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August 2, 2006
Macedonian National Television ...
... was here yesterday to see the High Point Police Department's community drug initiatives. That's the program where police give drug dealers a chance to clean up or go to jail for a long time and a third one was recently launched in Southside. West End and Daniel Brooks were done in previous years.
The Macedonian's presence was a big piece of my portion of this story from National Night Out, but it apparently got cut out -- I'm assuming for lack of space.
Check below the jump to see what I wrote that would've gone in right after Pastor Newton's quote:
High Point’s community initiatives attracted a crew from Macedonian National Television working on a documentary about American police tactics. Police in Macedonia are still struggling with the transition from Communist tactics.
The crew witnessed a call-in earlier in the day where two drug dealers from Southside were given the choice of getting out of crime and the help to do so, or going to jail for a long time. Later they attended the community gatherings in Southside and the West End, where the first community initiative in the city was run.
“It’s a model for change” said Jasminka Anevska, a member of the Macedonian television crew.
Talking to the Macedonians was interesting. They described police tactics in their country that are still heavily influenced by the old Communist way. They witnessed a "call in" and were amazed that criminals would get a chance at reform like that.
"It's very humanitarian," Anevska said.
Their visit is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and they'll visit cities across the country to see how police interact with their communities. High Point's the smallest. They were in Charlotte Monday and headed to Chicago today. Before coming south they spent time with the Metropolitan Police in Washington, D.C. and Fairfax County, Va. law enforcement. They'll head to Sacramento and San Jose before swinging back to Baltimore on their way home.
The State Department recommended High Point because of the community initiatives.
Posted by Jonathan Jones at August 2, 2006 10:14 AM
