Proximate Justice

Steven Garber responded to my last post and placed his comment on my facebook page. I felt his response would make sense here, too. Steve often uses the word "proximate" in helping us reach a place where we acknowledge that justice or love or even the coffee I make is not going to be perfect even though we strive for it. So the question then is: how do we live in this precarious place desiring the Kingdom of God to be fully present and when it is not, how do we live faithfully? Answering that question has shaped much of his own life and ministry.

Steven wrote: "I don't know Steve Schaper, at all. But I wonder what on earth in Margie's post could possibly be seen as a universal statement about police brutality? It fails in even the most pedestrian logic. Most of the world lives by tit-for-tat, an eye for an eye. You gore my ox, and I will gore yours. It is a dead-end. I have many commitments, one being the Middle East, and especially the generational struggle between the Israelis and the Palestinians. It is a short-term fiction to think that one can be "for the Israelis" as over against the Palestinians-- and the reverse is just as much a problem. The harder work is being "for" both histories, and both futures. Sort of like being "for" public justice in Houston, huh? Or maybe even Madison? Unless we are content with justice being just "just us," that is. The real "killer" here-- excuse the term --is that Margie's much-loved brother is a county sheriff in Minnesota, and I know for my years of listening that he embodies a just mercy, a merciful justice. And that was what is missing from the arrest on the streets of Houston."

Mercy

We’ve probably all winced through enough Cop shows to recall them screaming: “GET ON THE GROUND. GET ON THE GROUND NOW!!” When the camera focuses on the suspect, and if he has spread-eagled himself on the ground, (like the young man in the video below), the cops run up, knee his back, bring his arms around, snap on the cuffs, and bring him to his feet. They don’t kick him repeatedly in the head and groin and punch him over and over in the kidneys. At least not in Cops I’ve seen.

I’ve been avoiding this post, trying to find better words to express what I mean to say and can’t say I’ve succeed here, either. Recently I placed this link on my facebook and someone commented:

“Good. Now let's see you condemn the teacher's union brutality and hate speech in Wisconsin and elsewhere.”

Someone else responded merely with: “Teacher's union brutality?????? Mercy.”

I got it – the aggressive sarcasm of the first remark and wondered whether to respond. I decided yes because the practice of brutality (wherever it is) and hateful rhetoric does not reflect the gospel and life of Christ. I’ll stand by this: whatever that young man did, he had already surrendered and the behavior of the arresting officers was wrong. We have courts and laws that are supposed to protect a suspect from what the Houston police were doing. Whatever grievances we have about the Teacher’s Union over there does not excuse the violence here.

 I thought of how we Americans often thank ourselves that we are not like other people in less civilized parts of the world. Places where human rights are violently abused and life is extinguished without mercy or justice. We think of Libya these days.

Happily, not all officers are like them. I’m proud to have a brother who is a county sheriff. He’s a savvy, powerful man, but he’s also wise and kind-hearted. I’ve often said that if you ever really needed help and saw him coming, you would cry with relief. On the other hand, if you were the suspect, you could trust him to respect the law and not to kick in your head or break your groin even if you’ve committed a heinous crime. We leave punishment to the courts and the law. In our country that is supposed to mean protection for everyone, regardless of race or social standing. Not that it does, obviously.