LIB AT LARGE:
Marin City teen,
a human rights
honoree, drawn
to police career
Tamalpais High School senior
Davon Smith, on campus last
week in Mill Valley, says people
who go into police work should
have a passion for it. ‘A lot of
people are counting on you,’
he says. (Alan Dep/Marin
Independent Journal)
By Paul Liberatore, Marin Independent Journal
A
t a time when the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter has gone viral in social media
and students on campuses across the
country are protesting the recent killings of
young black men by police officers, 17-yearold Davon Smith, a Tamalpais High School
senior active in the Black Student Union,
has his own ideas about reforming law
enforcement. He wants to be a cop.
Teens don’t always look at the police
with that level of trust, especially in minority neighborhoods like Marin City, where
Smith lives. But Smith has a radically different perspective than many of his peers.
“Nowadays, you hear a lot about
police brutality, what police are doing
wrong,” he says, sitting in Tam’s student
center after school one recent afternoon.
“As far as I’ve seen, they’re just doing
their job. They’re not out to harm anyone
or profile anyone.”
A peer tutor at Tam, Smith is one of
five high school seniors chosen by the
Marin County Human Rights Commission
to be honored at its annual Martin Luther
King Jr. humanitarian awards dinner
Davon Smith with Sausalito police Chief
Jennifer Tejada, whose department accepted
him for a paid internship. (Courtesy Sausalito
Police Department)
36
California Police Chief | www.californiapolicechiefs.org
Thursday night at Embassy Suites in San
Rafael. The others a ɔ