Fire in the Ashes

“No, sir. All I had was my fists. I told that punk if what my daughter said was true—just one little part of it—I was going to kick his brains out. I've never held much with the way lawyers do things. I feel—maybe wrongly—that when someone does a hurt to me or my family, I have a right to handle it. And I'll meet the problem head-on, not backing away from it."

“Is what this man says true?” Ben looked at the cop. “And bear in mind, sonny, I'll have a team of doctors pop you with truth serum faster than you can blink if you start stuttering."

“Yeah,” the young man said after only a second's pause. “That's right. I'm a cop trying to uphold federal law; just trying to protect the citizens."

The huge room erupted with laughter and hoots and catcalls at this. Some of the remarks verbally thrown at the young cop suggested a lynch mob could easily be formed from both the male and female members of the crowd. One woman even had a rope.

Ben quieted the crowd and looked at the young cop. “You didn't feel it wrong for a man to search a young girl ... in the manner described?"

“Hell, no! Not when the girl is as mouthy as that one was."

“What happened when the girl's father confronted you at the police station about his daughter?"

“He got lippy and I drew my pistol. I'm a police officer and I have the right to protect myself."

“Against an unarmed man?"

“That don't make no difference to me. You can't threaten a police officer and get away with it—nobody can."

Ben turned back to the parent. “Is that all that happened?"

“No, it isn't. When I told this punk I was going to stomp him, he laughed and waved his gun around. There was a pretty fair-sized crowd gathering by then, and the chief of police came out and broke it up. Then they arrested me."

“For what?"

“Threatening a police officer. They took me inside and shoved me around some—nothing serious. Then they fined me fifty dollars and pushed me out the door. The next day was when they started following my wife around, hassling her. Then I started getting tickets; my kids were picked up several times, questioned. If you hadn't showed up, General, I was going to kill that son of a bitch.” He was looking straight at the young officer.

Ben looked at the chief of police. “You were aware of all this?"

“Yes,” the man replied.

“And you did nothing to stop it?"

“People have to have respect for the law."

That brought a huge roar of laughter from the crowd, the sound of it rippling around the chief. His face reddened and he became uncomfortable in his chair.

“Seems like the people in this town don't think much of your concept of law and order, Chief."

“You're an anarchist!” the chief hissed. “You want to destroy all forms of law and order."

“No, Chief,” Ben said, speaking so his voice carried over the PA system. “You're wrong. I'm going to put the law back into the hands of the people, then they can decide what they want to do with it."

Applause greeted those words.

Ben looked at the chief. “Tell me, Chief—if that had been your daughter, what would you have done?"

“I would have obeyed the law."

“You're a liar and I'll prove it,” Ben challenged the man. “No cop is going to grab the daughter of a chief of police or a sheriff and subject her to what these local girls went through—and you know it. You would have been notified and the girl would have been handled with kid gloves. And that's a fact you or no other cop will deny. That's the double standard that's been in operation for years. How old is your daughter, Chief? Where is she?"

“She's sixteen years old,” the man spoke darkly. “And she's in this back classroom.” He pointed behind him.

“Go get her, Bobby,” Ben ordered. “Strip her and search her."

The parent leaped to his feet, knocking the chair spinning. Two Rebels kept him from reaching Ben. Ben stood calmly by the podium, a half-smile on his face. “I'll kill you!” the chief screamed, his face white, ugly with rage and hate. “You put your goddamn hands on my daughter and I'll kill you! All of you! Can't subject a young girl to that kind of treatment ... that's my daughter ... she's only..."

He stopped his screaming tirade and stood silent, trembling with rage. It was very quiet in the auditorium. The chief of police looked hard into the eyes of Ben. He knew he'd been sandbagged. All his words about law and order were a lie. He would have behaved just like any other parent and the law be damned.

Ben faced the crowd. “None of you have to be afraid of the law anymore. Put the people you want behind the badges, put the laws you want to be enforced on the books. That's the democratic way to do it. The law is to be respected, not feared. One way or the other, the hassle is over."

He looked at James Riverson. “James, take this young cop to the locker room.” He found the parent in the crowd. “Mister, you want your lick at him, man to man?"

The angry parent's smile was grim. “You better believe it, General."

Ben jerked his thumb in the direction of the locker room. “Have a good time."

Four