"Arresting her wasn't going to solve the problem." Put this officer in charge of the Drug War

This is real community policing: the kind that turns people away from crime instead of turning them into bigger criminals.

John Amato at Crooks and Liars:

And now for something beautiful.
 
A Florida police officer bought one hundred dollars of food for a mother that she detained for stealing groceries. A mom decided to steal food to feed her three hungry kids, but the officer that stopped her didn't arrest her.

She asked, do you even have food at the house and I looked at her and I told her no.

I made the decision to buy her some groceries because arresting her wasn't going to solve the problem with her children being hungry so I went in and bought her some groceries.

It's really nice to see kindness like this. If the officer was a Randian disciple, she probably would have arrested her and let the kids be put into foster care. This was much, much better.

Since this story went viral, other people have sent this mother money and one has offered her a job.  That's not kindness; that's community self-sufficiency.  Jailing that mother and her kids would cost the community far more than helping her does.