by David Archer
He paused to clear his throat, and took a sip of water. “Now, as for prison overcrowding? When the nation that was formed to ensure freedom for everyone has incarcerated a greater percentage of its population than any other in the world, including those that are considered dictatorial and oppressive, then I think it's pretty obvious that there's a problem.” A ripple of laughter ran around the room. “There were many efforts to overhaul sentencing guidelines and create programs to shorten the sentences of some of the people who were so unjustly incarcerated, but the American prisons were still overflowing for many years. The plans that Congress came up with to extend leniency to many prisoners were only moderately helpful, because a vast majority of those inmates who were released came out into a society that was simply not prepared to absorb them. Rampant immigration, particularly illegal immigration that was overlooked for so long, had taken its toll on the job market so that there were not nearly enough opportunities for lawful, gainful employment available to those who were released, and that lack was exacerbated by the fact that the prisons of that time were little more than Crime Colleges. Many of those released had been locked up for minor offenses, such as possession of marijuana and other drugs that are now perfectly legal for self-medication, but they had learned from other inmates about more lucrative criminal ventures that they could get into. Between desperation and greed, far too many of them chose to return to lives of crime.”
He tapped the control on the podium and pointed at the video display behind him, which showed photos of various former American government officials. “But that was only the tip of the iceberg. Some of the more critical situations in the United States at the time include the fact that the citizens had become distrustful of their own government. Millions of jobs had left the country, as manufacturers relocated into other nations where labor was cheaper. Politicians lauded such relocations as being necessary to keep prices down, but the people who didn't have jobs at all couldn't afford to buy products at any price. Added to this was the problem of taxation, with the government taking a substantial portion of everyone's income, but what they took was never enough to pay all the costs of running the country. The government would borrow more money to cover its shortfall, creating even more debt that would have to be paid by taxes levied on the people. Many people clamored for less government spending and lower taxes and more jobs, but their pleas fell on deaf ears.”
“That's nothing new, Professor,” said Clarence Boyle, another student. “Every nation had similar problems, but not all of them completely collapsed, the way the US did. Most of them found solutions, and usually those solutions came from the people themselves.”
Carson nodded, still smiling. “This is quite true, but you're oversimplifying things. In many countries, the governments themselves were so impoverished that they literally couldn't stop the people from taking whatever action was necessary to support themselves, and ironically, that's what real freedom is all about. In the USA, however, the people had to deal with a slow but indisputable reduction in civil rights. The First Amendment to the US Constitution affirmed the right of the people to freely speak their opinions and prohibited the government from interfering in religion, including any sort of ruling on which religious beliefs or opinions might be acceptable. Toward the end of the twentieth century, however, there was a movement toward what was known as “political correctness.” This was the philosophy that you had to be careful not to offend individuals or even groups of people with the things you said or did, and so it effectively eliminated free speech in America for many years. The Fourth Amendment, protecting Americans from unlawful search and seizure, was ignored by most of the courts of the time, most often under the guise of protecting National Security; vast numbers of Americans were subjected to secret surveillance through their communications being monitored without even an attempt at following due process rules. More people were convicted of the crime of ‘conspiracy,’ which essentially only meant that someone else said you were a party to a crime, than almost any other, and it was almost impossible to prove your innocence in such a case. The Second Amendment protected the individual's right to own a firearm, and some of the most bitter debates, both with the government and between the people, were fought over that one. Both the federal and state governments were known to pay little attention to it, even after the United States Supreme Court ruled that it did, in fact, protect an individual’s right to keep and bear arms. The Fifth Amendment was supposed to guarantee due process of law before any penalty could be imposed, but hardly a day went by without hearing of people dying at the hands of police officers, even before an official investigation could take place.”
Carson took another sip of water. “You can look through all of the Bill of Rights and find that each and every one of them was to some degree abrogated by the American government in the last few decades before the Great Disaster, so that by the time things got really bad, the people simply didn't know who to trust at all. This led to civil unrest, riots in the streets, attempts at both peaceful and non-peaceful resistance to governmental authority—how could there be anything but a disaster, with the foundation those people were left to build upon?”
Millie's hand was up again, and Carson pointed at her. “So you don't think all the conspiracy theories were an important factor in bringing about the Great Disaster?”
* * * * *
August 9, 2014 might have been the day when the world began to change. It might have been a little earlier than that, or perhaps it was even a little later, but what happened on that date was certainly part of the cause. In a little town called Ferguson, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri, an unarmed black teenager named Michael Brown was shot and killed by a white police officer named Darren Wilson.
The circumstances of the shooting sounded a lot like many other shootings that happened around that time. Mr. Brown had allegedly stolen something from a liquor store, and police had been called. When Officer Wilson arrived in his car, he told Mr. Brown and his companion to stop, and that's when things get fuzzy.
Some witnesses claim that Brown reached into Officer Wilson's car and tried to take his gun, striking the officer several times. This is consistent with Officer Wilson's own statement, and the gun went off twice. One of the bullets lodged in the door of the car, and the other grazed Brown's thumb. Brown turned and ran, and Officer Wilson got out of the car to pursue him on foot.
Some distance from the car, Officer Wilson ordered Mr. Brown to stop running, and most witnesses said that Brown did stop and raise his hands briefly into the air, but then dropped them and turned to face Wilson. He was said to have made what sounded like a grunting noise, an angry noise, and then began walking toward the officer.
Officer Wilson fired a total of twelve shots. Brown was hit at least six times, including wounds to his throat, forehead and the top of his head. It is almost certain that he died within seconds, but the repercussions of his death rang out for a long time thereafter.
Michael Brown was one of many young black men and women who were killed by police officers during that time. In many cases, these victims of violence were unarmed, and were shot dead because deadly force was always the most effective means of controlling a suspect.
In most of these cases, there came a cry from the people to bring a halt to police killings, particularly of young blacks. There can be no doubt that minorities suffered disproportionately from such deaths compared to whites, because of a perception that minorities were somehow more likely to be involved in criminal activity, and every time one of these events took place a new movement sprang up to try to find a solution to the problem.
One year after Michael Brown's death, during what was supposed to be a peaceful demonstration in his memory, an eighteen-year-old black man was shot and wounded by police only two blocks from where the original shooting had taken place. The public outcries began once more, and other shootings in other cities only made the situation worse.
These other shootings followed similar patterns
. An unarmed young black man was killed in a Florida fight with a neighborhood watchman; a black teenage boy carrying a toy gun was shot and killed by a police officer; another black teenager was shot and killed even before they learned that he wasn't the one they were looking for. Public outcry over these deaths grew every day, but the vast majority of them were ruled as justifiable homicides. It was always stated that some movement or behavior of the victim caused the police officer to fear for his or her life or safety, justifying the use of deadly force to grand juries and other legal bodies.
It wasn't just the black community that was suffering, however. While it's true that an inordinate number of the victims of police were black, there were also significant numbers of Hispanics and even whites counted in their ranks.
* * * * *
Carson kept the smile on his face, but shook his head. “In one way, I guess I would have to agree with you,” he said. “One of the biggest conspiracy theories of that time was that police officers were being taught to forget their role as public servants in order to allow them to think of themselves as the masters of the people, as absolute authority. When police shootings seemed to be getting completely out of hand, and people of all races and cultures were suddenly being gunned down in the streets, that particular conspiracy theory, that policemen were being literally taught to enforce subjugation of American citizens, spread like wildfire.”
* * * * *
Prison overcrowding had reached epic proportions, as the United States of America became known worldwide as the Incarceration Nation. With more than two percent of its population—nearly seven million people—serving time behind bars or on probation or parole, the criminalization of Americans was at its heyday. Imprisonment became a big business, with the Federal and State Governments contracting with startup companies to build and run prisons on their behalf. Because these companies paid very little, sometimes as low as minimum wage for correctional officers and staff, and subjected the inmates to substandard food and living conditions, the cost to the government was significantly reduced while the contracted corporation could pocket windfall profits.
Even with the savings that privatization offered, however, the cost of maintaining so many prisons and prisoners was astronomical. When it became obvious that the prison system was having no deterrent effect on crime, experts from different fields began calling it a failure, and new approaches were suggested. Sentencing guidelines were rewritten to remove mandatory minimum sentences, and the so-called “three strikes laws,” which had required anyone sentenced to a third prison term to spend the rest of his or her life behind bars, were mostly repealed.
Conspiracy theorists believed that the high prison populations were the result of government efforts to remove independent thought, or to remove potential opposition to draconian policies, or because the laws of the land were so out of control that it was impossible for anyone to get through life without breaking a number of them. That meant that if you became “inconvenient” to the government for any reason, they always had something to use to lock you up and get you out of the way.
* * * * *
“People also believed that there were special programs in place to allow the government to simply lock up anyone it didn't want. There were so many people in American prisons, most of them on what should have been considered only minor offenses, that this one really seemed to have some truth behind it. The laws were so convoluted that you had to have a law degree to understand whether you had broken the law by crossing the street or not, so it seemed like just about everyone was getting into some kind of trouble all the time. When you don't know whether you've broken the law or not, it's pretty hard to stay out of the way of the cops.”
A student's hand went up. “Cops?”
Carson grinned. “You don't watch old movies, do you?” A ripple of laughter made its way around the room. “Cops was a common slang term for police officers, kind of the way patrol officers are called 'trolls,' today.” There was a soft round of laughter. “Yes, we can all thank the bright boy or girl who came up with that one. It's just one of the many things that policemen have been called over the years.”
“Yeah, like buttheads,” yelled someone in the back of the room. Another smattering of giggles made its way around, and even Carson had to stifle a laugh.
“Well, that one wasn't official,” he said. “The word cops came from the fact that police officers once carried badges made of copper. They were called coppers for a while, and then that later got shortened to cops, just like today with trolls.”
* * * * *
Conspiracy theorists were having a blast. They put their opinions out through websites and radio programs. Some insisted the government was trying to kill everyone with poisons it was pumping through the engines of jet aircraft. Others insisted the government was systematically destroying the educational system in order to reduce the ability of individuals to think for themselves. The government was blamed for putting chemicals designed to create subconscious obedience to authority into food, for creating special equipment that could turn weather anywhere in the world into weaponry, and a million other horrible concepts that were guaranteed to give the average American plenty of fuel for nightmares.
None of these were really accurate, although the one about the education system may have had some foundation in truth. The problem was that people who are struggling to survive, who don't see any hope for their lives to improve in the near future, will jump at the chance to blame their misfortunes on someone. If they're given a scapegoat to attack, then attack it they will, if only with words. “The Government” became the biggest, most believable bogeyman in the history of the nation, and people were more than willing to believe that it was simply evil.
President after president failed to regain the trust of the people, and the political bickering and deal making that had become the norm in the federal and state capitals simply continued to lead the country toward destruction. Its greatest enemy turned out to be itself, as the egotism of the entire nation led it to appoint itself the policeman of the world. This worked well for a few years, but then the rest of the world suddenly realized that the USA was trying to remold it into its own image.
As America began turning its attentions back toward itself, people began to realize that the economic and political climates were not getting any better, and civil unrest began to erupt throughout the country. Even the most inconsequential issue could blow up into a riot in no time, whether it was another police shooting, the rising cost of food, being forced to accept draconian policies and programs or anything else that might set off a wave of anger. It only took one person to become angry enough to speak out before dozens of others would join in, and soon the mob mentality would take over.
Riots happened in cities and in small towns. It didn't seem to matter where, just that there were enough people who were angry and wanted to vent. Sometimes, they got so completely out of control that entire towns would be burned to the ground, including a few that qualified as small cities. The Midwest saw a number of them vanish into smoke, but even though the worst of the rioting was concentrated around the middle of the country, there were even a few on the coasts.
For a long time, some of those conspiracy theorists had claimed that we were headed for a world government that would basically enslave us all. America's nation-building programs had seemed to lend credibility to that theory, but then America began running into opposition. Other countries didn't want to be just like the USA, it seemed, and so America had turned its attention onto itself, only to alienate its own citizens. By the time the third decade of the century came to an end, the situation had become so bad that there was a genuine doubt as to whether America would even survive. When the United Nations forced a vote among all countries on whether it was time to form a Global Union, a desperate America voted to join, surrendering its sovereignty as a nation to become a dependent and subject nation of the GU.
TWO
“Still, I don't think it was actua
lly the conspiracy theories that brought about the Great Disaster. The truth is that people were simply fed up with empty promises, and that's all they seemed to be getting from the government. Every new president that was elected made promises of getting the economy back in shape, of bringing inflation under control, reducing taxes—and every broken promise simply triggered another angry demonstration. Some of them got out of hand, and in that last couple of years, especially in 2028, it just got crazy. People were killing each other in the streets because of their frustrations and anger.”
“The zombie apocalypse,” said one of the students in the back of the room, and Carson laughed.
“Pretty close,” he said. “If you've ever wondered what a zombie looked like, just imagine your next-door neighbor if he and his family are starving, but you've got food. That look in his eyes when he comes to take it from you? That's a zombie.”
Millie raised her hand again. “Okay, so I see your point, but are you saying that all of those conspiracy theories and problems went away overnight, just because we joined the GU?”
“Oh, not at all,” Carson said. “Goodness, there are still conspiracy theories today. What did happen, though, was that there were a few cooler, calmer heads who had influence in the GU, and they formed a panel to look at specific problems in each of the subject nations and make recommendations on what could be done to solve them. In our case, here in the US, the six major problems they found were…” Carson ticked off each point on a finger as he spoke it, beginning with his left thumb.
“Number one, disrespect for law enforcement authority. People had become so angry at the way law enforcement officers were, in a lot of cases, literally just killing them off rather than dealing with them, that they no longer considered any sort of police officer to be a public servant of any kind. They were seen as the enemy, and no nation can survive if its law enforcement is not trusted by the people.”