George sat down to read the weekly Sentinel, it was one of his few little pleasures in post collapse United states. For $20 a year it gave him some access to the world around him now that over the air TV and Radio were no longer free, and whose cost had risen beyond the means of many Americans.
"Ha, they got another one of the bastards!" He yelled to his wife. "That SOB Gibbons finally got what was coming to him. They took him out with a drone strike Sunday morning. If he had been a God fearing Christian, he'd been at church and they would have missed him.", He continued to his Misses. "No loss to the county", he mumbled to himself.
State sanctioned drone strikes were usually conducted on Sunday mornings in the American South whenever possible. It was widely known by state officials that if you could take a suspect out when they should have been in church there would be much less sympathy for the target from the locals. Plus the area preachers appreciated the extra business, and money in the collection plates. Times were hard and scaring extra bodies into the pews on Sunday meant more money for the church.
It was long rumored that Gibbons had been selling moonshine, but the authorities could never prove it. But thanks to Georgia's new "Freedom From Terrorism" act, Georgia citizens could be legally killed for suspicion of terrorism anywhere in the state. And suspicion of distributing a potentially dangerous substance like moonshine, was determined to be just such and act, by Judge Ribner. Oh yea, and the Honorable Ribner didn't like Gibbons either since he wrote that nasty Editorial in the Sentinel about the judge a few months back.
Reading about the latest drone strike in the paper, after hearing a distant explosion days before, was the highlight of George's week. Justice being doled out quickly and summarily was something that George's authoritarian personality could never get enough of. It was only beginning of June and there had already been 18 drone strikes in his county alone. They had taken out suspected drug dealers, moonshiners, abortion providers, (abortions were now illegal in Georgia), and distributers of non official news papers.
After a drone strike, the charges the target was suspected of were printed in the paper. Sometimes the charges were said to be secret and not given for state or even national security reasons. It was rumored that strikes where the states accusations were classified had been mistakes, but those were just rumors. And they would stay rumors because it was illegal to discuss drone strikes in the same way discussing sneak and peak searches had been made illegal in the Patriot Act years before. Authoritarian Regimes love secrecy, and none were more authorial than late 21st century Amercia, the name given to the new super region of southern American states.
It was a beautiful Sunday morning. Not a cloud in the sky. Cool for a Georgia summer day. George decided it would be a good day to do some yard work, because most of next week was supposed to be hot has hell. He figured God would understand his skipping one Sunday's mass. "Funny how God always agrees with what I think." he thought to himself. George surveyed his large garden, mostly tomatoes that would be canned for a variety of sauces to help get the family through the winter. George's property was a clearing in the woods far off the main road. The plants looked great. George scanned the sky and spotted a last quarter moon. It was the only thing in the cloudless sky besides the sun. He thought he noticed a small flash, but it must have been his imagination, "Eyes play tricks on a man sometimes." he thought to himself.
He went back to studying his fine looking garden. Then he thought to himself, "Ya know, from a distance those tomato plants could look a little like marijuana, and growin' them could get a guy in some serious trouble with the law!" Those were George's lasts thoughts.
After an official investigation of the strike that killed George had been completed, and the remnants of his tomato plants had been fully examined, it was determined that the charges against him had to be classified. And that's how it was reported in that week's Sentinel.
After reading the paper that week, the consensus of his neighbors were that he should have been in church that Sunday like they were. If he had been, none of this would have happened.
"Ha, they got another one of the bastards!" He yelled to his wife. "That SOB Gibbons finally got what was coming to him. They took him out with a drone strike Sunday morning. If he had been a God fearing Christian, he'd been at church and they would have missed him.", He continued to his Misses. "No loss to the county", he mumbled to himself.
State sanctioned drone strikes were usually conducted on Sunday mornings in the American South whenever possible. It was widely known by state officials that if you could take a suspect out when they should have been in church there would be much less sympathy for the target from the locals. Plus the area preachers appreciated the extra business, and money in the collection plates. Times were hard and scaring extra bodies into the pews on Sunday meant more money for the church.
It was long rumored that Gibbons had been selling moonshine, but the authorities could never prove it. But thanks to Georgia's new "Freedom From Terrorism" act, Georgia citizens could be legally killed for suspicion of terrorism anywhere in the state. And suspicion of distributing a potentially dangerous substance like moonshine, was determined to be just such and act, by Judge Ribner. Oh yea, and the Honorable Ribner didn't like Gibbons either since he wrote that nasty Editorial in the Sentinel about the judge a few months back.
Reading about the latest drone strike in the paper, after hearing a distant explosion days before, was the highlight of George's week. Justice being doled out quickly and summarily was something that George's authoritarian personality could never get enough of. It was only beginning of June and there had already been 18 drone strikes in his county alone. They had taken out suspected drug dealers, moonshiners, abortion providers, (abortions were now illegal in Georgia), and distributers of non official news papers.
After a drone strike, the charges the target was suspected of were printed in the paper. Sometimes the charges were said to be secret and not given for state or even national security reasons. It was rumored that strikes where the states accusations were classified had been mistakes, but those were just rumors. And they would stay rumors because it was illegal to discuss drone strikes in the same way discussing sneak and peak searches had been made illegal in the Patriot Act years before. Authoritarian Regimes love secrecy, and none were more authorial than late 21st century Amercia, the name given to the new super region of southern American states.
It was a beautiful Sunday morning. Not a cloud in the sky. Cool for a Georgia summer day. George decided it would be a good day to do some yard work, because most of next week was supposed to be hot has hell. He figured God would understand his skipping one Sunday's mass. "Funny how God always agrees with what I think." he thought to himself. George surveyed his large garden, mostly tomatoes that would be canned for a variety of sauces to help get the family through the winter. George's property was a clearing in the woods far off the main road. The plants looked great. George scanned the sky and spotted a last quarter moon. It was the only thing in the cloudless sky besides the sun. He thought he noticed a small flash, but it must have been his imagination, "Eyes play tricks on a man sometimes." he thought to himself.
He went back to studying his fine looking garden. Then he thought to himself, "Ya know, from a distance those tomato plants could look a little like marijuana, and growin' them could get a guy in some serious trouble with the law!" Those were George's lasts thoughts.
After an official investigation of the strike that killed George had been completed, and the remnants of his tomato plants had been fully examined, it was determined that the charges against him had to be classified. And that's how it was reported in that week's Sentinel.
After reading the paper that week, the consensus of his neighbors were that he should have been in church that Sunday like they were. If he had been, none of this would have happened.
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