This story is part of an ongoing series.
The chronological order of my stories is listed in WifeWatchman's biography.
Feedback and
constructive
criticism is very much appreciated, and I encourage feedback for ideas.
This story contains graphic scenes, language and actions that might be extremely offensive to some people. These scenes, words and actions are used only for the literary purposes of this story. The author does not condone murder, racism, racial language, violence, rape or violence against women, and any depictions of any of these in this story should not be construed as acceptance of the above.
Note: if you try any of the whiskeys discussed in this story, please drink responsibly.
***
Part 27 - Attack and Reprisal (continued)
*WHAM!*
The perp face-planted on the playground soil. Seven-year-old Carole Troy had grabbed one of his legs, tripping him up.
"Run, Tasha!" Carole yelled as she got up. Tasha ran as fast as she could towards her mother and Laura, who were running up themselves. But Carole did not run. Instead she ran up and began stabbing her fingers at the man's eyes as he turned over and tried to get up, and she connected a couple of times.
"AAAUGH!" the man screamed in pain. "You little bitch! I'll kill you!" As he started to get up, Carole chose discretion over further valor, and took off running for her mother.
"Bitch!" the perp yelled, his eye still in pain and beginning to swell. But he did not get far. The three TCPD Officers had come up. Patrolman Wagner tackled him again, and Patrolman Buchannan put a knee into his shoulder blade (no, not his neck) to keep him down as Sergeant Carter helped Wagner affix handcuffs to the man.
"We got him, ma'am." said Buchannan to Laura as they bodily picked the man up off the ground. Tasha had been picked up by her mother Paulina, but was now squirming to get down.
"That was a great tackle, Carole." said Sergeant Carter. "You saved your sister's life."
"Thank you, Sar-gent Car-ter." Carole said politely, having observed Carter's name tag as well as the Sergeant stripes on the arm of his Uniform shirt.
"Thank you, guys." Laura said. "We'll go to the Police HQ infirmary. I'm going to make sure Carole wasn't injured, then we'll make our statements."
"Sure thing." said Carter. He then went over and bagged as evidence the knife the perp had dropped.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Officers roughly dragged the man the other way, around the side of the school where the perp had appeared. Seeing a shady spot on the side of the building that looked obscure and private, Buchannan said "Stop here."
They stopped and Buchannan slammed the man against the wall. "Oh, so it's like that, huh?" he said, getting in the perp's face. "You gonna try to kill a little black girl? Huh? So that's what it's come to?"
"She ain't black!" the man snarled. "She's a fucking
halfbreed!
And you're just a fucking Uncle Tom!" He spit at Buchannan, hitting the Officer right on the word 'POL
ICE' on Buchannan's armor.
*WHUMP!*
Buchannan bunched his large fist and slammed it into the man's ribs. The perp bent over, coughing.
"Hold this nigga up." Buchannan said. He drew back and drove his arm upward, smashing his fist into the man's ribs.
"UHH!" the man gasped. Another blow to the solar plexus, and the man went limp in the Officers's arms, and began retching.
*WHAM!*
Buchannan drove his fist into the side of the man's face, boxing his ear. Then another haymaker to the other side of his head. The other Officers pulled the perp up, and Buchannan smashed him in the nose.
"Pol...ice... bru.. tali...ty..." the man gasped weakly.
"Shoulda thought of that before you spit on me, punk." Buchannan said. "And this ain't shit. Wait until the Iron Crowbar gets a hold of yo ass for trying to murder his daughter..."
After several more punishing blows to the perp's body and head, Sergeant Carter said "Okay, that's enough. Let's get him to County Jail." They turned and began half-walking, half-dragging the man to Buchannan's Patrol cruiser. As they got up to it, they looked up to see a KXTC van, and the cameraman filming them.
"Oh, crap." said Wagner, realizing that KXTC had just filmed a TCPD Officer exercising a beatdown of a suspect in their custody...
Part 28 - Repercussions
Laura and Paulina had brought Carole and Tasha to Police Headquarters, where Laura examined Carole most very thoroughly for injuries.
"It doesn't hurt anywhere, Mommy." Carole protested as Laura looked her over.
"Now Carole," Laura said, "you tackled a man much large and heavier than you. Just his leg running into you could injure you. Now is not the time to be a hero and pretend you're not feeling pain if you are."
"I'm not, Mommy." Carole said. Still, Laura checked her for concussion, prodded and probed Carole's ribs and abdomen and back to see if Carole reacted in pain, then made Carole put her arms up like she was blocking someone in a football game, and turn from side to side.
"You're not feeling any pain at all?" Laura asked yet again.
"No, Mommy." Carole said.
Laura also checked out Tasha, talking to her and asking her questions. But it was more than just a physical exam; it was a subtle psychological exam, being executed by one of the very best psychiatrists in the Nation.
"I was scared at first," Tasha said, "but after Carole made the man fall down and I could run away, I wasn't as scared."
"You did very well." Paulina said reassuringly. "And Carole, you were very brave. Thank you for saving Tasha."
"You don't have to thank me, Aunt Paulina." Carole said. "Tasha is my sis-ter, and I'm a Po-leece Off-i-sirrr now."
Paulina hugged Carole warmly, trying not to break down crying. Laura looked much less amused...
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The KXTC van hurtled into the parking lot of KXTC's headquarters. Reporter Pat Stellum and his cameraman grabbed their stuff and rushed inside. The cameraman hurried to the A/V editing room while Stellum ran to the 'city room', the large open area where the reporters's desks were.
Pat Stellum was white, short, and getting(?) overweight. He had black hair that clearly revealed the large bald spot on top of his head, which literally shone if television pancake makeup was not applied.
"We've got 'em!" he yelled as he rushed into the 'city room'. "We've got TCPD cops beating up a black man!" The reporters all cheered.
"What happened?" asked a 'cub reporter.
"We were at Eastside Elementary, where we were told to go." said Stellum. "Apparently something happened behind the school, in the playground. The cops arrested a guy, but when they brought him around the side, thinking they couldn't be seen, one of them started just beating the shit out of the guy, who was handcuffed and in custody."
"What's the full story?" asked Carl Lemay. Lemay was black, articulate, looked good in a suit, and had recently been hired as Lester 'Penis' Holder's replacement as KXTC's 'Reporter of Color'. "Why was that guy arrested? What happened behind the school?"
"After we heard all the commotion on the Police radios, we got the footage from the school's cameras while you were coming back here." said the blonde reporterette Martha Faulkner. "That perp attacked a little girl with a knife. Fortunately, the guy tripped and face-planted, and the girl got away and was able to get to her mother."
"It would've been nice," said a voice coming from the office areas, "if you'd actually gotten some film footage of
that
." The voice revealed itself to be Bettina Wurtzburg, Executive Publisher and Managing Editor of KXTC Channel Two News.
"Ma'am," said Stellum, "we did what we were told. We parked on the street and waited for something to happen. And we got the cops beating up a black man in their custody!"
"Anyone know who the little girl is?" asked Carl Lemay, redirecting the flow of the conversation.
"Oh yes." said Bettina Wurtzburg. "Tasha Troy-Patterson, ADA Paulina Patterson's daughter." Pat Stellum looked around as the pall of silence suddenly enveloped the room.
"What?" Stellum asked.
"You're new here." Bettina said. "So you may not know that Tasha is also the daughter of Police Commander Donald Troy... the Iron Crowbar. And Tasha is the little girl that our colleague Lester Holder kept calling a 'halfbreed', which I can't prove but personally believe led to our colleague's death. In any case, Pat, come with me. Let's review your footage and the school-cam footage..."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Upon being called by Laura, I rushed down to Police Headquarters. I noticed that KXTC was manning cameras on the roof of the building at Riverside and College, and also at ground level across Riverside Drive from Headquarters... all cameras pointing at Police Headquarters and the parking lot. Now how did they hear about this so quickly? I wondered to myself. And what the hell are they up to?
I parked and rushed inside. I almost made it to the door of the anteroom to my office when Tasha rushed around the corner of the hallway and headlong into my legs. I picked her up and got a very strong hug.
"Daddy," Tasha said, trying not to cry, "a bad man tried to hurt me."
"I know, Little Love." I said. "It's all right now. We've got the bad man in jail."
"And Carole saved my life by tackling the bad man." Tasha said. "I was scared and ran, but she didn't. I'm sorry I was scared and ran." Uh oh, I thought to myself.
"That's okay." I said. "You did what you were supposed to." I carried her into my office as Paulina, Laura, and Carole came down the hallway, and sat Tasha down on my desk.
"Tasha," I said, sitting down in my chair, "what happens when you've seen Buddy or Bowser go after one of Tiger Mom's kittens? What does the little kitten do?"
"Runs away to its mommy." Tasha said.
"Yes." I said. "And what does Tiger Mom do?"
"She swats Buddy and Bowser on their noses." Tasha said.
"And so do the kitten's bigger brothers and sisters." added Carole helpfully, seeing where I was going with this (I think).
"That's right." I said. "So you did what little kids and kittens are supposed to do... you ran for your mom. Your big sister and your mom and Aunt Laura helped you escape the bad man."