Love and Peace, hehe ^^
Four female police officers in Morioka Higashi Police Station of the Iwate prefectural are sending love letters, whether they be a boy or girl, to troubled children/teens they have come in contact with. The letters are signed “From all those at Morioka Higashi Police Station.” The results of the “Ai no Reta” (Love letter) has had a positive impact in the community.
The amount of delinquent cases has dropped from 21% to 7%, 1/3 the amount the station has to deal with.
These letters have a great impact on the delinquents who were feeling lonely, stressed, depressed, etc. An example of this includes a few replies from boys who received the letters, “I’m so happy when I read the letters, I feel close to tears.”
A girl who had been constantly running away from home after moving to a new prefecture felt stressed about her new environment but the letters have helped her, “I really regret how stupid I used to be.” she says.
The female police officer who wrote to the girl responds “I also felt lonely at school, but I was able to overcome the feeling because of the support of the people around me. It’s good if we can accept and understand their loneliness even a little.”
Via Daily Yomiuri Online.
Impression:
That was a nice story. It’s great that these kids who were having issues/difficulties could find solace in these love letters and realize that they don’t have to do what they do which leads to trouble. Those police officers must really take their time trying to understand and relate to those who are troubled and help them by taking them away from a life of crime/delinquency. I myself was never a delinquent as I never really had problems beyond school work/love/etc. I did hang out with a “bad” crowd, who weren’t really druggies but they did get in trouble with the law a few times. They were cool guys who I could just talk to about stuff, but we weren’t so connected that we would hang out outside of school. My “outside of school” friends were your normal, slightly geeky, friends that I hung out with at school most of the time. I wonder if love letters would have an impact on those in the states? If you look at it at an American standpoint, ie mine, then you could say it’s a bit silly. But if it works in Japan then it might work here too.
Any of you out there have run-ins with the law because of juvenile delinquency and possibly out of that phase? If you did, please feel free to share, but I respect your right to privacy and there is no need to reply on that question.
This is an initiative I approve wholeheartedly. Police officers are often solely seen as law enforcers without a personal identity (a bit like in the Army, I’d say) and the ideas of intimidation, sanctions and violent arrests/handling of potential evildoers can come to mind.
Another point to consider in that logic is that a certain number of adolescents (many?) nowadays don’t care at all about authority, established laws and morals. They do as they please, some trying to hide their fear and loneliness deep within and get rid of daily stress through violent acts. Some even get pleasure from that.
Sadly I think it will get worse as generations go through time.
So to show that police officers still are humans like you and me, that their roles are not limited in making people follow rules but also helping the society they are in, such actions are welcome and necessary to give back confidence and self-esteem to those who need it.
Myself, I never fell into the traps of delinquency. I learned early what the notions of “Good” and “Bad”, justice and delayed rewards mean and applied them successfully in my life. Many didn’t have that chance…
However, I feel that if a helping hand can reach them (It’s never too late in my opinion), things may truly change for the better.
*sighs* i wish police officers in my country were that nice to the people.
@D_Blade: It is a bit sad that we generalize all law enforcement and that we don’t know officers on a personal level unless we have a relation with them. We base what we know on what we see in the media which leads to the attitude we now have.
@Setsuna-san: Don’t we all ^^.