The Protector

2

"Anarchists." The think-tank supervisor considered the word. "Nicely chosen."

"Al suggested the police chief include it in his statement," the Army general said.

"But the chief has no idea what really happened. A perfectly successful operation," the military analyst said.

Two lieutenant colonels and a tall, sinewy woman filled out the group. The "Al" (short for Alicia) to whom the general had referred wore a khaki pantsuit that resembled a uniform. She sat with the others in a darkly paneled drawing room. Their high-backed chairs were arranged before a large screen, onto which an overhead television projector beamed videotaped images of the crisis.

Highlights from NBC's coverage had just ended. Now a condensed version of CNN's began. The initial sequences showed the first day of rioting. Protestors stretched all the way from Busch Stadium and the Federal Courthouse to the huge America's Center, where the World Trade Organization was holding its conference. By nightfall, downtown St. Louis was paralyzed. On the screen, rioters smashed every window they came to. They overturned vehicles and set fire to them. Flames reflected off sidewalks covered with shattered glass.

The second day's edited sequences showed more protestors cramming the streets, damaging anything they could find. At a press conference, the mayor declared a state of emergency, ordering all civilians to avoid the downtown area.

But on the third day, the outnumbered police, joined by state troopers and the National Guard, organized a counterattack. The screen showed them using tear gas to funnel the rioters along Market, Chestnut, and other downtown streets toward Memorial Park. There, in the green space around the towering Gateway Arch, retreating protestors trampled a tent city they'd erected.

A reporter spoke urgently as a camera in a helicopter peered down on the rioters being pushed beyond the Arch. Protestors threw rocks and bottles at the relentlessly converging policemen. One bottle was filled with liquid and had a rag stuffed into it. As a young man lit and threw it, the camera whipped to show it crashing into flames. Gas masks, helmets, shields, and body armor made the police resemble "an army of Robocops," the reporter breathlessly announced. Ignoring the burning gasoline and the rocks, the police fired tear-gas canisters. So much haze spewed around the rioters, they could barely be seen.

A camera on a Mississippi barge now showed the action. The rioters stumbled from the haze. Bent over, coughing, they looked as frightened as they'd looked angry moments earlier. Police in gas masks emerged, pounding with batons, pushing with shields. Coughing harder, the protestors panicked and lurched in the only unimpeded direction available: the Mississippi. Thousands tumbled into the river, struggling to stay afloat as the dark figures of the police reached the bank and stood guard.

"I'm sure you noticed the man who threw the Molotov cocktail," the general said. "Some liberal commentators are claiming he's part of a group of agitators. The theory is that the corporations whose policies are under attack paid thugs to instigate the violence. The police fought back, and the legitimate protestors had to defend themselves, eventually becoming rioters and discrediting their cause."

"A conspiracy theory." The think-tank supervisor sighed. "There always has to be a conspiracy theory. But in this case, they happen to be correct. It's just not the conspiracy they imagine."

The general nodded. "And it was right there on television for everyone to see. On every network. As plain as day. But nobody noticed."

"As I said"-the military analyst made a congratulatory gesture to the four men and the woman seated near him-"a perfectly successful operation."