Justice Can't Wait

Graham Heights 

Beginnings

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Chapter 24
Justice Can't Wait

Journal Entry - July 23rd 2019
Alan Scott

We have gone for almost two years under the Militia rule, which was very restrictive and yet effective.  We still had the dusk till dawn curfew and adherence to the chain of command.  Elders being at the top and the foot soldier at the bottom.  The chain of command enforced the rules and food rationing.  It was the one and only authority that all supervisors and people reported to.  

It was time to start revising this practice.  We had gained another 75 people from Eatonville, the suspected settlement was discovered or rediscovered when went to see how the damn had survived after two years of inactivity.  To our surprise it was well maintained and was feeding the small settlement that had never left Eatonville, to include a doctor.  After some intense negotiations we came up with a mutual agreement.  They may have had power, but had little to no farm lands and due to the altitude a very short growing season.  They basically had the capacity to exist, but little else.  Luckily our little railroad was able to make it all the way to Eatonville and it would be the route in which we would string out power lines and restore a higher standard of living for everyone.   

Unfortunately it was this very connection that created our first ever sexual assault which then lead to a crime of passion.  All of which would require a judicial systems not yet set up.  We had no jail or prison, so we took one of the containers that was part of our wall system and placed the suspect in it for two day.  We let him out to relieve himself and to eat, but other than that he was to remain locked up.  Our sheriff did an investigation with two of his deputies and reported to the Elders on a daily basis.  

As the facts unfolded we learned that a young Eatonville man had visited our settlement and stayed for several days.  On his last night he had liberated some alcoholic beverages and had invited the daughter of a farmer on a “hay ride.”  When she got back to her family, she claimed that the young man from Eatonville had raped her.  Her eldest brother tracked down the Eatonville man and killed him.  

We summoned the doctor and had the young lady examined.  This is where things started to breaking down.  The doctor had never examined a woman for rape and was not certain that the evidence supported the accusation or not.  It was clear that the woman had intercourse, but it could not be determined if it was forced or not.  The woman had cuts and bruises that supported her story.  So, more investigation would be required.  

This was a case that would have to come to trial and Elders were going to have to establish a rule of law. and some sort of rights for all people under the jurisdiction of the colony.  It was long overdue and now under duress.  For the interim it was decided that two Elders of Graham Heights and Two representatives from Eatonville would preside over the case and try to determine how justice could be served.  

This is where things went horrible wrong.  Our lawyer friend decided that he would represent the young man in detention and the dead boy’s uncle wanted to play the role of prosecutor.  It was a bad idea from the start and after our lawyer presented a plea of not guilty, even though the young man had clearly stated that he had killed the Eatonville man.  Well the whole court broke down and had to be postponed until cooler heads could sort out how to proceed.

Our farmer, Jason Stanley took on the role as defender as he knew his son.  And the Uncle a Mr. Jesus Sandoval was to be the prosecutor.  The plea was changed from not guilty to guilty with special circumstance.  This court was trying to determine justice, not just guilty.  As the evidence was presented and witnesses brought before the court it was determined that this was not the Eatonville man’s first time to force himself on a woman.  It had never gone so far as to be rape, but under the circumstances, it was determined that Mr. Stanley’s daughter was raped.  Still the killing was not justified as the Eatonville man(whose name was stricken from the record to protect his family) should have been brought before the Elders and charged.  He would have faced the court and been found innocent or guilty.  If guilty then a suitable punishment would be enforced.  That is what should have happened.  Now they were forced to punish Mr. Stanley’s son.  Again no prisons and or jails, so what was to be done?  

The Mr. Sandoval came up with the solution.  Mr. Stanley’s son was to serve the family of the slain boy for a period of five years, at which time he would be free to come back to the farm.  He would essentially be an indentured servant and fulfil all the obligations the young man was doing until the slain boy’s younger brother could be brought up to take over.  Jason Stanley was to be presented to the Elders in Eatonville and was to be under their protection from abuse.  His sentence was to serve and be respectful, but not be abused while in Eatonville.  An inspection schedule was set up to ensure that this did not happen.  

Mr. Stanley was not happy with the sentence, but the alternative was to execute his oldest son.  Which would have been a double crime as the Eatonville man would have been executed because the evidence was very much against him.  

Mr. Sandoval was to be held responsible for the family’s actions while the boy was in the custody of Eatonville.  Basically we were trying to set up the conditions for accountability.

This case ushered in the birth of our first judicial system.  A system that was not looking for just guilt and innocence, but justice.  So, it was determined that the defense was responsible for half of the investigations and the prosecutors was responsible for collecting evidence and presenting it to the defense.  Liability for the verdict did not stop once it was handed down.  So, if you looked at the evidence and determined that your client was innocent and you argued and won the case.  Your client went free, however if your client committed a similar crime and was found guilty, you got to share in his guilt as you did not find justice in the first case, you just managed to release a guilty man so he could commit a new crime.   If you client was obviously guilty then your job was to get the best form of justice you could manage under the circumstances.  The end goal was to repay the victim and relearn that working hard and helping others was the best overall path to be on.  Not the easiest, but always the best overall.  The goal of this system was to ensure that what you earned or produced, was yours and protected under the law.  

It was a start to a system that had to remain simple.  Our old system was married in mud and became so convoluted that only winners were the layers that manipulated it.   Law is not justice if the outcome was determined on the amount spent on the layers that could spin truth into lies and innuendos into facts.  This system needed to bring justice so its people could be held accountable if they did something wrong.

Which brings up the problem of right and wrong.  We were going to have to define some of these right and wrong issues that seemed to divide us in the past.  I remember telling my son once that you could get a ticket for speeding even if you were doing the posted speed limit.  He looked at me like I was crazy.  So, I informed him that the limit was set based on normal conditions and that if those conditions changed then the speed would have to match the conditions.  I then explained that if the conditions turned icy or heavy fog, then it was the driver’s responsibility to identify these conditions and adjust his speed to maintain the safe levels, that the speed limit did under normal conditions.  

We would have to work with the representatives and the people to develop a moral code that would have its roots in, I’ll say it, in religion, however will not promote any individual religion that was practiced among the members of Graham Heights.   These moral rules would then be shaped into laws.  So, if someone was to purchase an item that was well below its normal value and then discover that the item was stolen, then the purchaser would have to give the item back to the original owner, at no charge and report the theft to authorities, or face the same charges as the thief.    This seems unfair, however every individual has a responsibility to the whole by uphold the moral code as well as the law.  And individuals that thinks they can hide in anonymity will be discovered because people will only deal with those that can be trusted.  

Sentencing people for crimes would have to be done with great tact as we have no jail facilities and we do not intent to build any.  If the crime were serier then the punishment would be terminal to the convicted party, but for everything else we would have to produce a scale that would be appropriate.  Most crime at this time would be theft and or crimes against a person.   These crimes would be resolved by a repayment plan.  When caught, a person committing the crime would have to repay the victim by one of two methods.  One; The perpetrator would be required to fulfill both his duties and half of the victim's duties to the colony until they have paid back double of what they stole or damaged.  Two; the perpetrator would work directly for the victim for a period of 4 years or until the debt is paid and his room and board is covered.  This indentured service could not extend past 7 years.

In the case of doing physical damage to a person, where that person is incapacitated or can not continue in their line of work, then the guilty party will support them while the victim recovers or is retrained to do something else that is productive to the colony.  Again the limit would be 7 years with an annual review to ensure that both parties are progressing towards independence.  We do not mean to create a dependency that would result in one party or the other from being fully independent and productive.  

The system was simple and as fair as one could make it.  It would grow and change, but we had to keep its core alive and strong.  The moral code had to be a part of our child care, parenting and scholastic training.  It would be taught in the workplace and in the courts and military service.  If we were to survive as a social group, we needed to be united around this common core.  So our moral code was to encompass everything we do and yet not strangle the life out of us as individuals. That’s why it’s been shelved so many times in the past, however just like the journey of a thousand miles, we need to take the first step and just keep walking...

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As you know this blog contains two books of the Remnant Series. Graham Heights is book 3 of the series. Below is more.

Book 4: Obsidian Arrows

Book 1 is now available in paperback or kindle The Grey Abyss

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R. A. Legg

Learn about the individual heroes of Graham Heights. 

R.A. Legg © 2016. All Rights Reserved.

No Fish just Trouble

Graham Heights 

Beginnings 

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Chapter 23
No Fish, Just Trouble

Journal Entry - May 4th 2019
Alan Scott

No Fish, we have been waiting for the spring salmon runs and so far next to nothing has been in any of the streams, at least not that anyone has seen.  Our native contingency is worried that something happened out on the open ocean that has kept the salmon from returning.  Being only May, it’s still early and just maybe the changing in weather patterns or temperature of the ocean has delayed the fish from returning to the rivers that run near our colony.  We hate leaving people alone at the rivers waiting to see signs of the fishes return due to the possibility that they may be ambushed.  However, it would be nice to have some fresh salmon for dinner and then we can smoke the rest and store it for winter...  

I will make a point of venturing out to the Puyallup river and checking things out for myself.  It’s hard to believe that none of the salmon have returned this year.  There have been years when the count was so low that sports fishermen have been forced to do without while our Native Americans have still fished, much to the outrage of the aforementioned sports fishermen.  I personally could not understand why the sports fishermen were so enraged.  We, or our white for fathers, made a deal with the Native Americans to give them a large part of the salmon harvest in return for enormous amounts of land.  So, if you took the total salmon harvest for a year and sold it, it may have been worth a few million in today’s money, so say 10,000 dollars back in the day.  In trade for all that fish, it would take a meager 300 years to purchase the land that our esteemed governor took from the Natives, back in the late 1800s.  We then took that land and made ourselves very comfortable.  And like many deals with our Native brothers we reneged and took the fish as well.  That was until the courts saw the errors of our way and restored the agreements that was made almost a century earlier.  This in turn was met with animosity as the current occupants did not want history to destroy their profitable industry that existed by pilfering the native’s salmon.  This animosity not pretty and at times tempers lead to individuals to resort to firearms, mostly it was the natives getting shot at.  I’ve had friends tell me stories of having to repair bullet holes in their boats.  Just because they were allowed to use nets to catch fish and the rest of America could not.   

Today, nets or no nets was not the questions;  Fish or no fish was.  We need the fish for both food and fertilizer and they were not coming.  I would trek down to a place called Orting.  It use to be a growing bedroom community for both Pierce and King counties. In the early days of the rioting, it was all but burned to the ground.  Its one problem was that fact that there was only three ways into the town.  All of which were blocked by vehicles that no longer had fuel.  The local fire department was overwhelmed and helpless as they watched the town go up in flames.  Two months after the banks shut down it was empty.  So it was quite safe to travel from the top of the hill down to the one bridge that still stretched across the Puyallup river before it joined forces with the Carbon river.  Once down in the valley we headed North to the point that the two rivers met.  It was overgrown with bushes and about a thousand feet from the old highway.  You could easily hide back in the bush and keep an eye on both rivers.  We made a small shelter and put a water wheel in the Carbon river.  This would provide power to the heaters and cook top.  We could keep a few people down here for long periods of time with little risk.  I set Carlos Hernandez up as the security lead.  He would have four men to maintain patrols of the area and still keep a guard at the camp.  Not that our native families needed a lot of help, it was just a precaution.  We had no idea who might be in the area and to leave families with kids, open to attacked, well that would not be acceptable.  For instruments, we sent two of our sports cameras with the waterproof enclosures.  Once secured to a small three they were lowered into the water in hopes of spotting any of the hoped for salmon.  Each campera lasted about two hours, then they had to be swapped out and recharged.  During the recharging time the footage would be reviewed.  

Two weeks and nothing in the rivers.  As for the security team, they had managed to scott the area and found three small camps.  Each were small groups of people that were just trying to live off the land, berries and nuts and what was left of orchards and farms.  A map was made, but contact was avoided.  Once the counsel was made aware of these camps a fly over was arranged and then we set out to observe their movements.  We needed to know if they were in these groups by joice or if they were looking to connect with larger more capable groups.  The first one was not considered for assimilation as they were quite dirty and did not seem to want to clean up.  Then it was discovered that they had a collection of mushrooms that they were using to dream of better days.  How they had lasted so long was a mystery.  This group would be ushered out of the area by mid summer so that they had time to get south before winter.  If they knew of our existence, they showed little sign of it, but by winter they would be forced to steal for food and that was not something we wanted to deal with.  And by deal with; I mean we would have the shot them.  

The second group appeared to want to building something, they had a suitable shelter and were storing food for what looked like winter.  The storage was small and would not be adequate and the storage methods were crude and bacteria would have invaded everything they had long before the winter would allow the growth of new food.  This group would be given some tools and knowledge and hopefully make something of it.  If they survived the winter we would consider them as part of the colony.   The third group was the most exciting.  They had tools and storage, but they were very skittish and so first contact was made via a message drop from the drone.  The message was not discovered for a few days, but the appropriate signal was sent and we then sent a second message, via Drone, for the meeting point.  Carlos led the first contact group and it could not have gone worse.  The loosely organized group was extremely suspicious and would not put down their weapons, much of which was primitive like wrist rocket sling shots and bows.  Carlos even put his weapon away and they still would not come close enough to talk.  The meeting pretty much became a yelling match.  They were content to be on their own and we told them it would be difficult to keep that up.  It was going to take a second meeting to try and smooth things over.  Kan wanted to bring some food and clothing to show that we had something they may want.  So the counsel let him take the lead on this and  Carlos and his team would  be the security.  The team set up another meet and things started out okay, but they were still suspicious of our people and wanted to know what we were going to take in return.  

Kan informed them of our boundaries and that we just wanted to know the people that we were sharing the area with.  That’s when their leader bristled up and said that if we trespassed on their territory again that we would be destroyed.  Kan handled the situation as best as he could, but these people were not interested in joining anything, they were in this area because it provided an abundance of food at the taking.  Kan then informed them that this area will be incorporated into our colony by summer next and that if they did not want to be a part of that, then they should move on.  

That’s when Kan was shot by an arrow from an unseen archer.  It hit his upper shoulder and stuck out the back before Carlos was even able to draw his weapon.  Carlos’ team struck back swiftly and hard, all the the strangers were killed, but not before Carlos was hit in the chest with some sort of dart.  It when right through his vest and punctured his right lung.  The dart had been meant for Kan, but Carlos intercepted it with his body.  The security team dragged Kan and Carlos from the meeting place and made their way back to the river.  They knew that they could get to the river encampment, they could get more help.  Chuck the new leader of the security force was hoping that the encampment had heard the gunfire and was already sending help.  However, the meeting place was farther than the noise could travel and the team only made it about two kilometers when they were attacked again.  It was only arrows and darts, but with two wounded team members it made it impossible to continue.  The team had to take cover and Carlos expired while they waited for assistance from Graham.

In Graham, Mike heard what was happening and raced down the hill with two teams.  Once at the rivers he found the small security team and then sought out and destroyed the stranger’s camp.  It was his contention that this less than cooperative group was going to move on, now.  His teams combed the area for any sign of the camp, but its inhabitants had all left.  Two days of searching with the drone and security teams confirmed that this encampment was all but destroyed or gone.  Either way they posed no threat to the colony or the River camp and with exception of the of the loss of a good man, things could return to normal.

Kan on the other hand, was devastated that it went so wrong and that Carlos would throw himself in front of an arrow like that.  He was injured, but would survive if they could keep any infection from setting in.  As for Carlos he was dead and his wife and child would not have him back ever.  That did not set well with Kan and his sense of responsibility toward his savior had to be dealt with.  So, Kan asked Charles Lopez’s if he could support the two under his roof.  It was the least he could do.  After the funeral the two families moved Alicia and her daughter into an apartment in the back of Kan’s home that he had build for them.  It was small, but private and they were welcomed at Kan’s table each night.  

Beings that there was no use for a social worker in the colony, well at least not yet, Alicia was training to be a nurse, so she tended to Kan’s shoulder, which did get infected, but it was mild and in a month the wounds were healed from the outside.  On the inside it took much longer and the physical therapy did not seem to help.  Alicia was trying to use massage therapy and heat to ease the muscles, but no matter how hard she worked, the pain was too much to use the arm in any capacity.  About six weeks into her assistance Alicia noticed that a particular spot in Kan’s shoulder would not relent from being a knot.  Then the tissue around the knot became inflamed again.  Alicia insisted that the doctor cut him open again.  Finally, with no other alternative Doctor Chyrethic pulled out his scalpel and opened the inflamed area of Kan’s shoulder.  The exploratory surgery revealed that a piece of the arrow’s shaft had splintered off and was hiding just under the collar bone.  Kan made an impressive recovery after that and Alicia made sure that he did all his physical therapy.  

Kan then set himself up in his shop and did not come out for days.  When he did he had built a monument to heroes.  Graham Height would have those that were considered heroes and he wanted to make sure that Carlos Hernandez would be first.  The original arched structures had only four compartments, but was built in such a way that other arches could be attached and thus grow in capacity as the spaces were filled.  The limited number of spaces in the first arch was on purpose, as Kan did not want people dwelling on the thought that death was just a short stroll away.  He just wanted those that distinguished themselves to have a place to be remembered.  The Arch was placed in the awning of the old fueling station.  It would hang there for decades and Carlos Hernandez was indeed the first to be interned there.  As time went on, this place would be known as the Hall of Heroes.  

Next Chapter

Please add a comment.

If you like Graham Heights, please share the link with friends www.rogeratlarge.com.

As you know this blog contains two books of the Remnant Series. Graham Heights is book 3 of the series. Below is more.

Book 4: Obsidian Arrows

Book 1 is now available in paperback or kindle The Grey Abyss

You can Leave a comment.  

Or follow us on Facebook.  

Or hit the subscribe button to get updates on new chapters or books.

Thank-you
R. A. Legg

Learn about the individual heroes of Graham Heights. 

R.A. Legg © 2016. All Rights Reserved.