get to see some positivity. and that’s what we want,” D’Andra said.
“That one on one human interaction is where it all kind of has to start,” Officer Kloetzer said.
“Not all officers are bad,” Nevaea said.
