Contrary to all y’all haters’ predictions, the Portland Police Bureau’s “A Kid’s Guide to What We Do” does not include a single picture of a pig.
- Officer Thoman and his #1 fan
It does include a picture of a Taser, though! And some thoughts on horse poop. Officer Dave Thoman and his daughter, Woodmere Elementary teacher Molly Walker, wrote the 30-page paperback book (well, it’s more like a giant pamphlet than a book, really. Maybe a “zine.”) and were on hand at the special book launch at Woodmere this afternoon, along with Chief Rosie Sizer and Portland Public Schools (PPS) Superintendent Carole Smith. The book will be used in the PPS curriculum, said Smith.
“What this does for us is help kids understand the role police have in our society. It humanizes us and I hope help breaks down some of the fear of police within our community,” Chief Sizer told the crowd of small children, parents and reporters in the Woodmere gymnasium.
I have an EXTRA COPY of the PPB: AKGtWWD and it will go to whoever submits the best original page for their kid’s own guide to the Portland PD.
Scroll through the book’s 30 pages below the cut.
If you can’t read the pages at this small of a size, click through to read them on Flickr. But let me just direct your eyes to my favorite section:
PDX, OR: Where even the police are zine-making hipsters.
You praise government agents that try to bring positive emotions about they work they do. You mock this one for doing the same.
I think most cops are good cops. And, that book seems totally appropriate for a grade school. I don’t really think it’s news worthy, but I can’t see why anyone would mock it. Right now this City has a big rift between the community and the police. This book is a very, very small step in the right direction towards repairing that rift. And it’s been weeks since I’ve heard about any officer shooting someone who’s mentally ill, or an unarmed minority, so things are looking up already.
That the officers scoop their horse’s shit is horseshit. Literally piles always pile up in the bike lanes.
“Right now this City has a big rift between the community and the police. This book is a very, very small step in the right direction towards repairing that rift.”
Anonymous503 has a good point there.
You know what would be a better way to repair that rift, ACCOUNTABILITY.
This is shameless. It is not the job of the schools to indoctrinate children to respect the police. It is the job of the police to earn that respect. Maybe they should have a nice picture of them all in their “We’re all Christopher Humphries” shirts and explain to kids that it isn’t child abuse if a policeman does it.
I do like the suggestion to run away when you see a gun. I wholeheartedly endorse children running away from police officers. I can think of few better ways to keep them safe.
if the horse poops in a park, the officer leaves it. then you dog rolls in it. that’s been my experience anyway.