Mennonite Weekly Review

If in trouble, many pacifists would call the police. Yet we don’t often consider whether that choice would always be in line with our Christian beliefs.

Police officers can serve many roles, some of them focused on conflict resolution. At times pacifists can work with police officers for the broader community good.

However, we should take into account that police do use violence against suspects — sometimes innocent ones — including taking life. We should be wary of enlisting the help of police when it means they could harm another person in an effort to protect us.

It is tempting to think that police use of violence is acceptable because officers only target the bad guys. But Jesus told us to love our enemies, and that includes not asking an armed person to confront them so we can feel like we’re keeping our hands clean.

Further, in some settings it is difficult to determine who the good and bad guys are. Police abuse is a daily reality for many people in North America, especially African-American and Hispanic men.

On June 28, a jury found a former Chicago police commander guilty of lying and obstructing justice in a previous lawsuit about the torture of criminal suspects in city jails. Such incidents should cause us to think, before calling the police, about the potential treatment of those arrested.

Christ’s command to “not resist an evildoer” includes not abusing or taking the lives of murderers, even those who commit atrocities such as genocide. Thus, we should carefully consider whether we can support police actions by armed forces to intervene in humanitarian crises.

Ted Koontz, professor of ethics and peace studies at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Ind., gave a presentation on Mennonite Central Committee and just policing at MCC’s 90th anniversary conference June 13-14 in Akron, Pa.

Just policing seeks to operate under a more strict framework than war, with a defensive rather than offensive approach. Policing actions aim to more narrowly target guilty parties and more carefully control armed forces.

While just policing can be a step in the right direction insofar as it reduces violence, it still involves justifying taking some lives to save others, Koontz said.