Chapter 5

The Silver Knights organization was growing far beyond the original group of a few kids who were just having fun. Ed Smith suggested that it would be prudent for the Silver Knights to incorporate into a non-profit service organization. As a lawyer, he was happy to donate the time and effort to make this happen. Before long, they were The Silver Knights, Inc. John was president, Mary was CFO, and a couple of other jobs were taken by parents so that they satisfied all of the state’s legal requirements.

The main advantage of this maneuver was to protect the kids even further from frivolous law suits in case some accident should happen. Nobody was expecting trouble, but everybody wanted the kids’ asses to be covered if something did happen. There was no change as far as the kids were concerned, but the City of Silver River did sign a contract with The Silver Knights, Inc.

This was a year of no hurricanes to visit Silver River, so the kids were relieved of that chore. They decided to continue their street patrols after school and on weekends until the weather made that impractical. There were now 31 pairs of kids patrolling the city, and there were Black members of the Silver Knights. Unfortunately, the Black community was divided on whether or not to support the Black kids who were members of the Silver Knights.

Very quickly, the Black kids had been accepted by the White kids, and there was no detectable friction between Blacks and Whites within the organization. By deliberate action, the kids were assigned at random to a patrolling duo, so a pair was often made up of one Black kid and one White kid. The only exception to that purely random scheme of selecting partners to patrol was that there was at least one person who was qualified to use the baton.

This was made necessary because of the increase in the number of kids forming gangs and pushing drugs. Drug use was strictly forbidden among the Silver Knights, even when “off duty,” and the kids were adamant in enforcing the rule. Only one kid had been found in violation of the rule against drugs, and she had been dumped from membership so fast that she barely knew what hit her. She was reinstated a year later when she was able to prove that she was clean and sober.

Of course, many of the Black kids were accused by Black non-members of “selling out” to the Honky Establishment. No Black kid ever quit the Silver Knights over this accusation, but there were some fierce fights. The problems usually developed when a patrolling pair consisted of what the Silver Knights called a B&W among themselves. The B&W referred to a Black kid and a White kid in the duo. The problem usually was that a rock or brick-bat was thrown at the pair as they were riding past some convenient cover.

Alvin took it upon himself to try to come up with a suitable defense against the thrown rocks, etc. He came up with a loose-fitting cuirass made of PVC sheet about 0.125” thick. This was thick enough to keep a thrown rock or brick-bat from causing a serious injury, though there was no question that the wearer of the armor had been hit. Even a .22 caliber bullet could penetrate the armor, but there was no money for that kind of body armor. Nevertheless, the cuirass would stop a knife or club, so it was plenty adequate for the job at hand.

The PVC armor was spray painted with aluminum paint to match the helmets, and now the Silver Knights were truly “knights in shining armor.” The SKs loved the new armor and the civilians were duly impressed. Also, this did cut down on the number of cast stones because the target just laughed at the missile thrower.

The only armor left missing was protection from knives for the wrists and forearms. Alvin made up similar armor that functioned as bracers; it was painted with the same aluminum paint. No knife could penetrate a PVC bracer, so the kids were fully armored, and they did have chances to prove that against certain fools, usually drunken adults.

The kids in the Silver Knights were still not deemed old enough to make formal arrests, but they usually could subdue a miscreant long enough for a cop to arrive to make the legal arrest. So far, the worst anyone had been charged with had been assault (the threat) and attempted battery (the physical attack), and that was usually good enough for a fine and a few weeks in jail.

The first real incident in this regard was backwards from what anyone had expected. Late one Saturday afternoon while on their way home from their last patrol, Rory Mason (Black) and Jake Hudson (White) were taking a shortcut through a nearly empty parking lot when they came across three rather large Black men beating on a Black policeman.

In this case, the three civilians and the Cop had also been using the parking lot as a shortcut. The cop was not walking with the other three men, but one of the Black men made a nasty comment about the Black cop and how he was a traitor to his kind. The Black cop took exception to the remark, and the three men jumped him.

Two of the men were holding the cop’s arms while the third man was pounding his fists on the cop’s gut. The cop was already sagging toward the ground when the altercation was noticed by Jake and Rory. They were both recent graduates of the baton course, so they naturally feared nothing.

They rushed to the aid of the cop. Both SKs were on their bicycles, so it only took seconds for them to reach the beating. Jake called 911 for backup as he had been taught to do, and Rory yelled, “STOP THAT RIGHT NOW! WHAT YOU ARE DOING IS AGAINST THE LAW!”

One of the men holding the cop yelled back, “GO FUCK YOURSELF, YOU HONKY LOVER!”

The other one yelled, “YOU BETTER RUN! I’LL MAKE YOU SUCK MY DICK IF I CATCH YOU!”

Jake drew his baton in preparation for defending his partner. Rory drew his baton, too, as the two prepared to attack the three adults beating on the cop. That was enough to make the men drop the cop and turn on the SKs. All three pulled vicious looking knives and lunged at the two boys. Rory and Jake turned back-to-back and were ready to fight.

They were wearing their full armor, including the bracers, so they were not afraid of the three men lunging at them. For some reason, possibly race again, two of the men went after Rory and one charged Jake.

The man foolishly made a sweeping swing at Jake with his knife, and Jake had no trouble blocking that swing with his left arm protected by a bracer. It would have been a serious mistake if the bracer had not been there, because the blade of the knife hit the bracer with the cutting edge. The knife was pushed aside instead of on its path toward Jake’s abdomen. The cutting edge of the knife was remarkably sharp, and it cut into the PVC bracer for a short distance, but that distance was enough to hold the knife in place as Jake continued to push the knife aside.

His other hand was holding his baton, and that he jammed into the solar plexus of his assailant. The man reflexively bent over, and Jake followed up with the usual knee to the face. Naturally, the man’s nose was broken, but so was his lower jaw. Furthermore, the force of the blow to the face was almost enough to tear the man’s tongue from his mouth. The man fell to the ground and was obviously no further danger, so Jake turned to do what he could to help his friend.

Jake had sustained two attempted stabbings into his gut, but both had been foiled by the cuirass. There were two deep pits on the surface of the PVC armor, but no sign of penetration. The two men were coming in together at this point. One was aiming his knife high and the other was aiming low. If they struck, either could be a fatal wound.

Jake could see better what was going on, and he yelled, “RORY, YOU TAKE HIGH!” Jake’s thought as he bore in to help his friend was, “Thank God we practiced this in class.” Jake swung down as hard as he could to strike the knife-arm with his baton. His intention was to shatter the wrist and force the knife aside before it could penetrate Rory’s groin. Unfortunately, he was only partly successful. The man with the knife was amazingly strong, and the knife was not deflected as far as Jake had hoped.