Maybe We Are Winning…

A policeman makes reverse 911 calls

instructing residents to take to the streets.

A patriarch reports for duty.

She is wearing an orange jumpsuit,

and holding a picket sign.

She is ashamed of her birthplace,
but retreat is not an option.

Flobots – “We Are Winning”

She never thought things would ever change but,

She always knew there was something wrong.

Flobots – “Anne Braden”

The purpose of government, [John] Locke

wrote, is to secure and protect the God-given inalienable natural rights of the people. For their part, the people must obey the laws of their rulers. Thus, a sort of contract exists between the rulers and the ruled. But, Locke concluded, if a government persecutes its people with “a long train of abuses” over an extended period, the people have the right to resist that government, alter or abolish it, and create a new political system.

Constitutional Rights foundation – “Natural Rights”

Section two of the book Jesus For President by Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw is called a “New Kind of Commander-in-Chief”. Jesus For President provides more historical and political context to the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth.

One of the subsections within this section is titled “Occupied by a Legion” (pgs. 114-115). Here the authors zoom in on the account of the man possessed by an unclean spirit calling itself Legion. The account can be found in Mark 5:1-20. I felt the need to review their commentary this week.

In the last few weeks, we’ve seen scenes that looked like American cities (and a District) were being occupied by some military force. And in many ways, they were.

Protests and demonstrations that started as a response to police brutality have produced more evidence of police brutality. And that brutality has looked more and more militaristic.

Sometimes police used violence to respond to violence being used against them. Sometimes they used it because people were in their way, and they had orders to move them. One time, it was arguably for a photo op.

As protests and demonstrations have continued, a call to defund the police has emerged and been sustained.

Conversations and policy and actual proposed changes have come as a result. Breonna’s Law passed in Louisville.

Budgets are being scrutinized. As is the application of police forces.

There are times when 911 is called, and people with guns show up, but maybe people without guns should be showing up instead.

Thankfully, police aren’t using their guns the vast majority of the times when they do show up. But procedural questions have been raised too. Like, maybe the people that show up shouldn’t chokehold people, and maybe shouldn’t put their knees on people’s necks. And maybe shouldn’t lie on the record when they use force. Or just, not lie on the record at all.

And I agree with all of that.

But it’s that very threat of violence that is so appealing to some. We’ve seen a national leader threaten to send in troops if a certain quiet is not kept.

That threatening spirit seems to be in line with the threat that Amy Cooper made towards Christian Cooper, in another episode of living while black in America.

Certain people of privilege, feeling their comfort or status threatened, may call out to forces for help. And they may make that call, because they know that they hold a certain level of authority in society.

It is here, in the drafts that I was drafting but that never felt right, that I would have admonished those who are attempting to follow the teachings of Christ, to acknowledge our privilege and authority and to call for the backup that we have the  authority and the right to call upon, as we look at Christ as our guide.

And that’s all true. And words could be spent on it. And maybe I need to do more of that. But this week…

Here are some of the things that I want to say, and that I think need to be said, but that are probably not going to be said in the way I would want them to be said.

Begging your shriv’ness. These words are not perfect. That does not matter enough.

After the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, and Breona Taylor, and George Floyd, I went back and listened to the song “We Are Winning” by the Flobots. The song is almost 13 years old now.

This group, like many poets, singers, songwriters, activists, and theologians, spoke with such prophetic fire, to the already and the not yet.

I remember listening to that song years ago, on repeat over and over, getting chills, believing that change was not only one day going to come, but was here.

And then something would happen to make me reassess and lower my expectations. Then there might have been a breakthrough. Then another setback. Another body. Another abused policy.

But then, after George Floyd, protests broke out across the world. And not only protests, but policy discussions and negotiations and reforms. Again, Breonna’s Law, and talks of the banning of chokeholds.

There are more and more discussions on race. And the Confederacy. And those monuments. A few years ago I wrote a post called Iconoclasts. Back then, I could not have imagined what would happen in just a matter of weeks.

I went back again, and listened to this song this week. And two lines really stood out:

“A policeman makes reverse 911 calls instructing citizens to take to the streets.”

We are not quite there yet.

There have been policemen that have taken a knee with protesters, and have called out the brutality in their culture at large. One even allegedly confessed (on a now taken down Instagram account that) “We killed Eric Garner…WE PUNISHED HIM FOR RESISTING ARREST…” according to the New York Post.

But there have also been officers that closed ranks, and raised shields. In Boston, 57 officers resigned from a special squad after two members were suspended for their treatment of a 75 year old protester.

(quick sidebar… It’s here that I was going to say that one officer even said the police as a whole have not been violent enough against African Americans. I went back and looked at the larger context. The bigger picture and the final word from that officer looks more like “And so, I don’t want anybody to be shot. Nobody does,” I just thought I would put that in here. You can read more about it here if interested in that bigger picture.)

We are on such a precious precipice.

Many of the calls to defund the police are calls to reallocate funds to community based programs that might prevent the need for police to be called at all. We are longing for a new and different world.

When asked what type of government the nation that was becoming the United States of America would be some eleven score and thirteen years ago, legend has it that Benjamin Franklin said, “A republic, if you can keep it.”

These calls to defund the police, are calls for republic. They are calls to challenge the authoritarianism represented by the current police state that certain Americans feel themselves under.

This is also a call for communities to do what they need to do to maintain a common good with less policing or a narrowing of policing. This is why there have also been calls for investment in education and economic opportunities.

But tied into all of these calls for defunding the police, there is a perceived threat of displacement for law enforcement. Some of their reactions smack of “I’ll take my ball and go home if I can’t play by my rules”. But I think some of these reactions, come from men and women feeling a challenge to their identity.

As a citizen of this nation, I long for systemic policy change. As a Christlike, compassion calls me to long for personal identity change.

The cold and callous look in the eyes of Derek Chauvin, as he killed George Floyd, didn’t come from nowhere. Chauvin had more than a dozen complaints against him related to abuse of force. He was a repeat offender among repeat offenders.

I (like many others) have said that there needs to be more investment in mental health and social services for citizens, and for law enforcement. I think that the men and women in uniform will really need identity investment now.

So, why open with Jesus for President and that stuff about Legion?

Claiborne and Haw point out the subversive poetry that the gospel account of Legion has. These authors need to break it down to the modern reader, but they sum it up this way when referring to the original audience: “They got the message. Imperial power is bad for your health.”

There’s another world, that I can’t see,

Where angels and demons

are constantly fighting over me.

There’s another world, inside of me.

Where flesh battles spirit

I know I can feel

Lord comfort me.

Tedashii – “Angels and Demons” ft Crowder

I’ve written about how unseen spiritual principalities can influence and help to create cultural principles. I think that, within the role of law enforcement, this is especially true. With great power comes great temptation to abuse that power.

Once that seed is sown, unclean lies may be accepted and affirmed. That seed will bring forth fruit after its own kind, that is reaped, and sown again and again. 

Someone said earlier this week, that any of the officers who walked by the downed and bleeding Martin Gugino, would have likely stopped and helped, had they not been in that cultural context (sorry I don’t have the source in hand. Will try to update once I have it down.)

As we call out for policy change, we must pray for this culture and those enslaved in an unhealthy culture within it.

We should pray for Sauls to become Pauls.

We should pray for centurions to have those close to them healed by the words of Jesus. I wonder how that changed the conversations within the barracks, and at the command levels?

In some arenas we are winning.

Products of toxic patriarchy are acknowledging the sins and abuses of chauvinism. Once occupied minds are activating. Some police are breaking the blue wall of silence.

In some arenas we are winning.

… And then Rayshard Brooks.

There is still so much further to go.

As a nation we are reckoning with our past and present culture in deep and meaningful and uncomfortable (for some) ways.

There is a long train of abuses.

I am longing for abolition and excorcism. I wonder if we’ll ever receive that reverse 911 call, joining with us and working for the same, from people who once thought it could never change, but always knew there was something wrong.

I am hoping we are winning.