Coldness

London's metropolitan police force has seen just about everything in terms of crime, and they've saved much of the evidence. A forward-thinking officer in 1874 began saving items from historic cases to show new recruits. The museum includes items like: Letters from the Jack the Ripper case, an oil drum used to dissolve murder victims in acid; Cannibal Dennis Nilsen's cooking pots; The umbrella-fired ricin bullet that the KGB used to kill a Bulgarian dissident in London during the Cold War; Items that once belonged to Charles Black, the most prolific counterfeiter in the Western Hemisphere, including a set of printing plates, forged banknotes, and a cunningly hollowed-out kitchen door once used to conceal them.

The museum houses evidence from some of the most twisted, barbaric criminal cases of recent history. It is not open to the public, as some people think it's just too gruesome for public viewing, but it is used as a teaching collection for police recruits. It also may show the monstrous side of humanity, what we have been and still are capable of doing to each other.

Judge Michelini said to the defendant, “You just don’t get it. It’s obvious to me that you feel justified. You don’t take any responsibility for the outcome of your actions.”

After those words, Michelini issued a sentence of 25 years to life in prison. The defendant, Kevin Monahan, had been convicted of second-degree murder for his involvement in the killing of 20-year-old Kaylin Gillis. Gillis was a passenger in a car that accidentally turned into Monahan’s driveway while attempting to find a friend’s house nearby. In response Monahan shot at the car, fatally injuring Gillis.

Monahan had taken the stand in his own defense, attempting to testify that what happened was an accident. But the judge was unconvinced, not only by the substance of Monahan’s words, but his demeanor during his testimony. The judge said to Monahan:

The first thing you do on the witness stand is you made a joke to the jury about them finally being able to see your face. You senselessly took the life of Kaylin Gillis and you have the gall to sit here and talk about how you plan to finish up the work on your house and race motocross in the future. You don’t deserve that. What would make you think that you deserve those things?

After Monahan’s conviction, the defense asked for leniency in sentencing. But Michelini wasn’t having it:

Any remorse you have isn’t for the harm you’ve caused. The only regret you have is that you’re finally facing the consequences for your actions. You murdered Kaylin Gillis. You shot at a car full of people and you didn’t care what would happen and you repeatedly lied about it. You deserve to spend the maximum time in prison allowable under our law, and I don’t make this decision because it’s easy. I make it because it’s what’s deserved. I make it because it’s what’s just.

At the time of the killing, Gillis’ family made a statement, praising her as a “kind, beautiful soul and a ray of light to anyone who was lucky enough to know her.”

Of all the helping professions, police work seems the most suited to a dark, sardonic disposition often referred to as gallows humor. It’s the byproduct of being subject to crime, degradation, and violence on a day-to-day basis. Still, the case of Seattle police officer Daniel Auderer should help officers reflect on the consequences of their words, especially when they’re caught on camera.

Auderer’s bodycam footage recorded him joking with another officer while discussing the death of a pedestrian. SPD officer Kevin Dave had been driving over 70 miles per hour in his police vehicle while responding to an overdose call when his car struck and killed 26-year-old Jaahnavi Kandula in a crosswalk. Auderer had been summoned to evaluate whether Dave had been impaired at the time of the accident. Auderer was recorded saying that the city should “just write a check,” and implied that eleven thousand dollars would suffice, because, “she was 26, anyway … she had limited value.”

Auderer later wrote in a statement to the city’s Office of Police Accountability, "I intended the comment as a mockery of lawyers. I laughed at the ridiculousness of how these incidents are litigated and the ridiculousness of how I watched these incidents play out as two parties bargain over a tragedy."

Auderer admitted that anyone listening to his side of the conversation alone "would rightfully believe I was being insensitive to the loss of human life." The comment was "not made with malice or a hard heart," he said, but "quite the opposite." Still, police watchdog groups were not satisfied with the explanation, and several demanded Auderer be suspended without pay.

At the time of her death, Kandula was a student enrolled in the information systems program at Northeastern University’s Seattle campus. After her death, her uncle Ashok Mandula arranged to send her body to her mother in India. Mandula said, "The family has nothing to say. Except I wonder if these men's daughters or granddaughters have value. A life is a life."

Administrators for the 911 response bureau in Buffalo, New York, announced that they have terminated the employment of a dispatcher who mishandled a call during the shooting at the Tops grocery store that claimed the lives of ten people.

During one of the many 911 calls during the shooting incident, Tops employee Latisha Rogers was inside the store, and was whispering so as not to give her position. Apparently, that displeased the dispatcher.

Rogers said, “She was yelling at me, saying, ‘Why are you whispering? You don’t have to whisper. And I was telling her, ‘Ma’am, he’s still in the store. He’s shooting. I’m scared for my life. I don’t want him to hear me. Can you please send help?’ She got mad at me, hung up in my face.”

Local news identified the dispatcher as Sheila Ayers, an eight-year 911 veteran of the Police Services Department. Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said her actions were “inappropriate” and “unacceptable.” According to Poloncarz, dispatchers are trained to recognize whispering as a likely sign of imminent danger.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Walking in wisdom with a servant’s heart prepares a person to respond appropriately in stressful situations. It will prevent a person from jumping to conclusions that are harmful.

A former Colorado police officer was sentenced to five years in prison in connection to his conduct during an arrest of a 73-year-old woman with dementia. Loveland Police officer Austin Hopp arrested Karen Garner after she reportedly stole about $14 worth of merchandise from a local store.

Footage from his body camera showed Hopp grabbing her arm, twisting it upward as he pushed her onto the hood of a car, then pushing her to the ground. Hopp was also captured on police surveillance video laughing and joking about his treatment of Garner as he reviewed the body camera footage with another officer. At one point he even called attention to the popping sound her shoulder made as he dislocated it.

Hopp entered into a settlement with the prosecution, pleading guilty to second-degree assault in exchanged for a reduced sentence. Garner received $3 million in compensation from the city of Loveland. Family members say that money will help pay for the medical costs incurred from the injurious arrest.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Servants in positional leadership must exercise humility when dealing with others, particularly those who have fallen into trouble.

Jeanne Pouchain knows she’s not dead. But she has to prove it in court. The 58-year-old French woman was declared dead by a court in 2017 during a decade long legal case. An employee Pouchain had fired years ago sued her for lost wages and told a court that Pouchain was dead after she stopped responding to the employee’s letters.

Without evidence, the French court accepted the allegation and levied a judgment against Pouchain’s estate. The court’s decision set off a chain reaction in France’s bureaucracy, which scrubbed her from official records and invalidated her identity cards and licenses.

Pouchain recently told The Guardian, “I have no identity papers, no health insurance, I cannot prove to the banks that I am alive … I’m nothing.” Pouchain’s attorney then presented an affidavit to the court from her doctor attesting to her continued existence. Her former employee says Pouchain had been pretending to be dead in order to avoid paying the court-mandated damages.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Christians can also appear to be dead if they let their spiritual life lapse. This is true in church membership (Rev. 3:1) and also in the lifestyle they choose if they fall into worldliness (Eph. 5:14-15; Rom. 13:11).

Where's Susan? That's the innocent question Joshua Rogers's daughter asked as they were reading The Last Battle, the final book in The Chronicles of Narnia, by C. S. Lewis. Susan is the child queen who helped her siblings save Narnia from the White Witch in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. However, she is conspicuously absent from an early scene in The Last Battle that includes every character who traveled to Narnia as a child. Rogers writes:

"Daddy, where is she?" my daughter asked again.

"We'll see," I said, with a tinge of sadness.

Although I've read The Chronicles of Narnia dozens of times since I was a boy, Susan's tragic end gets me every time. The book eventually reveals that Susan grows up and outgrows her love for Narnia. We get few details about her until the end of the book, when High King Peter responds to an inquiry into his sister's whereabouts.

"My sister Susan," answered Peter shortly and gravely, "is no longer a friend of Narnia."

"Yes," said Eustace, "and whenever you've tried to get her to come and talk about Narnia or do anything about Narnia, she says, 'What wonderful memories you have! Fancy your still thinking about all those funny games we used to play when we were children.'"

Susan thought she had become too grown up for thoughts of a great king like Aslan and a blessed land like Narnia and, though she had once experienced it, she left it behind.

For a picture of ruthless ambition, you could look no further than Richard Owen, the gifted scientist who coined the term dinosaur in 1841. Owen wrote about 600 scientific papers and was the first to describe the archaeopteryx. But he would stop at nothing to further his career.

He told the publication Churchill's Medical Directory that he held the prestigious position of Professor of Comparative Anatomy and Physiology at the Government School of Mines. Too bad that the position was actually held by another man, naturalist T. H. Huxley.

Owen then took a discovery made by scientist Hugh Falconer and claimed that he had done it.

Owen essentially stole important specimens from other scientists; he would borrow the specimens, then never return them. When the scientists confronted him, he would deny he had ever borrowed anything.

When a young anatomist, Robert Grant, showed promise, Owen must have seen him as a threat, because he used his contacts at the Zoological Society to blackball Grant. Writes Bill Bryson, "Grant was astonished to discover that he was suddenly denied access to the anatomical specimens he needed to conduct his research." His promising career went nowhere.

Then Owen turned on Gideon Mantell, the person who had discovered the iguanodon and other dinosaur species. Mantell had been crippled from a serious accident, so he was unable to defend himself when Richard Owen "set about systematically expunging Mantell's contributions from the record, renaming species that Mantell had named years before and claiming credit for their discovery for himself."

When Mantell tried to publish new research, "Owen used his influence at the Royal Society to ensure that most of his papers were rejected. In 1852, unable to bear any more pain or persecution, Mantell took his own life."

If that weren't horrifying enough, when Mantell died, an anonymous obituary appeared in the Literary Gazette, criticizing Mantell as a mediocre scientist and claiming that the iguanodon was really discovered, in part, by Richard Owen. The obituary was almost certainly written by Owen.

Concludes author Bill Bryson: "Even Owen's son (who soon after killed himself) referred to his father's 'lamentable coldness of heart.'"

On February 24, 2001, a one-year old Canadian girl named Erika somehow wandered out of her mother's bed and house and spent the entire night in the Edmonton winter.

When her mother, Leyla Nordby, found her, Erika appeared to be totally frozen. Her legs were stiff, her body frozen, and all signs of life appeared to be gone.

Erika was treated at Edmonton's Stollery Children's Health Center, and God helped doctors and rescue workers bring her back to life. To the amazement of all, there appeared to be no sign of brain damage, and doctors gave Erika a clear prognosis—she would soon be able to hop and skip and play like other girls her age.

Some of us have wandered away from our Father's house, and it has brought us near the point of death. Our hearts have hardened, and our spiritual bodies look as lifeless as the little girl in the snow.

But our Father noticed we were missing and is searching for us. He can take our lifeless spirits and restore us to health. Let the Father pick you up and take you back to his house.

An old man was lying on his deathbed. He had only hours to live when he suddenly smelled chocolate chip cookies. He loved chocolate chip cookies more than anything in the world.

With his last bit of energy he pulled himself out of bed, struggled across the floor to the stairs, and headed down the stairs into the kitchen. There his wife was baking those aromatic cookies.

As he reached for one…, SMACK! He felt a slap across the back of his hand. His wife scolded, "Leave those alone; they're for the funeral!"

An estimated 500,000 tons of water rush over Niagara Falls every minute. On March 29, 1948, the falls suddenly stopped. People living within the sound of the falls were awakened by the overwhelming silence. They believed it was a sign that the world was coming to an end. It was thirty hours before the rush of water resumed.

What happened? Heavy winds had set the ice fields of Lake Erie in motion. Tons of ice jammed the Niagara River entrance near Buffalo and stopped the flow of the river until the ice shifted again.

The flow of God's grace in our lives can be blocked by cold indifference.

One death is a tragedy. A thousand is just a statistic.

Singer John Charles Thomas, at age sixty-six, wrote to syndicated columnist Abigail Van Buren: "I am presently completing the second year of a three-year survey on the hospitality or lack of it in churches. To date, of the 195 churches I have visited, I was spoken to in only one by someone other than an official greeter and that was to ask me to move my feet."

As those who live in the North know, when temperatures plunge well below zero, few cars left outside will start. The oil thickens and holds engine parts like heavy syrup. Cold batteries are incapable of giving enough power. Only batteries that are kept warm or those that are frequently charged will do the job. Unused batteries freeze. If you attempt to charge a frozen battery, it can explode.

Unused spiritual batteries also die in the cold of unbelief. Only by regular use and by receiving power from an outside source can spiritual power be maintained. And any attempt to infuse spiritual power into a frozen spirit seldom works. Only a warm spiritual life can be charged with power by God.

The greatest criticism of the Church today is that no one wants to persecute it: because there is nothing very much to persecute it about.

Chad Walsh wrote an intriguing book entitled Early Christians of the Twenty-First Century. He provoked my thinking with words like these:

"Millions of Christians live in a sentimental haze of vague piety, with soft organ music trembling in the lovely light from stained-glass windows. Their religion is a pleasant thing of emotional quiver, divorced from the intellect, divorced from the will, and demanding little except lip service to a few harmless platitudes.

"I suspect that Satan has called off his attempt to convert people to agnosticism. After all, if a person travels far enough away from Christianity, he or she is always in danger of seeing it in perspective and deciding that it is true. It is much safer, from Satan's point of view, to vaccinate a person with a mild case of Christianity so as to protect him from the real disease."