Tuesday, November 11, 2008

30. Confrontations With The Law

The kids come into confrontation with the law on a daily basis. Sometimes they deserve it and sometimes they don’t.
Over the years, working with the kids, I too have had my fare share of “head butting” with the police and security guards in downtown Cape Town. I would not say that I handled every situation the proper way, but at the same time, I see all of my experiences as times of learning and I would say that I am now much better at handling some of these conflicts between the kids and law enforcement figures.
For me, it is not always so clear-cut on what to do when I see police or security guards mistreating the kids.
If a kid does something wrong, then he or she should be punished for it, just like anyone else, but even in that situation there is a proper and an improper way to deal with it.
I also understand something that I have heard over and over again.
The police, security guards, and even random shop owners say that I am “not always around” and that I “don’t know what the kids get into” and many of the situations branch out of the police and security guards’ previous frustrations or encounters with the street kids.
Yes, it is true, I am not always around but it is not true that I do not know what is going on. I know that the kids are far from angels much of the time and, as I said before, I know that they get into trouble.
But there is a proper way to handle it and kicking, hitting and other forms of abuse and violence is not the way.
One of the biggest problems is the lack of training for these law enforcement officers. They are undertrained, underpaid and they have pressure on them from businesses and government to “get rid of the kids”.
With this in mind, most of the conflict situations that I have been involved in were when the kids were not doing anything wrong. These ‘flare-ups’ only antagonize the situation and make it harder for authority figures to deal with the kids and result in the kids being more disrespectful towards authority figures in general.
I can take many things, but one thing I cannot, and refuse to stand and watch, is an adult abusing a child in any way, especially when the adult is in a position of authority.
Being a Christian makes these situations a little more complex. I read in the Bible, and strongly believe, that we as Christians should be defenders of orphans and widows and speak out against injustice.
But what is the right thing to do when this may require using some physical force?
At the same time, as a Christian I am supposed to “turn the other cheek” and walk in love. I guess it is easy when it is your own cheek, and not a child’s that is being hit.
I have asked myself many times the famous question, “What would Jesus do?” if he came across a police officer beating a young boy. I find it hard to believe that He would just stand there and allow it to happen.
But that is one of those questions where the answers are not always so obvious.
In those situations I just act on what I feel. Sometimes it has been right and other times it has been wrong. Here are just a few memories of my encounters with the law.
A huge crowd had gathered around two kids fighting each other.
Michael, about thirteen at the time, was furious and was chasing the other kid with a pole that he picked up. I had dodged the pole and ducked out of the way of a flying rock in my attempts to break up the fight but Michael would not stop.
Two police officers showed up on the scene to “diffuse” the situation.
They ran after Michael and one of them hit his upper body with full force as the other kicked his feet out from under him. I watched as Michael’s body bounced on the ground like a rag doll.
As his head hit the ground it sounded like a melon hitting the ground. Then the police stood and watched as a random passer-by, who probably had had a previous bad experience with one of the kids, kicked him with full force in the ribs.
The man had on huge combat-type boots that looked as though they had steel toes.
I can still hear that hollow sound it made as the man kicked Michael’s ribs with all of his might. In shock that the police were allowing this to happen, I ran up and pushed the guy away and questioned the police on their judgement.
By this time, Michael was having trouble breathing and he was coughing up blood. They eventually shrugged off their actions and involvement and left Michael lying there on the ground.
This was the first of my many big confrontations with the police.
It was in 2000 and at that point, I had only been living in Cape Town for a few weeks so I was not sure what to do in that kind of situation. I soon learned how to speak up.
Another memorable event that also happened to involve Michael was one night on Long Street.
A group of about eight boys were sitting in a little side area, out of the way of the shops and not causing any trouble. I came up and sat with them and we just sat there and talked for a long time.
Out of nowhere two cops came up and without any warning started kicking the boys and yelling profanities, telling them to go away. Now, I understand if they wanted us to move for some reason, but I did not feel that the way they were handling it was appropriate.
But I merely stood up and told the kids that we could just move and sit around the corner.
Michael, annoyed, must have sworn as he was walking away because one of the police officers, who was twice his size, walked over to him, grabbed him and threw him against a parked car.
I felt a HUGE adrenaline rush but I continued standing there, watching and didn’t want to react rashly.
Then the police officer began violently pushing Michael against the car. Every time Michael tried to stand up or walk away, he was pushed back onto the car.
At that point, I had seen enough! It felt like something jumped in me.
I walked over to the officer, whose back was to me and I grabbed him by the shoulder and spun him around. He was shocked and still extremely worked up. He started toward me as if he was going to grab me and so I pushed him back away from me.
He told me not to interfere and that he could arrest me for interfering with his job and I said, “If your job is to beat up little kids then you can go ahead and arrest me but I am not going to stand here and watch you do it!!”
I also told him that I spend a great deal of my time trying to teach these kids to respect the police and situations like that is what makes what I say a waste of breath. We had quite a few words and then his partner pulled him away and I took his name.
I can still picture the kids’ faces as I confronted the officer. They were proud. Proud that there is someone that believes in them in some way and proud that there is someone that is willing to stand up for them, when need be.
Of course, by the time I walked to the other side of town that night, the news had already reached the other kids that “Ryan fought with the cops”.
Another experience that I think about now and laugh is my attempted arrest.
One afternoon I was sitting with a group of boys that had just been given some potatoes and they were making a fire to cook them. This was nothing out of the ordinary because there are no stoves on the streets so the kids depend on fire to cook their food.
There were probably about twelve to fifteen kids and we just sat there and talked and goofed off. In the same manner as the last situation I talked about, a police officer came up and started kicking the kids around, swearing at them, and telling them to put out the fire.
I stood and watched and was extremely surprised at the kids’ obedience and respect that they showed.
I went over to the side and the police officer had not really seen me yet. As they were putting out the fire, I got a message on my cell phone and the officer heard the beep sound and thought that one of the kids had a stolen cell phone.
He immediately started pushing them up against the wall and telling them to spread their legs because he was going to search them all. They all just went along with the whole thing, also knowing that it was my cell phone and that none of them were guilty of anything.
I felt myself get a little angrier, but I continued to watch.
The last straw for me was when the police officer hit one of the kids because he wouldn’t answer him. I calmly walked over and said, “Hey, there is no reason to hit them. It was my cell phone.”
The police officer excitedly came over towards me and said, “Who are you?! Get up against the wall I will search you too!!!”
Okay, this is when this situation started going downhill.
I told him that I am an innocent member of the public just standing there minding my own business and there is NO way that he was going to search me. He then tried to grab me by my shirt and tried to push me up against the wall and I, instinctively, hit away his hand and pushed him back.
I told him again that there is NO way that he was going to search me!
He informed me that he could search ANYONE he wants at ANYTIME, that he didn’t care if I am the President, that he was going to search me whether I liked it or not and that if I continued being difficult he would arrest me.
I told him, “Well, you might as well go ahead and arrest me because the only way you are going to search me is if I am in a police station!!”
He then mumbled about how he had a difficult one on his hands and he radioed for back up. In the meantime, some of the kids ran to an organization nearby that is also working with the kids to tell them that “the police are trying to arrest Ryan!”
The people from the organization knew me well because I worked alongside them.
From that point on it was like everything happened in slow motion. I looked to my left and saw two police officers walking up on foot. I looked to my right and I saw two more police officers walking up from that side.
Then I heard the siren off in the distance getting louder and louder until eventually a police truck squealed up to the scene to haul me away.
Right as they slammed on their brakes, a lady and a man from the other organization came running up with a few kids leading the way.
By that point the crowd of kids had grown, and there were about seven police officers on the scene. All for little old me! The people from the other organization came and talked to the police and scolded the one cop for his behavior, as did his superior who happened to be the one driving the truck.
The situation was diffused.
It all ended with the original police officer coming up and shaking my hand. That was a memorable event that could have turned out much worse! I still laugh at the thought of the guy having to call back up to take me in.
It makes a person feel good to be wanted!
Another interesting confrontation was with a couple of security guards that ride around on horses. It was actually my first day back in town after my visit to the States in September 2001.
As I mentioned earlier, the kids were really happy to see me back and I sat with a group of them as they asked me all sorts of questions about what had happened in New York.
I looked up at one point, and there were two kids rolling around fighting in the middle of the road.
I got up, ran over and broke them up. We walked over to the sidewalk and I started listening to the two sides of the story when I saw one of the boys look behind me.
Now, at this point, there was a group of about ten kids standing behind me, and then the two fighters in front of me. When I looked back over my shoulder I saw that there were two of the security guards that ride horses riding up.
In the time that I had looked away, the two boys had started fighting again and I broke them up again.
The two security guards saw commotion and galloped up and began riding into the group of boys, with their horses. I was astounded! The horses were stepping on some of the boys, one of the boys fell down underneath one of the horses and then one of the horses came up on top of me and started pushing me over.
Something jumped into me.
I guess it was an adrenaline rush mixed with anger. I punched the horse as hard as I could across the face (poor horse) and then I swore at the security guard that was propped up on top of it.
I then started trying to pull him down off of the horse!
I guess I was literally trying to get him off of his high horse. Right when I had almost fully pulled him off of the horse, I kind of came to my senses and thought, “Wait! What are you doing?! You are PULLING HIM OFF OF HIS HORSE!!!”
I then pushed him back up on his horse.
Needless to say, he was shocked for more reasons than one. He said that he didn’t see me there and he thought that it was “only street kids” that were standing there.
I said, “And that would make it right if it was ‘only street kids’ standing here?! I am sorry but it is NEVER right to run people…ANYBODY…over with your horse!!”
He apologized over and over again and I walked away to try and cool off. He and his partner moved over to the side and stood there in shock.
Well, ironically enough, as I was standing over to the side trying to gain back what little composure I could, a man came up to me. Now he hadn’t seen the whole event that had just taken place and he said that he always sees me with the kids and he really respects what I do and he asked more about my work with the kids.
I told him about it and he picked up that I am from the States and he asked me, just to confirm.
When I told him that yes I was from the States, he said, “Oh, well, I am a Muslim and I just want to say to you that what happened there in New York was a terrible thing and I apologize to you on behalf of the Muslim community.”
He then went on to tell me that a situation like that was NOT what his religion was about.
He told me how amazing he thinks my work is, and how every time he sees me he can just see love pouring out of me. He went on and showered me with compliments for a few minutes. I was flattered and yep, I felt like crap because I realized that I had just acted in the exact opposite of what this guy was talking about.
I finished talking with the nice man and then I looked over at the traumatized security guard still sitting on his horse, off to the side.
I went over to him and said, “Listen, I am really sorry for swearing at you. That was wrong! But I do NOT change how I feel. You CANNOT ride over kids with your horse and if I see you ever do something like that again, I will report you.”
He also apologized and said that he realized it was wrong.
Now, ever since that day, every single time I see him in town, he smiles and waves and I have not seen or heard of him doing anything like that again.
Another funny experience was on the same day that I had to go to court to get the warrant taken off of me.
Two friends and I were standing on Adderly Street waiting for Faizel. Now, as I mentioned earlier, Faizel was really nervous about this whole warrant thing. He knew that I often got into confrontation with the police and he knew that now they actually had the right to arrest me. He told me to go straight from the train station to our meeting point.
I found his nervousness quite funny!
As we waited for him, I saw two police officers approach a kid that was parking cars across the street. They started harassing him for no apparent reason.
My friends kind of anxiously looked at me and I said, “No. You know I can’t get into one of these situations right now.”
Two more police officers walked up onto the scene. There were now four grown adults, harassing one small kid that had begun to cry.
I still decided just to stand and watch.
Two more police officers strolled up. So now we had six police officers harassing one crying kid for no apparent reason. I decided that I had seen enough.
I started walking across the street.
My friends tried to stop me and I told them not to worry and just stand over there and wait for me. When I walked up onto the scene, I politely and calmly approached one of the officers and said, “Hi, my name is Ryan. I work with the street kids and I was just wondering what charges you are arresting this kid on.”
He defensively responded by saying, “You will have to go to the police station to find that out!!”
Another one of the officers rudely asked what I wanted. I turned to him and still calmly said, “Hi, as I told your friend, my name is Ryan. I work with the street kids and I was just wondering what charges you are arresting this kid on.”
He snapped, “Are you his lawyer?!”
I said, “No… as I said, my name is Ryan and I work with the street kids. I am not his lawyer, but I am curious to know what charges you are arresting him on.”
The officer then told me that if I wasn’t his lawyer I could go find out at the police station and I told him I would. At this point I could see Faizel walking up in the distance.
I also saw the fear on his face when he saw me standing there with six police officers and a crying kid. He started walking a little faster.
Another police officer asked what I wanted.
I turned to him and repeated the same line as before. He growled, “You know I could arrest you for interfering?!”
By that time, Faizel had picked up his pace to almost a jog and had almost reached me. I decided to play with him a bit. I said to the cop, “Go ahead and arrest me if you want!!!!”
Right as those words came from my mouth the look of sheer horror came on Faizel’s face and he ran up, grabbed me by the arm and started pulling me away quickly. To work on his nerves a little bit, I yelled out, “Go ahead and arrest me if you want!! There is already a warrant out for my arrest.”
The police officer had no idea what I was talking about and as Faizel dragged me away I laughed and the officer just shrugged his shoulders.
I think that whole situation gave Faizel a couple of grey hairs and it brought a little humor to the day!
When all is said and done, I have gotten better with these situations! I have managed to diffuse some potential battles between the police and the kids.
One of those situations was on soup outreach one night. Driving up the street looking for the kids, I could see a HUGE group gathered on the side of the road. I could also see a police truck and a security car parked there.
As we got closer, I could see that there was a huge argument erupting between about ten security guards, two police officers and about twelve kids, mostly older boys.
When I stopped the van, I saw that four security guards were struggling to get two of the smaller boys in the back of the truck. At the same time, the older boys were yelling and swearing at the large group of law enforcement officers.
I went and parked the van up the hill and away from the action and ran back down the hill.
By this time they had managed to get the two small boys into the back of the truck and I could hear them screaming, “RYAN!! RYAN!!!!” from the inside.
I could see that a fight was about to break out between the older boys and the security guards. They were lined up and had taken sides and were in each others’ faces, shouting profanities and yelling at each other.
I knew most of the older boys very well and have a good relationship with them. I also knew that they are guys that I myself would never mess with, and the majority of them carry knives. I knew that if I didn’t step in, it could possibly get messy.
I stood in between the two quarrelling groups and I started to mediate, by talking to one side and then the other.
I turned to the boys first and said, “Ok, enough!!! Walk away!” They all wanted to tell me their side of what had happened and I told them that I would listen but they first needed to walk away and I was going to listen to what the security guards had to say.
The one boy who is kind of a leader in the group said, “Come on guys. Listen to Ryan. Let’s go.”
And he started to lead them up the hill to the soup van. As they were walking away, one of them started getting excited again and shouted down at the security guards, and I actually told him to shut up.
Like a scolded puppy he said, “Okay, sorry Ryan!” and then continued walking up the hill.
The reason the boys were so upset was because they had actually not done anything wrong. The security guards and police just showed up and started harassing them and when some of the boys were provoked, the whole situation turned sour.
I talked, calmly, with the security guards and explained to them that I understood their side and that I wouldn’t take their job for any amount of money, but that those situations only make it more difficult to work with the boys in the future.
They were receptive and agreed with what I said.
They were set on taking the two younger boys to a shelter for the night, and I didn’t stop them but I did tell them that it wouldn’t help and would only make them more angry and disrespectful in the future, and that they would only run away from the shelter in the morning.
They took the boys anyway, and sure enough the boys were back in town the next morning.
Anyway, that was a situation that could have been bloody, but I actually managed to keep my cool and both sides were happy and calm in the end.
That night I realized that I have actually come a long way.
There have been other funny situations that didn’t really even involve the kids. I have broken up fights between beggars and shop owners, security guards and random drunk guys, and other different types of people.
One of the funniest situations happened one day in the yard of the train station.
I was sitting on a wall near the grassy area of the station, talking to a group of kids. While we were sitting and talking a female police officer came up and told us we had to move.
She asked if she could have a word with me so I stood up and we moved over away from the kids. We stood on the edge of the grass and she began to talk to me about the frustrations she faces with the kids robbing people in the station.
As she was making known all of her frustrations, a man was busy behind us trying to cut the grass with a weed wacker. He got close to us and the weed wacker flung a rock into the air. It flew in our direction and almost hit the female police officer.
She was furious!!
She screamed at the man, who was only trying to do his job, and swore at him. Well, I guess he was not having a good day or something, but he went crazy!! He started towards her and pointed his weed wacker at her and yelled, “HEY!! I am just trying to do my job!!!!!”
She pulled out her baton and that only provoked him more and he started at her with his weed wacker, revving it up.
With the blade of the weed wacker spinning, he started chasing her around the station yard, and she ran around swinging her baton in the air, screaming profanities.
It was a funny sight and the boys just sat on the wall and watched and laughed at the whole event.
A station security guard walked up on the scene and I asked him to help me break it up. I went for the guy with the weed wacker and the security guard went for the police officer.
I ran and got in between the spinning blade of the weed wacker and the woman and I held my arms up in the air. I talked with the disgruntled weed wacker guy and told him that I understand that he was only doing his job and that he was also doing a very good job.
I managed to calm him down and he went back to his work.
I walked back over to the security guard and the female police officer, who was fuming. Wanting to vent her anger, she then started to pick a fight with the security guard.
She got up in his face and started yelling at him.
The security guard started to get angry. They stood chest to chest, in each others’ faces, screaming at the top of their lungs in a verbal battle that began to get more heated.
I got in between them and broke it up and then I told the police officer that I thought she should be on her way before something else happened. I also expressed that I felt like she had set a very bad example for the kids that were sitting and watching the whole scene so intently - the same ones that she had just been complaining about because of their “bad behavior”.
She was not happy to be reprimanded but when I threatened to report her she decided to be on her way.
I started talking with the security guard. We laughed about the whole situation and began talking about the kids, when the weed wacker man got close again.
Just like before, the blade hit a rock and it took flight and actually hit the security guard.
He immediately lost his cool and started for the poor weed wacker man. Ready for another battle, the frazzled weed wacker man said, “WHAT?! WHAT?! I just want to do my job!!!!!”
He started for the security guard with his weed wacker and began chasing him. I kind of just stopped and stepped out of the situation for a second and looked at it.
There were two grown men, one chasing the other one with a weed wacker and the other running away yelling that if he “catches him without the weed wacker”, he’s going to see what happens!
I managed to get to the weed wacker guy again and I grabbed the pole of his machine and turned him away from the security guard, who began to lividly walk towards us, panting from the chase.
I turned and grabbed him and he yelled over my shoulder at the other man who began revving up the weed wacker again. I told the security guard that he needed to leave immediately before I reported him and he took my advice and left the scene.
I then went over and talked with the poor weed wacker man again and once again told him that he was doing great work and I appreciated him for it.
He calmed down and went back to his work.
I went over and sat back down with the kids and we laughed until the point of tears while recalling and talking about the whole event. It was definitely a memorable occasion!!
These are truly only a few of the many confrontations I have been in. I have seen boys being taken down into toilets and beaten, I have been threatened by the cops, and I have even threatened them myself.
There are stories going around town about my run-ins with the police and over the years they have gotten bigger and bigger.
Not too long ago I heard a boy telling the story of the time I punched a security horse so hard that I knocked it out and then I threw the guy off of the horse. As funny as it is, the boys are proud to have someone that will stand up for them and even get physical if need be.
I have definitely learned a lot since that first confrontation with that first police officer and I still do not always handle the situations perfectly, but I have learned that I should speak out when I see injustice. I have learned that, if necessary I should use force.
I have learned also to try and see and understand both sides and come to some sort of an agreement, before things get too out of hand.

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