Over two months ago, Fullerton police approached a schizophrenic man and asked to search his backpack. The man was Kelly Thomas, a known fixture around Fullerton and someone you have probably seen — but perhaps didn’t notice — if you have spent any considerable amount of time in downtown Fullerton at night.

Public sides with Thomas’ family

The month following the deadly beating resulted in protests, death threats, public outcry and a general unrest by Orange County locals who were disgusted and felt betrayed over the killing. According to the Orange County district attorney office, 18 threats have been made directly to officers or police stations, ktla.com reports.

YouTube videos spread like wildfire, the news and media outlets exploded and bloggers of many opinions started firing rounds back at each other, lighting up the Internet brighter than the Disneyland fireworks show.

No matter what your opinion on the issue may be, I must challenge you to look into it intellectually before spouting off your two cents.

Recently, as reported by The Sacramento Bee, the D.A. office declared their part of the investigation as halfway completed. With the facts present, it’s easy to side with Thomas’ family and the public in general.

The YouTube account “FriendsforFullerton” posted a video of the incident. The commentator noted, as Police continued to tase Thomas, “I don’t know why they don’t just put cuffs on him, and call it a night.” This was after they had already forced Thomas onto his back and continued to tase him.

Examining the facts

Based on those facts, it’s easy to think of all cops as pigs and dirty good-for-nothings. But then you need to look at it from the perspective of our law enforcement officers, who put on a uniform in order to serve our country and protect people like you and me.

Let’s repeat the facts, but this time, read it from another perspective. Police received calls about a man breaking into vehicles. They approached Thomas wanting to search his backpack when he resisted and became violent. We would later find out from multiple interviews from Thomas’ father Ron, that he was a registered schizophrenic and probably off his medication.

I’m not completely in defense of the Fullerton Police Department though. I think they should all be required to take a special class on how to deal with people with mental disabilities, and a specific unit task force should be considered to deal with drug abusers as well.

We need to remember that the police are trained to defend the public and go through many facets of training — including hand-to-hand combat, take-down techniques, and shooter training. I actually had the chance to go through a training simulator that’s used by police nationwide during this summer. It’s intense, and it gave me a broad perspective on the adrenaline kicks those trained to use force go through on a daily basis. They never know who might turn on them with a weapon or some sort of forceful retaliation.

So before we burn any officers at the stake or cry for a reformation of our law enforcement here in Southern California, let’s have some perspective.

Helping the homeless

As Biola students and God’s church, we so often proclaim that we should defend individuals like Thomas. He was homeless, well-liked in his community, and as I said before, relatively a fixture amongst Fullerton locals. Yet, how often do we roll up the windows when we drive up to an intersection and someone is begging, or how many times do we question what they will do with our money?

Fullerton and the areas that surround Biola are full of individuals like Thomas. But normally, we have a tendency to flee from their side instead of rushing to them. While many at Biola are active in those communities, going to places like Fullerton and Skid Row to pass out water bottles and food to the homeless, many of us walk on the other side of the road — just like in the parable with The Good Samaritan.

So while I’m completely for defending Thomas and supporting his family — with a grain of salt, of course — I would like to challenge our student body to be more willing to go into the farthest corners, away from our mythological Biola bubble, and into the depths of the homeless communities. Perhaps we can … no — certainly we are called to, be a shining light of aid and change so that perhaps we can even prohibit these events from ever taking place.