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I was fortunate enough to tune into this program on my way home from work tonight.  Many of my own concerns about the portland   police activities were being addressed.  I am the mother of a 17 year old white male  who has no faith in the portland police (or any police for that matter) and considers them all bullies.  I can't say that  I blame him because he has been mistreated by portland police and knows  of peers that have been physically injured as well as verbally abused. Whereas my husband and i have had conversations with  our son about what it must be like to  be a police officer and see what they see day in and day out  etc......  well, that argument loses validity when  he is picked up before curfew because he is "suspect"and is seperated from his friends and handcuffed and placed in the back of a police cruiser.  Meanwhile,  his cell phone is taken from him and  he is not allowed to call his parents  for over two hours.  He is lied to in that time , threatened and verbally abused.  There is no way to sugar coat that.  He was greatly upset by this whole experience.  How  does this kind of treatment teach respect?    Where is the trust building in this kind of treatment of our youth?  I would say that there is a gap here that needs to be bridged otherwise it will keep growing.   Police officers need to be well versed in effective, non-violent, and non- threatening ways of communicating with our youth.  I want to thank all of those police officers  who do their job from the heart and I do realize not all are bullies.

posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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