When you think of what Easter is about, you don't think first of cops but of the people, like Jesus, they arrest. But in the lead-up to this Easter, I've been thinking of Victoria Police's Chief Commissioner, Christine Nixon.
Who'd take on the top cop job? Nixon has been having quite the time of it of late. Sure, she was always in a bit of a tight spot. She started on the beat in Sydney, and rose through the ranks to Assistant Commissioner in New South Wales. So she was something of an outsider when she was appointed to Victoria Police's top spot in 2001.
Since then she's faced (with considerable pizzazz and a certain indefatigable perseverance) some of Victoria's thorniest policing issues — from Melbourne's organised crime 'underbelly', to reforming the drug squad. But just recently she's hit a higher-order snag within her own organisation: alleged corruption and systematic undermining from very senior officers.
And it really hit the fan, and the papers. It was one of those 'damned if you do or don't' kind of dilemmas. As soon as she followed the protocol and stood people aside, outraged voices piped up that she must be incompetent if there's such alleged corruption within her ranks. But keeping things quiet would hardly be welcomed as a more appropriate response from a betrayed Chief Commissioner.
So what's Nixon actually done wrong? Hard to know, but in part it looks as if she was fast-tracked to unpopularity by trying to be a thoughtful, discerning leader. She's taken on some cultural change in Victoria Police, aimed at improving its effectiveness. And she's tried to do the whole thing with integrity. But the media coverage of bitterness from those she's locked horns with is testament to the danger of reforming a powerful institution.
To go against the grain inevitably means being held to a higher standard. Sometimes ludicrously so. Being bombarded with questions. Constantly watched for the slightest mistake. Some would argue that this is the fate of any woman in a powerful position, especially if she's in a male-dominated area.
It's hardly news that reformers are unpopular within the systems they undertake to improve. That's where the trials of Christine Nixon might throw light on the death of Jesus that is the core of Easter. It is easy to imagine Jesus died because he was in dispute with members of a different religious group. But that's not the case. He and his opponents were members of the same religious group he was trying to reform. He tried to lead them to engage faithfully with God and to base their religious practices on this engagement.
So how did it go for him? He got up people's noses. He uncovered ways in which religious practices had been distorted to exclude people. Like the prophets before him, he pointed out the dangers of following the external trappings of discipleship but not allowing the prayer, fasting and almsgiving to transform how one engages with others and with God. Eventually the leaders of his own people colluded and had him killed.
We know unveiling corruption is pretty unpopular. Who wants to be confronted by misuse of power, or challenges to traditional ways of doing things that no longer meet their objectives?
But there were plenty with whom Jesus' reform was extremely popular. Those who had been excluded, who needed healing, who were brought back into social and religious connection by his radical reform program. Therein lies the motivation for reform — it's not about how those who wield power react, but how it affects those who are not powerful.
Back in Victoria, negative reaction to Christine Nixon seems pretty focused within her own mob. In stark contrast, she enjoys unprecedented popularity with the average punter. She's seen as talking good sense and providing an approachable human face to help us understand a powerful, historically inscrutable, institution in our society.
Of course, no-one's suggesting Christine Nixon is Jesus. But there is a similarity in the human reaction to reform. It's a different kind of tall poppy thing. One of our knee-jerk reactions is to cut down leaders who try to change us. But we sorely need leadership which tries to speak the truth about change where it is needed. It might set the cat among the pigeons, but it makes us better people.
Kylie Crabbe lives in Northcote and is preparing for ministry in the Uniting Church.