Where is the compassion?

I watched at least 7 police officers and 3 patrol cars

surround one homeless woman

It was an angry confrontation

Mostly from the police side as I didn’t even hear the woman speak much*

I just wonder

Where was the compassion?

Had this been one of their friends

Their spouses

Their parents

Their colleagues

Their cousins

Or neighbors

Old acquaintance even

Would they have treated this person the same?

I don’t know

But if they were in her shoes would they have wanted to be treated the same?

Where is the humanity?

Where can we go?

If no one wants to make the first move

And lead with kindness

And lead with forgiveness

And lead with trying to understand the other side

To truly and deeply understand their story

Where will this violence lead us?



********

Not to say their aren’t good cops out there

Or that these were “bad”

I recognize it’s all situational

And I probably didn’t know the entire back story

But that doesn’t negate my point one bit