For the past nine years of having been with the Goldsboro Police Department in North Carolina, Officer Michael Rivers has come to know the faces of the homeless in his community. But on Wednesday, he came upon a homeless woman he had never seen before. And her shirt caught his eye. It read, \u201cHomeless. The fastest way of becoming a nobody.\u201d<\/p>\n
He had his windows down, so the two made eye contact and acknowledged each other with a simple, \u201cHey.\u201d He drove away, but something kept tugging at him to go back, Rivers said.<\/p>\n
\u201cGod put it on my heart to get her lunch,\u201d the 29-year-old officer told CNN. \u201cSo I turned around and asked her, \u2018Hey, did you eat today?\u2019 And she said, \u2018No.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
So he grabbed pepperoni and cheese pizzas from a nearby pizza shop and sat down on the grass next to her. The pizza they shared was great, Rivers said, but the conversation was even better.<\/p>\n
For 45 minutes, Rivers and the homeless woman, who he said identified herself as Michelle, shared their life stories. And the heartwarming moment was captured in a photo by a passerby, whose husband shared it on Facebook.<\/p>\n
\u201cLaw enforcement does so much for our community, with a lot of it going unnoticed,\u201d Chris Barnes said in his Facebook post, which has since garnered nearly 1,000 likes and more than 3,000 shares.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe see you, Goldsboro P.D. Keep up the good work,\u201d Barnes added.<\/p>\n
As Michelle and Rivers started talking, Michelle told me that she has a 12-year-old daughter who is battling liver disease and is in foster care. She also has a 23-year-old son, Rivers said. Her husband, also homeless, stood across the street as the two conversed.<\/p>\n
After the two finished their lunch, they went their separate ways. But Rivers said the interaction made him realize that he and Michelle were similar in how they were perceived by society.<\/p>\n
Homeless people are often shunned by society and blamed for bringing the situation upon themselves.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Rivers said he feels police officers are often portrayed in a negative light as society focuses on just the \u201cbad apples.\u201d<\/p>\n
But \u201chomeless people are just people who are down on their luck,\u201d Rivers said. \u201cIt can happen to anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
And for himself, he didn\u2019t set out to be a police officer because he wanted to ruin a person\u2019s day, Rivers said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI come to work, and my method is, \u2018Who can I bless today? Who can I make smile?\u201d Rivers said. \u2018\u201cI\u2019m not the one who wants to take somebody\u2019s father or mother away and put them in jail.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to police Chief Michael West, he saw the picture circulating on social media and applauded Rivers for his good deed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe circumstances around our job are often an unpleasant call to service, but this picture just shows we\u2019re human like anyone else, and any chance we get to serve the community and help people, we take that chance,\u201d West told CNN. \u201cI\u2019m very fortunate to have Officer Rivers in our department.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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