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CHAPTER6
“You’re not filing any charges?” Gabe stared at his boss. In the two weeks since the rioting started, he’d seen charge after charge dropped. Many of those initially arrested were cited out, with a promise to appear at a later date in court. Gabe had seen enough arrest face sheets to know that very few locals were involved in the most violent incidents. Most of those arrested were from out of town. To let out-of-towners come in and wreak havoc in his city without consequences rubbed Gabe the wrong way. Yet Madden dropped all of those charges as well.
“Gabe, the people were just letting off steam. Admit it—the video was hard to watch. Makes sense they’d want to relieve frustration.” Madden fiddled with her pen, a tell Gabe knew meant she was nervous. Madden herself was from San Francisco. All Gabe knew about her was what he’d read; he’d never worked around her. She’d replaced a woman he knew well, a woman who’d lived her whole life in LaRosa and worked in law enforcement for thirty years.
“Sure, nobody wants to see a kid crying over his mother’s body. But context is everything. So is the angle on a video, which they’ve figured out in LA. The dead woman had just shot and killed a neighbor because of an argument over a man. If we had video of her shooting, it would be hard to watch aswell.”
She crossed her arms. “This will blow over. We just have to be patient.”
“How much of the city will be left by the time we’re done waiting for things to blow over?”
“You’re exaggerating. We’ve already seen a drop in the number of protests.”
But not a drop in the violence,Gabe thought. Or in the cost of injury to personnel or property damage. In certain areas of the city, mobs formed every time a black-and-white patrol car appeared. This was especially the case at Barton Plaza. Because Thomas Johnston lived there, the plaza had become a sort of rallying point. A group associated with Thomas claimed it was a “cop-free zone” and they would handle their own problems. Officers were chased away every time they were called. Gabe knew they’d been ordered to retreat in an attempt to avoid conflict and it bothered him. All the retreat did was embolden the criminal element.
“And what about the rioters who injured police officers?”
“They were simply lashing out at authority, scared, acting by instinct.”
Gabe felt his jaw drop and had to fight from saying something he would regret. She was parroting the mayor. Mayor Elise White was no fan of the police, and she had no problem making excuses for the mob. She played to the media, asserting that the people protesting and causing violence were “justice fighters” or something. She never avoided the chance to appear on a cable news program, always excusing riotous behavior and never supporting the police.
A month ago, he’d overheard a heated discussion between the new mayor and the president of the police officers’ association. The PD contract was coming up for renewal in three months. Early negotiations were going nowhere because White just kept saying no. Her nickname from the rank and file was Whiteout because she’d erased years of cooperation between thecityandthe police union. The riots—and White’s increasingthreats to disband the PD—had only exacerbated the divide.
The union was frustrated. Disbanding was a threat often trotted out when the city and the union were in contract negotiations. This time it was different. Mayor White hired a big-time consultant firm to study the cost savings of doing away with the PD entirely and contracting with the sheriff’s department. She seemed to equate hiring sheriffs with having less police overall. An odd goal for the mayor of a city with a population of around four hundred thousand people.
Gabe still had enough friends on the department to know the rank and file were hoping for a raise, their first in three years. It was deserved, in his opinion. Cost of living at least.
Not according to Whiteout. Ever since the rioting started, White seemed committed to getting rid of as many police as possible. Though her position put her at odds with the city manager and Chief Estes, her only hurdle was getting the city council on her side—and they seemed to be mixed. Some in the PD thought the way the department handled the riots would sway the council one way or another.
He was about to try to reason with Madden, to explain how crimes against police officers needed to be prosecuted, when her phone went off with an emergency tone.
She picked it up and he stepped out the door, recognizing he’d most likely just been dismissed.
“Investigator Fox, wait,” she called out.
He returned. Her hand was up as she listened to the call. After a long moment, she said, “We will respond,” ended the call, and looked up at Gabe. “There’s been a shooting, officer involved; a person was struck by gunfire.”
Gabe’s mouth went dry. OIS, officer-involved shooting. Just what they needed now as things were beginning to calm down.
“OIS here?”
Madden nodded, and Gabe noticed her face had lost all its color. Gabe knew why. Someone had been injured or killed. He read her face to mean it was the latter. Clenching and unclenching his fists, he hoped he was wrong. Whatever the case, this was the first OIS with injuries for LaRosa PD in more than five years. The first Madden would handle as city prosecutor. And a first in such a complete anti-police climate.
“We need to activate the shooting team and get them on scene ASAP.”
Gabe nodded.
Madden stood. “I’m going to need you to take point. You’ve handled officer-involved shootings before?”
“I have.”
“I’ll make the necessary notifications. Investigator Fox, respond to the command post at Nineteenth and Cherry ASAP.”
Gabe stopped himself from pointing out that the prosecutor was supposed to lead the shooting team, not her investigator. She obviously didn’t want to take the lead and he wasn’t sure he wanted her to. He’d be the first to admit he had a pro-police bias and he wanted to make certain the cop who fired the shot was given a fair shake.
“10-4, I’m on my way.”
“Keep me apprised.”
