An Innocent Man Ends Up Befriending Cop Who Framed Him

Yes, you read that headline right.

In 2005, Jameel McGee was arrested by officer Andrew Collins, of Benton Harbor, MI on drug charges that ended up costing Jameel four years of his life. Not an uncommon story.

The problem is, Jameel was innocent.

“I falsified the report,” Collins later admitted.

It seems this was something Officer Collins did quite often. He was eventually caught, fired, and served a year and a half in prison himself.

Fast forward to 2015. Both men were back in Benton Harbor, one justifiably angry at the other, when they ran into each other at a faith-based employment agency. Ten years of animosity was about to hit the fan.

Except that it didn’t.

“I said, ‘Honestly, I have no explanation, all I can do is say I’m sorry,'” Collins said. That was all Jameel needed as a decade of anger melted away.

Today these two men are good friends and work together in the same café. They’ve made an incredible journey, one that shows that the human capacity to forgive is as great as our ability to make horrible mistakes.