Reflection on Social Media Case 6: Basketball Cop

This case study was a very interesting and entertaining one to read. We always hear about the bad stories involving the cops and we tend to create assumptions and stereotypes towards them so it is good to see a positive story involving the police. I have been to Gainesville Florida before and I know that there is a lot of crime that goes on there, in fact, the violent crime rate is one of the highest in the nation. https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/fl/gainesville/crime With the crime rates being so high, it is obvious the youth gets a bad vibe from the police. The article mentioned the first time the cop rolled up in his police car majority of the kids ran away because that is just their instinct when most of them encounter cops, but luckily a few stayed and that is what started the #hoopsnotcrime campaign. It is amazing how quickly things will blow up, for a basketball icon such as Shaquille O’Neal so come across the #hoopsnotcrime campaign just goes to show how big this campaign got. Thousands of dollars were raised for the community while this campaign went on which helped many of the kids with struggling families. If more officers were to do little things like playing basketball with kids from the inner city it would create a positive things and help the cops negative image. People generally get scared or nervous when they are driving and see a cop and I wish It did not have to be like that, we should feel protected and have a sigh of relief when we see a policeman drive by. If more cops were like the one in this story it would have a positive impact on our nation and in the future take away the negative stereotypes that are involved with police officers.

https://www.cnn.com/2016/01/24/us/florida-shaq-police-officers-game/index.html