Cops and kindergartners share lunch, and more, in a Miami neighborhood hit hard by crime
“The first time a group of uniformed Miami-Dade police officers walked into the cafeteria at Poinciana Park Elementary, the students asked teachers and administrators what had gone wrong. Is somebody in trouble? Is there going to be an arrest? In the Lincoln Fields housing project near Liberty City, where many Poinciana Park students live, police officers are often a sign there’s been a shooting. ‘I remember that first visit nobody talked to the cops,’ said Principal Amrita Prakash. ‘Nobody wanted to befriend them, no one was laughing.’ Now, after six months of lunchtime school visits, the reception is different. As Officer Joyce Williams from the Northside District entered the Poinciana Park cafeteria this week, a group of students ran up to hug her. They clustered around Williams and shouted out updates on everything that had happened since her last visit. Six other officers fanned out in the cafeteria, joining students as they waited in the lunch line.”