Protect the innocent

Protecting the innocent is the most difficult decision and action to which a human being will be subjected, because more than reacting without reason to interpose body and life between the agents of evil and the innocent victims; It implies all of the above, plus, a lot of heart, empathy, detachment, physical, mental, spiritual training and above all the prior encouragement of wanting to confront those who wish to harm the weakest and most defenseless at any time and under any circumstances; It also implies not letting oneself be overcome by one's own fear, placing the deepest fears on one's back in a backpack firmly attached to the body with straps that bind life, placed in the position that on some occasions we usually call survival instinct and on other self-defense .

Any law enforcement agent knows that one day, sooner rather than later, he will face the transgressor who has committed a crime and will reach this predicament, but it will not be against an occasional criminal, he will be facing the criminal who acts under the conviction that crime is his legitimate way of life and he does not interpret it as a proceeding with disastrous consequences for his victims who are only trees in the landscape. This situation can lead to one of two scenarios, the first where the instinct to preserve one's life occurs first and remains during the event, a legitimate act and many times within reason within the human sphere, which will surely result in damage to the victim as it happened in Uvalde; or the second scenario, where the impulse to do justice is presented, to comply with the Law and with the means of force available to confront the aggressor, the latter with an uncertain and perhaps fatal result for one of those involved.

Getting in the way and risking one's life to protect those who have no means to defend themselves is the tricky part. When acts of terrorism occur such as shootings at a school, in shopping malls, a supermarket or employers' fair, on some of these occasions isolated individuals eventually emerge who, without preparation or means of response, try to protect people they do not know, but who They are more helpless than they are. People who do their best to avoid the death of others by performing acts of courage, cowardice or survival, such as locking a door and waiting to receive five bullets from a weapon of war, in order to dissuade or delay the individual who entered armed to a school to reduce the number of victims, are rare. They are real life heroes; facing resentful villains with the use of super powers lacks grace, especially when you are indestructible or made of steel.

In an extreme situation it is next to impossible to be lucky enough to find people like Obi Wan Nairobi, a nickname given to a British soldier who was off duty, armed and mentally ready to act, the very day that terrorists attacked the city of Nairobi a hotel. The individual is not only equipped, that day he is mentally in line with the problem and is also motivated because the day before he finished giving a course on anti-terrorist actions to military personnel from that place. When the time came to act, he simply opened the trunk of his car, took out his weapons and led the confrontation against five terrorists. Such circumstances do not occur every day, no city, before or after, has had such luck; have such an individual nearby at the necessary time.

What usually happens is that societies have a group of armed, trained people with a legal mandate to use force and violence in proportion to that carried out by the offender, with the aim of enforcing the law, which it has nothing to do with protecting the innocent. Enforcing the law is the response that society gives against those who committed a crime, past tense and judged act; or to prevent it, future tense. Therefore, the actions of the agents of justice are not designed to be a response in the present tense, to protect the innocent. In those moments, which can be brief, the appearance of angels and the action of good souls willing to make some sacrifice are rare, if not impossible.