Chapter 20: Demonstrations and Riots

Our first group of demonstrators was hardly noticed. Five people showed up several weeks after my announcement at the Congressional Hearing with signs at an empty Drytown Freight Yard at 9:30 one Wednesday morning in 2040. They stood blocking the entrance to the Freight Yard, but other than chanting an inane slogan, they took no aggressive action against our Security Guards or Freight Yard. Since the Freight Yard gate was closed and locked, they presented no impediment to the movement of our personnel. We ignored them for months.

When the construction had been completed over four years ago, we started using the Freight Yard for receiving provisions and supplies. As the flow of these materials declined, we closed down the Dry Town Freight Yard. We moved our locomotives, boxcars, forklifts, and other equipment into the Drytown Silo and closed the access tunnel doors except for the outside door. All of the shipping containers had been returned to our suppliers, and other than the Security Guards, Freight Yard office, and railroad tracks, the Freight Yard was empty. We wouldn’t need this Freight Yard again until the pickups began, although our Security Guards did use the Freight Yard office as their guard shack.

We would have withdrawn our Security Guards if it weren’t for the potential lawsuits that would be filed against us if someone trespassed on our property and was injured. That just seemed wrong to me. We posted signs telling people to stay out. We had a security fence and locked gates to keep people out. If someone ignored our signs and climbed over our fence, they could sue us if they were injured while on our property. Bob and Sharna agreed with me and offered to take care of anyone that sued us if they were injured after breaking into one of our Freight Yards. The offer was tempting, but we only had a couple of years to go until the meteoroids arrived, so we declined their offer. After the meteoroids arrived, this type of stupidity would be a thing of the past. Larry had seen to that when he and his team had devised our future legal code.

We therefore maintained a skeleton force of two armed Security Guards at the Drytown, Chico, and Angels Camp Freight Yards to prevent the possibility of trespassers being injured on our property. We considered reducing that force to a single Security Guard per location for our surveillance cameras would allow us to keep track of our guard, but decided that we needed at least two people present at all times for the safety of our personnel.

The Auburn Freight Yard was still active. Instead of construction materials, we now moved provisions and other supplies into the Auburn Silo, and distributed the supplies among the four Silos for storage. Instead of construction workers moving in and out of the Silo, our long-term residents would come and go to shop and take care of other business in the local community. We had established schools in the Auburn Silo for our children, and activated its medical clinic to care for the health of our residents. There were similar facilities in the other Silos, but they would not be staffed and operational until we started picking up and processing our short-term residents.

Belinda Fowler moved her catering business into the Ark, so one of the Level 13 cafeterias was always open to serve anyone that did not want to fix a meal in their home and she continued to cater events in the local area. When the 2nd Battalion of the 75th Ranger Regiment was transferred to the Ark, we located them and their dependents on Level 12. Before they arrived, we remodeled their rooms to support long-term residents. We also had the Habitation Department evaluate the need for configuring additional long-term residences that may be needed before or after the meteoroids arrived.

Yes, we finally made the shift of referring to our rooms as our homes. Most of us still regretted the necessity of moving into the Ark so early. It was a major impact to us when we severed most of our contact with the surface world and took up residence on Level 13 of the Auburn Silo. It was a whole new lifestyle. We adapted to the polygamous family structures and some of us even started referring to our Bond Mates as husband and wife. To most of us, the term Bond Mate had taken on a special meaning and significance, and most of us continued to think and refer to each other as Bond Mates. I know that my use of the term meant far more to me than the terms husband and wife.

Our Drytown Freight Yard security personnel had called in the presence of the first group of demonstrators to the Security Guards manning the Drytown Control Center. They also called in their appearance on subsequent occasions. Our instructions to our Security Guards were to ignore them and take no action against the demonstrators as long as they remained outside of the Freight Yard’s fenced-in area. We also reminded them that they needed to increase their awareness of the demonstrators’ activities in case the demonstration became more aggressive. After a month or two, the Security Guards just accepted that they would be there and stopped notifying the Command Center of their arrival. Of course, the Command Center was monitoring the surveillance cameras and knew they were there.

After about three months of peaceful demonstrations, the Security Guards notified the Command Center that the media arrived to interview the demonstrators. I suspect their leader had gotten tired of their efforts being ignored by everybody and went looking for some attention. The only reason that I could think of for demonstrating at an abandoned site was the organizers lived in Drytown and didn’t want to travel to a more appropriate location. In my opinion, laziness and stupidity fit them like a glove. Based on their inane chants, they wanted us to take care of them for they would not expend the effort necessary to protect themselves.

We had installed repeaters to relay TV and radio signals into each Silo. So that evening we were able to watch as the TV news reporters interviewed the demonstrators. To those of us who had lived with the construction activities for so many years, the empty Drytown Freight Yard was a disturbing sight. Its emptiness just seemed wrong. We were accustomed to seeing a car filled parking lot, shipping containers, locomotives moving box cars in and out of the access tunnels, forklifts moving construction materials between the shipping containers and the loading dock, and the hustle and bustle of hundreds of yard workers. Up until about a year ago, we had been moving provisions and supplies through the Drytown Freight Yard, but as the volume of freight declined, we decided to shutdown the Freight Yard until it was time to start picking up and processing short-term residents. That was why we thought the demonstrators actions were so stupid. They were picketing an abandoned site with no one there to listen to them. No wonder they felt ignored; they were too lazy to go to a place that would provide them with an audience.

The next day, the demonstrators were back and their numbers were larger. They must have over a hundred people marching in front of our gate. At least it was a peaceful demonstration, probably because there was no one there for them to confront. It would only be a matter of time before the demonstrators appeared at the Auburn Freight Yard, and then the level of confrontation would increase. In fact, I was surprised that the demonstrations had started at the Drytown Freight Yard. I doubt the organizers will transfer their activities to Auburn. I suspect new organizers will appear in Auburn and they will draw the demonstrators away from the Drytown Freight Yard. The demonstration at our Drytown location may never end, but the publicity and focus would shift to our Auburn site and the number of demonstrators at that site should decline.

My Advisory Council and I met to discuss the situation, and we invited Lyle to join us for he would need to address the issues from a PR point of view. Lyle had become a critical part of our public relations effort, and he and I had made the effort to become allies. From a personal point of view, we still did not like each other and we definitely were not good friends, but we both recognized and acknowledged the other for their professional abilities and accomplishments.

The meeting had been the result of the investigation conducted by the Astronomers the President had tasked to confirm the approach of the meteoroid shower. They announced their results publically and they said the meteoroids were headed directly at Earth and the meteoroids would impact the planet in the worst possible fashion. They would hit the planet at an angle perpendicular to the equator. What that meant was we would have meteoroid impacts from the Arctic Circle to the Antarctic. The Earth would sit there spinning on its axis as the meteoroids hit us. The only good part of that is, as the planet turned the half of the surface facing away from the approaching meteoroids would not be hit. However, since the planet was turning that surface would be fully exposed to the meteoroids 12 hours later and the current exposed area would be shielded by the bulk of the planet.

If the meteoroid shower had approached the planet perpendicular to the North or South Pole, then only the northern or southern hemisphere would have been hit by meteoroid strikes. At least some of Earth’s infrastructure would have been spared from the damage the meteoroid impacts would cause. The angle of impact didn’t matter as far as the virus was concerned. The air currents would carry it to all parts of the globe.

We started our meeting by me saying, “Well, the day we dreaded has finally arrived. After the Astronomer’s report, the general public has accepted that our story of a natural catastrophe is valid. The public is reacting in a negative fashion, which is what we predicted would happen. Right now, we need to help Lyle formulate a response to the negative publicity that we are receiving. It sounds as if they want to kill the messenger.

“Lyle, you are our expert, so what type of campaign do you think we should use? Should we use an aggressive response, and if so, should it be defensive or offensive? Should we start a finger pointing campaign to direct attention elsewhere or perhaps we should just ignore them by not responding publically?”

“As you said Jon, we knew this day would come. I have been preparing several possible campaigns that can be used to counter different situations. The one thing that we should not do is ignore them. That will allow their movement to gain strength and followers.

“For the current situation, I recommend that we elevate the Ark’s Threat Level to Critical, and place our Internal Security Group on full alert and we should place the External Security Group on 24-hour standby. We need to be able to respond to a violent situation by being ready to withdraw our Freight Yard Security Guards from their isolated locations. In my opinion, the best way to do that is to have our Security Guards retreat into the access tunnel, and then close the outer doors. The only thing the demonstrators can do at that point is vandalize the Freight Yard, and if they do that, we can use their actions to paint them as criminals who should be locked up for the safety of the public.

“At some point we will need to deploy a portion of our External Security Group’s personnel. I recommend that we defer the use of the 2nd Battalion personnel for as long as possible. However if we were to dress them in our Internal Security Group’s uniform, they could support us now without them appearing to be Rangers. We do not want to give the impression of being a power mad organization by using a trained military force against civilians or to use far more force than necessary to protect ourselves from violent demonstrations. It would be best if we alert the local police force and let them handle any violence. If we have not done so, it may be a good idea to make an open offer of admittance into the Ark to the local police personnel and their dependents. I think Bill and Sheryl would be able to use their expertise in the Internal Security Group.

“I don’t think the demonstrations will turn exceptionally violent until we start picking up and processing our short-term residents. When that happens we will probably have to take special precautions to protect the residents until we can get them into the Silos. Some of the things that come to my mind are convoys of buses with an armed escort of Rangers, Bob and Sharna flying groups of residents into the Freight Yard with the Rangers maintaining a security perimeter.

“I anticipate we will have demonstrators pleading with us to take them into the Ark. I am split in my opinion of how to handle that situation. My humanity tells me that we should acquiesce and accept those demonstrators who are protesting in a peaceful manner. We should absolutely reject those who are acting in an aggressive or violent manner. The other side of me says, we have a plan for picking up and processing people and we should stick to that plan even if it means the people we fail to help will die.

“Of course, toward the end of our pick up effort, we may fall short of the number of residents we wish to shelter. In that case, I would definitely support accepting additional people. If we choose to do this, the only safe way that I can see us doing it is to select people from the surrounding area where there are no demonstrations. If we do this, we need to be careful whom we select. Should we focus on selecting men, women, or children? Should we establish an age range? At what point do we stop picking up additional people and what should we do at that time?”

Clara and I exchanged glances, and then she said, “Alright people, Lyle has given us a lot to think about and discuss. I think we need to address the last part of his comments first for that may have an impact on our decision as to how we will handle the demonstrators.

“By a show of hands, do any of you have a strong opinion as to whether we take in additional people?”

Three hands went up immediately and Clara said, “Alright let’s start with Maggie.”

Maggie stood and said, “I think we should selectively recruit additional residents. We obviously don’t want troublemakers, and I would define anyone who is demonstrating in an aggressive manner to be a potential troublemaker. In fact, if we do recruit anyone we should not do it at a demonstration.

“If we decide to do additional recruiting, I think that we should do it at some of the malls and shopping centers. Make it known that we will be recruiting at malls and stores, but don’t give out detailed information about when or where we will be doing the recruiting. That should help decrease the number of demonstrators that our Security people need to handle.”

Maggie sat down, so Clara said, “Thank you Maggie. Rose, what do you think?”

Rose stood and said, “I agree with Maggie, but as Lyle said, “Who do we recruit?

“It seems to me that we should focus on educated young people in their late teens or early 20’s. The best place to find candidates of this sort is at a college. I think we should focus on medical and engineering students with a preference given to young women. However, students studying to become teachers and the current professors would also be good selections.

“One type of person that I would avoid is anyone with a ‘jock mentality’. We don’t want people who think we should take them just because they are special. People who think they are special are very likely to end up causing trouble because we don’t kowtow to their opinions and beliefs. We need team players, not people who feel they should be the center of everyone’s attention.”

When Rose sat down, Clara called on Julie Anders.

“As the Co-VPs of the Habitation Department, my sister Samantha and I have discussed this topic on several occasions. We believe that selecting residents at random is a bad idea. Our department has processed millions of applications for admission to the Ark, and while processing those applications, we discovered that less than 20% of the applicants had the personality profile to make good residents.

“One of the things that make us question the advisability of selecting people at random is a high percentage of the local population submitted applications for admittance, and while processing those applications, it was decided that their personalities did not lend to them being team players or there was something deficient in their personality or background. After rejecting them for valid reasons, I would not care for us to take them in just because we need to fill an empty room.

“If a sizeable number of people who were selected for acceptance do not appear for pickup, then it may be possible to administer a field test to determine the basic personality of possible candidates. However, if these potential candidates cannot prove to us that they would be good choices, I say reject them.

“One additional thing you may want to keep in mind is, our target number for total residents is 1.2 million people. We know that a certain small percentage of those selected will not make it to the pickup point. Another very small percentage will find the society we are establishing unacceptable to them and will leave the Ark during or after their processing. Our plan is to invite enough people to give us a total population of 1.4 million people, if they all make it to the pickup points and no one leaves. If necessary, we can support that many people, but we really expect our total population will end up closer to 1.2 million people.

“The one group that Samantha and I would be willing to accept is young children. Children under the age of about 10 years old would be controllable and they could be molded by their adoptive parents to become good Ark Society members. Unfortunately, accepting young children into the Ark can cause many problems that we don’t need at such a critical point in time.

“In general, Samantha and I are opposed to adding people just because we haven’t met some arbitrary quota that was never defined. However, if we should locate a specific candidate that could make a significant contribution to the Ark Society, we would not be opposed to considering that person for acceptance.”

I had noticed that most of our group was nodding their heads in agreement with what Julie was saying. When Julie sat down, Clara stood and said, “Alright, does anyone dispute what has been said, wish to add additional input, or want to discuss the matter further?”

After looking around the room and seeing no one indicating they wanted to talk, Clara said, “I think we should put this to a vote by a show of hands. To start with let’s decide if we want to take in additional residents, and if so, we will address our selection criteria later.

“Everyone in favor of looking for additional residents, raise your hand.”

After counting hands, Clara said, “Now everyone opposed to locating additional residents, raise your hand.”

After a second count of hands, Clara said, “By my count six people were in favor of recruiting additional people, and nine were opposed. Unless someone came up with a different count, we will follow our current admittance plan and not recruit further residents.”

No one disagreed with the count, so we moved on with the next item to be discussed.

I stood and said, “The next item to be decided is how to handle the demonstrators. Lyle has given us his ideas of how to handle them. Does anyone disagree with what he said or have anything to add?”

Karen had been one of the first to raise her hand, so I called on her first.

“Thank you Jon. Overall, I think Lyle’s approach is very good. He probably considered it but overlooked mentioning it, so I suggest that we develop and implement a very aggressive public relations program that focuses on diverting the public’s attention from us. I don’t like the idea of a finger pointing campaign for the Government is doing its best to develop shelters and I don’t think they need a security problem on top of everything else they are dealing with at this time. That is especially true in case we come up with some last minute items that we need their support to attain.”

“I suggest that we have Susan Taylor contact the President so we can share our concerns and ideas of how those concerns should be addressed. One of the things we need to clearly define is, when do we deploy our military assets and what guidance do we give them.”

I had not briefed my people on the discussion the President and I had on that day so long ago. It had been a private agreement in my mind and I could see no advantage to my people knowing what had been said. I could see a few disadvantages if word of our agreement were ever made public.

I liked Karen’s idea, so I had Clara create an action item to do what Karen suggested. When Karen relinquished the floor, I pointed to our Security Chief Mike Henderson. He said, “I agree with all of Karen’s points. In fact, I would feel more comfortable with some guidance relating to how far the Internal Security Group should go in a potentially violent encounter. Jon and I have discussed this before, but the time when that type of encounter will occur is quickly approaching.

“I have given my people the guideline of ‘If your life or the life of an Ark Society member is not threatened do not use a violent solution. If it is threatened, use the minimum level of force necessary to prevent injury or death to yourself or one of our people. Retreat to the access tunnel at the first indication of violence or the threat of violence regardless of whether the threat level is lethal or non-lethal. If the demonstrators threaten you with anything other than verbal abuse, retreat to the access tunnel and when all of our people are inside, close the access tunnel door. If the verbal abuse becomes excessive, retreat to within the tunnel and close the exterior door.

“I told my people the bottom line is, ‘Retreating to within the access tunnel and closing the door is preferable to the use of any form of force against the demonstrators. It breaks contact with the demonstrators and allows their feelings of anger to dissipate.”

Jane raised her hand and said, “What about the buildings, fence line, and other Foundation property? Won’t it be damaged?”

I responded with, “Yes, if the demonstrators become violent, then we expect that they will damage our property. However, Mike and I believe that allowing them to damage property is preferable to us injuring or killing them or having them injure or kill one of our people. Besides, the property they can damage has served its purpose. If we need a damaged item after the meteoroids, we can repair or replace the item. Right now, the only thing of any real use to us is the fence, and what it does is give our people time to retreat into the access tunnel and close the door.

“If necessary, we can just close the access tunnel door and monitor the demonstrators with our local and remote cameras, assuming the demonstrators do not damage the local cameras. If we are not outside, they will eventually disperse. If necessary, we can always call the police and have them disperse the demonstrators or have them arrested for trespass. We can also have our people come and go via one of our other Freight Yards. If we decide to go that route, we can place several general use vehicles at the Freight Yards for the use of our long-term residents.

“Does anyone have any opposition to our using Mike’s guidance to his people as our standard policy for handling demonstrators?”

Jane raised her hand again and said, “That sounds good, but what are we to do about getting our short-term residents into the Ark if there are demonstrators present?

I replied, “Good question Jane. Mike and I feel that with four access tunnels and our long-range cameras, we should be able to locate one Freight Yard that does not have demonstrators present. In a worst-case scenario, Bob and Sharna can encapsulate the demonstrators in a force field and transport them somewhere else, and release them. I doubt that they would like to be transported and released in South America or Africa, and by doing this, we would be rid of them for a long time without harming them or being harmed by them.

“Is there anything else?”

I nodded to Jean when she raised her hand. “Jon, I liked that part about Bob and Sharna transporting the demonstrators elsewhere if they impede our efforts. Why don’t we make that our standard response to the entire group of demonstrators if any of them threaten our personnel with violence or become violent? In fact, I wouldn’t be opposed to our using that type of demonstrator to support a “Feed the African Lions’ program.”

I knew Jean was joking about us starting a “Feed the African Lions’ program or I thought she was kidding, and thought about her suggestion. It was essentially what Bob did when the BCers were threatening me with violence if I refused to do what they wanted me to do.

“I like that idea Jean. Does anyone have an objection to our taking that action or see a problem with it?”

Harry immediately stood up. “Jon, I personally like the idea of feeding the demonstrators to the lions, but you know the problems we had when Bob transported the BCers. Do we really want to open ourselves up to problems similar to what we had to deal with back then?”

Lyle responded with, “Harry as much as I hate to admit it, Bob’s solution was very elegant, but his implementation is what caused you your problems. Unfortunately, feeding the lions would be a bad idea. It would cause us too much bad publicity. If it weren’t for that I would suggest we also feed a few crocodiles and piranhas.

“It is my understanding that the Freight Yard’s gates and fence are at least 50 feet inside our actual property line. If that is true, then all we need to do is warn the demonstrators that they are trespassing on our property and tell them to leave or we will remove them to a destination of our choosing.”

Harry said, “You’re right Lyle. If our Security personnel give them a properly worded warning and they fail to heed that warning, then we can remove them as long as our doing so causes them no harm and we do not transport them to a place where their lives and wellbeing are in jeopardy.

“I suggest you and I get together and create a suitable warning, and use that as our standard solution for demonstrators who get out of line. However, I think we should get a second opinion from another legal authority to ensure we are not overlooking something. If we are, then perhaps a Federal Law or Executive Order could be enacted to give us the power to legally take that action.”

Looking at Lyle, Mike, and Harry, I could see they liked that idea. Personally, I thought the idea of using the demonstrators to feed the local wildlife would be a good thing as long as the wildlife wasn’t harmed. It sounded as if a few of the demonstrators we would encounter would be very toxic people.

Instead of continuing the ‘Feed the Animals’ theme, I said, “Is there anyone opposed to using that approach as our standard solution for out of control demonstrators or is there anything someone wants to add?”

Everyone was shaking their heads no, so we voted and adopted that as our approach.

“Unless I have overlooked something, there is only one issue left to discuss and that is what approach we wish to use in our Public Relations. Does anyone wish to make a suggestion?”

Karen and Maggie had their hands up first, so since Karen made the suggestion, I called on her first.

“The way I see it Jon, we have several options that would work that vary from passive to aggressive. I have been thinking about the past 14 years. During the early days, we told the locals that we believed that a catastrophic event would occur in the future and we would need a shelter. People laughed at us and they addressed us and talked about us using a variety of derogatory names. I have been referred to as a troglodyte, cave woman, and weirdo.

“Now that those people know that what we weirdos told them so many years ago was true, they demand that we make room for them in our shelter. They say that our selection criteria are flawed and it is unfair to them. They seem to think that we owe them something, and they are angry because we won’t do what they want us to do. Now I understand that they fear they will die after the meteoroids arrive, and they are probably right in assuming either the meteoroids or the virus will kill them.

“I personally believe that we should bluntly tell them that they can protest all they want, but we own the shelter and the decisions as to who should join us are ours to make. Tell them that we understand that our shelter cannot save very many people, and that we sympathize with them that they were not selected. Tell them that all of the openings will be filled with people that we believe are the best selections for rebuilding our civilization. Tell them that we will not replace any of our selections, so they can join us in the shelter instead of our selectees. Then we should end our message by telling them that if they choose to demonstrate at our Freight Yards then they need to remain off our property.

“We need to draw a line on the ground and tell them to stay on their side of the line. Let them know that if they cross the line, they are on our property and if we decide their demonstration is out of line, we will transport them to South Africa or some other place that they will not like. Then when their demonstration gets out of hand, as it inevitably will, have Bob or Sharna transport everyone standing on our property as we threatened to do without any further warning. Perhaps we should make some signs and post them to mark our property line and put the warning on the signs. We can use our signs as our line on the ground.”