A group of sugar-high school children huddled in a circle peel away one by one, separating into two distinct sides. Standing on one side, The Good Guys, also known as the Cops. Directly across stands The Bad Guys or the Robbers. The playground diplomats of the group settle on a base. The bad guys disperse in a wild roar, searching for the most exclusive hiding places. While the good guys cluster around the jail, counting to 50 with their eyes closed. 47, 48, 49...

Much more than a game, Cops and Robbers is a ritual where young children learn the ethical demensions of good and bad, where the consequences of crime are examined through play, and where kids reckon with which side their loyalty lies. In urban communities, Cops and Robbers goes even further. Fueled by the belief that police do little to protect and serve, the game perpetuates a reali-life opposition that’s played out in communities across the world.

While much of this anymosity is warranted, these simplistic charicatures do little to mend the tattered relationship that exists between communities and the law. As a result, both parties' distorted predjudices fuel the fued, forfeiting the mutual respect that’s needed to facilitate effective protection and service. With that said, it’s important to dissect this relationship by exploring the charicatures and percieved motivations. To do so, we’ve turned to the students from such communities for their ideas on why police do what they do.

Focus: Critical thinking, interpersonal skills, commuinty building

Purpose: The aim of this exercise is to foster a positive relationship between communities and police by exploring the percieved motivation of police work. The purpose is to debunk some of the generalization that perpetuate this conflict in order to learn how to manage a prodcutive relationship as it pertains to building a better commuinty.

Objective: Use the student’s generalizations to gain insight, foster authentic conversation and build a dialogue between them and the officers that patrol ther communities. The goal is to elicit authentic sentiment so that we can confront the negative prejudices that students may hold towards police.

Activity: Make a list of the various types of police officers that patrol your community. Explore the motivations of each type of officer. Ask why do these type of officers do what they do. Find comparable examples in popular culture. Brainstorm best practices when dealing with each type of officer.  Be creative and authentic. Use the launguage you use everyday. Using real language will inspire more ideas and provides a bridge for learning how to better dialogue with students. Don’t be afraid to share your assumptions or the assumptions of others in your community. The goal is to attack these ideas head on. 

Examples:

Crooked Cops: Crooked cops are  exactly as they're described--crooked. Like crooked individuals in any profession, crooked cops are capitalists. They are movitaed by the financial benefits that come with the badge. Normally, they have a disregard for ethics and abuse power.

One of their favorite come-ups is to steal drug money. They also like to plant evidence.

Renegade Cops: Renegades Cops joined the force because it lets them carry a gun, rough people up and drive fast through traffic for no reason. Renegade cops enjoy the power of their position, but they're not neccesarily power abusers. Rather, they're thrill seekers driven by the excitement that comes with high stakes police work. In the book "the pyscological effects of police work, author Phillip Bonifacio examines this pathology writing, "Police work provides the opportunity for the officer to feel all-powerful and invulnerabale by mastering danger and therefore is a great source of pleasure."  Sgt. Eugene Tackleberry from the Police Academy series is a popular culture depiction of a Renegade Cop.

Pension Chasers: Pension Chasers became cops mainly because they needed a job. Some are cool and let you slide on a ticket because they realize, at the end of the day, they're getting paid. Sadly, some pension chasers become so immersed in the culture of the force that they turn crooked to supplement ther salaries.

Good Ol Boys: Good Ol' Boys are cops’ whose motivation is to keep the status quo in place. The term, originaly used to describe the informal social, legal and political associations among white men in the south, has become a way to describe exclusive networks of white men throughout the U.S. and the rest of the western world. Good Ol’ Boys are often confused with crooked cops because of the benefits they recieve from being in "the club". But unlike crooked cops, whose primary motivation is 

greed, Good Ol' Boys are driven by their own social ideologies that include excluding others. 

Toy Cops: The term "Toy Cops" is used to describe a certain type of pseudo-cop. Rather than law enforcement officers, these individuals are security professionals whose policing power is limted to private property. Most wear uniforms; some have badges; few carry guns. Instead, they carry flashlights. This distiction has left Toy Cops open for criticism. The sentiment is that these security professionals have an unjustified allegiance to their security duties. “Why go all out to secure someone elses property,” many people ask in regards to the job. Old Otis from "Martin" the TV series is a popular culutre depiction of a Toy Cop.

Other examples:

Heavy-Detective Cops, Good Samaritans, Family Tradition Cops, Pimp Cops, Can’t-beat-‘em-join-‘em Cops.

Reflection: After your class compiles its list, go further by own personal . Ask students to check their emotions and describe their biases. Get them to recognize and detail their cultural assumptions. Encourage them to empathize. Finally, ask students to explore the consequences of their viewpoints. How have they colored their own relationship with the law? How have they shaped the community at-large?