Movement 103

Whose business is it anyway?
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Being people with progressive theological
and political interests, we were delighted to
come across a young evangelist, standing
on a plafform, preaching the Saving
Message of Jesus Christ to the various
skateboarders and dog-walkers in the
surrounding area. We were in no hurry, so
we thought we would go over and have a
listen to the Saving Message of Jesus Christ
and perhaps engage him in some
discussion. He was in his early twenties and
seemingly new at the public declaration of
faith game, but he had a lot of guts, and
was holding his own. The surrounding crowd
was largely ignoring him, although some
were laughing a bit. After about five
minutes, he still hadn't taken a break, and
we were worried he might run out of good
testimonials to share. Suddenly two police
officers appeared, one ofthem saying: "Yo,
Billy Graham, come here for a second!" My
companion and I looked at one another, and
we realised that something bizarre was
happening. The evening had suddenly
become much more interesting.
We immediately jumped up and headed
over to find out exactly what was
happening.
The two officers towered over this tiny
preacher, and were doing a lot of talking.
As we got closer, the officers turned to us,
the approaching threat. For the purpose of
this story, we will call them Officer Edgy
and Officer Yeah. Officer Edgy had a clear
control of the situation, and he spit his
words at us like blowdarts: "What do you
two want?" Before I go on to tell you the
rest, I have to say at this point that my
companion all the speaking that night to
the 'two in blue'. I was paralysed, not with
fear but with the awareness of the
uselessness of engagement. I knew that
they would not, under any circumstance,
listen to a thing we had to say. I knew it. I
spent all of my time trying to find a way to
communicate with these people who were
obviously trained to perform by the book.
"We want to know what he is being
arrested for." asRed my friend, stunned as I
was by the almost tangible aggression
being launched at us. "Are you with him?"
"No." "Then stand over there, it's none of
your business!" lndignation set in for about
two seconds. "None of our business?! We
just want..." Officer Edgy began to twitch.
"l'm asking you nicely, and for the last
time, move over there, now... no, back
further!!" Officer Yeah: "Yeah!" We did as
we were told, my friend pleading that we
were not jerks, just concerned citizens
seeking clarification and education. They
kept the preacher in the back seat for
-{,
Rcr GnnnNo
about twenty minutes and we waited
obediently. Then the door opened, and
Officer Edgy emerged, telling the Preacher
he could leave, which he did, but not until
praying for these guys (much like Jesus
prayed for the Roman soldiers, I'll bet).
After that, he checked to see if either of
the two men had been converted by the
Officer Edgy cut in: 'Are you a
phitosophy student? You sound like a
phitosophy student! ...You're a
minority? What minority are you?"
Saving Message of Jesus Christ. Sadly,
neither had. So the Preacher scurried off,
without even coming by to see us, his sole
supporters, who waited patiently in
Gethsemane.
Aro now, rHE REAL BATTLE BEGAN.
We approached the conversing officers, who
had forgotten us. Officer EdS/ spun around:
"Don't sneak up on me!! Never, ever, sneak
up on mel I have a dangerous jobl" What he
had was a dangerous face. He looked
through us, trying to see if we were serial
killers secretly disguised in SCM t-shirts. His
eyes were huge and glassy, and his
eyebrows were bushy and almost alive,
flickering like flame. My friend began his
case: "ljust want to know, as a member of
the community, why this kid was arrested."
"Oh, ljust love when people start to remind
me that they are members of the
community and that I am supposed to be
serving them! A complaint was called in
because he was yelling and screaming and
bothering people." "This is a busy street
corner, the cars are louder than he was.
What constitutes a disturbance of the peace
anywaf Are you saying thatjust because
someone, anyone complains, a person can
be arrested?"
"Yes." Officer Yeah: "Yeahl" "Well, I also
am concerned about the way you
approached this guy, calling him Billy
Graham. lt was pretty derogatory. lf you
approached a Hindu and called him
Mahatma, it would be insulting." "Are you a
philosophy student, kid?" The condescending
tone threw my companion for a loop.
"Huh?" "Are you a philosophy student?
You sound like a philosophy student!" "Uh,
no..." "Are you a law student, then?" "Hell,
no! I'm just a young person, like this guy
was, and a minority, and I need to know
what the law is about these things so that
1..." Officer Edgy cut him off: "You're a
minority? What minority are you?" My
companion had no idea how to respond:
"Uh, l'll let you figure that out for yourself."
"Officer Edgy had had enough: "Look, this
is my badge number.
lf you don't like the way I do my job,
take it up with my sergeant. We have
criminals to catch and crime to stop!"
Officer Yeah summed it up well as they
drove out of sight: "Yeah!" And we were left
alone to sort out what had just happened.
What began as an opportunity to
confront someone about theology we
disliked turned into a frightening attempt
to protect his right to speak it. The power
and authority of these two men, in their
dark uniforms, with their guns, their billy
clubs, their pepper spray, their badges,
and the clear legal ability to do pretty
much whatever they chose, was a brick
wall which stopped us in our tracks. I have
great respect for the awesome
responsibility of police officers. They
cannot enter dangerous situations with any
other option but to seize control. But in
this case, there was no danger. No
assessment was done to see if an arrest
was warranted. And certainly we had the
right to ask questions of the people who
are there to protect our rights and uphold
the law.
I still wonder, however: how do we
support people like this, and challenge
them at the same time? How do we
support a justice system (well, legal system
is a better term here) that disempowers
citizens in scenarios such as this? And
lastly, what should we realistically expect
from the police considering the range of
situations they face daily? This was my first
real encounter with the law, and it was
fairly tame. I wonder if the next time l'll
'mind my own business' a little less?
*I discpprove of whctyor $qF,
but I will defuid to thc dsth
your right to scy it'
ll,olrants' otromal
movement 5