chapter 03

Expansion

During the next few days more of the people around the BLM Zone pack up and leave their homes and shops. Most go to great lengths to see their property is well protected. Many follow the advice of the local security firms to seal all of their windows and doors with steel plates. In most cases they’re so well sealed it’ll take a lot of time and trouble to get back in after the mini-war is over. By the end of the next week there are blocks of empty buildings around the BLM Zone which will require a well trained steel worker with a quality torch to cut his way in to them.

In order to protect the area the Police Commissioner has a police car and two officers park halfway down the block from each of the BLM roadblocks. When the BLM people walk through the roadblock they’re made to prove they’re unarmed before the police let them by. In a move that angers the elected City Leaders a lot of off-duty police spend their own time at the police checkpoints to support their fellow officers.

The situation stays static for a little over a week. Then on a Saturday the armed guards at the western roadblocks start moving the roadblocks to the side and move out in force. The police order them back, but the armed rioters continue to advance. The senior police officer on duty at Police Headquarters orders all of the available on-duty police to the scene and sends out an alert for off-duty police to report for duty. The Captain is sure she’s about to deal with a major riot, so she sends the Riot Squad to the scene. When they arrive the Riot Squad leader sets his team up in the street in the middle of the BLM Zone western flank so he can respond quickly to any of the streets on this flank.

Many of the media services are on the scene before the extra police arrive, which later makes many people wonder if they were given some advance notice of the events to follow. Oddly, both the Mayor and his Deputy are out of contact and no one knows where they are.

Roberto is concerned by the amount of movement of armed people near the BLM Headquarters inside the BLM Zone, but he continues to just watch until he gets told of the breaking down of the roadblocks. He shows Mitch the gathering of large groups of armed people within the BLM Zone. Mitch says, “This looks like a major offensive. Get ready.”

While going back through the restaurant Mitch tells everyone to get ready for a major fight. This causes a lot of the people to quickly move around to get dressed in the protective gear they have, and to make sure their weapons and other combat gear are ready for use before they go to their designated positions. Within five minutes everyone within Fortress Sanchez is ready for major trouble, and Mitch is issuing orders, “Roof and wall teams don’t fire until the enemy are in the streets beside the building or you’re ordered to. Reaction Team stand by the western gate ready to deploy to help the police if needed.” All ’stand to’ and wait for big trouble to start, except Roberto and Mitch who move to where Joan is controlling a drone she launched and now has it checking the action along the sides of the BLM Zone. They all watch the drone’s video.

Large groups are moving out from the BLM Zone on all sides, and they ignore the police directions to return behind the roadblocks. There’s no way the police can handle the expansion on all sides.

In most areas the only option the police have is to set up their own roadblocks in the middle of the blocks and to hope they can hold them all. Extra police arrive and reinforce the roadblocks. As the police forces increase more people arrive from the center of the BLM Zone. The Riot Squad Commander disperses his men in groups of three to as many of the police roadblocks as he can because his people have the best shields of the police deployed at the moment. He also calls for all of the other riot gear and Swat teams to be deployed to hold the line.

The situation slowly develops as more and more of the Antifa people move to the front of the BLM groups leaving the BLM Zone and more people pack in behind them. Soon the front of the rioters is a line of the Antifa people with shields and body armor. All movement slows down.

The situation hardly changes for several minutes while more police head towards the scene. Mitch is wondering why the lack of movement when one of the rooftop observers says, “Are those drones coming from the BLM Zone?”

Mitch turns to where the woman is pointing, raises his binoculars, looks hard at what she’s pointing to, turns, and calls out, “Diane, Maria, grab your ninety-eights and take out those enemy drones with the ’soft target’ rounds.” These rounds have plastic bullets designed to deform on contact with the target, thus they won’t go on to cause more harm when they fall to the ground after they knock the drones down. However, they carry enough kinetic energy to smash up the drones and drop them.

The two women smile as they remove their Barrett M 98B sniper rifles from their hard cases. These .338 Lapua Magnum rifles are very accurate and the ladies have been target shooting with them for many years. Diane loved learning to shoot when she first met Mitch and he taught her to shoot, she loved shooting so much she took Maria along with her and they both became very proficient in the use of sniper rifles. So proficient Mitch bought them both their own rifles many years ago.

Within a couple of minutes the two women are set and are taking aim at the dozen or so drones being used by the BLM leaders to watch what is happening. They wait for the drones to hover in place before targeting the main body of the drone and firing. With each shot fired a drone falls down in pieces due to the shock of the impact breaking them apart.

Everyone in the area can hear the gunfire, so they all duck and look around to see who is shooting at who. However, at the confrontation points no one has a gun visible and no one is hit, so they wonder who is doing the shooting and where they’re doing it.

The BLM drone operators are complaining about some of their drones not responding because the hits are on the drones’ control centers so they stop transmitting before they fall out of the sky. It takes several minutes for the BLM leaders to learn someone is shooting their drones down. In response to the news they order the few remaining drones to be parked until really needed. Things settle down again while the BLM leaders get reports on each front via their cell phones.

The status remains quo for several minutes. Then the group of BLM and Antifa activists in the street that crosses the front of the Sanchez building move up on the police line while tossing a lot of things into the thin police line. Some officers are hurt and fall out of line for treatment. The police deploy non-lethal weapons in an attempt to hold the lines apart. Soon the area is littered with paintball rounds, pepper rounds, tear gas, water bottles, parts of bricks, balls, and broken bats; then the two lines are a single line of swinging bats and batons.

A quick check shows this is the only point of contact right now, and the drone Joan has up shows more of the BLM people moving to the western side, so Mitch decides to act and he heads off down the stairs.

Entering the backyard Mitch shouts, “Open the west gate for six feet. Reaction Team with me. Use shotguns with ’seasoning’ rounds.” By the time Mitch is at the gate it’s wide enough to let his team out two at a time, and the ten people of his team are jogging behind him in two lines as he exits the gate then turns south to go around the front of the building. As they jog around the building’s apex Mitch gives a hand sign and the team spreads out with five on each side of him. In a couple of minutes they’ve jogged down the two and a half blocks to the police line.

The police sergeant in charge of the group in this street is surprised to see what looks like eleven soldiers jogging up the road behind him. Mitch shouts to her, “Get your people and cars out of there. Fall back three blocks and hold at the big intersection where we can support you. Let your other people know over your radio.”

Realizing the situation is hopeless with the huge crowd of rioters the police sergeant does as instructed and falls back past the soldiers.

For a moment the rioters are stunned when the police turn and run away from them. However, when the police are back far enough they can see a line of eleven people in Army battle dress uniform with helmets on, shields down, and shotguns in hand. So the rioters assume they now face a small Army or National Guard unit. After a moment’s indecision the BLM leaders call for their people to charge the soldiers.

As soon as the police are through his line Mitch shouts, “Kneel, aim, fire.” The ten troops under his command kneel, take aim at the enemy line with their shotguns on their shoulders, then fire at the waist height of the advancing enemy when commanded to. The front rioters stagger and scream as the shot hits their thighs. They’re not bothered by what hits the ballistic vests they have on, but their thighs are unprotected. The attacking line takes a moment to reorganize and start forward again.

Mitch commands, “Realign by squads,” and his troops move to have five pairs of two across the road as he backs up two steps to be behind them. Mitch waits a moment, then orders, “Sergeants, count off volleys.”

One of the men in the middle of the line shouts, “Squad One, fire,” and one of each pair fires another shotgun round at the thighs of the BLM line. The effect is reduced, due to the fewer number of rounds.

A few seconds pass while Squad One replaces the fired rounds in the shotguns. When the Sergeant of Squad Two reaches his count he shouts, “Squad Two, fire,” and the other five fire. From that point on the squads take turns to fire at the rioters’ legs while the others load more shells into their shotguns. They fire at a rate of one volley every four seconds.

Mitch keeps looking around to see what’s going on everywhere in the street. After five rounds he gets a radio report about the rioters moving out in the other streets, so he commands, “Squads, in stages, fall back.” Immediately after they fire their next round that squad stands and moves back five paces while they reload. The other squad follows them as soon as they fire. Thus each squad covers the other as they withdraw back down the street. By the time Mitch’s team is back to the Sanchez Building the police have a strong roadblock set up on the other side of the road. Mitch withdraws his team back into the backyard to be safe.

When Mitch is back up on the roof he’s told there’s over a hundred of the rioters back at the BLM central treatment area having their hurt legs treated. Diane says, “From the media coverage it seems the people who were intended to be used to expand in the other three direction were sent to this side when you started shooting them in the legs. They had so many people lying in the streets screaming they had to move the others over to beef up the push in your street. Then they had to push the other streets to keep the line.” Mitch smiles as he nods at the update.

Things settle down for an hour or so. With the Mayor and Deputy Mayor out of contact the Police Commissioner is doing all he can to erect solid roadblocks to stop further expansion of the BLM Zone. A call is also made to the State Governor for help.

In the late afternoon National Guard trucks arrive and set up very strong prefabricated concrete roadblocks with spikes on top, the blocks are five feet tall and six feet long. While the strong barriers will make it easier for the police at the barricades to hold them against the next round of attacks by the rioters no troops have been provided to man them.

By nightfall all is in place and everyone settles down.

During dinner Joan says, “From what I could see from the drones during the afternoon a lot of the BLM leaders aren’t happy with the new area they’ve taken over. I watched group after group get very angry when they couldn’t break into places to loot them. Then they got madder when they did get into a few places and came out with nothing for their efforts. Also, several of them got shot by some of the remaining people protecting their property.” The report makes everyone smile.

Roberto says, “Things will get interesting next week, because I found the Mayor and Deputy Mayor at the BLM control center with most of the council members. If they’re kept caged within the BLM Zone they won’t be able to pass any resolutions in council.” All laugh in response.

Shocking News

The biggest news item all day Saturday is the expansion of the BLM Zone and the resistance to it. The group of soldiers is a major discussion point on the evening news. Much speculation on the involvement of a small number of soldiers is fueled by the various military authorities denying any involvement. Many of the TV stations adjust programs on Sunday to include talk shows on the event and who the soldiers belong to as the available video footage shows the only shoulder patches they have on are the Flag of the USA on each shoulder.

After watching one of the Saturday night talk shows Mitch calls a person he knows who’s listed as being on the panel for a special talk show on Sunday afternoon. They have a long talk on the phone before both are happy with the outcome, despite Mitch’s contact now having to do a lot of work.

Sunday News Show

Three o’clock on the Sunday afternoon an independent local news TV station is hosting a special talk show put together by a national network. The arrangements to have the show at this venue were done in haste due to some of the important panel members insisting it be here as this was the only TV station capable of holding the show in the city. Rather than having a dead panel with only a third of the advertised members the big network involved agreed to the change of venue.

The show opens with the national network’s main news anchor as the moderator of the show. The various panel guests are introduced; they include the two main USA leaders of the BLM Movement, three senior members of the Republicans, three senior members of the Democrats, the Governor, the Police Commissioner, four local community leaders, and two of the City Councilors. The first item of news is the inability to contact the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor. Then ten minutes is spent recounting all of the events since the start of the protest march that turned into a riot and it started the local events. The background information ends with the report of one hundred and seventeen people suffering gunshot wounds on the previous day.

Each panel participant is given a few minutes to give their opinion on the events to date. About fifty minutes into the scheduled three hours of the program the talk starts to focus on the soldiers who appeared the day before. After all of the others have spoken Lieutenant Colonel Alice James says, “Last night I had a phone call about the shotgun team. It was in response to that call I asked to have this show broadcast from here in the city involved. My caller said they were part of the team and all of the team members were local residents who were fed up with the violent racists destroying the homes and businesses of their friends. Most of the team members also own local small businesses.”

This provokes some angry responses from the BLM people and some of the other panel members. After that goes on for a few minutes the host asks for proof of her statements. Alice gets out her cell phone, puts it on speaker phone mode, places it near a microphone, and says, “I ask my caller from last night to call me again, so we can now talk on TV.”

All are shocked when the phone rings. She answers it, and Mitch says, “Good afternoon, Colonel. How are you finding life in Wonderland on the Potomac? For all of those listening, I’m the leader of the Reaction Team who covered the withdrawal of the police yesterday. Before we get started on the questions I’d like one of the station staff to go collect the small package just left at the station’s front door, please.”

The producer has one of the production crew race off to look for it. The panel asks a lot of questions while the package is retrieved. The hand sized package is given to the show host who opens it. He frowns as he looks at the contents, then he pours the contents of four shotgun shells out on the side table he has for his water glass. Mitch says, “You’ll get no finger prints or useful information off of those shells. However, those are four of the shotgun shells we were using yesterday. Feel free to cut them open and confirm their contents. They’re loaded with rock salt and some pepper. At the ranges we were firing they will sting and itch like hell, but the only damage they are likely to do are some scratches. No one was seriously hurt by us yesterday. We deliberately fired at their legs because they all had on ballistic vests. I have heard about twenty of the racist rioters have broken bones due to their so called friends stepping on them after they fell.”

The comment about racist rioters causes some instant angry shouts from the BLM people on the panel. Mitch waits for it to settle down then says, “The flash point for this whole issue is the speech and murder of the young woman who objected to the marching protesters damaging her car. There are several police body-cam videos of what the woman said and the actions of those attacking her. Yet the Mayor has refused to let the police release that footage. The reason for that is you can hear what she has to say when she berates the crowd for not caring about anyone who isn’t black. She tells them about the Native Americans and Hispanics who had been mistreated for decades before any black slaves arrived, and since then as well. Yet the crowd didn’t want to hear about anyone but a black was hurt in any way. Thus they showed racism in it’s purest form. That means the whole series of events is based on the actions of racists out to steal all they could. After the racists took control of an area the Mayor ordered the police out of there and left the citizens at the mercy of the racist murderers. I know the media were sent the full video of the confrontation in Conrad’s shop, but most refused to show those thieving killers in their full light when they entered and looted the shop of a disabled American Indian veteran. Yes, they looted the shop of a person from the smallest ethnic minority which has been abused by the whites, and others, for centuries. The media got upset because Conrad Eagle expected them to rob him, so he booby-trapped his goods. When the stolen goods were taken from his shop the thieves were hurt by very small explosive charges. Then when they shot him he fired back, and on his death the rest of his explosives went off. That’s how those thieving racists were killed. Yet the media refused to show the full video because it doesn’t support the agenda they’re pushing.”

The host is wondering why the camera lights are still on and the producer hasn’t ended the broadcast, so he looks towards the production booth. He’s surprised to see the booth is manned by the locals and the national production team are locked in the next booth with an armed guard at the door. Then he realizes this is going out live no matter what the manager wants cut out of it.

One of the BLM people shouts out, “Typical white racists, trying to deflect from their rich white privilege position and all it got them. Along with their fancy college degrees.”

The whole panel are surprised when twelve armed soldiers walk out into camera view from the wings to stand on one side of the stage and face the bulk of the panel. The way they’re all dressed in helmets with dark visors, gloves, and collars up there is no skin visible. The leader has a phone in his hand which he puts down as he hangs up and says, “Let’s talk face to face, shall we?” All recognize the voice from the phone.

The man beside him lifts his visor and you can see he’s of Hispanic descent. He says, “I’m Roberto Sanchez, the father of Sophia Sanchez who was beaten to death by the racist scum who started this riot. I’m also a local small business owner. My ancestors were living on this continent before any British arrived and long before any blacks arrived. A lot of my family died fighting for the freedom of Texas, with four of us at the Alamo. So, yes, we remember the Alamo, and all that happened before and after it. We’ve been subjected to racial prejudice for centuries longer than any black in the USA, yet we don’t go about destroying other people’s property in a riot for the fun of it. We work hard to make our lives better, until some racist scum murders our family members.”

Total quiet descends on the sound stage. Then Mitch says, “Of the ten members in the Reaction Team we have two more Hispanics, three of Anglo ancestry, one Native American, and four of African ancestry,” the soldiers raise their helmet visors as their racial group is stated. “All of them have served with the US military, and all are Americans.”

All stare at the soldiers for a moment. Mitch says, “As to being rich. The first shoes my grandfather wore were the Army boots issued to him when he signed up to serve during World War Two. My father went into the Air Force on finishing high school, the first in my family to finish high school. My father died in the service. Yes, I have a college degree. A degree in business management and as a chef which I got on Uncle Sam as Education Benefits while in the service and after a medical discharge for injuries sustained on duty. As to the white privilege,” as he lifts his visor to show his very dark black skin. “My family name is Davis as it was the name of the family whose plantation my ancestors had worked on until they were freed after the War Between the States. My family had lived in the South and suffered under Jim Crow until my father joined the Air Force, and I grew up on military bases. I’ve seen real poverty, and not the fake poverty people complain about in the US today. I’ve lived in areas where the majority of people didn’t know if they’d get anything to eat that day. Yet it’s only here I’ve seen such racist rioting. None of you have a right to talk about being mistreated by racists! Many of your long dead ancestors can, but you can’t because none of you have suffered any racism, except what you created in your own minds or racism committed by you against others.”

There’s absolute quiet on the sound stage.

After a minute of silence Colonel James says, “Thank you, Sergeant. Is there anything else you wish to say?” Mitch shakes his head no. She turns to the panel, “Any more questions for these people?” After several seconds of no response she adds, “It seems they’ve no questions. Any thing else anyone wants to say?”

Roberto says, “Yes. The scum who started this said they wanted to set up an area outside of the control and authority of this city, county, state, and country. They said they wanted a free anarchy zone. Well, the news report shows they got what they wished for, they got their zone of anarchy outside of this country and it’s laws. So anyone bitching about the rioters who got hurt or killed needs to remember that’s what you can expect in an area of anarchy with no laws. I sincerely hope the residents who couldn’t get out before the area was taken over get busy and kill every one of those murdering scum who are part of the organization that murdered my daughter for speaking the truth.” He turns and walks away, with the others in uniform following him out.

At one of the police roadblocks Police Sergeant Marks is watching the live broadcast, and a moment after Roberto’s speech he says, “Be careful of what you wish for, as you may have it granted.”

One of the other police officers watching the broadcast on the portable TV they have asks, “What’s that, Sarge?”

He replies, “A wise man once said, ’Be careful of what you wish for, as you may have it granted.’ I think the rioters are now learning that very true saying in a harsh lesson about reality.”

The TV special ends very early as few have anything to say after the talks by Roberto and Mitch. Due to the show being on auto rebroadcast it’s spread across the nation before any of the network executives can get the plug pulled on it. It sparks much thought and comment across the nation that night. However, nothing is said about it on the main media networks due to it being contrary to their prepared narrative.

As the shadows lengthen just before dusk settles in the police hear a lot of gunfire coming from within BLM Zone. What they hear are a lot of single shots which are clearly they’re being aimed at specific targets. However, since none of the shots come near the police blockades they ignore it while they wonder what the shooting is about. After a few minutes of shooting some of the police officers notice individual gunmen and people in the black garb of the rioters are falling to the ground. A few of the watching police think the people trapped by the BLM rioters are serving out some payback for what has been done to them during the weeks of rioting.

In the late news the Police Commissioner makes a public statement that the police, in line with the directions of the City Council and the Mayor, will not be investigating any of the incidents where the rioters were hurt within the area they control due to the inability to keep the incident site clear of interference and the total lack of independent witnesses. There is much discussion on this statement, especially when there is no comment from the Mayor on the statement.

Fire Fight

The morning of the day following the special broadcast where Mitch and Roberto appeared is quiet; too quiet for the peace of mind of the many people watching the barricades.

Just after eleven in the morning Roberto calls Mitch to look at what one of the parked drones is showing. In a small open area near where the Antifa and BLM Leadership have set up their headquarters a group of people are very busy pouring gasoline from cans into bottles and sticking rags in the tops of the bottles to make Molotov cocktails. It’s clear to Mitch there’s about to be a major offensive by the rioters.

Mitch asks Diane and Maria to make up ’water bombs’ of chemicals and use the slingshots to send them into as many of the streets within the zone as they can. The two women have wide grins when they go to make up the stink bombs.

After getting help from many of the other women Diane is very busy mixing the chemicals while Maria is filling the balloons with the mixed chemicals. As soon as a water bomb is ready one of the women takes the bomb to where others are waiting to see how far into the controlled area they can send the stink bombs. The first is sent to land just behind one of the barricades where they can see the effects. As soon as it lands those close to the spot move away from it. That makes the women smile. Soon all three of the slingshot are very busy sending little balloons on their way to disrupt the rioters with obnoxious odors. When the water bombs land near the people making the petrol bombs it slows production.

While the stink bombs are being made and sent Mitch is working on two of the cheap drones to turn them into bombs by attaching explosives and a radio detonator to them in a way that doesn’t interfere with the drones’ operations. He only has two radio detonators, so he makes two bombs. One is loaded with as much explosive as it will carry while the other includes an incendiary bomb as part of its package.

It’s nearing midday when Mitch signals for Joan and another girl to take the two bomber drones up. He stands behind them watching the screen showing the images from the drones while they fly the drones to where the Molotov cocktails are being made. The scene has changed to show two pickup trucks with boxes of the Molotov cocktails in their beds. Luckily the trucks are parked very close together to make it easier for the bomb makers to load up the beds, which they’re very busy doing.

Mitch smiles while he says, “Girls, select a truck each, agree on them, and crash the drones into the bed of the trucks with as much force as you can. Once they’re down I’ll set off the explosives.” The two girls have a quick word on target choices, then the drones arch up and dive down at the pickup trucks at their maximum speed. Mitch watches with an activated radio transmitter in each hand. He knows the targets are well within the range of the transmitters, so he waits. A moment later both drones slam into the loads of bottles in each of the pickups.

The drones break up on impact, as do the few bottles the drones hit. Those loading the pickups turn to the noise, see the wreckage, and wonder what’s going on. Mitch presses both of the transmitter buttons. Both sets of explosive go off to send shock waves through the many bottles in the beds of the pickup trucks. Most of the bottles are broken by the explosions, and some glass from the bottles becomes shrapnel which injures a few of the people closest to the pickup trucks. However, when the incendiary device goes off a moment later that truck bursts into flame, then the truck beside it, and then flames travel along the spilled fuel flowing off the trucks. Soon both of the trucks and the small store of fuel cans are in flames. Thus ending the production of Molotov cocktails at this site while it also angers the rioters and their leaders.