Black and Blue Ch. 02

"And I can't wait to have you begin teaching the Detectives what you know." Teresa said. "Including me."

"I'll have a lot to learn from you guys, too." said Perry. "Especially how to survive an exploding building. I've never had the chance to tell you how amazing I thought what you did was, Commander Croyle."

"Aww, thanks." said Teresa as they fist-bumped...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"All Detectives, MCD, Vice, and Intel, be in Classroom 'J' at 1:00pm. my text said. And at 1:00pm Classroom 'J' was full of Detectives and their Leadership when I came into the room with Ice Cube Perry in tow.

"Ladies and gentlemen," I said, taking the podium, "we have a new employee... sort of. I'm happy to say that after a long and distinguished career as a deep undercover operative, Detective J.J. Perry is returning to us in a 'normal' role. J.J., stand up and be recognized."

Perry stood up, and was followed by Detective Teddy Parker, who began applauding. Then everyone stood up and applauded, giving Perry the recognition he so very well deserved.

After everyone sat down, I said "Ice Cube, you'll be partnered with the only person in here besides me who knew who you were, Grubby Paul." Perry and Paul fist-bumped, as they were sitting next to each other. "Laurer, you and Monroe will be partners, and may God have mercy on the criminals after what I saw Laurer do in the Police Boxing Matches last weekend!"

Joan and Lisa fist-bumped as some laughter erupted. Joan had absolutely destroyed her first two opponents in the Matches, in a way reminiscent of Cindy Ross or me in our heyday.

"You just missed getting in, Ice Cube." said Julia Rodriguez.

"From what I'm hearing, I think I'd be safer going back undercover." said J.J., making everyone laugh.

"There's always next year, Ice Cube." I said. "Okay, I need for all of you to help me with something. I need you to contact your C.I.s and get what you can on the reaction to the gun charges against Jacquez Wilson's people that were arrested by Sergeant McCombs last month. I'm hearing that 'social unrest' (air quotes) is being generated over the gun charge, and I want to know why. And while I have you here, what are your questions of me? Ask anything you want, just keep it clean."

There were polite chuckles, then Teddy Parker raised his hand and said "Commander, what is the status of the Civil Rights lawsuit against us by the Feds?"

"It's sitting there." I said. "There's been no movement on it, as far as I know. I do know the TCPD is not negotiating with the DOJ at all, and we will never consent to a Consent Decree. And to that point, put out the word that if the DOJ contacts anyone on this Police Force, you are not to speak to them, and you're to let your leadership know immediately."

Teresa Croyle raised her hand, then said in her cattiest voice and with a perfectly straight face: "Commander, is it true that Deputy Chief Ross is pregnant?"

As gasps filled the room, I worked hard to roll with that one. I settled upon the reply of "I'm not allowed to speak of the medical condition of our fellow Officers. You'll have to ask her that question..."

Part 11 - Day Of The Vote

"This is Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Channel Two News!" shouted the redheaded MILF reporterette at 7:00am, Tuesday, May 5th, from the rooftop of the building at Riverside and College, with City Hall in the background. "The polls are opening now as voters prepare to choose their Party nominees!"

Bettina began: "Political experts believe that turnout will be strong in the rural areas as well as our Town & County, but not as strong in the City, Southport, and Midtown. The Statewide Republican contests are expected to drive Republican turnout, while the local races in our County will bring out Democrats. And now lets go to our reporter in the field, Amber Harris, reporting from the voting location at Mitt Romney Elementary School in the northern suburbs. Amber!"

Amber Harris came on the screen and said "That's right, Bettina! The turnout in the early moments is light here in the northern districts. Kelly Carnes has no Democrat opposition for her Council seat, and Bill Redmond of Redmond Enterprises is expected to win the Republican nod to face Mrs. Carnes in November."

Amber: "This polling location is being closely monitored to gauge Republican interest in the primaries, with the Sharon Marshall - Karl Handel race for the nomination for Governor, and the Ruby Russell - Brian Cagle race for Lieutenant Governor in the balance. And now let's go to political reporter Lester Holder, who is covering the important race to replace Reginald B.F. Lewis on the Town & County Council. Lester!"

"That's right, Amber!" said Lester Holder, coming on screen. "Normally this District's polling location is the A.M.E. Church, but with its pastor Dr. Joseph E. Williams running for the Lewis Council seat, the location was moved down the road to here, George Floyd Elementary School. Turnout is already heavy here, with people getting in line over an hour before the polls opened. The race for Lewis's seat is very tight"

Penis Holder: "We have with us Dr. Lionel Carmela, Head of the Political Science Department at the University." The camera panned out to show Carmela next to Holder. "Dr. Carmela, do you expect any problems in today's voting?"

Carmela: "Not unless Commander Troy tries to beat up poll workers, like he did in the last election." (Author's note: 'The Four Boxes of Liberty', Ch. 05.) "But both Parties have poll watchers present, with a contingent of Deputy Sheriffs backing them up. I'm confident the results will be correct."

Penis Holder: "Dr. Carmela, Dr. Joseph E. Williams not only did not renounce Commander Troy and his Police brutality, but he's actually embraced his relationship with Troy, even though he claims to be a Man of God while Troy has sired a halfbreed child out of wedlock. Is that going to be a problem for Dr. Williams with the voters?"

Carmela: "It could be the difference in the race, Lester."

Penis Holder grinned, then turned to the camera and happily said "Back to you, Bettina!"

"Thank you, Lester." said Bettina. "And in other local news, ADA Savannah Fineman has so far refused to drop controversial gun charges against four black men. In a statement to KXTC, attorney for the four black youths Gwen Munson stated that her clients vehemently deny the gun charges, and claim the gun was planted by Police Officer Jeremy Hatch, who has one of the poorest records of any Officer in the TCPD..."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"What district are you in, Don?" asked Cindy Ross.

"Ian McGhillie's." I said. "His District is the east side of the County, including the Sheriff's home and those around Reservoir Lake, and it goes just over the mountain to include The Cabin and Todd and Teresa's house."

"And that's your official residence?" Teresa Croyle asked. "The Cabin?"

"Yes, for the purposes of having our kids in the Town High District as well as voting." I said. "The Mountain Nest is technically on the University's property, and Malinda Adams would be our rep if we registered as living there."

"What about yourrrrrr District, Ms. Ross?" asked Chief Moynahan.

"Susan Weston's," said Cindy, "which covers the north side residential areas of Town."

"So am I." said Tanya Muscone dejectedly. "I vote against her every time, but the problem is that nobody runs against her, except a Libertarian that gets a grand total of one percent of the vote. What about you, Chief?"

"Edward Steele's." said the Chief. "Northeast part of Town."

"What did you guys make of that interview with Carmela and Holder?" asked Tanya.

"I noticed Holder got in his cheap shot at Tasha." said Cindy, a dark look on her ruggedly pretty face.

I replied "And it sounded like both Holder and Carmela were trying to hurt Dr. Williams's chances to win by pointing out his associations with me. Edgar Silas has basically run his campaign on that, almost as if I'm the one running for that seat."

Teresa said "I noticed that Carmela made a point to say the election results would be 'correct'. Think he has something up his sleeve there?"

"Like fraud?" growled Sheriff Griswold. "Think they're going to rig the election, then demand we accept the outcome?"

"For a primary?" Cindy replied skeptically.

I said "Whoever wins the Democrat primary for Reginald Lewis's seat is going to win the General Election in November. I'm not sure there is even Republican opposition, there."

"Yes there is." said Tanya. "You remember Katina, who worked at the Cub Club, then got a job at J.P. Goldman Bank?" (Author's note: 'Eyes Only', Ch. 01, 03.) "J.P. Goldman supported her making a campaign run. I don't think she has a prayer of winning the General Election, but she's out there, trying to get Blacks off the 'Democrat Plantation', so to speak."

"See?" said Sheriff Griswold, his mustaches twitching. "I told you Crowbar don't know a damn thing about politics!" Everyone broke out laughing. Your Iron Crowbar was being ribbed, and hard, by local Klingon political hacks.

"No, I don't... thank God." I replied affably. "But it's great Katina is running. Anyway, everyone with more political knowledge than me knows that the primary winner will be the prohibitive favorite in the November election. And that should be true for Malinda Adams's seat, though Holder and Carmela didn't push that one."

"Maybe because it's a done deal for Malinda Adams." Teresa said. "So say Todd's pollsters, anyway; they give Malinda a 57-43% edge over Stacey Jacobs."

"I'll just say this, despite having no knowledge of politics." I replied. "If Malinda wins by less than 53%?... you know there was election fraud going on. That's the bellwether in all this..."

"By the way," said Our Sheriff, "the Council meeting was postponed until tomorrow evening. I've made a submission to the Council, and I'll need Crowbar and Captain Muscone there. Commanders Ross and Croyle, you are welcome to come, also..."

Part 12 - The UNION At Work

"What's the Council meeting about?" asked Teresa as she, Tanya, and I gathered in my office for the Angels Meeting.

I replied "We're putting Ice Cube Perry up for the Distinguished Service Medal. And we'll award it privately, or in front of the Force in the auditorium, instead of waiting for the August ceremonies."

"Think he'll get it?" asked Teresa.

I shrugged my shoulders. "I dunno. It'll depend upon the mood of the Elected. I'm sure Susan Weston will accuse us of awarding medals like candy, and try to downgrade it to a Certificate of Achievement. But if Malinda wins her primary race, maybe she'll be happy enough to help put it through."

"I'm still pissed off at how Ice Cube was outed." Teresa growled. "First, I don't understand why Federal Agent Jocelyn Moran would do that to him, and us, even with the lawsuit going on. And second, I do understand why Gwen Munson wants to hurt us, and I want to slap her down silly for it."

"Start carrying a crowbar, sister." Tanya 'advised'.

"Oh, I don't need one to beat down Gwen Munson." Teresa said.

"But it would be more fun if you did use one." I replied. "But to your question, let me just say this: I agree about Jocelyn Moran. She's full of racist hatred, but I don't think she did that just out of that hatred. Therefore, there must be a practical reason for it. So what do you ladies think that might be?"

Tanya replied "We talked a lot with J.J. yesterday, debriefing him, then Mary and I and our husbands took him out to dinner. Jack liked him a lot... in fact, you better watch out if the DEA's Dwight Stevens shows up; there may be some recruitin' goin' on." I nodded.

Tanya continued: "One thing that came out was about Jacquez Wilson's boys that had been arrested. The Block House Boyz are doing what they can for 'Toddler' and 'Camo', but J.J. said they had planned to let 'Mr. Handsome' and 'Jesus Freak' take the rap and try to plead down. And in general, according to J.J., everyone knows that's the price of doing business, and they're not making too much of a fuss about it. They got caught; they did the crime and they'll do the time."

Tanya: "Then that gun charge was added, and that's got everyone riled up. The entire Black Community believes that gun was planted, and they're bitterly angry about it. J.J. said Jacquez Wilson, who is rabidly anti-Police and would love to do us harm, would really like to make something out of it politically."

Tanya: "But J.J. also told us that it's not just the gun charge in and of itself. Southport isn't that bad; the Mob rules with a heavy hand down there, and so their Police Force, which is already heavily black, doesn't need to come down on blacks. But the City is like a powder keg: no-knock warrants routinely exercised; blacks being 'disappeared' to secret locations where they are interrogated by methods normally reserved by the CIA, and some of it open torture. And then there's 'stop-and-frisk', including demanding to look into book bags and such; car stops without probable cause, i.e. 'driving while black'; and white Police often being sent en masse into primarily black districts to conduct those practices."

I said "How does J.J. think things are around here?"

Tanya said "Not as bad as the Media tries to gin up about you. Because they know you and Sheriff Griswold by name, and know the good you've both done and that you're doing your best to weed out racist and dirty Officers, and partly because T-Square has let it be known you and the Sheriff are 'good guys' (air quotes), it's not at a boiling point here. But this gun charge thingy might change that; it's not going over well at all."

Tanya: "And J.J. said one more thing to Jack that struck me: he thinks Jacquez Wilson and The Teacher both know something, and that it may be part of a larger Statewide and even nationwide plan to gin up unrest for political purposes."

Tanya: "And THAT is the point I was getting to... Jocelyn Moran might've betrayed Perry so that he had to be pulled, and now he can't gather information on whatever they're planning."

"That makes sense." I said. "A lot of sense." Teresa nodded vigorously in agreement.

Tanya said "And now, we don't really have any undercover assets. We have some C.I.s, and some of them are really good and help us a lot, but our job is officially harder now that J.J. has been outed."

"As if it ever gets easier." I replied. "But we'll just-------"

We all looked up when we heard my assistant Helena yell "Stop! You can't go in there!" followed by my door bursting open and two men in expensive suits coming in. I recognized them as Police Union reps.

"What the hell are you doing questioning Sergeant McCombs's citation?" one of them yelled.

I don't think they expected my response. I flew out of my chair, the red crowbar coming with me, and came around my desk and slammed into the first man, grabbing his collar near the knot of his necktie.

"What are you DOING?" yelled the second man. He rushed me, in order to help his comrade, but Teresa had sprung up from her chair and was attacking him. She pushed him back, and when he rushed at her she executed a karate kick to his groin. He tumbled down, howling in pain.

Meanwhile, the first man was trying to fight out of my grasp. I slammed my fist into my belly and he doubled over and went to his knees.

*CLICK!*

That sound was made by Tanya's service weapon, which was a revolver. The business end was in the man's earhole. He looked like he wanted to attack Tanya, but he knew that if he did, he would not survive what I would do to him, even if Tanya did not pull the trigger.

"Give me an excuse. Please." said Lady Ironside in a rather threatening tone of voice.

"What the hell is wrong with you people?" the man gasped, though he'd stopped struggling. I took the opportunity to literally pick him up off the ground by his collars, then I flung him into the second man, who was picking himself up off the floor. They both tumbled into the hallway.

"DO YOU REALLY THINK..." I shouted as I pursued them, "that you can disrespect me in front of my Officers by just barging past my assistant and into my office, and start yelling at me?... and think that I won't beat your asses down like the shit eating dogs you are?!?! Huh?"

When he didn't answer, I rushed forward and grabbed him again, choking him. "I ASKED YOU A QUESTION, YOU SON OF A BITCH!"

"What is going ON here?" asked Chief Moynahan as he rushed into the hallway. Cindy was also watching from the doorway to the Chief's suite.


"I'm showing two pieces of shit what happens to them when they disrespect me." I growled loudly and angrily.

"Take them to the Main Conference Room." said the Chief.

"How about the Interrogation Room, Chief?" said Tanya as she drove into the hallway. "They came in here as if they were going to attack me. Commander Troy just defended me." We all knew what she was really doing, and I appreciated it.

"I'm sure." said the Chief. "Main Conference Room. Get a couple of Officers down here to watch over them. All of you..." he continued, pointing at me, Teresa, and Tanya, "go get a cup of coffee or something...


* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Sr. Patrolmen Hardy and Drew from Vice went into the Conference Room, along with Commander Cindy Ross. The Green Crowbar was the Chief's physical protection. Fifteen minutes later the Union reps came out, their faces beet red. They left hastily. We went inside.

"The idiots said they wanted to press charges against all of you." said Chief Moynahan. "I told them that the first thing they should dooooo when in a deep hole was to stop digging any further. And I eventually got it out of them why they came here in the first place."

"It would seeeeeem," continued the Chief, "that they wanted to know why you, Mr. Crowbar, were investigating Sergeant McCombs's citation for the drug bust. They said it was a properly-awarded citation for a good bust. I told them that you were investigating the drug bust itself, as that was what Iron Crowbars doooooo."

Tanya laughed at that. I grew thoughtful. Cindy said "Spill it, Red Crowbar."

I said "Why... in the world... would it bother them that I was investigating the bust? Or was it the gun charge they're worried about me looking at? Or...."

Yep, full-blown reverie. When I came out of it, only the Chief was in the room with me.

"Mis-ter Crowbarrrrr," the Chief drawled, "may I suggest just a bit less physicality in front of so many witnesses?"

"Chief," I said, "if they'd come into your office the way they came into mine, what would you have done?"

"I'd have called you in." the Chief said promptly. "And then I'd be suggesting just a bit less physicality in front of so many witnesses."

I whimpered a laugh at that, then Moynahan continued: "Seriously, I have also not failed to no-tissss that their aggressive actions bespeak a position of both power and desperation. Having said that, the Union is not very strong with the Force in this Town & County, but we don't want to agitate anything. So if they do anything to goad you in the near future, just let it gooooo."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"I don't get it. I just don't get it." said FBI Special Agent In Charge Jack Muscone as he sat down to lunch in the back 'Command' room of the Cop Bar. Also present were Assistant Special Agent In Charge Karina White, me, and Lt. Commander Teresa Croyle. Teresa and I had just told the Federal Agents about the altercation with the Union bosses.

"You weren't trying to take away Sergeant McCombs's citation, were you?" Karina asked.

"No." I said. "I never had any intention to do that, nor did I ever suggest I'd do that. No, it was the case itself they didn't want me looking into."