Program Works To Bring NYPD Cops, Teens Together
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Members of the NYPD and New York City teens came together on Wednesday to recognize their differences and similarities.
It's all part of a police-community relations program called Operation Conversation: Cops & Kids sponsored by the All Stars Project.
Student participant Star Shima said tensions can run high between police and teens.
"For the cops, it's obviously that it's hard for them because they go out and do their work. For teenagers, they go to school and do their work but if you interact, you feel like it's tension because you don't want to smash heads," she said. "You think if I'm just walking down the street with some headphones or something, they're going to stop you and be like, 'what's in your pocket.'"
The program includes improv and breathing exercises that aren't always popular among the teens and cops, but George, who has been with the program since 2006, said it works.
Program Works To Bring NYPD Cops, Teens Together
"When you do these breathing exercises and these skits, it's like both sides are letting their guard down," he said.
Founder and director Dr. Lenora Fulani said this is a method to help the city heal and move forward after the deaths of Eric Garner and Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos, who were ambushed in their patrol car in Brooklyn on Saturday.
"The community wants peace," she said. "And one of the ways to have it is to create this relationship."
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