‘Appreciation Day’ for Police Officers

Valley residents saluted police Friday in a variety of ceremonies marking the first citywide observance of Police Appreciation Day.

Organizers encouraged residents to wear blue, drive with their headlights on and display blue ribbons at home or work.

“They are daring. They save our community from bad stuff happening to it,” fifth-grader Christian Sanchez said during an assembly at Noble Avenue Elementary School in North Hills. “I thank the police officers for doing all this stuff to make the world a little better.”

The school gave certificates noting good deeds done by three Los Angeles Unified School District police officers and four members of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Students read statements in English and Spanish describing positive experiences with police.

“I know they are nice because they once saved my friend’s uncle’s wife,” Crystal Juarez said. “They stop the robbers when they can, but when they can’t at least they try to keep our world safe.”

Ceremonies were held at other schools, including Superior Street Elementary in Chatsworth. In Northridge, Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan ate breakfast with officers in the Devonshire Division’s community policing unit.

One honoree at Noble Avenue, LAPD Sgt. Bill Thomas, said the day helped police and residents bridge a gap that has grown wider in the 1990s because of rioting in 1992 and the O.J. Simpson trial.

“If I had the time, I would do this every day,” he said, nodding in the direction of kids in the school playground.

Appreciation for police “goes in peaks and valleys,” he added. “But the majority of people support us. . . . The main thing is we want kids and everyone to know that police are their friend.”

As Noble Avenue student Sarai Gonzalez put it: “I wish that bad people and bad things didn’t exist, but they do, so we need the police.”