The Indicator from Planet Money · Friday, July 3, 2026
Natalie Moore, a journalism teacher, observed that the high school students she works with often view government interaction through the lens of policing. This perspective leads to disinterest in civic participation like voting, as they associate government with daily police presence and encounters. For these students, voting and interacting with the police feel like similar, often negative, experiences.
“And so to them, it's like, participating in voting or anything was like just the same thing as interacting with the police.”
“The students I worked with, their interaction with the government in general was through the lens of just being policed every day and having police in their school, police around their school, cop cars waiting outside of Hyde Park Academy every day expecting a fight.”