It is cruel and unloving to give a person a badge that says everyone needs to obey them, and a gun to enforce that authority with lethal force, and then to tell that person We trust you completely to handle these well. You will not be held accountable for what you do with them. To me, this idea is both Christian, formed by the doctrine of original sin, and Lutheran, from the idea that we need laws to restrain our sin, but Im sure it can be made from many other positions as well. Humans, bless our little hearts, often mean well, but were remarkably susceptible to corruption from outside forces. Sometimes Christians name them powers and principalities, sometimes we all just say power corrupts. This is one of the tragedies of human existence: people who want to do the right thing not being able to through ignorance, or being placed in the wrong situation, or any other number of other reasons. I believe the vast majority of police officers enter the force because they want to do the right thing. And many do, many times. But if we give them authority and lethal force, without acknowledging the dangers these powers have, without surrounding them with support and accountability, were incredibly naive about what these powers can do to them. And if we combine the demonic idea that some humans are less valuable, that some groups of humans are more dangerous than others and are the enemy, that these groups of humans are identifiable on sight, then, dear friends, we create monsters. It is unloving not to do this. It is not supporting police officers to allow this to happen. The loving, supporting thing to do is to acknowledge the dangers of the powers we give them, to create safe spaces for them to talk about their weaknesses in the face of these powers, and to hold them accountable so they know they wont get away with an abuse of the powers. To send them out with a badge and a gun, but without the protection of accountability, is just as dangerous to them as to send them out without bulletproof vests. And then we need to name, fight, and banish the demon of racism whenever we see it. And how much more true for CIA interrogators.
Posted on: Sat, 13 Dec 2014 17:41:02 +0000