On the job

It's always good to be careful when you're at work. Whether you're a teacher, a factory worker, or a barista, there's always the chance that an accident. This goes double if you're working and you have someone coming along with you to find out what a typical day in your chosen field is like.

This is even more important when you're a police officer, and the person tagging along is a journalism student. And you make racist comments.

That's exactly what happened in Philadelphia, where a young cop talked made the racist commentary, but later on made it clear that he "wasn't racist". After all, having friends of the same race as the people who you've just decided to bash on clearly marks you as a friend to all people. Why, we're fairly certain that even Hitler said he had some friends who were Jewish.

In all seriousness, though, the community is right to be concerned about this particular police officer, and the journalism student did their job by writing the article in a fair way. True, people are looking at the story with a bit of a bias, because it was "student journalism", but any hint of truth behind the story should be looked at severely. After all, the police generally have a tough time getting people onto their side. Commentary made to any person during a ride-along can easily be taken and spread along. When the person riding along is trying to be part of the media, it's almost a guarantee that the story is going to spread.

This is why we don't get taken anywhere, either.