Insensitive?

A couple of us were to meet the Police chief of a model Station (training vignette of course) and discuss equipping of the forces and maintenance complaints.

We drove up to the station taking careful note of the man on the cell phone watching us.  Did the obligatory meet and greet with the Chief's staff and made our way to the conference room.  Not a bad place, seems to be in order.  The conversation was pleasant and my references to my Greek heritage were making their mark. 

Its too bad there was all this yelling and blood curdling screams coming from the jail.  What to do.  The Chief said not to be concerned, as this is just disgruntled people complaining about being arrested, but rest assured he said, they are bad people.  Hmmm I thought, well carry on and please close the door so all that pesky noise wont bother our meeting.

Well, its time for a tour of the jail.  My, there is a lot of blood on the walls, and one man is demanding to speak with the foreigners.  What to do???  Do I risk usurping the Commander's authority by intervening or do I quietly take stock of the situation and report it to higher ups later.  What to do?

After we ended the vignettes, our mentors (mostly US Institute of Peace folks) were incensed.  How could you ignore the plight of this man?  Didn't you see obvious signs of prisoner abuse? We are the beacon of freedom and should intervene as a demonstration of US commitment to purging abuse from the world.  Why yes I did see some evidence I of abuse and took notes, but I did not feel I was in a position to intervene directly....... silence. 


I guess we failed that exercise.  These dilemmas we are given are torturous. On one hand you want to engage and an the other  you have a mission.  I am a truly compassionate person when it come to suffering, but I guess today I demonstrated an indifference.  

Bad George.