Note: I started this post many, many months ago.
We recently had a (not dangerous) situation where we had to call the police. And we didn't think twice about it. Until afterwards. The police came and took care of bidness and then came and spoke to us. The officer with the superman hair said, "Well, we actually need to run now, there's some shootings going on, but before we leave, do you need anything else from us?"
And we were like, "Uhhh nope. Thanks! Please go take care of that now."
In so many countries, they don't have this luxury. A police force that makes them feel safe. I know there was a lot of bad police press this fall, but if someone robs your house, wouldn't you still call the police? In a lot of countries, they don't - because the police will just come back and finish robbing anything the robbers took (source for this story - a friend of mine who was visiting relatives in Guatemala). Working where I work, we hear a lot of terrible stories about corruption or just the crime in general that affects those living in poverty. Grisly stories with perpetrators who may never even be investigated, much less brought to justice. I heard one today that made me feel like I might throw up for most of the day. It's hard, really hard, to know what to do with these sorts of things.
My department director recently wrote about injustice connected with Lent for an e newsletter that Unbound sends out. I can't figure out how to share it here, but let me know if you want it, and I will email it to you.
To be honest with you, I don't know what to do with this. I don't know what to do when I hear that the police in a different country didn't even show up to take a police report from the man who got shot, even though that's the law. It's also hard to recognize that even in my own country, there are people who don't feel comfortable calling the police.
I think that what we can do is hope and pray for a better future, and partner with people doing good work. And never lose sight that being able to call the police, to trust them - it's a privilege.
We recently had a (not dangerous) situation where we had to call the police. And we didn't think twice about it. Until afterwards. The police came and took care of bidness and then came and spoke to us. The officer with the superman hair said, "Well, we actually need to run now, there's some shootings going on, but before we leave, do you need anything else from us?"
And we were like, "Uhhh nope. Thanks! Please go take care of that now."
In so many countries, they don't have this luxury. A police force that makes them feel safe. I know there was a lot of bad police press this fall, but if someone robs your house, wouldn't you still call the police? In a lot of countries, they don't - because the police will just come back and finish robbing anything the robbers took (source for this story - a friend of mine who was visiting relatives in Guatemala). Working where I work, we hear a lot of terrible stories about corruption or just the crime in general that affects those living in poverty. Grisly stories with perpetrators who may never even be investigated, much less brought to justice. I heard one today that made me feel like I might throw up for most of the day. It's hard, really hard, to know what to do with these sorts of things.
My department director recently wrote about injustice connected with Lent for an e newsletter that Unbound sends out. I can't figure out how to share it here, but let me know if you want it, and I will email it to you.
To be honest with you, I don't know what to do with this. I don't know what to do when I hear that the police in a different country didn't even show up to take a police report from the man who got shot, even though that's the law. It's also hard to recognize that even in my own country, there are people who don't feel comfortable calling the police.
I think that what we can do is hope and pray for a better future, and partner with people doing good work. And never lose sight that being able to call the police, to trust them - it's a privilege.
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