SH*T does not just happen.
It is a decision hinged on how people tend to understand things and carry their responsibility. For law enforcers and those who are given the authority to carry guns, it can unwrap itself in unprofessionalism and abuse of power, when remained unchecked and becomes the norm.
For several decades, the public has to grapple with the fact that there are cracks in law-enforcement, and that somewhere along the way, there are those who could and would come out in its defense and provide the flimsiest excuse.
Permissiveness allows abusers to get away. Entitlement provides them the confidence to run around and trample on those whom they think have nothing, not even the voice to question what they do. It is this mindset that hinders the security sector from fully reforming itself, and to fall into the vacuum of complacency.
Everything becomes shitty when there is lack of respect and compassion. It is when trigger happy police personnel hide behind the justification that the risk of a civilian collateral is unavoidable. It is when the decent members of the police force could do nothing but shrug their shoulders, bow their heads in shame but get on going anyway.
For indeed, how could anyone bring back the life of a six-year-old girl? No amount of wailing, nor tears from the mother could resurrect a life that was snuffed out. Not even the death of the father, suspected to be a drug user, could make it easier to accept that a child could die. It was not the first.
One needs not be inside or outside of any political fence to empathize with the pain of losing a child. Nor of the inhumanity of it all -- including that of one’s voice being drowned by the noise of justifying the act, and of being used for propaganda from either side.
There are absolutes. Most probably the reason why standards are in place. It holds true on what we stand for, whom we privilege and the way we do things. It is the soul’s signature on who we are.
Then again, shit happens.
In the tiny choices. It is us when we allow ourselves to take advantage of others, manipulate our way to gain, and when we celebrate, justify and tolerate pain by telling survivors to just bear it out and move on.
We do our own share of injustice every day, whenever we refuse to regard, feel and authentically see others as persons on their own. Whenever we refuse to take accountability.
Shit does not, by itself but when we choose to be. It is us every time we smile and skip along with it. Email comments to roledan@gmail.com.