6-year-old LI boy's birthday wish: To protect and serve

Dread, concern and relief are the emotions typically prompted by the sound of sirens drawing closer.

But for 6-year-old Jace McKenzie, the wails of approaching Southold police department vehicles elicited pure joy, his face erupting into an unrestrained smile, his hands clenched as he jumped up and down. Waving excitedly at the cars as they approached, Jace, wearing his own miniature police uniform, couldn’t contain himself. “I love police!” he shouted.

The moment, captured on video, has gone viral across the world with millions watching as Jace flung himself into the arms of Southold police officer Michael Sirico.

“He was just beyond ecstatic,” said his mother Tai McKenzie, 32, of Ridge. “It was so genuine.”

Jace has always been enamored with police, his mother said. It started when he was about 2 and an officer visited for career day at his early learning center.

“From that day on he’s just always been fascinated with them,” she said. “I’m not sure if it’s the uniform or the line of work, but he’s always just loved police officers and always aspired to be a police officer.”

For his July 13 birthday, the family celebrated at a beach in Greenport, where McKenzie grew up. Jace was given a gift of a police uniform, complete with baton, handcuffs and whistle. McKenzie’s aunt reached out to a school resource officer, Rich Buonaiuto, to see if the Southold police could stop by and within an hour he had put together a caravan, said Southold Police Chief Martin Flatley.

“I think Jace had more equipment on than our officers!” Flatley said. “The reaction from him was priceless and believe me, the officers enjoyed it every bit as much as Jace did.”

Jace wants to be a police officer when he grows up — right now he’s set on working with the K-9 unit, his mother said. Law enforcement runs in the family: McKenzie’s grandfather was a police officer in the Southold police department and her father was a U.S. Army Green Beret.

The video of a Black boy excitedly embracing a white cop comes at a time of tense and emotional national discussions on race and policing. But the interaction between Jace and the police was a respite from all that, his mother said.

“For that moment in time there was no Black versus white or cops versus civilians; everybody was just happy to be in that moment celebrating his birthday,” she said.

She said Jace is unaware of the tensions with law enforcement featured nightly on the news and she plans to keep it that way.

“At 6, all he knows is that police protect and serve,” she said. “When he’s older and the time comes to have that conversation with him, I will, but right now I want to protect his innocence.”

At a July media briefing on clashes between law enforcement and protesters in Portland, Oregon, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany showed the video, which she called “emblematic of where America stands with regard to our police.”

Jace’s mother said she was “kind of caught off guard” at the White House’s use of the video, and doesn’t feel the video should be “used as someone else’s own political gain,” but is glad for the positive attention it’s brought her son and the police department.

“I think it clarifies the relationship that probably all small-town police departments have with the public,” Flatley said of the video. “We strive to reach out to the community … our officers live in the community, our kids play sports together, our kids go to school together, we’re neighbors.”

Since the video went viral, Jace has received patches and badges from police departments all over the country and as far away as Amsterdam. He now “thinks he’s famous” his mother said, flashing his junior police badge everywhere they go.

“He’s told me about myself a time or two,” she said laughing, recalling how he’s admonished her to slow down while driving.

McKenzie is already thinking about Jace’s next birthday. Last year, while celebrating his day, a town fireworks show took place.

“We thought it couldn’t get any better than that, but this year just topped it,” she said. “Next year I have my work cut out for me!”

By Denise M. Bonilla

denise.bonilla@newsday.comdenisebonilla

Denise Bonilla has worked at Newsday since 2003 and covers the Town of Babylon, including the villages of Lindenhurst and Amityville.