Dont Shoot The Elephant

Have you ever done something that you regret on the job? Have you ever looked back and thought about your reasons for doing it? That is the topic of this article. Before you start reading, let me warn you. This is not your average Linkedin article. It’s long, and it takes a hard look at some uncomfortable situations that LEOs face. It’s not for everyone, but I think it has value to those willing to buckle up and take the ride. 

This week, I have been reading a book titled “Facing Unpleasant Facts”  which is essentially a collection of essays by George Orwell. You all may know him from reading Animal Farm or 1984 which are required reading in many American schools. Before he wrote those two books, he was quite an essay writer. George Orwell was an incredibly interesting person and he led an eventful life. In fact, Orwell started his career as a Police Officer and he wrote about one of his experiences in his essay “Shooting an Elephant.” 

In 1925 George Orwell (real name Eric A Blair) was a young Imperial Police Officer stationed in Burma (British India). The Burmese people were not happy about the British occupation and saw young Orwell as a member of an oppressive occupying force. (Which admittedly, he was) Orwell writes in the essay that “In Moulmein, in Lower Burma, I was hated by large numbers of people.” He went on to describe the poor treatment that he received from citizens, and how they took every opportunity to insult him and even intentionally trip him on occasion. 

Young Orwell had a lot of conflicting feelings, on one hand, he was being abused by the people, but on another hand, he understood why they hated Europeans. He wrote: 

“All this was perplexing and upsetting. For at that time, I had already made up my mind that imperialism was an evil thing and the sooner I chucked up my job and got out of it the better. Theoretically -and secretly, of course- I was all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British.”

Orwell wasn’t very well-liked by the British either. He was a bit of an outsider. He learned to speak the local language. He got tattoos that were commonly worn by the Burmese people. He tried to attend local religious ceremonies. He was looked at with suspicion by his own people. 

That was life for Orwell, he tried to do his job as a Police Officer while being despised. He tried to do his job even though he was disenfranchised and secretly didn't agree with his own government. He was also very negatively affected by being jeered and treated like an enemy by the people that he wanted to help. He took it personally. 

• He was hated for his profession.
• He tried to do his duty despite it all.
• Public opinion was against him.
• He wanted to be seen as the good guy. 
• He had mixed feelings about his government and his leadership. 

One day he got a call for service. He got “the mother of all animal calls.” An elephant had broken free and was on a rampage. The elephant had already smashed a few bamboo huts, and gone to town on a local fruit cart. He responded to the scene and started looking for the elephant. This was a tightly packed slum so it wasn't obvious where the elephant had gone off to. Orwell started asking witnesses. One pointed North, and the next pointed South. Others looked him dead in the eye after having their huts smashed and said “I didn’t see nothing.”  People were obviously not cooperating with him even though he was trying to solve their problem.  (sound familiar?) 

He kept searching and turned a corner to find an old man who had been trampled by the elephant. The man was laying there in the mud with a big elephant track in the middle of his back. People were still reluctant to help. Orwell knew that it was getting serious and his duty weapon wasn't even close to big enough to take down an elephant. He sent a helper to fetch an elephant gun. (He didn't have adequate, resources, Sound familiar?) 

Just as the helper returned with a large-bore elephant rifle, Orwell spotted the elephant in a nearby field. It was known in those days that when an elephant goes into a rage, they will usually calm down after a while, and it looked like the elephant was doing just that. It was eating grass and not charging anyone. He also found out that the elephant’s handler was on the way, but it would be a while before he got there. (A rapidly evolving and dynamic situation, sound familiar?) 

Meanwhile, many local townspeople had started to gather and follow Orwell around. They wanted him to shoot the elephant because they could scavenge the meat. Seeing that he had the elephant gun they were on his side and wanting him to shoot, encouraging him to shoot.  (The mob was demanding action, sound familiar?) 

Orwell did not want to shoot the elephant. He didn’t believe that it was the right thing to do. It was no longer an active threat. He knew the situation could be resolved without killing. Because the elephant had trampled a man, he could lawfully kill the elephant under his agency policy. The local people wanted him to shoot the elephant so they could get the meat. But, he believed it was wrong. He caved to the pressure. Both his position and the people he wanted to befriend wanted him to do it. So he caved. 

BANG! Orwell shot the elephant. Not being experienced, he shot the elephant in the wrong place. It didn't die instantly and it suffered. Orwell took more shots, which further harmed the elephant but didn't kill it. After shooting several more times, the elephant still refused to die. Out of ammo and options, he couldn't bear to see it suffer anymore. He left the scene. He learned later that it took an additional 30 minutes for the elephant to die. 

He later wrote that in the end he had shot the elephant because he didn’t want to look foolish in front of all the people who had gathered to watch him. It was obviously a decision that he seriously regretted. 

So why did I share this horrible story with you? What can we learn from it nearly 100 years later? 

As LEOs in 2023, I think we can all sympathize with Orwell to some extent. A young guy stuck right in the middle of a bunch of political and societal factors that he has zero control over. Someone who is trying to solve a problem and is treated like the enemy while he is trying to help the people who were just victimized. He had conflicting feelings about his place in the world. 

I think at this point, I should probably acknowledge again that yes he was part of an oppressive government, and no he wasn’t morally exempt even if he wasn't racist or tyrannical at heart. The parallels aren’t exact between his situation and ours. 

However, one thing is true whether you are dealing with a rampaging elephant or working the streets in middle America. Our decisions aren’t made in a vacuum. For Orwell, everything added up to that moment, the feelings of persecution, the desire to please, and appease. What the policy said he should do, what the crowd expected him to do. Being put on the spot, under pressure with emotions running high. It’s a hard thing to follow your own moral compass in times like these. He didn't follow that compass, the results were horrible, and he regretted it. 

"The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."

-Marcus Aurelius 

I believe that our takeaway is that if we want to avoid making decisions that we later regret we can't get caught up in events and circumstances. We can't worry about making the mob happy. We can't allow ourselves and our good judgment to be swept along with the drama of the moment. We can't allow public opinion, feelings of persecution, or the expectations of others to make us act out of character, and against what we believe to be right. Everyone else might excuse you, and give you a pass, but like Orwell ultimately you will judge yourself. Make sure that’s a judgment that you can live with. Why? Because when the dust settles,  you are the only one that has to.