People who know a lot of history differ on what, and who, is important in it. The making of new history, and who gets to live to tell the story, often depends on who is in charge at a particular moment.
The people living in Lofton County, VA did not know they had the problems they had on any level until the Bayard Heights neighborhood washed out – many had ignored others living in unsafe conditions until people of their class and hue were affected. Even the Ridgeline Fire that had wiped out six of the most affluent neighborhoods in Big Loft, the county seat, was kind of written off as criminality meeting ideal weather conditions. Nobody wanted to see in September 2019 that the corruption that had permitted that entire setup had everybody in danger.
So, Lofton County was given September 2020 to wake up, and when people have to wake up that don't ever want to be awake, the people responsible might just have some problems. Not that the corruption itself was the problem – not so much as it was that people had to come to terms with the fact that they had let it happen to them.
But there was no escape. The Big Loft Bulletin was publishing all it had, and the Lofton County Free Voice was coming with more, with the additional maddening commentary: “The Black and Native communities have been sounding the alarm for 100 years on some of this, but you know, those who don't listen are now feeling, and that is exactly what is supposed to happen. It always does. You can't practice injustice over here and expect injustice not to follow you home. All of you supposed Christians are supposed to know: 'he who digs a pit falls into it.' That just happened to Bayard Heights. Is your neighborhood next? We tried to tell you. We're still telling you, but you are out of time to not listen.”
“You know, we need to try to burn that paper down again!” one Big Loft police officer said to another.
“Listen, we lost four chief/commissioners in as many weeks, and the man that did it is now acting chief and you know Lee has eyes and ears everywhere – shut up!” the other officer said. “Besides, isn't your home right around the corner from Beerfield's Bar – and isn't that on the map of concern the Bulletinjust put out?”
When you learn you have other things to do beside shooting even the most insufferable messenger... said police officer clocked out early, swearing and crying because he couldn't get his wife on the phone and assumed the worst, only to find out she was at Big Discounts for Your Loft shopping and was standing in a cell signal dead zone, buying wholesale out of the back …
Meanwhile, the eyes and ears of Henry Fitzhugh Lee, late of the U.S. army, serving officially as police captain but running the situation room at police headquarters because he was the unofficial acting chief, were fully occupied getting in the reports of the day – casualties at a protest, but …
“It was indeed an accident – some old man walked out and started yelling about law and order and didn't even see the curb – tripped, fell, hit his head.”
Capt. Lee looked at the report, and only someone who knew him very, very well would have seen the brief flare of his veins – a blood pressure spike – as he read the name of the man who died at the protest. The spike turned into a situational elevation as he went out to do the day's press conference.
“I regret to say that despite our best efforts, Big Loft has had its first protest fatality – but I rejoice to say that it was an accident, and the citizens of Big Loft and Lofton County exercising their right to protest behaved magnificently, obeying all lawful commands so that the deceased had the best possible chance to survive. Unfortunately, Mr. Carl Eichmann died at Lofton Dynast Hospital an hour after coming to the emergency room without regaining consciousness owing to the severity of his head injuries. He was 86 years old.”
Capt. Lee paused a moment, praying and gathering all his rhetorical strength to deliver two messages at once, for there was the immediate need, and there was the historical need.
“There is a cordon of protection afforded – but when someone, no matter their intent, steps out of the cordon in an act of unnecessary self-will, it is not possible to protect him or her indefinitely. Our systems can only do so much. There are clearly defined rules and boundaries to be observed, and they are for the general protection – if you go outside of that, no matter who you are, no one can guarantee your protection.”
The press conference was being watched in the church basement serving for the moment as the rotating Lofton County Free Voice newsroom, and editor-in-chief Mr. James Varick was waiting on the official announcement of Mr. Eichmann's death and what questions the mainstream news was going to ask before giving an order.
“Release the video,” he said, “but without commentary, for now.”
A reporter at the Free Voice had been at the protest and had captured the moment when Mr. Borgia had come out of his penthouse building yelling at the protestors and then just disappeared at the curb – because of the angle, the only clue to what had happened was the people nearest Mr. Eichmann going toward him to try to help him.
“Man down! Man down – somebody call 9-11 and clear a path – they gotta get an ambulance in here!” someone yelled.
Officers from the Big Loft Police Department were first on the scene – they were there in five seconds – and an ambulance was there in five minutes. The reporter panned the crowd; a lot of people were in prayer.
This is where, released much later, Mr. Varick's commentary began.
“To the bitter end, the larger cordon of protection afforded men like Mr. Eichmann in Lofton County – the tenth richest man, but more than that. Because of the passage of time, no one who rushed to his head knew that he was actively involved in the killings done in the Tinyville Massacre in 1974, and would have gladly killed their grandparents or any White people who supported them on that occasion. Mr. Eichmann also used his wealth to obstruct justice in every way possible on behalf of his fellow murderers, in anticipation of the federal government belatedly coming down hard on Lofton County to enforce civil rights – and the cordon held for decades for all of them with higher connections. Mr. Eichmann himself was eventually convicted of first degree murder, only to receive a presidental pardon in 1987 owing to connections he had with the sitting administration.
“All Mr. Eichmann had to do to die peacefully in bed someday was not to have the heart of an unrepentant murderer, seeking to dominate others by any means necessary. He could not endure seeing a younger generation of many races standing together in their rights – it must have been like seeing the Tinyville 100 multiplied in space and time on a whole different order of magnitude. So he came out to stop it – it worked the first time, didn't it? He just didn't know that even in the neighborhood he and Supervisor Griffith live in, the corruption had folks cutting corners at the curb – and so justice was waiting on Mr. Eichmann, a corrupt, unrepentant bigot and murderer to the bitter end, at the curb.”
But Mr. Varick held that until the big protest period was over, because he also heard what Capt. Lee was signaling to him. Once, Capt. Lee had put his life on the line to save the Lofton County Free Voice – he and Capt. Hamilton and Lieutenant O'Reilly from Tinyville had worked with the men of Mr. Varick's community to set a trap, and had been right there catching the rogue officers from all six Lofton County law enforcement agencies in the middle of their terrorist acts. So, Mr. Varick understood the hidden message.
I know who Mr. Eichmann was, and what he did, and why he deserved the death he found, since he went outside all bounds of human decency and God's law. Please hold the celebration so I can get things settled down so it will be more safe for you and yours to speak your full peace on this.
More safe, not safe. No one in Lofton County was safe … but Capt. Lee laid down the principle of rules and boundaries inside which he would stop at nothing to protect those he could. Mr. Varick and the Free Voice decided to work with it for the time being – no need to increase tension across the county when justice was meeting folks at the curb and rolling on.