YNs

2015

“Please state your name for the record,” Representative Gadley Goggins announced. His blue suit looked sharp but a bit too tight on him. It made his light brown skin taut and almost as if his red tie strangled him. It was like he had just got it from the cleaners but made some severe alterations that made him look like he was choking, slightly. He was sixty-seven-years old and looked like he was ninety. His gray hair, though combed back, made him look slightly younger. The conference room in the middle of Wilmington featured law enforcement figures, dignitaries, some businesspeople, even a royal. They came to hear the words of the youthful leader of the Delaware State Police.

“I am Delaware State Police Commissioner Namina Norrey.”

Commissioner Namina Norrey was the youngest head of police in the state of Delaware’s history at twenty-four-years old. Her starch white shirt with four gold stars on her collar looked like some leader of a star fleet. A black tie completed her ensemble and provided a sense of gravitas to her youthfulness. She had earned her bachelor’s in Criminal Justice and her master’s in Psychology all by the age of twenty. She didn’t have to worry about time served. She skyrocketed past her fellow police cadets by scoring perfectly on pistol and physical and academic tests. Her skin looked like cacao shavings. Her hair curled around her head in an extremely short Afro. She sat with her back off of the chair and folded her hands in front of her.

“Commissioner Norrey…how did you take the news that a major publication in this country called a city that is in your jurisdiction ‘Murder Town USA’?”

She cleared her throat. “It’s the reason I landed this job.” Some laughs went up. “I don’t mean to be facetious. I aimed for this role and I obtained it through grit and determination. To answer your question, I thought it to be sharp. Like a glass shard slicing through the palm, I noticed that this particular article outlined the faults and cracks in the system. I know that we’re a small city in a small state, but the facts all seemed to be alarming.”

Representative Kalis Contractor looked on from her perch. Her medium brown skin at the allure of an older woman trying to catch a romantic relationship with a younger man. She had streaks of gray in her hair and crow’s feet at her eyes. With the appearance that she walked as a debutante in past decades, she pulled the microphone closer to her.

“Commissioner, with these killings and attempted murders and other serious crimes, where do you see Wilmington headed in the future?”

“Thank you for that. I hold no crystal ball, but we have to observe human behavior and the amount of focus that should be placed on legalizing all controlled substances and narcotics.”

Murmurs shot through the room. “You don’t mean that….” Representative Contractor sneered.

“I do. If the First State becomes the first state to unfetter the chains on drugs, we will have set a precedent. The amount of murders that occur here have something to do with the drug trade. If we eliminate the stranglehold on how people manufacture, produce, distribute, sell, and purchase drugs, we will have made an impact.”

“Alright but you do realize, excuse me, that you’re too young to fully grasp the idea of the War on Drugs. We’ve been battling this scourge for decades. Trillions of dollars have been poured into the law enforcement agencies. You would concede that right?” Goggins asked with ounces of sarcasm dripping in his words.

Namina sighed. “No.”

More murmurs and cameras snapped. Namina looked out at the politicians grilling her like a cheese sandwich. She breathed and looked down and then up, her chin slightly canted.

“I would say that the mounting number of criminals is due to the fact that the state and the nation bars people from satisfying their demand openly and freely. If we are to live in a fair and just society, it is up to us to shoot down any laws that govern telling what people transact in regard to the list of drugs off the market.”

A representative named Bob Barringer spoke next. He had a puglike face and a set of cloudy blue eyes that looked like the sky. “Commissioner let’s talk, drugs aside…there are programs for people to get job training and to help them get on their feet. We have the opportunity to fund these projects. What is your take on the police being the guardians over people who seek to find such ways of turning their lives around.”

“I’m a cop. I love what I do. It would be an honor to protect the individual rights of people who want to make a better day for themselves. But I’d still like to answer the question on drugs without the insolence.”

“Do you find me rude, Commissioner?” Goggins asked, his tone shifted like he was just caught stealing fudge from a candy store.

“Yes, I do. I hold a master’s degree in psychology and know when someone’s tone displays equal measures of impertinence.”

“This is a serious matter, young lady.” WIth that, Goggins became a school marm who didn’t wave his finger but his words sounded like he had.

“I’m on the street. I might look like I’ve got a cushy job in an office, which I do, but I choose to be out on the frontlines with my fellow officers. I’ve seen it all in my short time. I know of overdoses, a young girl being stuffed with rocks in her mouth so she couldn’t scream as boys held her down on each arm and a third did his worst with her sexually. I know of nights with screams of people being shot down over a pack that wasn’t moved correctly. I’ve seen it. I can smell the streets of Wilmington at night. I know that dusky feeling that creeps into the bones of the citizens of this city. I know it.”

The representatives held their mics. And talked off the record. Then, they returned to the mics and Contractor expressed her displeasure with what Namina just outlined.

“I’m truly sorry you have to witness this on a daily basis. I commend you for being out on the street with your compatriots. That shows something. It’s classy and dignified and true.”

“Thank you.”

“Okay so I’ll ask the question about drugs. What is it we ought to do to curb the violent crimes related to drugs other than legalizing them?”

“That’s just it,” Namina countered, “there is nothing else to do but legalize them. From the top lords to the couriers in the street, we ought to make it an outlet for people to engage with the trade without the dread of wondering whether they’ll be forced in a ‘kill or be killed’ situation. Or, conversely, all the people who use the drugs can become aware of the fact they're using to escape from some pain or trauma or just looking for a quick high. We should be able to give the supplier what he or she wants, which is money and the consumer should be able to destroy his or her body and/or mind in the comfort of their own private spaces.”

“Alright. We’ve heard that much from you, Commissioner,” Representative Goggins acknowledged. “Now, let’s move onto the idea of getting the youth involved in initiatives.”

“Well, it’s not the duty of any of my officers to provide after school programs or anything of the like. We’re a gun. We hunt down actual criminals and allow them to be prosecuted in a place like this. I’ve worked with the Wilmington Police Department on many occasions and know Commissioner Sharpton Fuller. We have linked up to foster a better day for the kids of the city. But that is only because politicians like you are more concerned with making funnel cake and face painting rather than getting to the nut meat of the issue. We’re spending millions of dollars on these programs that the taxpayers, some of them, would rather not pay. Sure, they’d like to see children smiling and blowing bubbles and walking down the street unharmed, but our role is different. We’re supposed to ensure that those children are safeguarded primarily from gun violence and other atrocities.”

Represenative Contractor looked down on the Commissioner. She felt a twinge of understanding Namina’s words if they seemed a bit murky in her mind however. She leaned over a bit.

“You don’t think the police play a role in creating an environment for youth and elders alike to feel safe?”

“That’s not what I’m saying at all. I am tasked with being a unit of force that only functions as a weapon against the perpetrators who need to be brought to justice. It is apparent that there is far too much concern for cops to be friends on the beat. A cop has no friends on the beat.”

“Commissioner Norrey,” Goggins asked, “What is the purpose of having body cams?”

“Sir?”

“I would like to know why you’re wearing body cams now.”

“The law implemented the use of these cameras to give a picture of potential abuses by my officers. What does this have to do with a hearing on making Wilmington safer? We’ve yet to have an incident where someone had been mistreated by any of my cops. What is the point of your question?”

Goggins gasped. “I’m just trying to get to the, what did you say? ‘nutmeat’ of the situation.”

“Are you, sir? Because your attitude seems a bit lopsided. You seem to come at this hearing with the intention of catching me in a lie or worse. What you’ve done is shone nothing but contempt from your high seat. That’s the idealism which you exude? Am I far off, sir?”

Goggins shook his head and laughed lightly. “I’m not trying to make you do anything. I just want to know the answer.”

Commissioner Namina Norrey looked to her left and to her right. She then turned around. Her Deputy Commissioner Vennett Hospers sat with his hands on his thighs. Some gray appeared at his temples as it smoothed back on his head. His nightstick black skin contrasted with his starch white shirt and the three stars on his collar sparkled like hers. A smile curled around his mouth and he gave a slight nod to show he had been right there for her the whole time. She picked her head up again.

“If I am to be here, I only ask that I be treated fairly and in the same vain as any white, older male commissioner. My age and race should have no bearing on the matter of these proceedings. Even with people that are alleged to be of the same skin shades, it is apparent that I must show that I’m not black but a woman of color. I have not aligned with any racial identity and I intend for this hearing to recognize that.”

“Okay, okay.” Goggins jerked about a bit. “What we’re going to do is take a short recess and then reconvene in an hour. Thank you.”

Commissioner Norrey rose up from her seat and continued to speak with Hospers.

“Round one!”

“I know. It’s been interesting though. I feel like I’m able to get in there and land the right blows, however,” she voiced with confidence.

“You’re alright, Nam’. I think they’re scared of you. Not just in a bogeyman way but your presence, your intellect, that’s what’s bothering them. They’re not ready for someone of your young age to challenge them on things they’ve been cooking up for decades. This police force, this state is all the better because of you.”

“Thanks, V. I just happened to see you and I knew that I was on the right track. That made it real. You made it real. I owe you a beer and a baseball steak.”

“You know I’m fasting!”

“To hell with it!”