justice

Yesterday I saw a man, my friend, get arrested right in front of me.

It was yesterday afternoon, during our outreach that we usually do on Thursdays (we have to change the day for the summer since we're all busy during Thursdays) and I was just sitting with a couple of the guys. Then a police car starts driving through the middle of the park. He stops by some of the other guys sitting at a different bench, and we see him ask them some questions from a distance. Then he drives over to where we are, asks a couple of them what their names are, and looks them up on his computer. Trey (I mentioned him before in one of my previous entries), in particular, caught the cop's attention because he seemed "able-bodied." When asked what his name was, he replied, "Travis Watt." The cop then goes, "Now what's your real name?" Trey kept on telling him that it was really his name, but the cop wasn't sure if he could believe him. So he arrested him, put him in the car, and drove away as quickly and suddenly as when he first arrived.

We later found out that there was a stabbing right there in that same park the day before. I understand that there are people who fit the descriptions of the suspect and that Trey could possibly fit into it, and that might have been why they took him away. But the thing that bothers me is that I could see that the cop thought he was better than them. The way he talked to them, the way the tone of his voice was. The way he talked about homeless people as if they were a nuisance. The way that he treated them all as criminals. The way that he looked at them as if they were less than human. It disgusted me.

Is being homeless a crime? Is it a sin? It's not like most of them aren't actively searching for jobs. Not all of them are drug-addicts. None of them are bad people. Most of them have just been screwed over by other people, by the government, or simply by unfortunate circumstances. So why are they being treated like this?

Is this what we call justice?





I pray and hope Trey is alright.

Psalm 140:12.