Business and home owners often call me to complain about homeless people on and around their property, but the one that I received a few weeks ago was a little unusual.
A person living in the caller’s tool shed out back had begun leaving trash and feces around her property and scaring her neighbors. She wanted to know what I could do to help her. Most people would be quick to act if they discovered someone living in their outbuilding, but by the way she spoke, it sounded as if this person had been there a while. I dug a little deeper.
It turned out the man, whose name she didn’t know, had been living in the tool shed since before she and her husband purchased the house, eight months ago. Since he didn’t seem to have anywhere to go, they let him stay there after they bought it. His behavior recently turned disruptive, but because he was there with permission and refused to leave willingly, she had to go through a lengthy civil eviction process, which was still ongoing. In addition to the garbage and feces, she was also worried that he might retaliate when deputies issued him an eviction notice.
Though not the first homeless-person-overstays-his-welcome call I’d received, this seemed a little extreme. My jaded, devil cop was yelling in my ear that this was a problem completely of the woman’s own creation, and now she wants me to fix it for her.
At the same time my patient, angel cop was whispering sweetly in my other ear that helping people out of their own holes is a large part of policing. And even more importantly, the kindness and generosity to strangers that this couple had shown to a needy man is vitally important to the health of our entire community, even if it works out poorly in some individual instances.
The important role kindness and love play in society can be easy to miss as an officer.
Imagine a warm summer evening, burgers on the grill, a chilled IPA in hand, chatting with good friends and neighbors sitting in chairs on the freshly-cut lawn ... the kids playing joyfully with puppies nearby ... How many of us would think, “You know, I should call 911 and invite a cop over to share this with us.”
None of us, of course. We call police when there is a crisis. We call when we are threatened or attacked, or someone has stolen our stuff. Sometimes the suspects and victims know each other. Often they do not. The police are needed when bad luck strikes, and when hate, anger, greed, desperation or selfishness disrupt our ability to live together respectfully and peacefully.
Officers see society at our worst on a daily basis. These sights embolden the jaded devil cop who yells a sarcastic reply to the woman asking for help out of her hole.
They can also obscure the tens of thousands of acts of kindness conducted among Portlanders that police are never called about, including who-knows-how-many folks providing a bed, a couch, or even a shed to friends, and strangers, in need of a roof.
Acts without which I suspect I’d have hundreds of times the number of calls to answer.
Following the angel cop’s whispered instructions, I discussed with the woman various solutions to her problem, as well as alternative ways she might help homeless folks in the future.
And I thanked her for her kindness to a stranger.
Robert Picket is a police officer in Portland, Oregon.