When I went down in the melee, I knew enough to keep tight in a ball or else get my extremeties crushed. There was pretty much wild pandemonium. Children were being shepherded away and I saw some being carted ott kicking and screaming Our peaceful protest had turned into a powerful press sensation. One photographer from the local gazette who come to take a photo or two was on his phone screaming"It's all happening get them here NOW damn it, a full crew, the works," whilst he snapped happily on his camera. Hed gotten his scoop and then some. Whilst I was down I felt this kick in my side from a steel toe capped boot, and an older uniformed guy shouting, "and you stay down too!". It was then I lost it. Branded with the same brush as all youth is, the hooligan, ruffian, rabble rouser. Next minute as I grabbed clutching at my painful ribs, my hand found it, cold and being kicked about. The megaphone. And I was so incensed, so full of anger and hurt and feeling violated and my civil liberties impaired, I did what I shouldn't have. I grabbed it and started opening my big tat mouth without putting my brain in gear.
What I said doesn't matter really, it was more the vehemence with which I said it. This angry rhetoric poured out of me directed at the police over abusing the position of trust. At the poor bleeding government official who was probably only spouting a script he'd been told to say. And at my once peaceful fellow demonstrators now turned into maniacal beasts running rampant. I don't know what came over mc, but my words were bullets firing indescriminately at anyone in my tiring line who caught my eye and my tongue let them have it. I hadn't realised I was gonna be used as poster child for the revolution, as that chap from the Gazette snapped happily away. I think I labelled him "Paparazzi Nazi," at one point, and later the tag line in the paper was to be: "White Supremacists Lead Common Revolt On Progress". When the Chief gave the go-ahead I was taken down and off with considerably more force than was warranted. But not before I'd got my point across. A few bruises, cuts and a broken rib later and I found myself tied to the cell, deemed hazard to myself and others till Id calmed down. It wasn't my physical danger they should have been tying up, but gagging my motor mouth.
I'm not alone. I'm in good company here. The others in the cells next to me look as bedraggled as me, only I notice they aren't tied up. Even I could sec where this was going. I fit the profile, the criminal demographic, I was to be their scapegoat. It wasn't that I meant for any of this. We were just trying to save a bit of our nature, our one area of natural beauty. I was doing it for all the kids, the bike riders, joggers, skaters, dog walkers and duck feeders, the old strollers and the young sports players. But the focus was on me and the wrong message I wanted to be giving off. I wasn't sure how I was gonna dig my way out of this one. Back peddling isn't so easy to do when your mouth has betrayed you in the worst way. Sometimes you just have to press ahead in the right way with a little vision and forward thinking. Sometimes you have to assess the destruction, be it reputation or physical, and do some damage limitation. You need time to think and a fresh perspective. And then it came to me.
I asked about the cells. Had anyone seen where that stone had come from? Had anyone seen the instigator of this whole damn mess? Turns out they'd confiscated the reporter's camera for evidence, along with many others. From my chats with others and the help of the film in one of those cameras l'd have a story more explosive than my mouth. More revealing than an angry young man and his supposed group of racist sleeper agents inciting riot aimed at the city planning committee. This headline was fact, backed up by a photo of same said reporter launching a missile at the head of a spokesman. And the accompanying headline instead ran with: "Rookie Reporter Rocks Up For A Riot." Turns out some people are desperate to get a headline story and will go to any lengths. And due to the media exposure and the embarrassment of the whole debacle the police dropped all charges. Even the planning consent was withdrawn in the wake of a public outcry. Our message got through, our objective won too. Never under estimate the power of good intentions, but keep yourself in check if like me you have a way of shooting your mouth. 'Take time, think and ask about, and you may find answers and help in the most unlikeliest of places.
End.
