What Jesus Taught

New Yorker Eduardo Delacruz always wanted to be a cop, and ten years ago, he did. In 1997, Delacruz volunteered for a new unit in the NYPD that would seek out the homeless and guide them toward city shelters and other services. He felt like he was doing something positive with his life.

But in 2002, the rules changed. Instead of directing the homeless to city services--many of which were cut due to budget problems--the homeless outreach unit was ordered to practice a zero-tolerance policy and arrest homeless people who were trespassing or loitering. Commanders even suggested that officers work toward a "one-arrest-per-week" quota.

When Delacruz was called in by a sergeant who had handcuffed a homeless man in a Manhattan parking garage, and ordered to officially make the arrest, Delacruz refused. According to an Associated Press article in the August 6 edition of the Los Angeles Times, Delacruz simply said, "I'm not going do it. I'm not going to arrest a homeless man." (Read the story: " Defending Vagrant Led to Backlash, Officer Says " )

That was two years ago. Delacruz was suspended without pay and accused of refusing to obey a direct order--an offense that could get him fired from the force and lose his pension. His case is being heard by an administrative law judge right now.

The police command argues that the officer should be punished--a police force depends on a strict chain of command and disciplined response to orders. Those who work with the homeless say that Delacruz is like a select conscientious objector. He is faithful to his police duties, but in this particular case could not obey an order that violated his conscience and struck him as immoral.

"We had been trying to help people, " Delacruz explained. "Now we were going after them." Speaking to a New York Times reporter last week, Delacruz said, "My position in life is to treat people like I want to be treated...That's what Jesus taught. That's what I instill in my children."

Catholic Connections

"Human beings have been made by God to participate in this [divine] law, with the result that, under the gentle disposition of divine Providence, they can come to perceive ever increasingly the unchanging truth. Hence every one has the duty and therefore the right, to seek the truth in matters religious, in order that he or she may with prudence form for himself or herself right and true judgments of conscience, with the use of all suitable means.

"Truth, however, is to be sought after in a manner proper to the dignity of the human person and social nature. The inquiry is to be free, carried on with the aid of teaching or instruction, communication, and dialogue. In the course of these, people explain to one another the truth they have discovered, or think they have discovered, in order thus to assist one another in the quest for truth. Moreover, as the truth is discovered, it is by a personal assent that all are to adhere to it.

"On the individual's part, he or she perceives and acknowledges the imperatives of the divine law through the mediation of conscience. In all activity a person is bound to follow his or her conscience faithfully, in order that he or she may come to God, for whom each one was created.
Declaration on Conscientious Objection and Selective Conscientious Objection
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 1971

Reflection Questions

What do you do when you're given a legitimate order to do something that you think is morally wrong, even if legally required?

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