Serbovia
Establishing Nation
PROLOGUE - THE FIRST CASUALTY
What the citizens of Pyhä Henrik remembered the best three weeks after the November 15th Riots had delivered havoc upon the city were the fatalities, injuries and damage of property, and the Protected Territories and Union lawmen bringing their rough justice at the tip of the baton to the unruly drunken mobs that had wanted to turn the city into their personal brawling ground. However, only a few people had had the vision to see the first and foremost casualty of these unfortunate events: The truth.
The very names that the riots had beeen given were reflective of this fact. Official sources and Information Office- controlled press, eager to label the incident as disorder caused by drunken debauchery without any political connotations, used the neutral term of November 15th Riots or the Pyhä Henrik Bar Riots. Segregation- minded whites in Pyhä Henrik called it a "Swana Riot", while anti-colonial activists - suppressed in the entire Protected Territories but active abroad, especially among Cathiopia's expat communities - used the terms "Anti-Segregation Riot" and "Race Riot".
The distortion of the truth had commenced from the starting point of the riots, the Thirsty Frontiersman dance hall. What most people agreed upon was that a group of drunken Swana men, guest workers recently arrived from the Swana Tribal Reserve, had tried to enter the hall and been confronted by the doormen and patrons, resulting in a brawl. The versions diverged after that. The official investigation by Pyhä Henrik Police was currently taking the view that one of the Swana men had tried to attack the head doorman, who had responded by head blows with a sap he carried in self-defense, inflicting lethal injuries in the process. After this, the situation had generated into an all-out melee. Meanwhile, a rumor spread in Pyhä Henrik's black community told otherwise, that the doormen and some Fennian patrons had started an all-out attack against the Swanas.
Similar disagreements concerned the course of the rioting in itself, with each party blaming others for the destruction and vandalism. However, Pyhä Henrik's law enforcement had remained a remarkably impartial referee, dishing out batons and tear gas at anyone dumb enough to try and confront them. The riot had been put down with brutal equality where the riot baton had not discriminated according to skin color.
One notable incident had been the stabbing of Senior Constable Roger Niirala, killed in the course of the incident where his group of policemen had confronted a looting Swana group in Marshal Häyhä Boulevard - Marsalkka Häyhän Bulevardi. While it was commonly accepted that Niirala had indeed been stabbed in the course of the event, the aftermath had been somewhat more murky. It was known that the three young Swana men arrested for the Niirala killing had taken part in the riots, but actual evidence had been in form of one of them - a longshoreman at the Port of Pyhä Henrik - giving a drunken boast about killing a cop to a workmate of his. As it happened, that workmate had been a Security Department informant tasked with keeping tabs on any troublemakers and potential Communist agitators.
Due to fears of exposing secret police infiltration of the docks, the Political Section of Pyhä Henrik TuOs had dwelt on the information for a while before passing it on to local police, though with the conditions that the source would remain a secret. As a result, the capital murder case was largely being built based on eyewitness statements of police officers and rather unscrupulously conducted interrogations of the suspects. In more civilized countries, sending a dead policeman's collagues to arrest a suspected cop killer would've been recognized as a bad idea, however, not in Fennia.
Seeing it as a way to provide Niirala's collagues with a just chance of retribution, the police commanders had given the task of arresting those involved in his killing to the Special Police Reserve, the riot control unit that Constable Niirala himself had been part of. The end result was evident in the arrest report of the three, and the police jail's shift logs, which detailed several blunt-force wounds inflicted upon the three for "resisting arrest" as well as an incident where one of the men had suffered a serious concussion. The source of the concussion was somewhat euphemistically listed as "tripping and falling down the stairs while being transported into holding".
After the initial arrest, the authorities had had the good sense to transfer the three into Military Police custody, more disciplined than their local counterparts, on orders of Governor-General Hannula himself. The colonial administration was determined to make an example, but in a civilized manner, that those attempting to engage in such offenses against Union order would be severely punished. The trial would be carried out, whatever the verdict, and after that th establishment would make every effort to make the public forget the November 15th Riots. The lingering question, however, was if the city would forget.
What the citizens of Pyhä Henrik remembered the best three weeks after the November 15th Riots had delivered havoc upon the city were the fatalities, injuries and damage of property, and the Protected Territories and Union lawmen bringing their rough justice at the tip of the baton to the unruly drunken mobs that had wanted to turn the city into their personal brawling ground. However, only a few people had had the vision to see the first and foremost casualty of these unfortunate events: The truth.
The very names that the riots had beeen given were reflective of this fact. Official sources and Information Office- controlled press, eager to label the incident as disorder caused by drunken debauchery without any political connotations, used the neutral term of November 15th Riots or the Pyhä Henrik Bar Riots. Segregation- minded whites in Pyhä Henrik called it a "Swana Riot", while anti-colonial activists - suppressed in the entire Protected Territories but active abroad, especially among Cathiopia's expat communities - used the terms "Anti-Segregation Riot" and "Race Riot".
The distortion of the truth had commenced from the starting point of the riots, the Thirsty Frontiersman dance hall. What most people agreed upon was that a group of drunken Swana men, guest workers recently arrived from the Swana Tribal Reserve, had tried to enter the hall and been confronted by the doormen and patrons, resulting in a brawl. The versions diverged after that. The official investigation by Pyhä Henrik Police was currently taking the view that one of the Swana men had tried to attack the head doorman, who had responded by head blows with a sap he carried in self-defense, inflicting lethal injuries in the process. After this, the situation had generated into an all-out melee. Meanwhile, a rumor spread in Pyhä Henrik's black community told otherwise, that the doormen and some Fennian patrons had started an all-out attack against the Swanas.
Similar disagreements concerned the course of the rioting in itself, with each party blaming others for the destruction and vandalism. However, Pyhä Henrik's law enforcement had remained a remarkably impartial referee, dishing out batons and tear gas at anyone dumb enough to try and confront them. The riot had been put down with brutal equality where the riot baton had not discriminated according to skin color.
One notable incident had been the stabbing of Senior Constable Roger Niirala, killed in the course of the incident where his group of policemen had confronted a looting Swana group in Marshal Häyhä Boulevard - Marsalkka Häyhän Bulevardi. While it was commonly accepted that Niirala had indeed been stabbed in the course of the event, the aftermath had been somewhat more murky. It was known that the three young Swana men arrested for the Niirala killing had taken part in the riots, but actual evidence had been in form of one of them - a longshoreman at the Port of Pyhä Henrik - giving a drunken boast about killing a cop to a workmate of his. As it happened, that workmate had been a Security Department informant tasked with keeping tabs on any troublemakers and potential Communist agitators.
Due to fears of exposing secret police infiltration of the docks, the Political Section of Pyhä Henrik TuOs had dwelt on the information for a while before passing it on to local police, though with the conditions that the source would remain a secret. As a result, the capital murder case was largely being built based on eyewitness statements of police officers and rather unscrupulously conducted interrogations of the suspects. In more civilized countries, sending a dead policeman's collagues to arrest a suspected cop killer would've been recognized as a bad idea, however, not in Fennia.
Seeing it as a way to provide Niirala's collagues with a just chance of retribution, the police commanders had given the task of arresting those involved in his killing to the Special Police Reserve, the riot control unit that Constable Niirala himself had been part of. The end result was evident in the arrest report of the three, and the police jail's shift logs, which detailed several blunt-force wounds inflicted upon the three for "resisting arrest" as well as an incident where one of the men had suffered a serious concussion. The source of the concussion was somewhat euphemistically listed as "tripping and falling down the stairs while being transported into holding".
After the initial arrest, the authorities had had the good sense to transfer the three into Military Police custody, more disciplined than their local counterparts, on orders of Governor-General Hannula himself. The colonial administration was determined to make an example, but in a civilized manner, that those attempting to engage in such offenses against Union order would be severely punished. The trial would be carried out, whatever the verdict, and after that th establishment would make every effort to make the public forget the November 15th Riots. The lingering question, however, was if the city would forget.