Humanity vs. Law

A few days ago, I caught a short article about a young mother and her trouble with the law.

As the account goes, the mother was spotted shoplifting at a local Dollar General. She was observed by the security cameras, and the employees contacted the police department.

Given that her apartment was only a few blocks away from the store, it was easy to locate her.

The officer is seen knocking on the door of her upstairs apartment, and the mother walks out holding a baby against her chest.

Officer: “Ma’am, we are aware that you stole something from the Dollar General. Can you tell me what that was?”

As she cried, the mom’s heartbreaking response was …

“Sir, I stole five eggs to feed my hungry children.”

Even though she admitted to violating the law, the officer did not arrest her.

Instead, he drove her to a local supermarket and purchased groceries for her family. He also made Dollar General whole.

When asked why he took this course of action, the officer responded …

“Sometimes we shouldn’t apply the law but must apply humanity.”

The Law

While I believe firmly that we must have laws, there are some gray areas here and there, as we saw with the mother stealing food for her family.

As a collegiate basketball referee, we were taught the following principle: “Make your decision based on the spirit and intent of the rules.”

What does this mean?

There are times when we should apply common sense instead of the literal sense of the rule, such as the following …

• A player falls within the lane area, and he is obviously in there longer than the allotted three seconds. He is trying to get on his feet to avoid the violation, but it is taking longer than usual. It is clear he is not gaining an advantage, so we can overlook it.
• A coach says, “Jimmie, this is crazy! Nothing is going our way today with the calls. Please give us a chance to compete!” For referees, this is a VERY borderline comment because the insinuation is that we are cheating, which leads to an immediate technical foul. However, if the coach is respectful and somewhat courteous with his approach, I can merely acknowledge that I heard his concern and move on to officiate the rest of the game.

Whether in business or just in life, I’ve learned that taking a black-and-white approach to situations is problematic.

There is almost always a middle ground to consider.

Humanity

The officer in the egg stealing case showed his human side. He kept his handcuffs in place and led with his heart.

I suppose this is what my message is about here.

I believe I am a much better person when I avoid judgment and show compassion to others. There are times when the laws or rules must be followed, but there are also many times when exceptions can be made.

The takeaway for me here is that I need to look for the exceptions first, especially when the result pertains to helping others.

Homework Inquiry

During the next week, here’s your homework inquiry: How will you show your humanity side?