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In 2005, an African-American man named Jameel McGee was arrested on drug charges by a white officer named Andrew Collins. Like most accused men, McGee adamantly proclaimed his innocence.
Unlike most accused men, he was telling the truth.
Andrew Collins was on patrol in the small town of Benton Harbor, Michigan when he spotted Jameel McGee walking by himself. Wanting to make yet another drug arrest to pad his résumé, Collins approached McGee and made the arrest…in spite of the fact that he had to falsify reports to do so.
While McGee was sent to prison, Officer Collins continued to make bogus arrests, doing whatever was necessary to justify his actions. However, a few years later the crooked cop’s luck ran out, and Collins was arrested for falsifying reports, planting evidence, and theft. The two men traded places; McGee was exonerated and Collins was sent to prison.
Upon his release, McGee only had one ambition: revenge. That’s understandable; his reputation had been ruined and his life had been interrupted by a four-year stint in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.
But in 2015, while trying to rebuild their lives, the two men ran into each other at Café Mosaic, a faith-based employment agency in Benton Harbor. Needing jobs more than vengeance, the bad cop and the wrongfully accused man agreed to work in the café’s cramped kitchen.
The close quarters caused Collins to breakdown one day. “Honestly, I have no explanation, all I can do is say I’m sorry,’” he said to McGee…which was what McGee had been waiting to hear.
These days, they’re not just co-workers, they’re also close friends. Reflecting on the forgiveness McGee offered him, Collins is brought to tears. “He doesn’t owe me that. I don’t deserve that,” says the former law enforcement agent. When asked by reporters whether he forgave Collins for the cop’s sake or his own, McGee pointed to his Christian faith, and replied, “For our sake.”
Click here for the online report.
Topics Illustrated Include:
Accusation
Criminal
Forgiveness
Hate
Injustice
Love
Police
Prison
Racism
Revenge
(Resource cataloged by David R Smith)
