I am Pale Umber...
BREAKING NEWS FROM FAST NEWS logo, the teletype and fax connection noises swallowed by the patented Fast New Swoosh sound as the logo swipes/fades to the newsroom where Rex Kanigher, a snow white Schäferhund with a stylish cut of hair between his ears, sits. The cut and the lighting puts him on the kinder side of 40. The camera moves closer as the swoosh ends.
CUT TO Camera 3, closer as he looks up and meets the viewers eyes. "We have more breaking news from Forestville, site of recent civil unrest. As reported earlier, protestors were taking to the streets in response to the city refusing to hand over autopsy results to the grieving family. Police are now attempting to peaceably disburse the crowd as the sun has set. We have Alizarin Crimson reporting live from location."
CUT TO Location, "LIVE VIA SATELITE." The female Gecko stands on a sidewalk . In the street behind her we can see various bipedal humanoids in the street as the streetlamps are flicking to life. They are agitated and pumping their fists into the air. The crowd appears to be mostly, if not 100%, reptilian. Half a block further back, an even line across the street, a row of uniformed furs behind transparent hand held shields. They are police, although the uniforms and the visor-ed helmets appear more military. Later, it will be reported that the line of police also include a few academy recruits and volunteers from neighbors towns. They are, to a uniform, all warm blooded furs, although the species... and the identities... are obscured. The only Avi in sight on the police end of the street is ordering residents to return home with a bull horn.
The camera pans up and down the street from its fixed position as Alizarin thanks Rex. She steps back into camera view, her head nodding yes to something. Anxiety tells in this motion, as her eyes meets the camera professionally. With a warm concern, she speaks not of the shooting directly, but how the Village of Forrestville refused to release the autopsy reports to the family's lawyer on the unverified reports that the same lawyer was going to release the report directly to reporters. They found a judge to sign a stay at noon, keeping the State Police from stepping in to enforce the order when the 1pm deadline passed.
"Thanks in part to social media," Alizarin read, her usually emotive face seemed flat and mechanical. "A protest quickly formed on the spot where Pale Umber was shot down and left in the street... as police investigated the crime scene. The police arrived before one, gathering about a block away, a visible presence. The Umber family made a statement, saying that this delay, while heinous, was not totally unexpected. Their lawyer was working on it. They told the crowd to go home and pray that the truth be revealled."
REX VO: "Liz, this protest seems to have taken a life of its own. Is Social Media to be blamed for this unrest?"
Alizarin Crimson nodded at first, placing her hand on her right ear bud to hear the studio better. Then she shook her head no. She frowned and then erased the expression from her face. "Rex, this is the third unarmed shooting of a Reptile by police in this state since the beginning of this year. Two of those shooting occurred here in the county of Forrest. Social media might be responsible for the national interest in this shooting, but many of the people here are poor and do not have computers or smart phones. They came today to support the Umber family where a press conference was planned today to announce that the results had been received. I believe that the number of newspeople here far outnumber the actual out of towners here. I've spoken to them and there is anger here towards the police. Forestville is 75% Cold-Blooded. The poor section of town where young Mr Umber lived and died is 95% Cold-Blooded. The Forestville Police Department is 98% Warm Blooded. They literally have one Avi cop and one Rept cop. They -"
REX VO: "Liz, do we know if the Umber Family planned to release the autopsy results at the press release or do think they were just planning to read aloud select passages?"
The gecko blinked her large eyes and the confused disbelief on her face was clear as daylight to most of the viewers. Her face went blank again, except that she fiddled harder with her ear piece. "The Umbers never released a copy of their intended announcement, so we have no way of knowing... I'm sorry, Rex... Something seems to to be happening."
The crowds were raising the hands into the air. Many of them holding signs reading variations of "No Justice, no peace" or "I am Pale Umber" or "Hands Up Means Don't Shoot." Some are written on the backs of cereal boxes or butchers paper or posterboard from old school projects. The bird's call to disburse are frantic but unintelligible. In a moment, it is cut off.
The crowd is yelling, chanting really, They hadn't quite synched up when a smoking gas canister is lobbed gently into the midst of the front-line of protesters standing still, arms and signs in the air. Someone throws it back at the police, the contrail a sick yellow brown. Some people are breaking away from the front of the protesters' line.
"The police have begun using tear gas." The newswoman says, her voice breaking a little with urgency. "On the crowd." She turned back to the camera, a deep breath and then she says, "A police force attacking its citizen's... the people they are sworn to protect."
REX VO: "Liz, are the protestors disbursing? We can see a few running away?"
Alizarin Crimson stepped back and had the camera pan the street. Two reptiles appeared to be stepping forward for every one reptile staggering away from the front line.
"Rex, the viewers may not be aware of this but Reptiles general produce less tears than mammals. Not only is it usually more painful for a Rept to get a faceful of tear gas, but the risk of blindness is greater."
REX VO: "Don't Repts have a second, inner eyelid that protect them from tear gas and other irritants?"
"Rex, some species do have a second eyelids, but many reptiles do not unless they have that throwback trait. Those 2nd eyelids may actually – Rex! It appears the police are using fire extinguishers on the protesters?!"
REX VO: "Ummm, I'm sorry, Liz, did you say Fire Extinguishers?"
The gecko is staying out of the frame as the camera tries to follow the chaos. Smoke is everywhere, a spotty thick blanket. Uniformed furs in head to toe armor are spraying the crowd in bursts with extinguishers. Each of the protesters flinch back when sprayed, trying to protect eyes, mouths, any exposed skin. It is a hot muggy day, most of the Reptiles wearing little more than t-shirts or dashakis. There is a lot of exposed flesh. Howls of rip through the crowds, angry voices rising.
The desired affect occurs, painfully. Batons are use for further encouragement.
Horror-stricken, the Gecko reports from out of frame, "Yes, fire extinguishers! Rex, the dry chemicals are cold and leave a strong irritant on your skin. It causes shortness of breath if it gets in your lungs. The CO2 canisters actually shoot a stream of dry-ice pellets at a person... Stay on the crowd, Jimmy!"
The camera shows the viewer the phalanx of police pushing forward threw the smoke as some Repts abandon protesting and try to move the blinded and injured out of the way. We see one unidentified cop pummel the back of a hefty bearded dragon (mistakenly identified as an Umber family member in some reports) with a red fire extinguisher. The dragon stumbles but is pulled away by others.
Suddenly, there are people running within inches of the camera. The camera zooms to the right but there is jostling as people flee thru the area Fast News has staked out in the parking lot of the convenience store.
From off frame, we hear the now very emotive newscaster cry out, "Hey, we're journalists!"
The camera is back on the well dressed Alizarin Crimson, but we see only her back as her hands are in the air in a gesture that communicates Don't Hurt Us and Go Away at the same time. Three dark uniform figures step up out of a nearby smoke cloud and one of them fires a fire extinguisher right into her face. She spins away, her face in a blurred grimace and a second police officer hits her with a baton in the back, encouraging flight.
The camera goes side ways as the police shout to clear the area.
The feed goes dark.
CUT TO: Studio, Camera 3... on Rex as he sits back down, His ears are forward and alert. Internet wags will claim this look of concern is because Rex smells a story that could have been his. His hand goes to his ear piece. He takes out the ear piece. Other wags will claim, rightfully to a limited extent that he removed the ear piece because he could still hear the violence coming over the feed. In an interview many years later, Rex will reveal he could hear Alizarin calling out the name of the officer attacking her and then the sounds of clubs beating down on something soft and yielding.
No recording of those sounds ever surfaces.
"We've appeared to have lost communication with Liz." For a minute, he stares at the camera, at a loss for words. His face is less emotive than the average reptile at the moment.
Then he puts the ear piece back in and someone feeds him the words his masters want him to speak.