Love Covers a Multitude of Sins

Love Covers a Multitude of Sins
Psalm 32

Yesterday a federal court found six police officers guilty of shooting six citizens in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. My wife and I were reflecting about how the rest of us can’t simply dissociate ourselves from an event such as the shooting. The police represent us; we commission them to maintain order in the polis, the city. The defense argued that we ought to make allowances for mistakes people make in such dangerous situations, for they are having to make split-second, life-and-death decisions. Whether or not this is so, the further offenses involved in orchestrating a systematic cover-up of what happened reduce the sympathy one feels for officers caught up in the horrendous pressures of such a situation. Still, we have to see the officers’ failure as also our failure insofar as we owe them our support...