Thread by @SkinnerPm

So this happened at the end of the day: My personal cell rings. Number from Florida I don’t know. I rarely answer these calls cuz it’s endless car warrant social security police scams. But I answer. And Jane says ‘hi skinner!’ So who’s Jane, you ask?

Jane is a struggling neighbor I’ve gotten to know over the last 2 years. Often at chaotic loud calls. More often when I stopped by the side of the road or her tent & talk. Or let her use my phone to video parole officers or just friends. I don’t see her much as a detective....

So today she calls. And says ‘hey skinner. I just wanted to let you know I’m in Florida. In a hospital.’ We talk about her health and hopes for a recovery. And she says ‘I called for two reasons. That if people wonder if I went missing tell them I’m ok down in Florida’...

And then she says ‘I just wanted to call and tell you how much I appreciate you just being normal and available. It really means a lot. So that’s all I wanted to say’. And then I’m crying in the office and now crying at home cuz while I’m hardly normal I do try to be available...

Jane, with all her issues and arrests and 911 calls, is my neighbor. Full stop. She’s my neighbor. And she’s the point of this job. And we all matter or none of us do.

As I’ve said forever on this site, I’m neither unique nor special with how I do my job. My colleagues trained me, not the other way around. I just have a big twitter feed cuz of past experiences and a seriously mean cat. And cuz I’m old I think a lot about the point of this job

As I wrote about my neighbors in the @washingtonpost , ‘It is their consent that enables me. It is their trust that empowers me. And it is our truth that drives me: that we all matter, or none of us do.’

washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/0…