We are typically subjected to everything that is negative the world and we rarely ever hear anything positive. There may be some positive things out there but the news media is not going to focus on them. Unfortunately, we hear bad things about the people in our communities and we even hear bad things about the police. As you are about to see, however, there is still a lot of good in the world if you know just where to look.
This video is from an undercover operation done by the police department. It involves staff Sgt. Mark Horsley who went undercover in Downtown Eastside Vancouver. There had recently been two robberies in the area, both at gunpoint and the victims were in wheelchairs. That is why he took on the persona of a man that had both mobility and cognitive disabilities. When he went out for this undercover operation, he discovered something that took him quite by surprise.
“I deployed in a motorized wheelchair, and I portrayed a paralyzed person who had a brain injury.”
He didn’t find the robbers but he did find a lot of friendly Vancouver residents. It wasn’t long before the community accepted him and he talked with other people who had mobility disabilities. When having the conversations, he learned a lot about these people and he listened to their stories.
A young man that you will see in this video was visiting Vancouver from Quebec. He asked Horsley to pray for him.
He thought that another young man would take his camera but instead, he went out of his way to help him. He saw that there was money hanging out from his waist pouch on the wheelchair so he closed the pouch for him. This man had connections with the disabled in the community and his mother is wheelchair-bound.
One of the things that he would tell others when he interacted with them is that he was unable to count.
“When we were exchanging food or different things, they would take change from my hand. Not once did anybody short change me. In fact, at the end of the five deployments in this project, I was ahead by $24.75.”
The video was posted by the Vancouver police department and you can tell that this police officer was touched when describing how nobody had taken advantage of him. Even when he was out late at night, alone and in the bar district.
“The generosity, the caring, was inspiring.”
As the end of the video nears, he tells us what he got out of the project. It was difficult for him to become vulnerable and be in a wheelchair for this undercover operation. In the end, he got to experience the compassionate and caring attitudes of visitors and locals. He said that it was inspiring.
These heartfelt words are at the end of the video. It is a message to anyone who would turn those vulnerable people in the victims.
“The police are watching, but more importantly, the people of the Downtown Eastside are watching. They care and they take care of their vulnerable people.”
The news reported that when he went on this undercover operation, over half of the crimes had taken place in that area. This is an area of downtown that is known for crimes including drugs, prostitution, and robbery. There are also many homeless in the area.
Even though there were a lot of problems, nobody tried to harm Horsley or did anything wrong to him. He interacted with over 300 people over five days, which is an amazing track record.
Despite the best efforts of the police department, there were two more robberies within a few weeks. They also involved individuals in wheelchairs but neither of them was in the Downtown Eastside area.
You can see the experience in this video: