Reflection on Social Media Case 6: Basketball Cop

I really liked this case because it involved a former athlete and him giving back to the community and athletes being some of the most popular people in the world, when they do something it has a big impact. This story is very interesting because you always hear about cops and all of the negative stuff that they do, you rarely hear anything positive these days about them. With all of the negative stereotypes towards them it is always good to hear the good things they do because they do not get enough respect. This story takes place in Gainesville, Florida where the crime rate is higher than most other places. This leads the youth to only follow their elders and do what they are doing, making them as well have a negative outlook on the police. With this story, it mentioned that when the first officer arrived on scene, the kids ran away, most likely because they were scared they could get into trouble even though they weren’t doing anything wrong. There were a few that stayed and in this situation, it worked out for them because Shaquille O’Neal came ready to play basketball with some of the kids in the area. This is what started the hashtag #hoopsnotcrime. In the article attached by ESPN it talks about the benefits of this of this and what it is doing for young kids, http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/page/PhotoEssay-hoopsnotcrime160411/how-hoopsnotcrime-spreading-powerful-message-basketball. When something like this gets started and involves a big time athlete like Shaq it really spreads and makes others like it for that solo reason. This was good because with Shaq doing this it raised the awareness of these situations and made people pay attention. This campaign was great for everyone and it raised an abundant amount of money for the community that went back to the struggling families. It also helps the cops image when they are playing basketball with the youth and it helps change their negative image to them. In the article attached by ABC it shows police officers doing positive things in the community, https://www.abc2news.com/news/local-news/police-departments-combat-negative-image-with-posts-on-social-media. We as people need to come together and realize that police officers are there for us we should not have hatred towards them and feel like we are against them. I like hearing the stories about police officers going back into the community and doing this because it shows they are people too.