From: bkoike@sdcc13.ucsd.edu (Bryce Koike)
Subject: Random Cyberpunk-esque Interview
Date: 22 Apr 92 21:22:40 GMT

(Author's Note:  This is just fiction, not a representation of my
own personal beliefs or opinions.)

NewsNet 91
NewsGroup:    Political Prostituation
From:         Peaches&Cream (Peaches#155@node1581999)
Subject:      Murder and the Cop, part 1
Date:         3/21/36
Origination:  The Hack'n Chat (node 1581999)

     I was flipping the channels when I came across this little
piece of information.  I think it's quite pertinent to the current
"discussion" that's been going on here.  Taper (the guy who's doing
this special) has four more parts to this and I'll be putting them
up as quickly as I can.

[text transmission follows]
     The following is a news special copied from the Atlantic News,
March 19, 2036, written by Nicholas Taper:

     Throughout the years there have been various attempts to
punish criminals.  By the late 20th Century these attempts centered
around the police -- a special elite force whose sole job is to
enforce the various laws supported by the United States government.
Raising crime rates, especially in gang-infested neighborhoods,
suddenly pitted police against well-armed young men who often out-
gunned the police.  This turned very quickly from law enforcement
to urban warfare.  The great fall of 2005 put a temporary damper on
this, but by 2020 the gang problem was back -- worse than ever.
     This article will neither go into the countless reasons or
explanations for problems with urban warfare nor will it discuss
solutions.  Instead I would like to present a man who leads one of
the most elite police task forces in America.  This man is Elijah
Warrington, the chief of the Southern Los Angeles police
department. [Click here for QuickPic]

Atlantic News:
     Mr. Warrington, you've been attacked on several occasions by
various groups who claim that your methods are barbaric and
inhumane.  What do you have to say on this?

Elijah Warrington:
     Do they live in SLA?  I do.  I grew up in these slums and got
to see the hell this city breeds first-hand.  Inhumane?  This is
the accepted form of retaliation here in SLA.  If someone kills
your gang brother, you don't head to the cops.  You pick up a gun
and kill.  What we are doing is answering back in the language that
the gangs know best.

AN:
     But does that make your methods right?

EW:
     The ends justifies the means in this case.  A slap on the
wrist isn't going to stop gang warfare here.  You're going to have
to talk back -- by force, if necessary.  The whole of American
society has held us, the American police force, responsible for the
gang problem.  We aren't the ones who are making the gangs, but
it's the society that demands that we stop them.  The groups who
are blaming me for using barbaric police tactics are also the same
ones who are refusing to do anything about it.  Every day there's
fewer care clinics here, fewer people who are trying to do
something about the problem.  The police are here to enforce the
laws, not to solve domestic problems.  There's counsellors and
shrinks for that.

AN:
     But what about people who aren't gang members?  What about the
fifty homeless men that were killed last year?  Or the homeless
children that were slaughtered during your supposedly routine city
clean-up?

EW:
     Look, there's over 6.3 billion people on this planet now.  I
can't even begin to imagine the fraction of those people that are
harbored here in America now-

AN:
     So you're saying that it's acceptable to kill these people
because of the over-inflated population?

EW:
     You cut me off, sir, please allow me to continue.  Do you know
the price it costs to rehabilitate a homeless man or woman?  What
about an orphaned child left in the street?  The costs are
enormous.  Currently our country is spending less and less on
people like this and more and more on the rich, those who are well
off.  The police force isn't responsible for rehabilitation, but WE
are the ones who are having to deal with the drawbacks!  Centers
for helping orphaned, molested, or homeless kids are closing down
right and left.  Back in the 20th Century there was precious little
people were doing for the homeless.  Now there's even less.  A
large number of those homeless have mental problems that make it
quite impossible for them to operate in today's society.  There is
NO ONE in this country who is willing to make an effort to see that
these mentally deficient men and women get the help and support
they need.  The cost itself is staggering and pointless.
     Well over sixty percent of all kids who are pulled off the
street for crime and sent to foster homes and the such are back on
the street within two years or less.  All the time and effort spent
on these children is wasted in the end -- they go back into the
criminal pool, or the drug pool, or the disease pool.  It is
impossible to care for these children because they don't want it.
Ditto for adults in similar situations.  How you do expect us to
deal with this?  We don't have the facilities or funding to
actually help these kids and yet WE are the ones who gets the
blame!  I am having our department deal with this problem in a
radical way.  Yes, I'm definitely willing to accept that fact.  But
the other fact is that there is no other effective way of dealing
with this problem.  Jails do not rehabilitate criminals.  Do you
know that 35% of the people in our jails, drunk tanks, and holding
cells right now are under 20 years of age?  These are kids who need
help but aren't EVER going to get it.  The sad, simple truth is
that it's better to remove these individuals from society before
they get the chance to commit greater crimes and continue to infect
our society.

AN:
     But what about those who are innocent of such crimes?  What
about the homeless man who is killed just because an officer
suspects him of being a criminal?

EW:
     (sighs)  Throughout history there have been the stories of the
innocent man that gets the shaft.  This is a fact of our justice
system.  We have no way of reading people's minds to get the truth
out.  We deal with what we have and go with it.  This was the
problem with the death penalty forty years ago and it's the same
problem with it today.  I don't begin to pretend that the killing
we do is a deterrent.  It is a cleansing of this city.  I think
you'll notice that SLA has had a drastic 10% decrease in crime over
the past two years.  This isn't some fluke -- you'll see similar
decreases for the next five years.  My system works because we're
dealing with radical problems.
     I'd like to also point out that over 75% of the crimes in this
city are gang-related.  The vast majority of gang members carry
guns.  Are you suggesting that we risk the life of a law-abiding
officer to make certain that someone really is a gang member?
Gangs have arranged certain ambushes before to capture and kill
certain officers of our force.  We used to check to make certain
that the people we killed were being killed for a specific reason
and not just guilt by association.  Unfortunately, that avenue is
no longer open for us.  When we get a call about a criminal
violation, we must be prepared and ready to use maximum violent
force to get the job done.

AN:
     I don't think anyone can really ignore the effects your
system, however frightening it may be, has had on crime in SLA.
But the question is where are the numbers really coming from?
Several SLA gangs have found their way up north to Northern
California and even further up the west coast.  Is your crime drop
simply the product of a gang migration?  It's obvious that SLA has
the highest gang-kill ratio of any gang-infested city, so are the
gangs simply leaving because of how deadly it is to live here?

EW:
     To answer your questions, let me tell you a story.
     Last week I went back to the park by the house I grew up in.
When I was a kid no one went to the parks except for the gangs.
Weekly, if not more often, gang wars would break out there.
There'd be drugs, illegal weapons, anything you can think of,
trading hands there.  People would be having sex right there
underneath the trees next to the paths.  Last week when I walked
through it I saw a family having a picnic.  The guy who works at
the park thanked me for cleaning the city up and making the park a
safe place for kids to play in.
     I don't care where the gangs are going.  When I was brought
into office here at the Southern Los Angeles police department, the
people demanded that I clean up this city.  I've been doing that.
Don't get me wrong, I don't like the methods I've had to resort to.
I've gone through the cemeteries and I've noticed that the graves
from the past five years come close to outnumbering all the others
two-to-one.  That doesn't make me feel good.  Not all of those
graves are there because of my men and I, but I feel responsible
for them all.
     But its the parks that remind me of why I do it.

AN:
     Thank you, Elijah Warrington.  And that is, as they say,
straight from the horse's mouth.  This is Nicholas Taper of the
Atlanta News asking you to stay informed, stay armed, and stay
safe.

     That's all I got.  I only picked off the picture of the SLA
police chief 'cuz I'm running out of space on my main drive, so I'm
sorry that no one got all the stats and stuff that Taper was
displaying during the dialogue.  Taper's show's on channel 34 at
8:00pm for those interested.

                                   ()> Peaches 'n Cream <()