A police officer buys a pizza and shares it with a homeless person: the photo goes viral
Sometimes a photograph can deliver more than a thousand words. In history there are many photographs that have left a mark on all of us for their emotional strength and their message. A passionate kiss in the streets of New York, a simple walk on Abbey Road or a lunch break on a beam suspended in nothingness are moments of history immortalized in a single image. To this list, however, we could add another photo which was taken recently in North Carolina ...
via ABC 11
The photo which moved the internet
We're off to Goldsboro where a policeman, J.Rivers, was photographed while he spent his lunch break chatting with a homeless woman while enjoying a pizza together.
Observing this fact, not far away, sat Cassie Lee Barns, a citizen who decided to immortalize the noble gesture by the police officer forever. Pleased with her snap, she sent the photo to her husband Chris, who didn't hesitate to post it on Facebook and share it with his friends. The photo immediately traveled around the web.
Max Pixel/Not The Actual Photo
After just a few minutes, online users wondered who the young officer was and how that charitable gesture had taken place. Thus, thanks to the Facebook network, people learned that policeman Rivers, accustomed to meeting the homeless people of the neighborhood, had never noticed this woman. The policeman's attention was drawn to her T-shirt on which there was a funny message: "Being homeless: the fastest way to be nobody".
This message, handwritten on the t-shirt, struck Rivers who immediately stopped to talk to her after buying a pizza to share. He thus discovered that Michelle - this is the name of the homeless woman - is married and has two children: the youngest, aged twelve, is now assisted by social services and is struggling with liver disease; of the oldest of 24, however, she has no more news.
Rivers approaches his work with a very human touch. Agent Rivers is a person who does not like to act on prejudices and who loves to understand before judging: a rare virtue. Being frequently in contact with people living on the street, he began to get to know them personally. Thus he discovered how many homeless people have a history behind them characterized by so much bad luck: physical violence, abuse or drug addiction.
Moreover, this officer plays the role of the policeman more as a social worker than as a strict guardian of the established order. "It's very simple" he said in an interview on CNN, "Every morning I ask myself:" Who can I help? I'm certainly not a person who thinks that prison is an answer to all the troubles in society."
The Goldsboro City Police Department fully supports this kind of approach to justice. In an increasingly inhumane world, these kinds of events are exceptional news.
