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.