"Morning, Chief," the Mayor said softly to Maya, a heavy apology in
his eyes.
21
Maya nodded to the Mayor, then turned her full attention to the
two officers. The civilian jogger was gone. In her place stood a furious,
commanding law enforcement executive.
"Officer Miller," Maya began, her voice cold and cutting like ice.
"You detained me without reasonable suspicion. You lied about a string
of non-existent burglaries. You escalated a peaceful encounter to
violence because your fragile ego could not handle a citizen knowing
their constitutional rights. You committed assault, battery, and false
imprisonment under color of law."
Miller tried to speak, "Chief, I... we thought..."
"You didn't think," Maya interrupted sharply. "You profiled. And if
you did this to me, a forty-five-year-old woman jogging, I shudder to
think what you do to the teenagers in this city when nobody is
watching. But I am watching now."
She turned to Vance. "And you, Officer Vance. You stood by and
participated in an unlawful arrest because you were too cowardly to
stop your partner from violating a citizen's civil rights. Complicity is just
as dangerous as action."
Maya turned back to the Mayor. "Thomas, I believe my first official
act as Chief doesn't need to wait until ten o'clock."
"Do whatever you need to do, Chief," the Mayor said firmly.
Maya looked at the two officers, who were now standing at rigid
attention, terrified. "Officers Miller and Vance. You are hereby stripped
of your police powers, effective immediately. Surrender your weapons,
your badges, and your patrol car keys to the Mayor. You are suspended
without pay pending a full internal affairs investigation, which I will be
overseeing personally, alongside the District Attorney."
The officers slowly, numbly, unbuckled their gun belts and handed
them to the Mayor, along with their badges.
Maya brushed the grass off her sweatshirt. She looked at the two
disgraced men, then down the beautiful, quiet street of her new city.
The work had begun sooner than she expected, but she was ready for it.
She turned and began to jog back the way she came, the sound of her
footsteps strong and steady, leaving a broken system trembling in her
wake.