Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Anabaptist Revisions

Home
Evangelical
“All in this together”? Policing and homelessness in South Bend, Indiana

“All in this together”? Policing and homelessness in South Bend, Indiana

Last updated on: June 6, 2020 at 8:24 am by David C. Cramer

“All in this together”? Policing and homelessness in South Bend, Indiana 2020-06-06T08:24:45-05:00 David C. Cramer

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

“All in this together”? Policing and homelessness in South Bend, Indiana

David C. Cramer and Carrie Badertscher

“We are all in this together.”

It’s a phrase we hear often during this unprecedented time of crisis for our community. As pastors in South Bend’s Keller Park neighborhood, we have seen this phrase in action over the past few months, as our people have stepped up for those in need. After we converted our sanctuary into a food distribution center, we have seen congregants and neighbors give sacrificially to ensure that their neighbors—some of whom they have never met—do not go to bed hungry.

Police encircle “tent city” in downtown South Bend

But on the afternoon of Tuesday, May 26, we were confronted with a question: Who counts as the “we” who “are all in this together”?

About a week earlier, we noticed an encampment of homeless neighbors near the corner of Michigan and South streets in downtown South Bend. The next day we took a hefty amount of leftovers to the encampment following our food distribution. By then the homeless residents had been forced to move across the street onto city property.

Over the course of the week, we took food to the encampment several times. Each time, we witnessed a group of people who know what it means to be “all in this together.” They took the food we brought to a centrally located table, where they distributed it in an orderly way to each person in need. They thanked us for the food and wished us God’s blessings and good health. Many of them wore masks to protect their neighbors from possible contagion.

Then on Tuesday afternoon, a congregant alerted us to news that South Bend Code Enforcement was forcibly evicting our new friends at the encampment. We quickly jumped in a van and raced to the site. When we arrived, we saw more police officers than homeless residents. We saw a bulldozer ready to level the encampment. We saw officers with what appeared to be rubber-bullet or paintball guns drawn. We heard the police chief threaten over a megaphone to open pepper spray on those who did not pack up their belongings and leave the property immediately, describing the extreme pain it would inflict on those who refused to leave. We heard nothing of alternative locations being offered by the city.

According to HUD’s 2019 report to congress, nearly 40,000 veterans experience homelessness in the United States—which means that after commemorating our fallen soldiers on Monday, by Tuesday afternoon we were telling their surviving comrades to pack up their belongings and get off our lawn.

While some of the homeless citizens grew understandably agitated by the extreme show of force, many of them peacefully explained to the officers that they simply had nowhere to go, as the shelters were full, and the city was offering them no other option. They explained that disbanding a group that was quite literally obeying the mayor’s recommendation to “shelter in place” would only increase the likelihood of contagion not only among the homeless community but also throughout the communities into which they would be dispersed. They were pleading for the officers’ own sake to allow them to remain sheltered in place.

The mayor later issued a statement declaring how “proud” he is “of how our men and women in the Department of Code Enforcement and Police Department took on this very difficult task.” Presumably this means that he approves of threatening to use bulldozers, riot weapons, and pepper spray on his own citizens—including veterans—who are peacefully sheltering in place in the middle of a pandemic.

Thankfully, a nearby church allowed the residents to move onto their property for the night—a short-term compromise to deescalate the situation and buy a little more time for a solution. Meanwhile, at Tuesday evening’s common council meeting, the mayor proposed using the old Salvation Army building for weather amnesty this winter. While this proposal is commendable, it still leaves our homeless residents without good options in the immediate future.

While the solutions to homelessness are as complex as its underlying causes, we cannot begin to address them meaningfully until we get clarity on one thing: these South Bend citizens are part of our collective “we.” They deserve to be treated with respect and dignity—and not with threats of force and violence.

About Carrie Badertscher and David C. Cramer

Carrie Badertscher is community pastor, and David C. Cramer is teaching pastor, at Keller Park Church, in the Keller Park neighborhood of South Bend, Indiana, where they both live with their families. You can read more about the author here.

Previous Post

May 6, 2020

Love in the time of Corona

Next Post

August 11, 2020 Church Broker's Son—a tribute to my dad and Starflyer 59

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Anabaptist Ecosystem Blogging Books Current Events Dispatches Evangelicalism Guest Post Interview Mennonite History Nonviolence Rad Women of Scripture Sermon Uncategorized

Select a Month March 2024 November 2023 August 2023 July 2023 April 2023 March 2023 June 2022 May 2022 January 2022 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 August 2020 June 2020 May 2020 February 2020 January 2020 November 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

According to Colossians, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge?

Select your answer to see how you score.

God the Father The Scriptures The Holy Spirit Christ