Police near Kansas City are busy pulling people over on the road, and treating them in such a way that most actually start crying. These are not ordinary traffic stops; the officers are specifically targeting people who look like they’re poor and struggling. So if you’ve been around Kansas City, and you’ve got a beat up car, or you otherwise “look poor” and like you’re struggling, you could have been one of their targets.
What’s going on here? Why are they acting this way, especially during the holidays? Aren’t people’s lives stressful enough around this time of year? CBS News posted the answers to those questions on their Facebook page. It turns out that Kansas City has a Secret Santa who gives out a hundred thousand dollars in $100 bills to random strangers each year. This year, he gave the $100 bills to deputies of the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department. They then turned around, went out, and started pulling people over to give them the no-strings-attached gifts.
For some people, this saved their Christmas. Some of these recipients had no money with which to give their children any kind of a Christmas. These officers helped to change that.
The Secret Santa, whose identity is a mystery, made it a gift not just to the public, but also to the officers. He wanted them to get joy out of it while they gave people good news for a change, instead of bad news.
The public’s image and opinion of police officers has taken a huge beating lately, due to the many high-profile cases of police brutality circling the media. This kind of thing, police officers stopping people specifically to make their holidays just a little bit brighter, helps to illuminate the other side of the issue, which is that we do still have police officers who are human beings with hearts inside.
Would any of these officers pull a Darren Wilson, or Daniel Pantaleo, if they got into it with a suspect? There’s no way to know until it happens. But seeing this act of kindness on the part of the Secret Santa, and these officers, helps to restore faith in humanity just a little bit.
Grab a box of tissues and watch the video here:
Featured image via screengrab
Not would any of these officers behaved like Darren Wilson , but maybe Darren Wilson would have behaved like a human being if he had the chance to see his job as helping and being a positive part of his community.
The VAST majority of police officers, are good people, doing a VERY difficult job.
The problem is with the infinitesimal minority, that do ill, and, are then protected by over an zealous, race based system.
If rogue officers were punished, for being the criminals that they are, the public would have MUCH more respect for their authority.