‘It’s not easy being either of us right now is it?’ Black woman shares ‘hopeful’ encounter with white officer
With the nation reeling in the wake of last week’s fatal shootings of five Dallas police officers during a protest of recent police killings of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota, it can be hard to find concrete examples of healing between the African-American community and law enforcement. But over the weekend, a black woman in a Boston suburb shared a poignant one.
In a Facebook post, Natasha Howell, of Andover, Mass., described a “hopeful” encounter she had with two local police officers at a convenience store on Friday morning.
“As I walked through the door, I noticed that there were two white police officers … talking to the clerk behind the counter about the shootings that have gone on in the past few days,” Howell wrote. “They all looked at me and fell silent.”
When Howell approached the counter, one of the officers asked her how she was doing.
“OK, and you?” she replied.
“How are you really doing?” the officer responded.
“I’m tired!” she said.
“Me too,” the officer said, adding, “I guess it’s not easy being either of us right now, is it?”
“No, it’s not,” Howell said.
More from Howell’s post:
Then he hugged me and I cried. I had never seen that man before in my life. I have no idea why he was moved to talk to me. What I do know is that he and I shared a moment this morning, that was absolutely beautiful. No judgments, No justifications, just two people sharing a moment.
The moment struck a chord. By Saturday afternoon, Howell’s post had been shared more than 30,000 times on Facebook.
According to Andover police, the officers involved in Howell’s encounter were not from their department, but from nearby Lawrence.
“It is important to give credit where credit is due,” the Andover Police Department wrote on its Facebook page. “A female from a neighboring community posted a story about an experience at a convenience store involving a local police officer yesterday. Although the geo-tag in the post listed her as being in Andover, we did a little investigation and determined it was actually in Lawrence. Kudos to these Lawrence Police Department officers and all officers who do the right thing every day.”
Related: Trauma surgeon who treated Dallas officers: ‘This killing, it has to stop.’
