It’s always good to hear a cop story that doesn’t make you want to scream:
The central mission of police work is to uphold the law. But police officers are also human beings, and so can find themselves confronted with situations that force them to ask the question — should I really just look the other way? As south Florida outlet WSVN reported, Florida police officer Vicki Thomas recently found herself dealing with that very dilemma when she discovered a woman was shoplifting from a supermarket simply because she couldn’t afford to buy food for her children.
Thomas did arrest Jessica Robles on a theft misdemeanor charge, but opted against booking her and taking her to jail. Instead, she gave her a notice to appear in court. And then Thomas handed her $100 so she could buy more groceries.
Robles was picked up by Thomas at the end of September outside a Publix supermarket in Miami. She didn’t do much to hide her theft; she simply walked out of the Publix with a cart filled with $300 in food merchandise. She also made no attempt to cover up her crime. Upon being asked by Thomas why she had waltzed out with the booty, she responded by saying, “My children are hungry,” as Thomas recounted to WSVN. She added her boyfriend recently lost her job, but because of a paperwork problem, the federal assistance he was receiving for food had come to an end.
Thomas also told the police she has three children ages 12 and younger. And her 12-year old daughter Anais provided more details about the family’s struggles. “Not fun, to see my brother in the dirt hungry, asking for food, and we have to tell him, ‘There is nothing here,’ ” Anais told the news station.
Confronted with such a situation, what was Thomas to do? She first found out that Robles didn’t have a criminal past. She then decided to be understanding of Robles’s plight, opting against pursuing the struggling mother to the full extent of the law; Thomas charged her with a misdemeanor and gave her a notice to appear in court.
And Thomas didn’t stop there, as she told WSVN. “I made the decision to buy her some groceries because arresting her wasn’t going to solve the problem with her children being hungry,” she said.
Thomas will never be recommened to serve on the S.W.A.T. unit. Only those displaying the least amount of humanity will ever get that assignment.
Do you know any SWAT team members? I do, and your comment does not track with my experience. I wouldn’t say I agree with them on everything (of course, who could I say that about?), but I wouldn’t accuse them of lacking humanity either.
Anyway, what I stopped by to say was that it’s nice to see that a police officer saw the problem not as someone shoplifting but as children going hungry. Protecting the rich from the poor is not a noble profession. I am glad to see this officer saw a way to rise above that.
It’s refreshing to see that gunfire in the street isn’t the first and last recourse in FL. I’m sure the Teabag KKK will go berserk. “Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?’ The mantra of the 1%’s lackeys.