In a visit to the Birmingham Youth Citizens Police Academy on Wednesday, June 24, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch discussed community-police relations with academy students. When the Attorney General asked for opinions as to why it is hard for the general public to empathize with police officers, one particular response from 16-year-old Ramsay High School student Taylor Sellers painted a personal picture: “It’s taught from when we’re young to not like or respect the police very much because they’re bad people when, in all actuality, they’re just people. They’re helping us, and they die for us every day.”

In response to Taylor Sellers’ paradigm shift, Attorney General Lynch stated she “thought it was very gratifying… kids are very open and it’s an excellent example of how all of us can be open to meeting people who [see] things differently than us, whether they are in law enforcement or not, whether they have a different [perspective] or world view from us and how we can be open to them.”

The meeting marked the first stop in the Attorney General’s day-long visit to Birmingham. Having already visited Cincinnati, Lynch will travel to East Haven, CT; Pittsburgh, PA; Seattle, WA; and Richmond, CA in the weeks ahead. Birmingham and Pittsburgh are both part of the National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice (National Initiative).

To learn more about the National Initiative, read more on our website or visit the clearinghouse.

To read more about the Attorney General’s visit, click here.

To learn more about Diagnostic Center technical assistance, click here.