The 6th Annual LAPD Essay Contest was open to students in the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades enrolled in the Los Angeles Unified School District and schools in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Students were asked to write what they would do that would have the greatest impact on the community if they were a Los Angeles Police Department officer for a day. Each of the ten winners and their essay are featured on the Department’s website, one each week. The following essay is one of the ten winning submissions.
As
a Los Angeles Police Department officer for a day, I think that getting
kids out of gangs and preventing kids from joining gangs would be a
good start and would have a huge impact on the community.
To get kids out of gangs and prevent kids from joining gangs, I would make after school programs. That would give former gang members something to do instead of gang play. The after school programs would include sports, art, dance, photography, band, and theater. It would also cut back the amount of kids joining gangs. That would have a huge impact on the overall gang members.
Another thing that I would do to prevent kids from joining gangs and to get kids out of gangs is a family program. A family program would help because gang members often join gangs because they have problems with family members, and have nowhere else to go, but to the gangs. Also, it would make sure that these families have family bonding time. Also the kids that might join gangs in the future will feel more comfortable and won’t have problems with their family. I think that this will also have a huge impact on the community.
I also think that fundraisers for public schools would help. I think that this would help because some schools don’t have enough things like text books and computers. It would also help because if the gang members see that they can do more at school, they would go more often. That is another thing that I think would have a huge impact on that subject.
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