The Four Boxes of Liberty Ch. 06

"It would have been," said J.P. Goldman, "if Silas had done the right thing and replaced Finneran with a fair and impartial Commissioner that was interested in getting the truth. Finneran had no interest in the truth; he's agenda-driven and is interested only in harming the Police."

"You don't know that!" snarled Kelly Carnes. "Finneran in an honest, decent man-------"

"That's a load of crap!" fired back J.P. Goldman. "I still have not forgotten that bastard's actions during Father Romano's Board of Inquiry------"

"Point of order as to language!" called out Malinda Adams, her voice vicious and happy.

"Good grief." said the Mayor. "Are things really going to be this bad now?"

"Ask Eldrick Weaver." said Reginald B.F. Lewis, his face daring anyone to challenge what he was insinuating.

"Ask him what?" fired John Colby, taking up the bit. "Ask him why his attempt to steal the Mayoral election failed?"

"Are you accusing him of doing that?" roared Lewis.

"Yes!" shot back Colby. "It was clearly fraud-------"

*tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap*

The Mayor tapped his gavel until he got the silence he wanted. "One thing is for damn sure." he said. "I am not staying here until midnight or later rehashing the Election results. Now we have a motion on the floor. Is there any more discussion?"

"I'm probably going to be the swing vote, here." said Loran Michaels. "So I have two questions. First, would there be an objection to voting on these items separately? Right now, to vote for this is to vote for firing these two Officers, and I'm not sure they merit that, even if we accept the Board of Inquiry's findings. Second, I think some of you are being dismissive of the reasons the Union and the Officers objected to Mr. Finneran, to the point of walking out of the process. I believe that's a serious issue in itself."

"I'm not withdrawing my motion." said Carnes. "I want those Officers fired for cause. Their actions were reprehensible, but worse, their actions were a result of Commander Donald Troy's poor training of them------"

"There it is!' cried out Dagmar Schoen triumphantly. "I was wondering how long it would be before you brought up the Iron Crowbar's name!"

"Mrs. Schoen," rebuked the Mayor, "do we really have to resort to these childish, petty comments?"

"Mr. Mayor, I strongly object to your opinion of those comments." roared John Colby, his baritone voice reverberating through the room. "Mrs. Schoen makes an excellent point. Mrs. Carnes is only looking to injure the Police Force in order to injure Commander Troy. Her actions are the petty and childish ones, and she does not care who she hurts to take her cheap shots at the Iron Crowbar-------"

*tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap*

"Noted, Mr. Colby." said the Mayor.

"I want those Officers fired, also." said Reginald B.F. Lewis. "To drive home the point that the process must be respected, and cannot be flouted like this."

"So you want a Police strike?" asked Ian McGhillie. "Because I can guarantee you that if Corporals Hicks and Gunddottar... who is a woman, Ms. Adams... are fired, you will get that strike."

"Do you speak from knowledge of which we are not aware?" asked Susan Weston.

"Don't be an idiot, Ms. Weston, of course I do." growled McGhillie, who was Detective Roy McGhillie's father. "And like Mr. Michaels just asked about.. yes, the issue is that Finneran is that bad, and the anger over his actions run that deep. The Union is not considering a strike solely to have one; they'd prefer to save that ammunition for a more worthy battle. But this one is worthy enough to the Police rank-and-file that they very likely will vote to strike if Hicks and Gunddottar are fired."

"Yeah, I'll bring up his name again." said Kelly Carnes. "What does Commander Troy have to say about that?"

"He will come out on record supporting his Officers if that is what they choose to do." said Edward R. Steele. "He's tired of Finneran's shit... don't bother with the points of order... and he's tired of your shit, Ms. Carnes. And you may consider what I just said to be a direct quote from the man himself."

The political trump card had been played. Reginald B.F. Lewis realized that McGhillie, Steele, and probably Goldman had just boxed the others in, and had saved this greatest threat to the last minute. And they'd do it, they would. Especially if the Iron Crowbar told them he supported it. Damn! that Iron Crowbar was a dirty-dealing Cracker! he thought to himself.

"He's just taking care of his Officers, Mr. Lewis." said Edward Steele to his good friend... probably now his former good friend after the Allgood-Weaver election. Lewis just nodded thoughtfully.

"He does that." said Lewis quietly. "Griswold does, too."

The vote was 3-7. A second motion to accept the I.G.'s findings and absolve the Police Officers passed 7-2 with one abstention...

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

"That's great... yes... okay, I'll talk to you tomorrow. Thanks for calling." I said. I disconnected the phone and set it down on the bedside table.

"That was Edward Steele." I said to Laura as she sat in bed next to me, reading an article in that renowned magazine Sexual Psychology. "They cleared Hicks and Gunddottar, but only after Ian McGhillie brought up the threat of a strike."

"That's good." Laura said. "Did Edward say how Reginald Lewis was after the Weaver issue?"

"No," I said, "but he said there was more, and he'd tell me about it tomorrow." Laura put her magazine to the side, then turned and cuddled up to me. I knew what that meant, and it was confirmed when I felt her hand grasp my hardening cock. She began jacking it as we began sharing warm, wet kisses. They began getting deeper, our tongues twining.

Then Laura began kissing her way down my chest and abs to my groin. I groaned as I felt her take my cock into her hot mouth...

Part 34 - Epilogue

Later, lying awake in the dark as Laura slept peacefully in my arms, I reflected on something I'd heard... that our Liberty is defended by four boxes: the soap box, the ballot box, the jury box, and the cartridge box. It would seem we'd experienced all of these recently.

The discourse of the soap box had been used in political speeches and talk shows, but also had been abused in violent demonstrations by our enemies. The ballot box had elected our representation at every level, despite attempts to subvert that process and steal one of those elections.

The Grand Jury box had saved me from the rabid agenda of hate-filled men using the law as a weapon, and Jury boxes had saved Peter Gordon and Nathaniel Jones from wrongful convictions. More indirectly, the Courts had saved an election for Mayor from being tainted, and stolen.

The red crowbar had served as my 'cartridge box' to fight voter suppression, and we'd narrowly avoided having to use live bullets against hundreds of hatred-filled thugs... as the chrome and steel of the motorcycles ridden by Patriots gleamed as they had fought that battle for us...

Thomas Jefferson once said that the Tree of Liberty had to be refreshed by the blood of Patriots and Tyrants. Mitt Willis's blood had been shed, as had Wallace Bedford's and Jasmine Nix's, and Jack Lewis's. And the blood of Patriots like Admiral Keating and Charlie Griswold's, as well. And we came so close, oh so close, to Tanya Perlman's blood refreshing that Tree of Liberty as she held her ground in the face of certain death... in front of the statue of the aforementioned Thomas Jefferson.

And was it worth it? To fight to pass on to our sons and daughters the same Free Nation in which we'd been raised? Yes, but it was more. The cause for which we'd stood on the Courthouse Square in the face of rabid Death, had worn a wire to expose evil, to taking gunfire to save another Police Officer, had ridden in on motorcycles to fight, had stood before judges in Court, had invaded a political headquarters to avenge voter fraud... that cause could be summed up in the words of another President, Abraham Lincoln, as he dedicated a cemetery at Gettysburg to those whose blood had refreshed the Tree of Liberty:

"...that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain------ that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom------ and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Finis... for now.