Cassie was out on her lunch break and observed Goldsboro’s Finest enjoying lunch with a homeless . enforcement does such a lot for our community, with tons of it going unnoticed. We see you Goldsboro P.D. continue the great work.
(CNN)Having been with the Goldsboro local department in North Carolina for the past nine years, Officer Michael Rivers has come to understand the faces of the homeless in his community. But Wednesday, he came across a homeless woman he had never seen before. And her shirt caught his eye. It read: "Homeless. The fastest way of becoming a nobody."
He had his windows down therefore the two made eye contact and acknowledged one another with an easy , "Hey." He drove away, but something kept tugging at him to travel back, Rivers said.
"God put it on my heart to urge her lunch," the 29-year-old officer told CNN. "So I rotated and that i asked her, 'Hey, did you eat today?' and she or he said, 'No.'"
So he grabbed pepperoni and cheese pizzas from a close-by pizzeria and sat down on the grass next to her. The pizza they shared was great, Rivers said, but the conversation was even better.
For 45 minutes, Rivers and therefore the homeless woman, who he said identified herself as Michelle, shared their life stories. and therefore the heartwarming moment was captured during a photo by a passerby, whose husband shared it on Facebook."Law enforcement does such a lot for our community, with tons of it going unnoticed," Chris Barnes said in his Facebook post, which has since garnered nearly 1,000 likes and quite 3,000 shares.
"We see you Goldsboro P.D. continue the great work," Barnes added.
As the two started talking, Michelle told Rivers she features a 12-year-old daughter who is battling disease and in care . She also features a 23-year-old son, Rivers said. Her husband, also homeless, stood across the road because the two conversed.
After finishing their lunch, they went their separate ways. But Rivers said the interaction made him realize that he and Michelle were similar in how they're perceived by society.
People who are homeless are often shunned by society and blamed for bringing things upon themselves.
Meanwhile, Rivers said he feels cops are often portrayed during a negative light as society focuses on just the "bad apples."
But "homeless people are just people that are down on their luck," Rivers said. "It can happen to anybody."
And for himself, he didn't began to be a policeman because he wanted to ruin an individual's day, Rivers said.
"I come to figure and my method is, 'Who am i able to bless today? Who am i able to make smile?" Rivers said. '"I'm not the one that desires to require somebody's father or mother away and put them in jail."
Police Chief Michael West said he saw the image circulating on social media and applauded Rivers for his good deed.
"The circumstances around our job are often an unpleasant call to service, but this picture just shows we're human like anyone else and any chance we get to serve the community and help people, we take that chance," West told CNN. "I'm very fortunate to possess Officer Rivers in our department."
(CNN)Having been with the Goldsboro local department in North Carolina for the past nine years, Officer Michael Rivers has come to understand the faces of the homeless in his community. But Wednesday, he came across a homeless woman he had never seen before. And her shirt caught his eye. It read: "Homeless. The fastest way of becoming a nobody."
He had his windows down therefore the two made eye contact and acknowledged one another with an easy , "Hey." He drove away, but something kept tugging at him to travel back, Rivers said.
"God put it on my heart to urge her lunch," the 29-year-old officer told CNN. "So I rotated and that i asked her, 'Hey, did you eat today?' and she or he said, 'No.'"
So he grabbed pepperoni and cheese pizzas from a close-by pizzeria and sat down on the grass next to her. The pizza they shared was great, Rivers said, but the conversation was even better.
For 45 minutes, Rivers and therefore the homeless woman, who he said identified herself as Michelle, shared their life stories. and therefore the heartwarming moment was captured during a photo by a passerby, whose husband shared it on Facebook."Law enforcement does such a lot for our community, with tons of it going unnoticed," Chris Barnes said in his Facebook post, which has since garnered nearly 1,000 likes and quite 3,000 shares.
"We see you Goldsboro P.D. continue the great work," Barnes added.
As the two started talking, Michelle told Rivers she features a 12-year-old daughter who is battling disease and in care . She also features a 23-year-old son, Rivers said. Her husband, also homeless, stood across the road because the two conversed.
After finishing their lunch, they went their separate ways. But Rivers said the interaction made him realize that he and Michelle were similar in how they're perceived by society.
People who are homeless are often shunned by society and blamed for bringing things upon themselves.
Meanwhile, Rivers said he feels cops are often portrayed during a negative light as society focuses on just the "bad apples."
But "homeless people are just people that are down on their luck," Rivers said. "It can happen to anybody."
And for himself, he didn't began to be a policeman because he wanted to ruin an individual's day, Rivers said.
"I come to figure and my method is, 'Who am i able to bless today? Who am i able to make smile?" Rivers said. '"I'm not the one that desires to require somebody's father or mother away and put them in jail."
Police Chief Michael West said he saw the image circulating on social media and applauded Rivers for his good deed.
"The circumstances around our job are often an unpleasant call to service, but this picture just shows we're human like anyone else and any chance we get to serve the community and help people, we take that chance," West told CNN. "I'm very fortunate to possess Officer Rivers in our department."
Comments
Post a Comment