Red Squad Ch. 03

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"So why did Lewis vote for that resolution?" Teresa asked me as she and I walked down Riverside Drive towards Police Headquarters.

"He knows it's the wrong time and for the wrong reasons." I replied. "Oh, he'd love to defund the Police, but if the money is stripped, the reason that will be cited is that anonymous grant money. He wants the money to be stripped for a very obvious reason, for a cause that serves his purpose."

"Ohhhhh." Teresa said, getting it. "So that's why Assemblywoman Scott tried to gin up that incident at Headquarters. So she could say that was the reason to defund the Police. They lose their intended message if they don't have that."

"Exactly." I said. "And furthermore to the point, I think Assemblywoman Scott thought she would get no opposition to her actions; therefore she and the Media could frame the conversation and the debate; i.e. they could tell us exactly what to think. But we, and Cindy in particular, stood up to her, and she hasn't gotten the backing she expected. So she had to gin up something to create, or I should saw renew, her original intended message."

"Wow, they never quit, do they?" Teresa asked. "What are they going to try next?"

"That's why I asked you and Orosco to do a really good review of all our Officers," I said, "and why Orosco is now looking into those potential rogue Officer groups he may have found. All we need is for one incident between white Police Officers and black Citizens to occur, for real or for ginned up, and the Antifa anarchists and Haters will use it to gin up as much chaos and anarchy as they possibly can... aided and abetted by a deeply corrupt Mainstream American Media that treasonously desires the destruction of the Constitution..."

Part 15 - Setting and Resetting

"This is Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Channel Two News!" shouted the redheaded MILF reporterette at 7:00am, Wednesday, October 30th, from the roof of the building at Riverside and College, with City Hall in the background. "Chaos has erupted in Town & County Government!"

Bettina began: "The Town & County Council passed a resolution warning the Town & County Assembly that they would not rubber-stamp the Assembly's budget if the Assembly stripped ten million dollars from the Police budget! This has drawn a furious response from members of the Assembly, as well as some Council members. Roll tape.

Tape rolled. First was shown Councilwoman Coretta K. Scott, who said "This interference by the Council into what is the Assembly's responsibility, the Budget, is uncalled-for." Other Assemblypersons, all of them Democrats, were shown angrily denouncing 'Council Republicans'.

Then tape showed Kelly Carnes saying "I want it to be known that not only did I vote against that resolution, I am in full support of defunding the Police until they fire Commander Donald Troy for his many abuses of his Police authority!"

Back to Bettina live: "A spokesman for the Town & County Assembly stated that the official Budget resolution has not been passed yet, and there will be input from Citizens tomorrow night at a special Assembly hearing. Due to the very large number of people now expected to attend, the hearing will be held in the Civic Center Theater..."

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

"Wow." said Tanya Perlman as we drank coffee in the Chief's Conference Room, "not one word about the incident at Police Headquarters yesterday."

"More than that," said Teresa, "Lester Holder and his cameraman are still in our holding cells. Holder asked for his phone call about midnight last night, and called KXTC. Apparently he didn't like what he was told, as he was muttering obscenities as he was taken back to his cell."

"They must be hope-innnnnng that Mr. Crowbar will go in there and beat up Mr. Holderrrrrrr." said the Chief. "To gin up a story, of course."

"Which is exactly why I've avoided any contact with him." I replied. "But yes, it is strange. I confess to being unable to understand it."

"Coffee deficiency." said Cindy Ross. "Pour him another cup, please!" I chuckled at that, and the Sheriff's mustaches twitched merrily. And I did pour myself another cup.

"Maybe Holder's field trip with Assemblywoman Scott wasn't sanctioned by KXTC." Tanya said. "Maybe they didn't even know."

"If that's the case," I said, "I would've loved to see Burt West's face when he heard about losing another $80,000 camera."

"Har." barked Sheriff Griswold.

"They knew." said Cindy. "At least they knew we arrested Holder, because I called them myself and told them he and the cameraman were going through booking and were in our holding cells..."

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

At 10:00am, Paulina Patterson called me. "Judge Nance dropped the charges against Holder and let him go. Gregory was the D.A.'s representative, and didn't make a single objection."


"No real biggie." I said. "Any idea why KXTC didn't bail Holder out last night?"

"Maybe they anticipated this result?" Paulina asked.

"Could well be." I said. "Could well be."

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

Lester Holder blasted through the doors into KXTC City Room as if fired out of a cannon. He opened the door to Burt West's office without knocking, seeing Bettina Wurtzburg and West having a meeting.

"What the hell?" West asked, shocked. It took a lot to shock Burt West; he'd been a victim of the Slender Man.

"Don't you knock?" Bettina snarled angrily at Holder.

"Why the hell did you leave me locked up in Donald Troy's jail all night?" Holder asked. "Were you dangling me like bait? Hoping he'd come in and smoke me like the last time someone did?"

"No, that wasn't the reason." said West. "First of all, you went with Assemblywoman Scott to TCPD without being assigned, or even telling us what you were doing. We had no idea?"

"Coretta called me." said Holder. "It was a last-second thing. I didn't have time---"

"You should've made time." Bettina said, a trace of anger still in her voice. "You left Burt hanging after you were arrested."

"What the hell?" Holder gasped, truly not understanding. "I had a huge story coming!"

West said "And now you're the story. And the story is that you were aiding and abetting an armed domestic terrorist attack upon Police Officers. Lester, the optics of this simply cannot be any worse. So not only no, but hell no, we did not bail you out... and we are not the ones that persuaded Judge Nance to drop the charges and let you walk, either."

"Then who did?" Holder asked.

"No idea." Bettina said. "Knowing Nance, he just did it on his own."

"There's also the consideration of the camera." said West. "You went on that bullheaded mission without being assigned nor with permission. The way I see it, Holder, you owe KXTC for one network news videocamera. Eighty thousand dollars."

"What?" Holder thundered. "You're crazy!"

Bettina said "What Burt is trying to tell you, but you're not listening to, is that you are on the wrong side of this. Now get your head out of your ass, get back to your assigned duties, do the stories we tell you to do and leave alone what we don't. Or you're out nearly six figures as well as your job. Do you understand?..."

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

At noon I took time to go home and collect Laura, and take her to the Hospital. As doctors and nurses examined her and went about the business of cutting her out of her cast and resetting her arm, I went to the office areas and spoke with Dr. Leonard Cordell.

"The EMS is coming along very well." said Dr. Cordell. "We've already broken ground on three of six EMS Stations, and we've contracted with County Jail and the Hospital to keep stations there until the rest are built. Zoe Singer is all over that, which makes my job much easier, both here at the Hospital and in EMS matters."

"Where's EMS Headquarters going to be?" I asked.

"Other side of the street from Police Headquarters's Crime Lab." said Dr. Cordell. Our HQ's employee's parking lot fence lined the street that turned off Riverside Drive to access the Fairgrounds just south of Police Headquarters, and the fence was broken only by the Crime Lab building (now mostly the Morgue). On the other side of that street was an old gas station and auto repair shop that was abandoned.

Cindy had managed to cut through a lot of crap to find out who the owners were, and had bought an option on the property on behalf of the County, which she was entitled to do as a Principal for the County. That option had been exercised, and the EMS Headquarters building was being built there. Our backup plan had been to let the EMS build their headquarters next to the Crime Lab.

"Sounds good." I said. "So who are they hiring as your replacement here at the Hospital?"

"Not sure yet." said Dr. Cordell. "We hired Donny Tate as our Chief Financial Officer, and he's done a great job, so far. Of course the terrorist attack and what he's dealing with from that is going to force him to up his game." I remembered Donny Tate as one of Kendra Luskin's victims. (Author's note: 'Falsely Accused', Ch. 05.)

"But for Hospital Administrator?" Cordell continued. "The Hospital Board is at odds on it. Some want a bean counter, someone to rein in costs; while others want an M.D. that will allow and even expand research."

Dr. Cordell and I went to Donny Tate's office. "Commander Troy!" Donny said enthusiastically, shaking my hand. "I've been meaning to come visit you. I really appreciate your help getting me this position."

"I hear it's working out well." I said.

"Yeah, it is." said Tate. "And it's giving me my life back. I have you to thank for that. After what happened to me because of that bitch Luskin, I was contemplating suicide."

I remembered how down Tate was when I first met him. "If you ever get depressed again," I said, "just go over to the Cancer Center and talk to those kids. They'll teach you to never give up and to keep hope alive like nothing else ever can."

A while later, I was called to a Nurse's Station near the Orthopedics area. Laura was waiting for me there, along with Dr. Morgan, who said: "Her scapula has healed up nicely, but I don't recommend she practice any martial arts moves just yet. Her arm is coming along well, too, but we'll have to see what her range of motion is once it heals up."

I observed that Laura's arm was still in a (new) cast, but her shoulder was not, so she had some movement she didn't have earlier. "Thanks, Doc." I said brightly. "She's doing pretty well for a woman in her forties, wouldn't you say?"

"Why, yes." Dr. Morgan said, not getting my joke. Laura clued him in.

"He's messing with me." Laura said. "My 50th birthday is on Friday."

"It is?" I said, pretending shock. "I thought you were in your 30s! I thought I married a woman younger than me."

"Thanks, Doctor, but I've gotta get out of here." Laura said. "This sweet-talker's nose is growing longer and longer." Dr. Morgan laughed heartily.

As we left, Laura said "They're not saying it out loud, but I got a Carole-'ish' vibe that they're worried about me being able to return to performing surgery again after the breaks heal."

"Are their worries justified?" I asked.

"In a case like this, always." said Laura. "But we'll just have to see, once I'm healed up some more..."

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

The Orange Order dinner was at the Junction Station Depot at 7:00pm. Cindy had turned it into a grilling competition, with me grilling steaks, the Sheriff grilling trout and other fish, and Rudistan cooking full half-chickens. We all cooked 'fixins', including my corn-on-the-cob.

Beer was the beverage of choice, but Cindy had brought the new Coca-Cola flavor 'orange-vanilla', which I tried. It was pretty good, but not as good as 'cherry-vanilla'. Some other Officers noted that Cindy, Teresa, and I were not drinking alcohol, and began emulating us, possibly wondering what was going on with that. The Sheriff, by way of contrast, was setting a strong example of enjoying beer with his dinner... or maybe having dinner with his beer.

In an excellent display of ass-kissing, the Sheriff's trout won the entrée award, and my corn-on-the-cob won the side dish. Rudistan won the dessert award; he'd been deep-frying doughnut holes, and you know Police Officers are going to reward doughnuts. But in truth, everyone won. It was all very delicious, and we were all well-fed and happy.

Janice Holloway and many other alumni came, but somewhat to my surprise... or maybe not... was the absence of Efram Elliot. I had hoped to have a few quiet words with him about Internal Affairs in his day, and any rogue group issues he might've dealt with. I also had the sneaking suspicion that this 'Red Squad' business was the reason he wasn't there.

Rudistan emceed the event, and reminded us that the Orange Order vote would be coming up at the end of November. He then had me stand up and discuss the awards that were coming on Friday, November 1st.

"Because of the new Charter coming in," I said, "we'll only have a few real promotions this time. Also, most of the pay-grade promotions are in February and August. We do have a lot of Certificates and Medals to give out after the Point Hollow incident and the Hospital attack." I named names.

Then Sheriff Griswold got up and said "We're also going to have a couple of surprises. I won't mention them, since the recipients are in the room now. And that brings me to something else. Most of you in this room were involved in the efforts to save lives and keep order during the Hospital crisis. I want you to know, and I want you to pass the word to everyone else, that I was extremely proud of your skill and your professionalism during that time. You made your leadership look good, you made me look good, and you made our Town & County look good before the world." The applause of the standing ovation that greeted Our Sheriff's words was thunderous.

And during that applause, I was wondering what those awards the Sheriff mentioned were. Something for Father Romano for his actions at Point Hollow as well as the Hospital? Something for Teresa for her leadership during those crises, especially the Hospital disaster while I was worrying about Laura? Time would tell, I thought to myself. Time would tell...

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

Thursday, October 31st. As Wonder Woman and Supergirl joined many other 2nd grade superheroes, super villains, Creepypasta and Cosplay students for classes at Eastside Elementary, the Uniformed Officers were having Roll Call at their Precincts. The Precinct Captains had made appearances, and had admonished the Officers to be especially aware of being followed, observed, and recorded. They also were warned that if they sighted the Press, to be very careful of being set up to be provoked into incidents.

"We've got double trouble tonight." Teresa Croyle said at the Angels Meeting. "We're going to have a strong showing at the Assembly meeting tonight, and more on standby in case someone tries to start riots or something. And being Hallowe'en, we're going to have to have extra patrols on the streets to make sure University students don't get the idea that having costume masks protects them from being caught drinking and driving."

"Woe betide if they think that." I said, knowing that Commander Croyle's attention was a nightmare for anyone caught drinking and driving. "Lots of checkpoints tonight?"

"Some." Teresa replied. "But setting up checkpoints on University Avenue or streets feeding into it create traffic jams, and complaints to Council Members. The University also wants us to stay off Campus, and let their Campus Police handle things there."

"Yeah," I said, "they know you and I will throw the rich Fraternity punks in jail and prosecute the hell out of them rather than let them off like the Campus Police will."

"Aw, c'mon," said Tanya, "is it really that bad?"

"No." Cindy said. "But Don is right: President Wellman likes having control of that so he can exercise his discretion depending on who the offenders are."

"Okay." I said. "Overtime is authorized to augment the Assembly protection force...

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

At 10:00am, I.A. Chief Orosco came to my office. "So how is your investigation going?" I asked.

"Some good, some not so much." said Orosco. "As near as I can tell, there are no issues with Orange Order Officers. Except last night, when you got together and partied like it's 1999." I chuckled at the joke.

"As to the investigation," said Orosco, "we've noticed some... issues. The groups we thought might be 'Red Squad' may have realized we're onto them. They're not meeting any more for lunch, and they've somewhat dispersed: new partner assignments, different patrol routes, all that. My question is where the leaks are coming from."

"This place leaks like a sieve." I replied. "That's been a problem ever since I got here, and seems to be the one problem I can't solve."

Orosco nodded. "Well, I'll keep watching. Also, that incident yesterday at the front desk was well handled. We've already closed the books on it; everyone's actions were clean and correct. The Media is screaming about the destruction of their camera, and I personally told Burt West that if he doesn't want cameras destroyed, he shouldn't send them into Police Headquarters."

I laughed. "Good. And true. Anything else boiling under the surface?"

Orosco nodded. "I'm still hearing some things. Captain Masters in City I.A. has been coordinating with me, as well as Inspector Maxwell of the SBI. One of them may bring you in on it, soon. They're not liking how City Police Officers are patrolling in predominately black neighborhoods, and Maxwell is increasing the scope of her investigation into Southport..."

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

7:30pm, October 31st. The Town Assembly meeting was meeting in the Civic Center Theater. Tables and chairs for 30 were on the stage. The theater was overflowing with hundreds of people. Only a few wore the red Antifa shirts, and there were a few bad-smelling white persons, college-aged, wearing the green PCGW shirts. Those whose offensive odor were complained about were removed by the Police.

When the meeting was called to order, the Town Assembly was stunned by the turnout. "We cannot possibly hear from everyone here." said the Assembly Speaker. Theoretically, the Mayor could moderate Assembly meetings, though he or she would have no tiebreaking vote. But Daniel Allgood had made a point to not attend.

It soon became apparent that the vast majority of people there, of all ethnicities, were against defunding the Police. Whenever Coretta K. Scott tried to oppose a speaker who was pro-Police, she was loudly booed. Black persons who begged that the Police not be defunded because it would leave black children defenseless were applauded loudly.

Ultimately, Scott tried this tactic: "You have misinterpreted what was meant by 'defunding the Police'." she said. "What we are really doing is attempting to force Police Reform."

And that brought Your Iron Crowbar to the microphone. Everyone in line got out of my way as I practically hurtled to it. If the Press wanted a confrontation between me and Assemblywoman Scott, they were about to get it.

"I will not let you get away with that lie about 'Police reform'." I said strongly but calmly. "Let's be clear: your purpose and intent is to strip money from the Police budget. There has not been one word of talk about 'Police reform' until you saw how many people came to this hearing in opposition to you. You haven't mentioned any negotiation about Police reform. At all. All you've talked about is stripping money out of the Police budget, period."

Your Iron Crowbar: "So stop your lie, given to you by the dishonest Press, that this is about 'Police reform'. It's not. It's about harming the Police. It's about making it impossible for us to do our jobs, then having your Press allies blame us for not doing our jobs once we cannot do them."