Black and Red Chapter 25 Progress At Last
There was a strange routine in the Gordon household. The whole family, plus guest, turned out for breakfast, before Jim Snr went to work, Babs Jnr and Rob returned to their bedrooms, Jim Jnr went to the lounge and turned on the telly, and Babs Snr started on the housework. Behind closed doors, little Babs caught up on the night's lost sleep, while Rob wrote up his part of the files, mostly detailing his efforts to combat 'uncategorized assault'. After lunch, he headed out and his trainee wrote her reports. For some reason, though, Oracle was starting to get a little frustrated.
"Dad, what are these gang evils?" Babs asked innocently, pointing to that morning's Gotham Gazette, which bore the headline: "DA Says No More To Gang Evils". She'd only been trying to breach the topic for a week.
"You'll find out when you're older," Jim sighed.
"Why not now?" she pressed. "I'm eleven. I'm a big girl now."
Jim looked over at his wife; it was her turn to sigh. "She'll find out sooner or later. You go to work, dear; I'll explain it."
"Alright," Jim complied. "JJ? Do you want to know?"
"Can I watch Toy Story 2?" the boy asked instead.
"Of course, sweetie," his mother said, looking more than a little relieved.
Tim looked up as Babs entered the room, her cheeks noticeably pink. "How did it go?" he asked mildly.
"I don't get it," she complained. "Why would those guys be trying to get the girl pregnant?"
Tim resisted the urge to groan. Of course Mrs Gordon had been less than detailed. "They...weren't trying to get her pregnant," he explained delicately. "They were doing it for the pleasure of the act."
"Pleasure? It's gross!"
He chuckled. "There is a very large element of pleasure, especially for the man. But for the girl, if it's forced, it's fairly horrible. In some ways, it's almost worse than murder."
"How?"
"Because the victim is left to live with the consequences," Tim said grimly. "Something like ninety percent of rapes are committed by someone the victim knows. The case you saw on camera was the boyfriend and two of his friends. That's a massive psychological problem. And prosecutions are so very rare. It's a huge problem."
"What are you doing about it?" Babs asked.
Tim reached over and pulled up one of his files he hadn't shown Babs. "I've been compiling a list of all the girls currently attached to the gangs. Then I go to them, ask them if they've ever been subjected to sexual assault, and encourage them to report it. If they're willing to discuss it, I can add the accusation to the perpetrator's file. As of last night, nineteen girls have filed charges. No arrests yet, but a few already in custody have that added to their rap sheet."
"Will it work?"
"I hope so."
Red Robin slid into Commissioner Gordon's office without alerting Gordon, Allen or Montoya. He watched them for a moment compulsively flicking through pages or twiddling thumbs waiting for him, before clearing his throat to see them jump. "What progress?" he asked.
"Here's the list of rape charges filed today," Gordon said, passing the page over. Red Robin scanned it quickly.
"This is excellent progress," he murmured.
"Not as many as yesterday," Montoya pointed out.
"No, but this girl is one I haven't spoken to," Red Robin shrugged. "That means word is starting to spread."
"Fair enough," Allen nodded. "How goes the strategic front?"
Red Robin tapped his ear. "Oracle. Your report?"
Gordon set his radio on the table, as the heavily modulated voice of Oracle came through. "We have been monitoring the situation with the False Face Society and the East Eagles," she started, and Red Robin tried to tune out the fact he had two voices coming at him at once, one distorted from the radio and one clean in his earpiece. "The Faces have almost completely encircled the Eagles," Oracle continued. "The Eagles have been arming. We can be fairly certain the gangs will come into open conflict soon."
"Do you have member analyses?" Red Robin asked.
"You know it's really creepy hearing your voice coming from two places at once," Oracle commented. Red Robin rolled his eyes and pulled his comm out of his ear. "Uh, yeah, I've identified the president, vice president, two enforcers, treasurer, weapons officer," Oracle continued. "And I've got video of them killing people, other gang members mostly, various thefts; the president has uncategorized assault charges from five different women, so on and so forth."
"Right," Red Robin nodded. "Prepare to send the entire dossier to the GCPD. If we can make a move soon-ish-"
"Wait," Oracle interrupted. "Activity on cameras. The Faces are making their move."
Red Robin looked at the map. "Send officers here, here, here and here," he said pointing to various places on the map. "I'll be here. If we let the Faces in and out, we can mop up the Eagles. That would be relatively risk free. Or we could let them fight it out and take anyone still standing, but we'd be more likely to lose someone. I certainly don't recommend trying to interrupt them. Your call, Commissioner."
Gordon stared at the map. "Which is mostly likely to get civilians killed?" he asked.
"I plan on monitoring the whole situation and stepping in as required to safeguard innocents," Red Robin shrugged. "But the Faces might try something after they win, I suppose."
"If we get some Faces off the street now, that gives us less to do later," Oracle commented. "But we might have a little more trouble getting convictions for them."
"Even keeping them locked up for a few days is worth it," Gordon decided. "I'll put additional officers in these streets," he said, pointing to the map. "Let's get moving."
"On my way," Red Robin nodded. He slipped the comm back in his ear and slipped out the window.
AN: Finally a bit of progress. But will the movement be a success or a failure?
Also today, the epilogue of Family Ties and the next chapter of Time, Space, Magic. Next week, the next chapters of Flashback, Little Bird's Vengeance and Trek of the Avengers.
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Katara