Print this page

Breaking the Blue Wall of Silence: Changing the Social Narrative About Policing in America

June 03 2019

As a child, I thought of police officers with veneration — if I saw a cop in the park, I felt safer. I told myself that when I got older, I would be wearing the badge too.

At 12 years old, I learned about police brutality. When I first saw the video of Eric Garner being thrown to the ground by police officers, I thought it was a movie. Despite knowing that the officers were at fault, I refused to change my internal rhetoric; I thought the media was only portraying the bad side of the people I saw as heroes.

Read the full essay by Narain Dubey, age 17, one of the Top 12 winners of the New York Times' Sixth Annual Student Editorial Contest.