Seeing Things for What They Are
Hank arrived at the station for his next shift extra early. In fact he was there before the wake up tones for the proceeding shift sounded. When Captain Tollins wandered into the office with a fresh cup of coffee to finish his shift's paperwork he was surprised to see his relief sitting there looking over a report from the police department concerning a run the station had responded to.
Ron Tollins could quickly tell two things; one that it had been a bad run, and two that the police report had been requested. Police reports were not routinely sent to the fire station they were requested by the captain if there was something that happened that they needed to add the information to the files, usually to protect one or more of the firemen on the responding crew from legal actions further down the line.
"You're here extra early this morning." Ron placed his untouched cup of coffee in front of his friend before sitting on the corner of the desk. Motioning toward the police report, "must have been a bad one, wan' a talk about it?"
Hank sat up and blew out a deep breath, he did want to talk about it and of all the people he could talk to about it he knew his African American counterpart would be one of the few who would understand.
"It was a couple of shifts ago. I called for roll call and was one man short. No one knew anything and he's never been late once since I've been his captain so I didn't worry much about it, just figured he'd be in any minute with a good explanation. You know, flat tire on the way in or stopping to help someone else with a flat tire, that sort of thing. Once roll call was done and he still wasn't here I did the obligatory phone call, that's when I realized he's had three different addresses in the last five months. I finally figured out what his current phone number was but when I called all I got was a busy signal. A few minutes later we got toned out; the call was for a car in a building. When we arrived at the address the police were already there and told us that the car's license plates matched up with a guy that was found wandering a nearby highway several hours earlier and that they were sure the occupant of the apartment was still at work. That's when dispatch radioed in telling us that there was someone trapped in the building but that he couldn't breathe enough to call out so that we could hear him. He gave direct instructions on the safest and best way to get to him and when we did it was my missing lineman."
"I heard about that, Lopez right?"
"Yeah, it was Marco Lopez alright. When I climbed under that collapsed wall to see for myself, he said something like, 'sorry I'm late for work but I just couldn't get out of bed." Hank cracked a grin at his counterpart and then nearly broke down in tears, nearly, but none were actually shed. "Then I turned and noticed the broken alarm clock at the side of the bed and I nearly got sick." Hank shook his head and anger started to rear up. "He'd been there in that trapped condition for over four hours and no one came to his aid! NO ONE EVEN BOTHERED TO CALL FOR HELP!"
Hank tossed one report that he had been reading onto the desk near his friend, "According to this report no less than eight people admitted that they heard the car crash into the building but none of them called it in. No one bothered to call and report it until they thought the manager would be awake and then someone called him because the crash had knocked out the power in their bathroom.
"As quoted right there in that police report, 'I heard the crash but I was in the middle of enjoying myself with my lady', 'yeah I heard the crash but I needed my sleep, I had to get up early to go to work, I can't not sleep and do what I need to do to keep my job.' Along with three more reports that simply said it wasn't their problem, they figured the guy who lived there must be at work or he would have called it in himself. No one even bothered to notice that his truck was still parked in his assigned parking stall!" Hank's voice rose as he stood up and walked around his desk.
Ron got up and shut the office door before returning to silently sit on the corner of the desk allowing his friend and fellow Captain to pull himself together. Two laps around the office and Hank stepped up to the desk again looking Tollins in the eyes. "After we pulled him out of that place I looked around; I've seen fleabag hotels that were better maintained than that place. When I asked my other lineman if he knew why Marco wasn't living in a place a little nicer he told me that Marco had turned in the last place he lived for fire code violations. After that, he had to move quickly when the owner turned on him; he just moved into the first apartment he could find."
Hank tossed the second report from his hands down on the desk on top of the one he'd thrown down before. "Since then, there have been two fires at his old apartment building and the owner claimed Marco came back and started both of them because he wouldn't give him his cleaning deposit back." Hank finally sat down with a huff. "Marco was cleared of both. One he was out of state with his soccer team the other he was working overtime on the other side of the county. Fire inspector states that the cause of both fires was faulty wiring and sighted multiple other fire code violations still present."
There was nothing said for a few minutes as Hank pulled into his professional self and Ron just waited for him to say more. Ron knew what he needed most was to get his anger out of his system and that the best thing he could do right now is just listen.
Hank started talking again. "Marco's staying with Chet for the time being. His place was looted after we left so everything he owns fits easily into the back of his truck. Some of the other guys told him about openings in their apartment complexes but when Marco checked on them, one claimed the apartment had just been rented, which I have my doubts about and the other quoted him outrageous move in costs plus a monthly rent that was twice what my other crewmember is paying."
"You're thinking this is because he's a Latino?" Ron didn't beat around the bush, he too could see the writing on the wall.
"Do you think I'm wrong?" Hank turned the question back at one person he knew would understand better than he did.
Ron simply lowered his head while shaking it negatively. "You planning to file a grievance against the rental agencies?"
"I'll admit I'm thinking about it. Marco is a good man; he shouldn't have to put up with this kind of shit."
"You're right, Hank, he shouldn't, but I'm going to advise you against filing the grievance."
"Why?" Hank turned a shocked and angry look to his friend.
"Because it will only do more harm than good." Ron ran his finger in some pattern on the desk top. "Because in the end it won't do anything for your man and he'll still have trouble getting into a nice apartment building. The rental agencies will simply tighten up their own protocol to cover themselves without having to let him and his kind move in and withdraw any of the perks they offer to other firefighters and police officers to get them to move in and help make their property safer."
Ron stood and pulled up another chair and sat in it, moving so the two men were face to face. "The best way I can explain my feelings on the grievance thing is to tell you a story.
"Years ago when I had just graduated from the fire academy and gotten married, I was like Marco, couldn't find a decent place that would let me rent there. I knew it was because of the color of my skin but was determined to do the best I could for my new wife and soon to arrive child. I wanted to raise my child in a neighborhood where I didn't have to worry if the guy next door was going to try and deal him drugs or get him to join a gang.
I had a fire captain at the time that had a mother-in-law apartment that he rented out to me and it was a real nice place to bring my newborn daughter to. And then my wife got pregnant a second time and well, the one bedroom apartment just wasn't big enough. When I started looking for a bigger place I was reminded why I had moved in with my captain in the first place. Well I came up with a plan that I figured would solve not only my problem but that of others like me so I found and with the help of both of our parents managed to buy a small apartment building, just six two bedroom apartments, no swimming pool or anything like that. It needed some work but being a fireman you had days off at a time which was plenty of time to paint the walls and fix things up. Before my second daughter was born I had the place looking real nice, three of the six apartments filled and then my small family in one of the others. The first black guy that came along, I didn't ask any questions, I just showed him the available apartments and even offered to help him move in. A month later not only was he late with his rent but the police broke the door in to serve an arrest warrant and the window was broken out when he shot back at them. Not only was I out the rent and the cost of repairing the place, two of my most respected and reliable tenants moved out because they didn't want to live in a place where the police would be crashing in or where they might get shot. I got things fixed up and then two Latino families moved in. Trouble there was that they always had house guests. Most of the time those two apartments were wall to wall sleeping bags, and they weren't always good about cleaning up their cigarette butts and empty beer cans and bottles. I'd pick up when I was off duty but when I was on duty, my wife was busy with two little girls and well she wasn't too keen on being around those people, they were always drunk and speaking in Spanish. The men would come on to her and well it wasn't a place she wanted to be living either. Those two families got behind on the rent and then just up and moved out while I was at work one shift. When I went in to clean up the apartments so I could rent them again they were like pig sties. Other renters started to move out and soon the only ones that came were renters who didn't stay long, were unwanted while they were there, and left the place in a shambles when they left. One of the worst was a fellow firefighter who, after his wife left him, got drunk and punched a hole in every wall of the apartment." Ron paused for a moment and made sure he had Hank's full attention.
"We all know it's out there, and we all know that people with darker skin, and who speak Spanish tend to cause some of the worst there is. I don't like it but I had to start asking for references before I rented any other apartments, it didn't take long after that that the only ones I rented to were white, employed husband and wife families. Those of my own kind just couldn't seem to come up with the references I was asking for. But I also put a lot less time and money into fixing the place up again and had a lot less turn over. After losing money for three years I was finally making enough to pay mine and Nicole's parents back the loans they extended to us to start the place up and then when the housing market turned a few years back I was thrilled to get out from under the place and move into our own home. No more being treated like the servant at the beck and call of the resident who dropped her ring down the drain, or having to run to unstop the toilet at four in the morning.
"The thing of it is that there are people of my skin color and Lopez's Spanish speaking that are not good renters. Some of them are good people, have good jobs but the heritage they come from and the social interactions with their own kind is not necessarily the kind of behavior that makes for good renters or good neighbors. Take the Latino's for instance, they are always having big family get-togethers, and I mean 'BIG' family get-togethers. Whenever you get that many people in one place things get broken, when the bathrooms are in use they do their business in the bushes, and so on and so forth.
"I think you're right. Marco is a great guy, and I'm sure he'd never do anything like that. But what about all of his cousins that will come over for the party to celebrate him moving into a new apartment, how will they behave?"
Hank looked at his counterpart and sighed, the man was right, like it or not the man was right. Hank had met some of Marco's family. His mother and father were like him, hard working respectable people, so was his sister, but when they were all gathered around at the last firemen's picnic Hank had been aware of Marco taking more than a few car keys away from some of his cousins who were less that able to drive safely.
"Do you have any suggestions of how we can make things better for Marco?"