Black, White, and RED All Over, part 12 -- Ironwood Hamilton from #freewrite in an extended story!

One last time but also forevermore: thank you, @freewritehouse, for making me your adoptee last week! Here is the end of the extra content, "Black, White, and RED All Over" -- here in part 12, Captain Hamilton explains it all!

If you are just starting here, this is like reading the end of the book first ... I do that sometimes too, so I get it ... in case what you read makes you want to go back, here are parts one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, and eleven. OR, get the entire tale in its new home on Amazon!

A quick summary WITHOUT spoilers: the coming of the confrontational Lofton County Free Voice and its demand for release of police records on incidents and arrests of Black citizens upsets Lofton County, VA and all of its police departments. Captain Hamilton decides to comply with the Free Voice, but in the process he and the Free Voice and his police captain counterpart in Big Loft, VA discover that others in Captain Hamilton's position are planning a different and devastating kind of response -- thus begins the countdown to strike and counter-strike in part 11, and here in Part 12 it is all explained...

Almost ... although the story is finished here, the aftermath of two pieces of the drama of part 11 is just too juicy to resist, so some time next week, I will be writing two epilogues!

But, twelfth things first, after my dividing graphic...

In terms of police affairs in Lofton County after the Gilligan House Burning, Tinyville was the calm in the midst of the storm after the county had relieved its tiny jail of the crush of participants in that burning. Because Captain Hamilton had endured the (relatively) little storm of firing the last of the old guard and also completely submitting to the FOIA request, Tinyville's direct consequences ended except, of course, for the loss of the Gilligan House. But, as Mr. Varick had said, the building had completed its purpose, and that long point of contention in the town also was ended.

Lieutenant O'Reilly found it eerily quiet by Monday as the storm that was destroying departments all over the county passed over Tinyville. Captain Hamilton had given his official interview to all the news agencies in the county and the region that morning, and it was just as calm and even and over much sooner than the lieutenant expected. The Lofton County Free Voice of course already had its news, and was there as a formality; the rest appeared to be completely in awe of the captain.

“Idol making is unfortunately a major pastime in Virginia, no matter the disaster,” Captain Hamilton said later on. “It is our favorite coping mechanism, and, unfortunately, it gets in the way of us learning and growing through our experiences.”

“I never thought of it that way, but, I suppose you're right,” Lieutenant O'Reilly said. “I want to grow, sir. It … it hurt me so much, what happened, and how we had to fight our own colleagues. I looked up to many of them, but they were just stuck, and … I don't want to be like that, when I reach your age.”

“That's half the battle won already,” Captain Hamilton said.

“Let me explain this case to you in this way, Lieutenant. When I was a child, Lieutenant Sidney was in this office, and he made captain when I was in my teens. He was always kind to me, as kind as Captain Lee was to little Byron Berrier. I never saw him be unkind to anyone, of any color. If personal behavior was the mark of a racist, he never would have qualified. If that was my understanding of the matter, no one ever would have convinced me he was a racist.

“But I know better, and you must know better, Lieutenant. Whenever you see systems of racism at work, forget every idea of personal hatred. Remember first that Europeans decided to exploit North America and every person that was here, and grab out of Africa every person that they needed to do that. Racism is the justification that came later, but the decision to profit at everyone else's expense was made first. Thus, racism at work on a systemic level is the justification for a profit motive, always.

“When you see racist systems at work, there is always profit for the racists behind it. Find and root out the source of that profit, and you will have removed the nucleus of much of the corruption and crime that everyone in a region is suffering from, because any man that has so calloused his heart against one set of human beings that he can reduce them to chattel will do it to every other set he can, although his methods may vary.

“So: it was to that end that you have seen me crunching the data this office amassed on itself that showed the extent of the racism this office had indulged. Frankly I was too overwhelmed at first to clearly see the larger profit. My feeling was complete heartbreak, for I had loved Captain Sidney with a orphaned boy's trusting love for a father figure, but I had to work past that and with all the lieutenants until I could decide to keep you and put the rest out.

“My first clear thought was of the criminals still at large while Captain Sidney and his old crew were abusing the Black population of this town. Yet I did have the sense that there was something larger at work, and the behavior of our colleagues and former colleagues at our dinner at the Midway Bar and Grill alerted me that indeed, something was truly amiss. Their personal disdain for Black people I knew about. Their terror – especially Captain Bragg's – I did not. Captain Bragg was terrified, so terrified that he forgot not to needle Captain Lee.”

Captain Hamilton sighed.

“I said to you after dinner on Friday that Captain Lee usually isn't growly. That's because his bark has never compared with his bite. Captain Bragg had known that for 40 years, since the two captains met for the first time as toddlers at a county-wide Vacation Bible School. Little Bragg loved picking kids small for their age to bully. He picked the wrong one in tiny Lee; his one push earned him a full-body tackle and body slam, a further slamming of his head several times into the dirt, and the perfect imprint of some baby teeth right by his darling little jugular.”

“Even a baby pit bull is still a pit bull,” Lieutenant O'Reilly said, shaking his head. “Wow.”

“You would think young Bragg would have learned from that. He didn't. Fast forward ten years. We were all in high school in Big Loft. Of course that high school was integrated by 1990, and white flight had taken place except for those of us white folks too poor for private school. We were outnumbered. Boyhood Bragg formed a brutal little gang – the BBB, with 'too young for the KKK but we're on our way' as the slogan. You see where that ended up this weekend.”

“Yes, sir,” Lieutenant O'Reilly said, shaking his head.

“Enter Vanessa Morton, whose beauty was described by her greatest admirer as 'petite perfect, dark as a summer night, kissed with the dew of stars.' She was as smart as she was beautiful, was a junior at 15, and beating out juniors a year older than her on the honor roll and in AP classes. That was disturbing to a lot of people. The administration didn't want it. A lot of the other kids of all colors were jealous. That made Miss Vanessa vulnerable, and the BBB moved in, mercilessly teasing and sliding into sexual harassment as they saw the administration was not going to stop them.

“However, Miss Vanessa's greatest admirer wasn't having that. Our now teenage pit bull was madly – and I do say, madly – in love with her, although too shy to confess it in the ordinary way. So, he made his feelings known by a heroic act of sheer insanity: taking on the whole BBB. He warned them and got her attention on the same day, while they were hassling her.

“Boyhood Lee still wouldn't hit his growth spurt for another year. It didn't matter. He shoved two of the BBB members aside like they were straw weight and got right up in boyhood Bragg's face. He got up on his tiptoes and told his old enemy: you mess with Miss Vanessa again, runt Lee's going to whip you a second time, with all your little small-brained friends. He said it loud enough for everybody in the hallway to hear it. That was such a blow to boyhood Bragg, and such a shock to his crew, that they just watched as our favorite teenage pit bull picked up Miss Vanessa's books and offered to walk her to her bus stop.

“Well, at that point, everybody wanted the details of how big Bragg had been whipped the first time by runt Lee, and there were plenty who remembered and wanted to tell it. Of course, revenge was planned – and since boyhood Lee terrified the BBB, Miss Vanessa was the target.

“First Friday of the summer: Miss Vanessa was coming from work, crossing a parking lot, about to get to the street and on the bus to meet the young man she was madly in love with for a secret rendezvous at Fruitland Memorial Park. The BBB pounced, and the harassment turned violent: Boyhood Bragg ripped open Miss Vanessa's shirt while the rest laughed. They had no idea that Miss Vanessa's young man had sensed the need to come and meet her at work, and was running up on them at that very moment.

“All at once, five of the seven members of the BBB were knocked clean out by the sixth, who had been grabbed by the ankles and swung around so his head knocked into their heads. That just left poor boyhood Bragg, bereft of his crew, to get worked over again.”

Lieutenant O'Reilly shook his head.

“Probably only survived because Miss Vanessa was there.”

“Correct, Lieutenant. Our teenage pit bull was too much of a gentleman to get blood on the clothes he was going to comfort his beloved in. So, he took boyhood Bragg's head and hand and let boyhood Bragg's car do the work smashing boyhood Bragg's face and hand. He then took his knife and avenged Miss Vanessa's humiliation by cutting boyhood Bragg's pants off, and then slung him through his own windshield and left him, backside on display to the world, bleeding from his broken nose and cut face all through his car's upholstery. Word spread fast. The BBB had terrorized a lot of young people. 'Runt' Lee became a hero to all of them. That is why West Point came looking for him.”

“You mean to say the United States has some kind of scouting report?” Lieutenant O'Reilly said.

“A general with a background in Special Forces was at the mall where this happened,” Captain Hamilton said. “He was on his way across the lot to rescue Miss Vanessa himself, but instead ended up watching how 'the little natural' handled that seven-on-one situation. Lofton County only had one public high school then, and of course the story was all over the place by the start of the next summer. That was how the United States of America's armed forces discovered the rise of another Lee.

“Obviously, Captain Bragg had paid for all of this in his second round of public humiliation! Self-preservation says you don't needle someone who had done that to you twice in 40 years, unless you have lost all sense of perspective. Captain Bragg had. That is the reason why I knew Captain Bragg had just about lost his mind from terror, and that told me something more was going on.”

“Captain Lee and I compared our research into the data covered by the FOIA request on Saturday. He and I knew about the money that the county wants to get from a huge private-public development partnership, but Captain Bragg's behavior tipped me off that more money was going into more hands. I knew, before the firing of your fellow lieutenants, that there were two dozen theft cases they had handled that clearly had not been committed by the people accused and convicted. I also knew there was no tracing of the return of the evidence or stolen goods, some of which were very valuable.

“I asked Captain Lee to take a look at his data about thefts and grand thefts, and he got back to me with the data he sent me and I shared with you about those 25 houses, including that braggadocios blue-and-gold atrocity owned by one Braxton Beauregard Bragg, Mr. BBB himself. You may ask yourself how he got a bigger house than Commissioner Thomas, and there are two reasons: the former commissioner plowed his profits into stock, and he had to spread the wealth a lot more in Big Loft.

“But remember, in these small towns, the captains are what I am: captain, chief, and commissioner. Tinyville had a captain and four lieutenants; all of them had houses they couldn't afford on their salary, but that was done pretty early in the ten years asked for here. Littleburg, Miniopolis, and Shortport all had captains and lieutenants getting big houses all through the decade, as did Big Loft and the county.”

“There was also the connection to the opening of a new private prison in Roanoke County, 11 years ago. Lofton County was feeding it heavily until it approached capacity about two years ago. Meanwhile, the captains and lieutenants started getting even bigger houses, as did the county prosecutor.”

“So, that's what it was all about,” Lieutenant O'Reilly said. “Bigger houses. The American dream.”

“Which at no time has been achieved quickly by some without the great expense of others,” said Captain Hamilton gravely. “It is also sadly true that people, having gained what they had no business having, wrap their whole guilty conscience and whole improperly inflated ego around it, and will kill in every direction to keep it.

“Captain Bragg tipped his hand Saturday on what he had in mind – he kept making jokes about heat and fire and the next story and burning … we all grew up in Virginia. We all know what that means.

“Captain Bragg had already said how he wanted to smash Mr. Varick and Mr. Turner on his way into this office, and then said he was on the phone talking to someone else. Captain Lee noticed his Bluetooth blinking … and Bluetooths only do that when they are out of range of the phone.

“Sure enough: Captain Bragg's car, and his phone, were down the street and around the corner. He just happened to have the Bluetooth in his ear, and thought fast enough to say he was on the phone … but Captain Lee remembered how Captain Bragg loved to bully, and knew that wasn't a figurative conversation.

“Captain Lee knew Commissioner Thomas had no desire to have the FOIA released in an understandable manner, but not until last Tuesday did he suspect that the man who had hired him was working with Captain Bragg on the plan to burn out the Free Voice. He got the evidence on Wednesday, and it was some kind of evidence.

“You know that Captain Bragg asked for the phone numbers of Commissioner Thomas and Sheriff Nottingham on Friday. We did not expect that to go well. Apparently, Sheriff Nottingham was not receptive; we caught relatively few county men this last Friday. But we caught a ton from Big Loft! Now, you know why.”

“I don't remember booking Commissioner Thomas,” Lieutenant O'Reilly said.

“That's because you didn't,” Captain Hamilton said. “He is with his partner, Captain Bragg.”

Lieutenant O'Reilly jumped.

“Captain Lee got him!”

“Captain Lee got both of them, really,” Captain Hamilton said. “Remember: I was once a major, and he was once a colonel. I was once 'Colonel Lee's more humane adjutant.' Our counter strategy at the Gilligan House was his, with one exception. He told me that Captain Bragg and about half the men with him were not going to back down, and that it would be best to just stop all of them in the midst of their crime. However, Tinyville is our jurisdiction, Lieutenant. I decided to give as many of those men as possible a chance at life, though in prison.

“Remember: we have innocent men that need exoneration, doing time for crimes they did not commit. The admissions of the authors of the Gilligan House Burning in hopes of getting reduced sentences will do much to strengthen the work the Innocence Project will be doing to get the innocent men released and exonerated.

“Yet, I knew that Captain Lee was right. Captain Bragg and about half of his men would not back down. They couldn't. In getting caught at the Gilligan House, they had lost everything – career, reputation, all their gains for which they had thrown away their honor. They had nothing else to lose, especially Captain Bragg, in route to his third public humiliation in 40 years. Their ego would not let them back down. So: if we confronted them at the Gilligan House, we would have to kill them, either before or after. But there is a difference between killing 46 and killing 87, and, Captain Lee did it the way I wanted it in the back of the house, saving all of those men.

“Commissioner Thomas did not have to die, but it was inevitable after he started shooting back at me. I would have gotten him because the movement of his kitchen door would have given me half a second's advantage before he could shoot at me again, but, he had also left his back door unlocked.”

Lieutenant O'Reilly shook his head.

“Captain Lee got behind him, point-blank range, just that quick.”

“Yes, young sir, that is precisely how it happened. By contrast, the commissioner's deputies were just laughable, so we didn't hurt them too bad. They will give up a lot of useful information that the Free Voice and the Innocence Project will be able to make good use of.”

“How did Mr. Varick and the others from the Free Voice escape the burning?”

“Recall that the Gilligan House was a stop on the Underground Railroad. Extra rooms, a hidden passage underground into a little shack in the woods. It was cobwebby, but usable, so, Mr. Varick and company took the files out at once to safekeeping and to the people truly designated to work with them, and then stripped the house of all the historical objects that could be rescued. We put up a projector to show images of people moving around the upstairs, but the house had been empty several hours before we took our positions.”

“Wow,” Lieutenant O'Reilly said. “The authors of the Gilligan House Burning never had a chance.”

“When members of the community and honest police officers find a way to work together, most criminals don't stand a chance,” said the captain. “We cannot do anything about the history that makes it so hard to do that. But, we were granted that possibility last week, and then went and appropriated the possibility and made it come to reality. That is now new history for Tinyville, which I pray mightily that we can build on correctly to get to a future much different from this region's past. Pray and work; work and pray; that's all there is to it. Oh, and lunch. There's also lunch.”

Lieutenant O'Reilly smiled.

“Is what I think it is in the refrigerator?”

“Yes, young sir, I went on and ordered from the Midway Bar and Grill last night for today – I trust you and I can have a good meal free of hidden terrors. Save room for the pound cake, too.”