Tim McMillan, a US based police officer recently became an Internet phenomenon following a Facebook post he shared on October 1. His story, which is inspiring, also resulted in people creating a Facebook fan club for him, something he says is 'ridiculous'.

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McMillan, like thousands of other police officers in the country, was patrolling the streets when he saw an African American teenager texting while driving. Given that it's a driving offence, McMillan was forced to pull him over.

When he approached the car, he saw that the teenager was shaking. Sharing his experience, McMillan said that teen asked him in a quivering voice whether he should get out of the car. "His voice was quivering. He was genuinely scared," wrote McMillan on his Facebook page.

The teenager had every right to be scared, given the United States' record this year of police officers opening fire on African Americans. According to numbers released by The Washington Post, there have been 173 cases of police officers opening fire and killing unarmed African Americans in 2016 alone.

In addition to these numbers, a 2015 survey conducted by the Associated Press-NORC Centre for Public Affairs Research said that, half of the African American population feel that the police have treated them unfairly.

Fortunately, McMillan empathised with the teen's fear and asked him to relax. "I don't want you to text and drive. I don't want you to get in a wreck. I want your mom to always have her baby boy. I want you to grow up and be somebody. I don't even want to write you a ticket. Just please pay attention, and put the phone down. I just don't want you to get hurt," McMillan told the youth, who drove off.

In his post, McMillan said that he doesn't care about whose whose fault it is that the young man was scared to have a police officer at his window. "Blame it on the media, blame bad cops, blame protestors, it doesn't matter. I just wish somebody would fix it," he wrote.

Since the post went up, it has been liked 2,17,000 times and shared 1,44613 times on Facebook. It has even prompted a Facebook fan page for McMillan, who says he is humbled by the gesture. "I am an average cop who watched so many things in our country go bad over the years. When I made that post, I was just venting my frustrations and wanting this world to just be a better place for everyone," he said.

McMillan adds that he doesn't think he is special by any means. "It's sad that simply saying I care about other people, regardless of if they share my skin colour, or cultural background is such a big deal for people to hear a police officer say. However, I am touched beyond words at how many people reached out to me, and how me people simply wanted to connect on Facebook because they shared my view that with respect and compassion we actually can make a difference," he wrote.