An unhoused woman went into labor, and was cited for public camping

I need you to watch this video so that you'll understand

“I might be going into labor. Is that okay?”

Friends, I need you to watch this video.

Take 5 minutes of your time, please, and watch this. (The last ten minutes of the video are mostly the officer sitting in his squad car doing paperwork.)

What you are watching is body cam footage that was released after a FOIA request of an interaction between a police officer, who has received commendation for his “compassionate” homelessness response, and an unhoused woman who is in active labor.

Pause.

Take a deep breath, because you probably need it. When I watched this, my blood was boiling and tears were running down my face.

I need you sit with this. There’s so much I want to say, that I don’t have the time or wherewithal to say it all in this moment.

The fact that she was previously living in an RV until it was impounded.

How her voice broke when she lamented, “I hate my life so much.

The way the officer told the dispatcher, “I don’t believe for one second that she’s in labor.” (She had her baby later that day.)

That the dispatcher sent EMS under the belief that they were encountering someone who was schizophrenic.

There are even more harrowing details in the reporting on this incident. About how they confiscated the mattress while she was waiting for the ambulance. About how the officer wrote her a citation and did not mention the pregnancy or labor at all in his report. That the officer is since serving a suspension for covering up another officer’s use of unnecessary force against another unhoused person.

And what I need you to sit with is this:

This is not rare.

Interactions like this happen every day, in your city. While it’s shocking to witness this depravity, it’s only because lawyers got involved in this that we are seeing what happens constantly. I’ve witnessed it countless times with my own eyes. I’ve heard the stories of hundreds of others and, unlike the officer in this video, I believe them.

This is what happens when our response to homelessness is punishment; when we put laws on the books (and uphold them at the Supreme Court level) that say even if you have no place to go, you cannot sit, lie, stand, or exist in public. It has long been the case, but is now enshrined and codified as the acceptable standard, that to be homeless alone is to be a criminal, regardless of anything else you do or don’t do.

God, I’m so angry.

And wow is it fitting that this news breaks right before Christmas. In a few days, at Christmas Eve services across the country, we will retell a 2000 year old story about a pregnant woman who goes into labor and gives birth in a manger because she has nowhere else to go.

2000 years later, and a young pregnant woman still can’t get people to care that the baby is on the way and she needs some support.

And the same people who celebrate this Nativity birth story sound exactly like the police officer. Compare the following two quotes:

From the above article: “Officer Stewart said that handing out food and tents to the homeless may encourage them to continue their behavior, countering that ‘it's important we create that bit of friction of people to maybe help inspire them to make other decisions.’”

From a Christianity Today interview with John Ashmen, the former CEO of CityGate Network, the national coalition of Gospel Rescue Missions: “What's missing here is a sense of responsibility. Because of our desire to be humane, we have taken away any sense of responsibility from people who are on the street… if you don't have a sense of responsibility and you don't feel some sort of pain from living this lifestyle, then we're going to see more and more people there.”

For those wondering why my next book is going to talk about that model of service, this is why. Because as much as I am deeply hopeful in the ability and capcity for Christians to meaningfully participate in the ending of homelessness, we absolutely have to reckon with the way many Christians and Christian orgs are complicit in the terrorization of people who are just trying to survive

I’m so angry. But I also have hope.

If there’s any consolation here—it’s in the Christmas story.

Because 2000 years ago, when a young woman couldn’t get the support she deserved while in labor, in a nation run by violent, greedy men backed by religious hypocrites

A Savior was born.

In a world that echoes that same distress, imbalance of power, violence, nationalism…

Where a young unhoused woman cries out for someone to care that she’s in labor…

As the people of God choose alignment with the powerful over solidarity with the vulnerable…

What will be birthed?

Only time will tell, but I suspect whatever it is will be birthed moment by moment, in and among those who choose to live a different kind of life, to form different kinds of relationship, and join different kinds of communities.

Merry Christmas to all those who resist.

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