The following story (and thoughts therein) occurred during the summer of 2020.  For some, this might be a sensitive topic.  It isn’t my intention to side one way or the other.  My only my intention to share my experience with what happened and my conflicting thought process.  As always, I’m open to conversation because I feel like if more tough conversations were had with folks from different backgrounds, we wouldn’t feel so divided.  Shall we begin?

I’m backing out of my parking spot with a podcast playing about how personal debt is actually the cause for recessions (riveting material).  The weather is nice with mild humidity.  I can tell that it’ll be a scorcher this afternoon.  I begin my drive to work by making a left turn into very mild traffic (the silver lining to the pandemic).  As I drive down a local road, I notice a tall figure at the bus stop.  I’ve passed this bus stop hundreds of times before, so this figure stands out.  The figure is completely brown and reminds me of a mannequin that’s been sitting out in the sun for too long.  I continue trying to make out this figure and finally realize that it’s not a mannequin at all.  It’s a thin man who’s standing motionless and naked. 

My first thought was to call the cops.  Not because he’s a danger to others, but because he obviously needs to some help from a mental facility.  But, given the climate at the time (George Floyd and other instances of excessive force by police), would such a call ensure that this person gets the help that they need? Would the first responder that arrives be ill equipped to handle such a situation? If the situation were to get out of hand, would this man end up another victim?  These were among the many thoughts I had.  To me, this thought process is shined a light on how overburdened police are.   They are called to handle everything from mental health situations to domestic violence incidents to cats in trees (or is that the fire department?) to you name it.  Did I end up calling the police? Of course not.  How come? I didn’t have the confidence that he would receive appropriate and, more importantly, the safe help required.  I didn’t want to expose someone who needed help to a potential hostile situation.  I don’t like the situation I was placed in.  My hesitation shouldn’t be a “thing”.  I should be able to make a phone call, and know that this person will be okay.  Unfortunately, in that situation, it seemed best to just leave him be and to enjoy the weather. 

Some reading this might be thinking, “Dude! Not all cops are bad! You should’ve called them to provide him with some sort of help instead of nothing!” Unfortunately, given the intense climate at the time and since it isn’t an absolute guarantee that he would be shown empathy while being assisted, I couldn’t take that chance. I’m using the unfortunate logic that SOME police use when getting into situations with people of color.  To me, this situation highlighted a plethora of issues that I can’t all cover in this entry but wanted to touch on. 

I foresee a part two to this entry in the future.  It’s crazy how an incident from a place I’ve never been, and probably never will be, impacted my decision-making process many miles away.  Maybe I was impacted by the media…hard to say.  I wish this weren’t an issue worth writing about, but beauty and flaws are everywhere.  Maybe one day, such a situation doesn’t warrant hesitation.  Thanks for reading.