HOW A PUERTO RICAN POLICEMAN CHANGED MY ATTITUDE AND ETHICS

The group of people I despised the most while I was living in the old countries, in particular the Middle Eastern countries, was the policemen. They were the most despicable and hated motley bunch of people due to their brutalities and cruelties against the general population. This is perhaps due to two reasons. First, most policemen were high school dropouts. Many of them did not even have the educational level of sixth graders. Their IQs are within the range of 90-99. They were specially selected individuals because of their sightless support of their governments. The second reason is related to how they look down on their own peoples. They usually snoop around for those who speak negatively and disapprovingly of the ruling families. In other words, they assumed the role of detectives against their own parents, siblings, neighbors, and peers. As young children, we used to deceive policemen by directing them to the wrong tracks or purposely providing them with the wrong information. In many occasions, whenever a policeman showed up, we ran from him in every directions. We simply hated, despised, and reviled them. I am not sure if the attitude and outlook of young people about policemen in the Middle East have changed yet. But let us hope they had been transformed to civilized creatures for Pete sake.

My impression however is that the wind of change had not come through the Middle East yet and policemen still have that arrogant look and sense of self-importance. While I flew all over the words (except the Middle East) attending conferences and providing technical talks, I was never stopped and asked about my ethnicity or the way my name is spelled. I avoided the travel to the Middle Eastern countries because I left that part of the world with so much bitterness. After receiving several invitations to attend a scientific meeting at the University of Jordan (summer of 1999), I agreed to attend and give a few lectures on the subject of semiconductor devices. I arrived at the Airport with a US passport. The young policeman behind the counter permitted all American citizens to pass through without a single question. In my case, he questioned me and the validity of my passport. I was delayed for over an hour just because my name was not American enough for him. When I finally said that I came here to give lectures with an invitation from a member of the ruling family, the policeman attitude changed instantaneously. At that moment I simply thought of returning back the same day.

I remained skeptical and cynical about policemen even after my journey to the western hemisphere. While I was living in Puerto Rico, I tried to avoid and walk away every time I see one of them in my sight. My first car I owned was Datsun 120 model 1972. As we know now, these cars are discontinued and the name of the maker had changed to Nissan. It was bought very cheap due to its bad condition. The brakes squeaked every time I pressed on them and the whole car shook and vibrated whenever I drove it above 35 miles per hour. That car however brought a lot of pleasure and enjoyment to my life. I intentionally and deliberately used it to confuse policemen. For example, parking in the main streets of the capital city of Puerto Rico is illegal. However, every time I want to stop at a shop or a store I just parked the car in the street and opened the trunk and left up the hood to pretend and act as if the car is broken. Other students loved to drive around with me in that clumsy car just to see what type of comical events the day will bring to us. In another occasion, I parked the car at the University of Puerto Rico parking lot and when I came after a long day of running experiments on intercalation graphitic compounds, I saw the car raised on bricks and all tires were stripped off it. At that time I thought the tires might bring more happiness to the robbers than my soreness of losing them.

Toward the end of my staying in Puerto Rico, the muffler of the car broke and it started to smoke like an old train. It also had a horrible loud sound as I drove it slowly on the highway. On an afternoon weekend day as I was driving the car on an almost empty street, a policeman stopped me and asked for my driver license. He was a huge mean intimidating looking guy that scared the wit out of me. Part of the problem was I really never obtained a driver license. However, I gave him my student ID card that I kept from my undergraduate program at the University of Jordan, which was printed in Arabic. The policeman inspected the card from all directions and then looked at me and asked “What is this ?”

I replied by saying it was my Jordanian driver license and I did not have a chance to replace it with a Puerto Rican driver license.

“So you just came from Arabia” He said.
“Yes, Sir.” I alleged.
“What are you planning in doing in Puerto Rico?” He added.
“I am a graduate student in Physics.” I replied.
“Welcome to Puerto Rico and we are so happy to see you here. But you need to fix your car and replace your driver license.” He instructed me proudly.
“Yes, sir. I will do it this coming week.” I said.

The policeman then allowed me to proceed without issuing any penalties. After I drove away, I thought to myself I really fooled, tricked, duped, and deceived this guy. I also thought I finally revenged against all policemen of the world. I felt the triumph and the thrill of victory.

Several hours later and after going through the events of the day several times, I concluded that I just simply duped myself. This policeman trusted me, he believed in every word I said, and in return I told him lies, and false information. The time was dilating so slowly where that night was one of the longest ones of my life. Several time I thought of calling that policeman to apologize for my dishonest and untruthful action. That day was a turning point for my attitude toward policemen. I realized the primary function of a policeman is the safety of the people. Since that dreadful and awful encounter with the Puerto Rican policeman, I began to respecting all the policemen of the world except those in the Middle East who gave a bad name to the profession.

I gained knowledge of another lesson from my encounter with the Puerto Rican Policeman. I learnt more about the meaning of the term “ ethics .” The definition of this term varies from culture to culture and each individual may define his/her own ethics differently. For example, one may define ethics as “ doing the right thing when nobody is watching ?” The problem with this definition is how to define the right thing. To me the word ethics means fairness, honesty, respect, responsibility, and trust. Not only that, but all of these five characteristics are intertwined. The word ethics collapses if any one of these characteristics is violated. I know I was not fair or honest with the Puerto Rican policeman, which meant I was unethical because I was not respectful, responsible, or trustworthy when I reported to him false information. Whether he knew it or not, that policeman taught me the best lesson in my life. Now ethical behavior has a different meaning to me since my encounter with him.

Every so often I told my encounter with the Puerto Rican policeman to my students to demonstrate the meaning of ethics. Some of them would laugh at me and others appreciated the fact that I have the guts to tell them that every one of us had violated the ethics one way or another. But if we do not realize our mistakes, we would never learn the meaning of ethics. Every time the word ethics is mentioned, the Puerto Rican Policeman image pops into my head as if he is telling me do not miss up your ethics again. As for the Datsun 120 that I owned, I sold it with a price higher than what I paid for.

Omar Manasreh
16 June 2008