The Loudspeaker

The loudspeaker attached to the streetlamp on the corner awakened with a crackle of static and a series of raking, electrically buzzing beeps. One, two, three, four, five, each lasting three and a half seconds. A soft, feminine voice spoke clearly into the empty streets, her voice echoing calmly downwind.

“This information notice is for all citizens of the City of New York and serves to comply with the Proper Accounting Transparency and Recorded Information Act. On the morning of December 4th, two years ago, citizen Robert Baumann, hereafter referred to as citizen Baumann, was identified as an enemy combatant. Upon exiting his apartment building in the Queens borough, citizen Baumann was disabled by an aerial drone and taken into custody by law enforcement agents.

“We would like to take this opportunity to assure all citizens that electrical discharges from aerial drones and law enforcement agents are designed merely to incapacitate a target and pose no health risk to the human organism. Please, do not run if you witness an aerial drone deploying incapacitation rounds in your neighborhood. Flight may lead to an authorized escalation in the level of force to be used in your apprehension. Simply place your hands behind your head, kneel down where you are and wait for a law enforcement agent to give you further instructions.

“Citizen Baumann was conscious and responsive when he arrived for processing and interrogation approximately [beeeeeeeep] later at [beeeeeeeep] facility. National security authorities applied Department of Justice approved enhanced interrogation techniques on citizen Baumann in order to obtain his cooperation in an investigation. These techniques were continued for the next 467 days, as citizen Baumann refused to yield actionable intelligence, but were suspended at that point because a precipitous decline in citizen Baumann’s vital signs were detected.

“After a [beeep] hour recuperation stand-down, clearance was given by medical professionals and the interrogation program was resumed. Eight days after the resumption of the interrogation program, citizen Baumann was found unresponsive in his detention cell at 04:57 am and efforts to revive him were unsuccessful. Citizen Baumann’s body was kept on site pending an autopsy, which later determined his death to be a result of natural causes.

“This morning a National Security Court ruled that the classification of citizen Baumann as an enemy combatant was not correct. Citizen Baumann has been cleared of all suspicion of terrorism and his body is now being returned to his next of kin for burial. The United States government apologizes for this error and assures all citizens that every effort is being made to minimize such classification errors in the future. Remember, safety is everyone’s responsibility.”

With a hiss, followed by a momentary squeal of feedback, the loudspeaker fell silent.

The wind howled around the quiet, gray apartment blocks for fifteen seconds before the loudspeaker awakened again with a crackle of static and a series of raking, electrically buzzing beeps. One, two, three, four, five, each lasting three and a half seconds. A soft, feminine voice spoke clearly into the empty streets, her voice echoing calmly downwind.

“This information notice is for all citizens of the City of New York and serves to comply with the Proper Accounting Transparency and Recorded Information Act. On the morning of March 24th, this year, citizen Clara Bonilla, hereafter referred to as citizen Bonilla, was identified as an enemy combatant and lethal force was used in her apprehension. National security authorities confirmed…”

And the loudspeaker rolled on through the afternoon, into the evening twilight, stopping only for its fifteen-second breaks. When darkness fell, curfew began and speakers all over the city went silent. Silent until tomorrow, when they would rejoin their public duty at dawn, satisfying the citizen’s right to know.