Tragedy

One of the slow moving tragedies of our age is the opiod epidemic that is claiming more lives than most wars.  Recently, a young woman in Vermont died of an overdose and her sister wrote a moving obituary to her.

What is more interesting is the response from the Burlington Police Chief.  (I'd read about this guy in my college alumni magazine, and knew I could expect something special.) 

Go read it.

What he points out is so distressing about this issue is that we can make a real, clear difference.  We can save thousands of lives with a few reasonable steps.  This passage sticks out:

This is what I'm tired of: Arguing with sheriffs about their deputies carrying Naloxone at national conferences. Arguing with corrections officials at home about getting all inmates who need it on medication-assisted treatment early on in their sentence and keeping them on it even after they leave. Getting mocked by reactionaries because I won't arrest desperate people for using non-prescribed addiction treatment meds.

If nothing else I will be able to be sanctimonious and know for certain I was doing the right thing. But the NYPD didn't raise me that way, and it's not what a city needs in a chief of police. It raised me to win: to protect and rescue people, and to vanquish threats, not just to be smug about being right. To get the Maddies of a city home.

Here is the problem we face in our policing that extends beyond BLM.  Here is a mindset that sees addicts for their criminality, not their humanity.  The dehumanizing of people by police is partly a defense mechanism.  They deal with tragedy and evil every day.  Best not to think too hard about the humanity of the people you police.  And from there, you are a step away from ICE agents tearing children from their parents.

We need more cops like del Pozo.