ightwatch
OPERATION
May-June, 2010
Newsletter
Newsletter
DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE
From everything I’ve read about the death of Jack Dale Collins, it sounds like an episode of “suicide by cop.”
From everything I’ve read about the death of Jack Dale Collins, it sounds like an episode of “suicide by cop.”
Mr. Collins led an isolated existence on the streets. He didn’t maintain much contact with anybody. And his actions became increasingly desperate. He recently confessed to having committed an act of sexual abuse, but upon inquiry it was discovered the incident occurred 42 years ago. For Mr. Collins to have felt the need to confess at his age must mean he had been feeling the burden of that action for a very long time. Where did his life retain any meaning?
When he emerged from the public restroom at Hoyt Arboretum, he was carrying a knife and was covered in blood. His autopsy would later show that the blood was from self-inflicted wounds. Fatefully, outside the restroom a policeman had been called to the scene. As the policeman reported, he had no idea whose blood was smeared all over Mr. Collins—for all he knew, Mr. Collins had left someone dying in a stall of that restroom.
When he emerged from the public restroom at Hoyt Arboretum, he was carrying a knife and was covered in blood. His autopsy would later show that the blood was from self-inflicted wounds. Fatefully, outside the restroom a policeman had been called to the scene. As the policeman reported, he had no idea whose blood was smeared all over Mr. Collins—for all he knew, Mr. Collins had left someone dying in a stall of that restroom.
But in the policeman, Mr. Collins saw his chance. It’s hard to kill oneself, especially using a knife. He headed forward.
The policeman told him to drop the knife, but he would not. Neither would he stop. The policeman was backed to a barrier against which he could retreat no further. Another warning, and still Mr. Collins would not stop. Then the policeman did what he was trained to do.
And I would guess that Mr. Collins got what he wanted.
We could of course argue whether the policeman used excessive force in stopping Mr. Collins. But there’s no question that, by his actions, Mr. Collins sought to provoke a response that day. And he had to know what the response was likely to be.
Jack Dale Collins didn’t come to Nightwatch. But I wonder whether things would have been different it he had. Social isolation is a corrosive thing. It corrodes the heart and it corrodes the spirit. What worth is there to life, after all, if a person must spend it so utterly alone?
Connection with others, on the other hand, can lead to one’s salvation. A recent study done at the University of Virginia, for instance, showed that people weighted down with a heavy backpack and taken to the bottom of a hill would give different estimates varying estimates of the steepness of the slope, depending on whether they were alone or with a friend. If they were with a friend, they saw the climb they would have to surmount as being much gentler. Moreover, if they were with a friend they had known for a long time, their estimates of the slope’s gradient were even lower.
We at Nightwatch don’t pretend to work miracles. All we promise is a welcoming place and those who can offer companionship and a listening ear.
But who knows? At least for some, it may also provide a vantage from which the slopes they have to face may not feel so steep.
The policeman told him to drop the knife, but he would not. Neither would he stop. The policeman was backed to a barrier against which he could retreat no further. Another warning, and still Mr. Collins would not stop. Then the policeman did what he was trained to do.
And I would guess that Mr. Collins got what he wanted.
We could of course argue whether the policeman used excessive force in stopping Mr. Collins. But there’s no question that, by his actions, Mr. Collins sought to provoke a response that day. And he had to know what the response was likely to be.
Jack Dale Collins didn’t come to Nightwatch. But I wonder whether things would have been different it he had. Social isolation is a corrosive thing. It corrodes the heart and it corrodes the spirit. What worth is there to life, after all, if a person must spend it so utterly alone?
Connection with others, on the other hand, can lead to one’s salvation. A recent study done at the University of Virginia, for instance, showed that people weighted down with a heavy backpack and taken to the bottom of a hill would give different estimates varying estimates of the steepness of the slope, depending on whether they were alone or with a friend. If they were with a friend, they saw the climb they would have to surmount as being much gentler. Moreover, if they were with a friend they had known for a long time, their estimates of the slope’s gradient were even lower.
We at Nightwatch don’t pretend to work miracles. All we promise is a welcoming place and those who can offer companionship and a listening ear.
But who knows? At least for some, it may also provide a vantage from which the slopes they have to face may not feel so steep.
Gary L. Davis