Welcome back to Down from the Heights. Today, a reader saw fit to let me know “I can read it without it making me want to puke!”. You’re welcome. I do it all for you.
No risk of that for me this morning – I had to skip breakfast to make it to the morning presser. I tried not to let it spoil my mood as I idled in the line at the unassuming, unmarked offices that have become the new headquarters of the Corporate Response Operations (CRO) force. I noticed they had Astral mercenaries handling the patdowns. I wondered if they hadn’t been fitted for new uniforms yet.
In the end, we all filed in. One side of the room was packed with what looked like mercs, freelancers, and corporate representatives scattered about. I sat in the corner, with the rest of the press.
Jereslimah, CRO’s negotiator and representative, launched into his prepared speech. Citing last year’s development review, which showed a struggling economy, increased crime and rising unemployment, he said that the Board wanted to abandon Hellion.
“If this keeps going, investors are going to ditch the planet, shut the lights off on us, recall all the resources that run the city and close the warp gate behind them. That leaves the half billion people living in the city damned to die a slow death,” Jereslimah said. “ Where are they going to go when the food runs out? What’s going to produce the power needed to provide clean water and a safe place to sleep? These are the questions we don’t want to have to answer – how do we save a half billion lives?”
“CRO is the answer”, he said.
It was difficult not to think of the Undercity, where clean water and power had already been shut off that morning.
He outlined a combined security force backed by all seven mega-corporations, Union, and the galactic development committee. Jereslimah described the problem facing the city as “people setting back the progress of society.” and that his enforcers will “catch criminals, to keep our people safe.”
I was struck by the intense language. Jereslimah was spelling out a prophecy of doom – the fall of our very planet. CRO was positioned not as a mere function of government, but as Hellion’s saviour from a potentially apocalyptic fate. The Board’s spokesperson, when later asked to comment, stated that there are no plans or deliberations being made that would include the abandonment of Hellion.
Jereslimah continued to pitch this new anti-terrorism force as a source of both jobs and justice. He hoped CRO would grow from their initial limited mandate within Salvation City to operate planetwide. With the co-operation of the Union High Court, he told us, the new agency will operate under the authority of the Corporate Board.
The exact remit of this force, and how it would work, was questioned by those present. Would CRO handle corporate malfeasance? Corruption? What about when a corporation’s official initiatives broke the law? The new CRO head pointed to a recent arrest of an Avalon pharmacist turned drug pusher as an example of their commitment to internal investigations. “We want to make sure the corporations are working for the betterment of the planet – otherwise the planet just becomes a money sink – and what’s the point in investing in a money sink?” How this would work on a larger scale, and whether CRO’s remit would go further than protecting investments, was left unclear.
That’s far from the only challenge facing this fledgling law enforcement operation. With many recruits drawn from existing corporate security, will residents see a new vision for the city, or a new coat of paint on security forces that the Board have already lost confidence in?
Jereslimahs’ words on trust were uplifting, but sadly light on detail. He spoke of the Undercity as a state working for independence instead of a homeless camp, and said he approached their leaders seeking an extradition agreement. Yet he preceded this with a rather alarming claim of “criminals coming out of the sewer system and radicalising hundreds of individuals on our city streets” without evidence.
Despite his hardline rhetoric, Jereslimah said that CRO’s success could justify investment in terraforming in Hellion, even giving the planet a rotation. “That’s going to melt the glaciers, tame the windstorms, finally give us an ocean, and a night sky to look at. Who’s with me on that?”
But, well, what about the people who aren’t with him? What happens when this vision faces opposition? At the start of his speech, he alluded to Salvation City being a “hotspot for civil war”. If people resist this vision of progress, what steps will CRO take to enforce it?
There are positive signs. A willingness to talk to the Undercity and Scrap Towns; A preference for less-lethal force, and an insistence that CRO would not be armed for war. Jereslimah stressed the need for economic development – this is to be welcomed. But is fighting crime the sole answer to economic woes?
I spent the rest of my day between the Undercity and Row 32 and I didn’t hear a lot of concern about crime. Some might think the power outage would give the cover of darkness to ne’er-do-wells. But instead of thieves, murderers and – worst of all – radicals in the streets, there were neighbours pooling supplies, providing spare food and water, and checking on each other.
These are the real people who inhabit Hellion. If CRO wants to be trusted, it will need to get these people and their neighbours on board. Earning that is going to be hard. CRO will need to align themselves with the real concerns of the people of the city through community meetings. CRO representatives will need to leave the riot shields at home and when they make promises, follow through.
The Corporate Response Operations chief said this organization is our salvation. But if they already believe they have all the answers, they may not be asking the right questions. I’d suggest they start with a simple one: How can we help?
But hey, maybe I’ll end up eating CRO.
I’ll once again, for my friends in the Undercity, attach the donation link below for anyone who wishes to help them out, in this critical hour. The courage and resilience of the people of the Undercity has been truly incredible to see. And even in these trying times – they still find time for a Sick Fucking Jump.
Ouch.