Cincinnati Cops Buy Basketball Equipment for Neighborhood Teens

Two police officers in Cincinnati, Ohio, are being praised for their act of kindness toward a group of neighborhood teenagers.

Melkita Hill was with her three sons and their friends at a basketball court in College Hill recently when two officers came by to check on them, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.

When they saw the group needed a new basketball net, the policemen drove to Walmart and bought one and also a basketball.

“Once the officers returned, one officer let 16-year-old Mikell Wynn use his shoulders as a ladder while they put on the new net,” the article read.

The gesture meant so much to the young people and Hill, so she wrote about the experience on her Facebook page.

“I wanted my people to see. My family members and my friends to see – everybody don’t have to look at police, you know, in that way,” she wrote.

“Because there’s some good ones out here that do care about us as mothers, fathers, our children and being safe. So I just appreciate that with what’s was going on now, and how so much stuff going on in the world,” Hill continued.

The Enquirer shared a photo Thursday of the officer with Wynn on his shoulders, installing the net:

Following the event, Hill wanted to do something nice for the officers who asked to remain anonymous because they did not want to draw attention to themselves.

She made gift baskets for the policemen as a way to say thank you and later dropped them off at the station.

Hill’s Facebook post continued:

Not many police like him care some don’t Ever take the time pulling ova checking on children but he did and took his time going to Walmart to go purchase a net for the kids and gave them a extra basketball folks like him need to be recognized in the community not many care for our children fathers, and mothers he said he don’t work to make arrest he works to keep the community safe.

The Cincinnati Police Department said its mission was to “promote effective partnerships with the community to improve the quality of life through the delivery of fair and impartial police services while maintaining an atmosphere of respect for human dignity.”