A comic on how to deal with law enforcement
WHYY's Billy Penn news site wrote coverage about a comic focusing on youth and law enforcement, produced by a youth support movement in Philadelphia:
Kendra Van De Water has always been passionate about helping youth.What I hope is that this comic project portrays law enforcement rationally, and not in some exaggerated, forced rendition that some recent entertainment productions, comics included, have been using, that depicts law enforcement as one dimensionally evil, all for the sake of bizarre leftist agendas. After all, responsibility and civility is vital for freedom and safety, and that's what youth should learn about. If this comic project by YEAH Philly follows a sensible narrative, then it'll be something to appreciate, and I wish the CEOs of the organization good luck with it.
The CEO and co-founder of YEAH Philly, Van De Water says the organization’s mission is to inform and support Black youth in West and Southwest Philadelphia who have been charged with a violent crime in the legal system. (YEAH stands for Youth Empowerment for Advancement Hangout.)
“A lot of our services are holistic support, and the goal is to help young people become self-sufficient and stay in the community with services instead of being incarcerated,” she said. “We do a whole bunch of different things, such as educational programming, skills and employment programming, our court program, which provides private representation and court advocacy, and we have a hangout space for young people to come and get support with things that they need.”
One of YEAH Philly’s newest initiatives is a comic book – but not your standard comic. Instead of superheroes and supervillains, this comic’s characters are police officers, judges and young people. Van De Water explained that it’s an attempt to explain the complexity and nuance of interacting with law enforcement and the criminal justice system in a format that youth can relate to.
“So the comic book [came from the idea that] knowing your rights with interactions and law enforcement is a lot of information,” she said. “And, oftentimes, it’s too much information for young people and for anyone, adults as well. And if you don’t know the law, or if you’re not in this work every day, you’re not always going to know what to do.
“So this is a way to help young people learn tough information and put great graphics in it, and write stories in their language.”
