Stupid Luck and Happenstance, Thread III

Part 133, Chapter 2279
Chapter Two Thousand Two Hundred Seventy-Nine



18th February 1974

Los Angeles

Being in the Courthouse was odd. Of course, this entire case was odd. Over the last couple months, the arrangements had been carefully negotiated for a clip of video no more than a few seconds in length to be shown to a Judge with the State Attorney present. The issue was that the tape would need to be entered as evidence in an ongoing murder investigation. The State was taking no chances regarding mistakes that a Defense Attorney could exploit. The last thing they needed was to have the tape tossed at trial if this led to an arrest. As a newly minted Police Officer 3, Ritchie was able to elbow his way up to the front row. He had known that having stripes on his sleeve was to his advantage in the Army, that proved doubly so with the Los Angeles Police. Of course, having the looming presence of Big Mike right next to him didn’t hurt.

It was a complicated matter, especially considering the witness who could authenticate the tape. They were listening to Malcolm von Mischner-Blackwood give his statement on just how the video had been produced as well as how he was a Reserve Officer Aspirant in the German Air Force when he wasn’t a student in the Computer Science Department at a Major Research University in Berlin. It had been in that capacity that he supervised a team of Analysts who watched feed from orbiting satellites so that they could provide up to date information to policymakers in Reichstag as well as the advisors to the Kaiser.

The odd part for Ritchie was that he had a hard time working out in his head how Malcolm could be the cousin of Manny von Mischner. Where Manny was bigger than life, Malcolm simply wasn’t. Thin, of medium height and wearing a grey wool suit, he looked exactly what Ritchie would have pictured when he imagined someone who worked with computers. The other odd observation was that while Manny spoke with what Ritchie had come to learn was a Berliner accent, sort of like a Boston accent in the United States. When Malcolm spoke, he sounded like one that Ritchie had heard in parts of New England. His friend Jules Mullins from Maine had an accent that sounded very similar. Ritchie was also aware that Malcolm wasn’t a German name and his hyphenated surname included Blackwood as a part of it. That meant that there was probably an interesting story behind it.

Finally, the entire Courtroom was watching the video that was in odd colors due to the filters in place to see what was happening at night. Everything was exaggerated shades that reflected surface temperatures. Watching, Ritchie saw the beaches of Malibu, the houses, and the curve of the coastline before it turned sharply south. The camera was focused right on the beach where the body was found when murder happened, and everyone watched it play out. Almost everyone in the room was inured to street violence, but this felt different. They knew that the victim was the sort of person who the system was supposed to protect. This wasn’t the murder of prostitute on the Sunset Strip or a gang leader in South-Central which would probably hardly get noticed. This was a Co-Ed attended College in Santa Monica from an Upper-Middle Class family and that didn’t sit well with them.

“They got all of this from outer space?” Mike said in a low voice so that only Ritchie could hear. “This is like science fiction.”

There were murmurs around the Courtroom as others reached the same conclusion.

“I guess” Ritchie replied. He also kept his voice down. There was a lot of Department Brass in the room and pissing off the Judge was never a good idea.

It was then that they got to the part that everyone was waiting for. In the video, the perpetrator got into his car and drove off. This was important for two reasons. The first was that the car was a VW Rabbit, the color was hard to discern from the video, but they had been hunting for that car in connection to this guy for months. The other was that the license plate was clearly visible, so now they had a name and an address. That was enough for the Judge to sign off a set of warrants to search the suspects home, car, and whatever else happened to be in his name after they made the arrest.

After that it was a mad scramble for the door as everyone rushed off for what was going to probably be the one of the higher profile arrests this year. Ritchie didn’t bother, he had already played a major role in that he had been the one who Manny had contacted months earlier to tell him about the video tape and what was on it.

“I would say that it is going to be about thirty seconds before the newspapers run with this story, then every television and radio station will pick it up within minutes” Mike said looking at his watch. They both had seen reporters from the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and other West Coast newspapers on the way in this afternoon. “So, everybody on the planet will know who this scumbag is in about half an hour or so.”

“So, it will be a race between the Department and the people in this guy’s neighborhood” Ritchie replied, “And they will be trying to get up the 101 at this hour. Good luck with that.”

That was when Ritchie noticed that Malcolm was standing there looking lost. He had come all the way from Europe for one purpose and now that was done.

“Want to come with us and watch the bad guy get busted?” Mike asked Malcolm who just stared at them.

“You can do that?” Malcolm asked.

Ritchie figured that no one would care if they did.

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They had taken the long way around to avoid the traffic that snarled the Los Angeles freeways every afternoon. Even so, they got there before most of the action had taken place. Malcolm was riding in the back of Frankenstein as they had driven across town, hardly seeming to notice the frequently violent maneuvers that Ritchie threw the car into. As they arrived at the perimeter it was obvious that the three-ring circus was just getting started.

Ritchie had seen these things before, the News helicopters had arrived just about the time that the first squad cars had rolled in. Everyone who lived on the street was out trying to figure out what was going on and every opportunist in the neighborhood seemed to be making the most of it, whether it was picking pockets, running a short con, or telling a camera crew a bunch of nonsense. The fact that this was actually in Hollywood made the entire scene even more exaggerated, which he might have thought impossible.

Inside the perimeter, Ritchie saw that Captain Evans and the rest of the Tactical Division had set up and were getting ready to storm the apartment building where the suspect lived. To his eye it looked that what was about to happen was profound overkill with the element of surprise completely lost, and they would be doing it with the entire world watching…
 
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With an operation like this going down Cpt. Evans would be foolish not to use Ritchie and his experience as a Special Warfare trained soldier turned police officer in this.
While the thinking is a straight on assault on the residence, Ritchie may have an better idea to minimize potential civilian casualties and increase the probability of taking the suspect alive.
Ritchie may have gained a friend in Malcolm and if he staying for a couple of days, Ritchie can set him up to be able to have some fun with his extended family.
 
With an operation like this going down Cpt. Evans would be foolish not to use Ritchie and his experience as a Special Warfare trained soldier turned police officer in this.
While the thinking is a straight on assault on the residence, Ritchie may have an better idea to minimize potential civilian casualties and increase the probability of taking the suspect alive.
You would think, but this is the equivalent of LAPD SWAT from OTL in the 1970's. Despite Captain Evans having been the one who had recruited Ritchie in the first place, he got his ego bruised when Ritchie showed up the Tactical Division by dealing with the Roosevelt High School incident as a Patrol Officer. So, them taking Ritchie's advice is not going to happen and the sense of foreboding that Ritchie has is well placed.
 
Malcolm with the attendant publicly is going to be identified as the son of the Tigress of Pankow and may get an invite to Cal Tech.
 
Part 133, Chapter 2290
Chapter Two Thousand Two Hundred Eighty



19th February 1974

Los Angeles, California

It was after midnight and Malcolm had still not gotten back to the hotel that he was staying at. Instead, he was with Richard Valenzuela and Mike Washington as they had taken the long way back to Central Division wondering exactly what the Hell had just happened. Ritchie had said that everything had gone sideways before they had even left the Courthouse after Malcolm had testified about the tape. Afterwards, Ritchie and Mike had been among those trying to impose order on what had become a complete mess. It was sort of hard to tell people that there was nothing to see and to move along when there was obviously a whole lot to gawk at. Malcolm had just tried to stay out of the way all evening.

They had just arrived on the scene where they expected to watch the arrest be made. What they got instead was a surreal, chaotic display as crowds of onlookers and television news crews rushed to the building as the police tried to set up a perimeter. Even as they were trying to herd people away, a group of heavily armed officers who Malcolm assumed were the equivalent of the Counter Terrorism Units of the Federal Police back home grew impatient. The man who led them, who Ritchie identified as Captain Evans, was yelling into a radio microphone “That they needed to get in there that instant before that son of a bitch gets away or takes someone hostage.” Malcolm wasn’t privy to what was being said on the other side of that conversation but the expression on Ritchie’s face suggested that it had not been what was supposed to happen.

A few minutes later, the officers started firing tear gas grenades through every window of the building and the residents came flooding out, the front doors of the building to the sight of rifles levelled at them. The result was instant panic as the officers tried to figure out if the suspect who they were there to arrest was hiding among them. Then the building caught fire and that led to Evans getting into a shouting match with the Incident Commander from the Fire Department who wanted to put the fire out immediately. That argument dragged on for several minutes even as gunshots rang out inside the building and many of the shots flew the target and were passing through the walls of the apartment building. It was a miracle that no one out on the street was seriously injured.

Then the men who were under the command of Evans dragged out the well-ventilated corpse of Theodor Bundy leaving a gruesome trail from the building out to the street. By then the whole building was involved and the camera crews from the various television networks caught the entire thing. Evans was strutting around and seemed to be completely unaware of how bad all that had looked, as the building started to collapse in the background. Malcolm wasn’t from here and couldn’t pretend to understand the local culture, but even he knew that that the entire episode was a public relations disaster.

Sitting on the hood of the car that the two policemen had dubbed Frankenstein after the monster, they were eating food from a kitchen that had been built in the back of a lorry, or truck as they called them here. Ritchie had said that while he was in SoCal, he needed to get some authentic Mexican Food. Eating a Chicken Colorado burrito with beans and rice, Malcolm figured that Ritchie was right, this was good, even if it was incredibly spicy.

“That asshole had no clue what the fuck he was doing” Mike said.

“No point in getting bent out of shape” Ritchie replied, “It is what it is.”

“No” Mike said, “You know damn well that Even Evans is going to fail upwards for this, he’s a golfing buddy of the Chief of Police and the Mayor.”

“Even Evans?” Malcolm asked.

“That is what he is called by those of us who work on the street” Ritchie said, “Every time he messes up, he breaks even and somehow gets ahead, as if it never happened.”

“I see” Malcolm replied.

“That sort of thing is reserved for guys like that” Mike said, “Me and Ritchie, we’d have gotten the axe on the spot if we even thought of screwing up that badly.”

“Even with your respective ranks within your Department?” Malcolm asked.

“I’m Black and Ritchie is Mexican” Mike replied, “There are many in the Department who barely tolerate having us around as is.”

“In Berlin, we don’t have any Mexicans as far as I know” Malcolm said, “We do get Africans though, mostly from Cameroon or South Africa. They tend to be professionals, hardworking and not someone you would want to dismiss out of hand.”

“Things are a bit different here” Ritchie said.

“I was warned about that before I got on the plane” Malcolm replied, “The reality of it was not exactly what I expected.”

Mike snorted, as if there was something funny in what Malcolm just said.

With that there was nothing more to say about the subject, so they sat there in silence for a few minutes eating their meal.

Finally, Malcolm decided to mention something that had been on his mind all evening.

“What this reminded me of, not the event itself, but afterwards, was the 30th of June seven years ago” Malcolm said, “There was the same sort of feel, that order broke down.”

“What are you talking about?” Mike asked and Malcolm realized that an American might not be as aware of what happened on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. Whereas the events of June 1967 were indelibly marked in the memories of those who lived in Berlin.

“A man, they never figured out exactly who, opened fire with a stolen Army rifle on street crowded with commuters” Malcolm replied, “A whole lot of people got hurt and killed.”

“I remember that” Ritchie said, “They never caught who did it?”

Malcolm could hear the disgust in Ritchie’s voice as he had asked that last question. “No, they didn’t” Malcolm replied, “It was like he vanished into thin air as soon as the shooting stopped.”
 
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In my mind Andreas Baader is an international car thief specializing in high end luxury and rare vintage cars justifying it by saying that he is doing it for the "Revolution".
 
Then the men who were under the command of Evans dragged out the well-ventilated corpse of Theodor Bundy leaving a gruesome trail from the building out to the street. By then the whole building was involved and the camera crews from the various television networks caught the entire thing. Evans was strutting around and seemed to be completely unaware of how bad all that had looked, as the building started to collapse in the background. Malcolm wasn’t from here and couldn’t pretend to understand the local culture, but even he knew that that the entire episode was a public relations disaster.
This reminds me of Sledge Hammer.
 
This turning out to be more of disaster then the OTL shootout with the SLA and there are going to be multiple investigations from city to Federal level which includes House, Senate, and Justice Department.
There will be a lot of people in the LAPD hierarchy trying to save themselves by becoming "Anonymous Sources" to various news outlets and the common denominator is that Cpt. Evans will be the one left holding the bag with the name of Officer Ritchie Valenzuela being used as an example and the school shooting on how to resolve violent situations with minimal colleterial damage.
 
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With the talk of the differences between TTL and OTL a consideration is the flora and fauna. Without the forced sorting at gunpoint that Stalin engaged in in Eastern Europe and the massive refugee crisis that resulted, The result is a population that is more spread out compared to OTL, slightly less urban, but far more mobile without NATO/Warsaw Pact divide that existed. Berlin is a sprawling city that spread into Brandenburg until it encountered sharp limits on that outward growth and is now building upward. A consequence of that is that there is a larger band of suburbs to the south and east of the city in TTL and there are a number of creatures that benefit from that sort of environment. That includes many native species but is greatly aiding the spread of certain invasive nonnatives such as Raccoons and Canada Geese as well.

Pictured is an example . Originally introduced in Scotland in the Nineteenth Century as a gamebird, Canada Geese have been spreading eastward along the Baltic Sea establishing a migratory pattern that takes them from Lapland to France and have been spotted as far east as Archangel in Russia. Anyone who has ever dealt with them is aware of their well-deserved reputation of being Hellspawn.
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