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RIT Students Use Event to Strengthen Police-Community Relations

Teen Empowerment

Some students at RIT say they feel compelled to do their part to improve police community relations.

"Although I don't have a personal issue with the police, I couldn't just sit back and watch other people have these issues with the police officers and not do anything about it," said 18-year old freshman Malik Johnson of Harlem.         

"I really want to see a change in the world, but on the flip side, while I was saying that, I was sitting on my bed watching the news; going through social media, and it wasn't helping the cause.”

Johnson is one of several students who coordinated an event called "Stand Strong and United." The goal is to get police and community members to get to know each other.

"Honestly all police officers are not like the ones we see in the news, and we're trying to show that in this event," he said.

Felicia Lee, an RIT student from Brooklyn, says she also does not believe that police are bad people. “We have a lot of situations where it has looked that way. The community is also not bad,” she said. “By initiating a conversation and getting to know each other - both the community and the police officers - that would be a great thing."

Students say Rochester Police Chief Michael Ciminelli, Deputy Chief Wayne Harris, and some rank and file officers have agreed to come to the event, along with representatives of RIT’s Office of Public Safety. The community is welcome, too.

"If you're coming, just come with an open heart and an open mindset,” said Lee. “Because this is not an event where we are going back and forth and blaming each other, but more so getting to know each other and finding a starting point to changing the kinds of things that have been going on the past few years."

The event was held Saturday afternoon at the Vignelli Center for Design Studies on the RIT campus. 

Beth Adams joined WXXI as host of Morning Edition in 2012 after a more than two-decade radio career. She was the longtime host of the WHAM Morning News in Rochester. Her career also took her from radio stations in Elmira, New York, to Miami, Florida.