The Judgmental Wagon

20th of July, 2012. Trinidad and Tobago Police Service. 

Trinis on Facebook have gone apeshit.

This photo had been uploaded on the 20th of July, 2012 by the Facebook page of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service.

It depicts a child holding an unloaded weapon, a riot gun, I believe, under the supervision of police officers in a demonstration to inspire young people to become protectors of this country.

However, many people on Facebook do not see it so. They view the photo as largely irresponsible and believe it sends out various messages of negativity. 

They are of the point of view that a child should not be allowed to hold any kind of weapon, unloaded, or toy. They believe that the photo represents the idea that guns are cool, thereby inciting young people to go out and get their own at some point. It enforces the idea that weapons and violence are glamorous.

I laughed. People do tend to blow things out of proportion don't they? Granted, I am in the minority. I see the photo within its context as completely harmless. I repeat, within its context. As mentioned before, the photo was taken as part of a demonstration for awareness of a police officer's job. Knowing this, the intention of the police officer was more than likely to show tools that a police officer uses, and the safety gear required in its application. 

I marvel at those who denounce the photo as advocating violence in an impressionable mind. The same people who have no problem taking their own children to go see violent films, play violent video games and listen to violent music. 

O wait. You don't allow your children to see any of that? Well, I hope you also cover their eyes and ears whenever they walk down the street, or go to school. That way they also won't be able to see the neighbours across the road assaulting each other, or read that comic book that their best friend may have smuggled to school. You must not have thought of that huh.

Violence is everywhere people. You can't hide young people from it.

Instead of being lazy and deceitful, be honest and take the time out to talk to children. Teach them the importance of peaceful living (especially through example), talk to them about the difference between fiction and reality, and most importantly teach them the significance of respecting people around them and the value of life - their own and others around them. It's much harder than censoring images that you think are inappropriate for them, but it certainly is far more honorable than pretending these thinks don't exist.

Instead of jumping on the judgmental wagon, see the photo for what it was intended - to inspire young people. Who knows? That child may grow up to be an effective and dutiful officer some day. I hope then, that people hearken back to this photo and realise that maybe, just maybe not everything and everyone has  bad intentions.

"When a child asks you something, answer him, for goodness sake. But don't make a production of it. Children are children, but they can spot an evasion faster than adults, and evasion simply muddles 'em."
- by Atticus Finch, by Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird