from Honorable Discharge

Give me the keys to your door and I will find a way in. That’s a good boy.
Take care. Be careful. Careful now. You are not in this alone. Help is out there. Help is here.

(picking up bullhorn: the voice of authority)
We are training you for action. We attempt non-lethal, then move to lethal. There’s a war on so we need this briefing to be brief. There’s the war. There. And it was brief. But this peace is a killer.

(fast, businesslike, dispassionate)
We have the case of one 15 year old, name of Mario Albert Madrigal, Jr. The child’s Mother calls police, due to his erratic behavior caused, she believes, by excessive drinking. Youth is brandishing a knife and threatening to kill himself. Officers arrive. Officers Taser child/suspect/disturbance to the peace, but fail to subdue. Subject advances, violating 21 foot safety zone. Officers fire. Target ceases advancing. Three officers. Three rounds. Ten shots hitting target. One (deceased) youth, weight 115 pounds. Threat averted, officers having followed regulation regarding self-protection.
I'll take questions now.

(a pack of reporters)
Did you talk to him? Did you talk to the kid? Why ten rounds? How many per policeman? Who got in the extra shot? Where did the other bullets go? (to audience) What's suicide by cop? Why 21 feet. Why not 20? Where’s the good stuff? Where's it hidden? How do we get out of this?

(news announcer)
Do the same rules apply to an intoxicated teenager as to an adult with an army behind him? Is three rounds "three strikes you're out"? Is asking a question one of those strikes? Are three shots to the center of the body a warning or a suggestion?

(game show host)Does the same line repeated three times make it easier to hear? Let's try.

(repeat three times, varying from intense sincerity to "tough love")
I'm on your side.
I'm only here to help.
This is going to hurt me more than you.

(reporter)
Does that mean advance? Does that mean retreat? Does that mean…

(announcer)
To be. That is the question. What is to be during this 21-second incident. This 21-second no longer theoretical incident where subject is 21 feet away and advancing and there is the rule of 21 and isn’t 21 the legal drinking age and this kid this child is surely under 21. I remember when I was 21 when I was 15 when I was his age when I was alive when (sings) “I was 15 going on 17” and wanted to be 21 but wasn't. (pause) I can't discuss this at this point. (writing "HISTORY" on blackboard) At no point is such a discussion remotely possible. It’s pointless. It's history.

(President George Bush I)
"I will never apologize for the United States of America — I don't care what the facts are."

© 2004 Jeff McMahon