Does faith have anything to do with how you turn out in your life? Is there a big difference between police officers and the people who they arrest? I think we have all heard stories about crooked cops in various cities. You will find good and bad people in almost any profession that you look at. I worked in internal affairs I would say most officers are good, hard-working, honest people. But honestly there are some people who should not be police officers. I supervised numerous investigations, and some people should have picked other professions.
Adam Procell is Interim Director of Partners in Hope. This is a faith-based organization that helps people who have been incarcerated get back on their feet. Now this might sound a little strange, but Adam got together with some MPD officers to plan an event. They decided to go sky jumping from an airplane in Jefferson. Adam states “he attempts to find common ground with people”. “He continues we are supposed to be enemies according to some people”. A female officer in attendance stated, “somebody has to make that first leap of faith”. Adam responded,” it’s hard to hate another group when you are 10,000 feet up in the air”. There was a pairing of 10 officers with 10 formally incarcerated individuals. Mr. Babovich, who owns the Wisconsin Skydiving Center, stated,” this is a bonding experience that takes away from the boundaries that we have”. He continues,” when that door opens up there, they are all the same”. MPD Lt Michael Dix, stated “sometimes it takes faith to overcome what’s in front of us”. He continues,” here on the ground it is easy to lose site on what we have in common”.
Lt Dix added,” when we start to paint others with a broad brush, and they paint us it’s harmful to everyone”. Adam added,” society states do the crime, do the time, and I understand that”. “But after that point if someone cannot get a job, or live in a certain area, it may push them into the darker areas of society”. Sergeant Amy Rivera stated,” this holds a new meaning to finding common ground”. Each officer was paired with a person from Adam’s group for the jump down. Adam stated the most exciting part of the day wasn’t putting his faith in a police officer jumping out of a plane”. “It was watching the police officers and the formally incarcerated bond after the jumps”. “It was beautiful just to see people come together and be human”. The people who put on this event would like to do another one in the future.
There are a lot of crazy things going on in the world today, so this event was amazing in my opinion. I would never have thought something like this could have been put together. Maybe there is hope for us after all?