As we passed the safe space on our second outing we saw that only one person was there. The police had all moved along to a point slightly past McDonalds to deal with an incident that had started earlier. A woman with some sort of psychiatric issue was being watched and contained, from a distance, by the police. In the hope, initially, I think, that she would voluntarily get into a police car to be taken to hospital with them. From things I heard the woman say myself, she was already under psychiatric treatment and there had been issues with her medication, possibly it had been changed recently. Most of the time she was calm but she seemed to be hearing voices to a point she was talking with them. Every now and then she had loud outbursts of screaming and drooling, so it was obvious that caution was needed around her, and it could have got very difficult for the police if she’d had to be restrained.
Initially our part was just to help take down the safe space gazebo, to help the police concentrate on the incident. However, as we passed near the woman again, Felicity managed to talk with her a bit. It obviously wasn’t wise for several people to approach the woman closely, so Felicity did most of the talking, and I started calling int o our prayer base. Felicity rose to the situation admirably. In fact at one point, early on, when I thought there probably wasn’t much more help we could give and we’d started to walk on, one of the police chased after us, asking us to come back, as the woman was plainly more relaxed talking with Felicity than with the police.
Felicity spent quite a while trying to coax the woman into the police car, but she was clearly too fearful of that. An ambulance had been called but the police had been warned it could be quite a wait. I had fears the situation could drag on for hours. I would give credit to the police who were obviously trying to be as unprovocative as possible, and also had to deal with some unhelpful comments from, possibly drunk, passers-by, it was a reminder just how demanding their job is at times.
Eventually the ambulance came. Even then I had worries if she wouldn’t get on voluntarily. If any force had had to be used I think it could have been a very nasty time, and traumatic for everyone involved. But after a bit, to my great relief, she got into the ambulance voluntarily. The police thanked us warmly, and I think it showed the role Street pastors can have, that disturbed people do often find us less threatening than the police. I’d give particular credit to Felicity, it wasn’t an easy situation, and it could have ended much worse, she had a significant part in avoiding that. It was also a time when I was intensely aware of the value of live prayer support, it really helped to know that was going on.
I actually felt quite elated as I was going home, while quiet nights are good, it matters to me to feel that sometimes the Street Pastorss are really making a difference, and last night I did feel that, at best without us, the police would have had an even harder job, at worst it might have ended much worse.