Why the Law:
“…exclusivity is inescapable, and a “neutral” civil government is not neutral at all. Rather, it is a pretext for professing inclusivists to lend credibility to their own positions while dismissing the opinions of others.” i
-Steve C. Halbrook (God is Just)
What do you imagine it would be like to live in a world with no laws? Would there be an unavoidable eternal purge, or would humanity’s natural urges take over and a society be formed? Would we kill one another, or would we be peaceful toward one another? Here’s another question: how did we receive this idea of law? If law writing was the natural tendency of humankind, surely there would have been written laws from the very start. If law writing is not natural to people, then there is no reasonable explanation as to why written laws, which have been written by people, exist. Written civil laws seem to be an abnormality, an anomaly. Like the enigma of spoken language, how do we even attempt to understand their existence or their inception?
Detective Casey made another call. This time to the local officers at Senator Elliot’s house. He wanted to make sure they were still there watching over the senator’s family.
“We were just about to call you, detective!” the man on the other line was out of breath, “Someone got in through the back door! Mrs. Elliot is dead.”
Zack started his car, “And the daughter?” “Gone. We can’t find her!”
“I’m on my way.” He hang up and handed the phone back to his partner.
“What is it?” asked Melissa as they flew towards Elliot’s home two cities away.
Zack sat down and T.J. stood in the center of the courtroom with his rifle.
“Why are we just sitting here?” one of the hostages asked.
“I don’t think your in a position to be asking questions,” T.J. said in his deeper voice, “We are waiting for this case to be closed.”
“How will you know?” someone else asked.
T.J. looked at Zack, “That’s a good question.”
Zack stood up, “Does anyone have a tablet?”
One of the ladies in the courtroom handed one to him.
Zack took it and shuffled through the phones that they had already collected. He took one out, created a hotspot and streamed a news network that was covering the case, “Happy?”
T.J. smiled, “See what we do for you. We’re not the bad guys here.” He laughed, “Just think. If the system wasn’t corrupt, you wouldn’t even be in danger…”
Casey and Daniels walked passed the local officers and into Elliot’s house. The area was already taped off. Mrs. Elliot was still sitting on the couch. Her head was back, further than possible, and her throat had been cut open. There was blood on the table in front of the couch and on the television. The cut was clean and quick. That was obvious, but she did suffer.
Elliot came clean about his involvement and moments later the threat against his family was carried out.
Melissa turned to one of the officers, “Let the M.E. in and get me results from the autopsy.” She noticed that her partner had gone into Elliot’s kitchen and was sitting at the table with his head in his hands, “You okay?”
Casey shook his head, “Six.” “Six?” Daniels repeated.
“Maybe seven,” Casey continued, “That’s how many bodies have dropped since this whole thing started. What the heck are we doing?”
Melissa sat down next to him, “You can’t take responsibility for this.”
Zack looked at her, “We arrest the wrong guy. He tries to prove his innocence. It leads to more death. Cause and effect… Right? If we didn’t have to uphold the law, not even Hardin would have been murdered because there would have been no bill for him to oppose. Is it even worth it, or is the price too high?”
Melissa helped him to stand up, “It has to be worth it.
The consequences would be far worse without it.”
As the news streamed on the small tablet, the people in the courtroom saw that Elliot’s wife had been murdered. The senator was distraught. He got up out of his seat and took the tablet so he could watch. As he fell to his knees in front of the judge’s bench, he cried out, “No!” It was the only thing he knew to say. His voice got quieter and more groggy as he repeated over and over again, “No, no, no, no, no…”
T.J. looked at Zack, “I think it’s time.”
“Yeah,” Zack agreed. He took the rifle that he had on his back from the start and made sure there was a round in the chamber, “I am going to need everyone to stand up, come forward and kneel at the bench.”
The hostages all looked around, but no one got up. “Now!” T.J. shouted as he fired two shots into the floor.
The people, including the camera girl, got up and did as Zack instructed. “Senator,” Zack took a small bag from T.J. and gave it to Elliot, “Please blindfold the others.”
Elliot looked up from the floor, “What are you about to do?”
“Just get up and do it. Then line up with the others and blindfold yourself.”
“Pop! Pop!”
The mob of police officers all hid behind their makeshift barricades as they heard shots from inside the courthouse. After a few seconds, the feed from inside the courtroom stopped.
“We are going in,” a taller man with a vest twirled his finger in the air, “Alpha, Bravo, Front door.”
No more than five seconds passed and two teams were lined up on either side of the front door to the court house.
“3, 2, 1, Breech!”
Both SWAT units entered the courthouse. Once in the main lobby, the teams went different ways clearing each courtroom.
One unit entered the courtroom on the ground floor with all the hostages lined up facing the bench. Each one was rushed out of the courthouse, but the shooters did not appear to be present.
While that unit remained in the lobby, the other went up the stairs checking every room and closet. They came down the only elevator. One of the men radioed in, “Chief, we’re clear. No shooters and no guns. Three bodies. Might need to check the hostages again.”
Zack looked over at T.J. “That was close.”
T.J. smiled, “I’m just glad this shaft is so big. I almost had to leave you out there.”
The two detectives finished looking over the scene for clues as to who murdered Senator Elliot’s wife. There wasn’t much. This slaying had to be connected to Elliot’s confession and consequently to the murder of Senator Hardin. There were two questions that needed to be answered. How did the killer know about Elliot’s confession, and where was the daughter? Casey and Melissa got back in their car. The only lead would be the origin of the un-returnable letters received by Elliot before this whole affair. One thing was now certain, the killer had to have eyes on the police force; eyes that saw the Elliot’s letter. That left the fed who handled the note, Casey and Daniels. Oh yes, and that one girl: the law student who smuggled the note out of the courthouse. It could have been her.
On their drive back to Glenn Bluff, Casey turned to his partner who sat in the passenger seat, “How do you know that the consequences would be worse without the law?”
“I think about it this way,” Daniels shared, “The law is written by people, which means it did not always exist. Since the law did not always exist, there must have been a reason people first started writing law. If the writing of laws was preferred over having no law, then it must be better in some regard. This does not prove that having the law is better, but it does mean that we are reasonable when we claim that having law is better.”
“Doesn’t that also mean that there is room for disagreement?” Casey smirked.
“I guess so… You really are having a crisis here aren’t you?”
Casey got onto the highway, “Yeah. This case is tearin’ me up.”
“Well then, I say let’s catch a killer. Cause and effect,” she said.
“Why haven’t you reported me yet?” Casey asked his partner.
Melissa looked at him as he drove, “You mean for helping a wrongly convicted man find out the truth?”
Casey continued to drive and didn’t say another word.
“Time to get out of here,” T.J. pried open the elevator door on the second floor. Not having time to question the timing, Zack readied his handgun just in case officers were posted on the second floor. No one came.
T.J. braced the door with his crowbar and Zack went out first, signaling T.J. after seeing that no one was present. Zack monitored the stairs while T.J. looked out the windows to gauge police activity. Things did not look good. They were not going out the front door, and the only other options were breaking a window and jumping or using an emergency exit on the first floor. The latter seemed like the better option, but officers would most likely be posted. If they were lucky there would only be one or two, but then the desperados would still have to make it outside and deal with whatever perimeter had been set up.
The two decided to take their chances with an emergency exit. T.J. called the elevator and hit the button for the first floor. The two went down the stairs as the elevator descended with no one inside. When they arrived on the first floor, they saw two guards both facing the elevator. T.J. and Zack snuck up behind them, placed their arms around the guards’ necks until they passed out and pulled them into the elevator, letting the doors close.
T.J. removed his rifle and set it next to the officer and began taking his vest off. Zack followed his lead, also removing his suit jacket and tie. It seemed best if they looked like civilians.
After this, they found one of the emergency exits at the back of the courthouse and pulled the fire alarm switch.
As soon as the fire alarm sounded, an officer rushed in through the door with his gun drawn. From behind the door,
T.J. swiftly pulled the officer’s head down, thrashing it with his knee. With the officer unconscious, T.J. and Zack went out the door and down the alleyway.
“Where are we going?” Zack asked as they ran.
T.J. turned in front of him and went through the back door to another building, “Huddles set up a safe house for our escape.”
Zack followed him through the door, “ Huddles?”
Casey and Daniels arrived on the seen as the alarm was blaring. After learning about the more recent situation, they were told that the force was conducting a search and that they needed to continue their investigation.
Casey agreed, “There was a law student here, one of the first hostages to be released. Where is she?”
His supervisor pointed, “All of the hostages are over there.”
With the alarm still blaring, the detectives walked over. Melissa reminded her partner that the witness had seen him inside the courtroom and might report him as an accomplice. She went alone and found the witness. Daniels walked her to an area where it was easier to hear and Casey stayed out of sight.
“When you came out, did you read what was written on the piece of paper you came out with?” She asked as soon as she could.
As she was questioning the girl, an officer came up to Casey and handed him his phone, “We recovered these from the courtroom.”
Casey thanked him and called the postal service, “Do you have anything for me?”
“Yes sir,” came the voice, “It looks like the only mail to that address without a return address were actually picked up from a business location in Glenn Bluff.”
“You wouldn’t know what business would you?” “No. But I can give you a truck number and its route.” “Thanks, send it in an email.” Casey hung up and shortly after felt his phone buzz. The route was the same route that the police department was on. This was looking more like a conspiracy by the minute. Hopefully this would be the mistake that would bring down Hardin’s murderer. It had to be the federal agent who handled the note… or Melissa…
Melissa came back after interviewing the girl and told her partner that she got nothing.
The room was empty and dark. The air felt wet and sticky as if there was no air flow what so ever. T.J. led Zack through the room to a stairway that descended into what looked like a basement. Everything seemed very cloak and dagger as T.J. went to the door and appeared to speak to it. There was no intercom, only a metal door with a deadbolt locked into the cement wall. The door opened and T.J. led Zack into the hideout.
There were several others already present. There was a preacher, a hacker, an anarchist and, of course, Huddles.
Huddles was the organizer and not one person here went by his or her name. Everything was secret, apparently for each one’s security.
After taking it in and catching his breath, Zack looked at T.J., “I had no idea the HDLS was so committed…”
T.J. looked at the taller woman, Huddles, and she commented, “This is not HDLS. HDLS is a political entity and needs to be safeguarded as such. This is an independent project. We come together when we are needed and we are now welcoming you.”
Zack did not know what to say, so he just stood there.
Huddles pointed toward T.J., “T, come with me. We need to set this game in motion.” She also pointed toward the hacker, “I need you too, Data.”
T.J. and Data left the room with Huddles while the preacher and the anarchist continued a conversation that they were having previously. Zack found a seat and listened in. He had no idea what to do at this point.
“… just not sure Romans 13 applies here, Preacher. It seems that liberty without socialism is exploitation and socialism without liberty is tyranny.”ii
“So your solution is to remove government and with it anyone’s ability to mandate the ownership of all property, which belongs wholly to the general public?”
“At least then we’d be free.”
The preacher sat back, “Who is to enforce this ‘common property’ rule since there would be no government?”
“I’m not sure. All I know is that no government can operate from a position of neutrality. It always has its own interests in mind. This means a government will always promote one group of people over another: either for political or economic reasons. Consider our country right now. The government is doing what it can to make sure homosexual marriages are legal just as the public opinion about the morality of homosexual practice is changing. It’s a play for votes and those who disagree don’t matter. Every year there are mass shootings and politicians on both sides of the gun control issue use those shootings to defend a political position above everything else, and they do it because they want to be voted back into office by those who agree with them. The existence of government and the laws of the government are insults to basic human liberty and to human equality.”
“Okay,” the preacher continued, “has there ever been a time when there was no government or law?”
“Yeah. I mean, there had to be if the law was written.” “So, why would the first law be written if people were
truly free and equal without the law? And what person would have been able to rise above that equality to subject others to the first law? Either people were equal before written law and unable to subject others to written law or people were not equal before written law. Since people are subject to written law today, it seems evident that even before written law people were unequal; meaning some were probably also not free.”
The anarchist replied immediately, “Are you saying that law doesn’t cause inequality, but is instead a consequence of inequality?”
“Yes, so if we believe that people should be free because all are born equal, we need a better reason than, ‘the law creates inequality.’ It just creates too many problems for us. Since this is the case, government cannot be inherently to blame for either lack of equality or lack of liberty: even if some governmental actions do contribute to the problem.”
The anarchist was about to reply again, but Huddles walked back into the room with T.J, and two others followed them. Zack recognized the Ambassador from the courtroom and everyone was speechless when they saw Senator Gary Hardin.