By: Daiyu Tang
The video address from Inspector Krystal O’Neil landed in my inbox like a relic from another era, a public-access style production with all the cheap static and unsteady polish that marks Hathian’s unique brand of ‘official communication.’ What it lacked in gloss, however, it made up for in ambition. Krystal’s ambition. Her again right?
It was strange to be together down in Laveau wrapping up on another matter that we had recently reported on and then get this video. In the evening at our cheap motel, while Krystal slept I was there, in the glow of my laptop watching her speak in this video. Of course I resolved, later I’d ask her about this and the circumstances. Things like where she had been before this trip and why, on social media, was it suggested she’d been a ‘guest’ of the Hathian Gang known as the ‘Vipers’. Therefore, as I watched and considered the video, casting a few sideways glances at her to make sure she wasn’t pretending to be asleep and instead lining up a bullet to my back, I did have my doubts whether everything spoken on the screen was real or not.
The Video Of ‘Liberation Day’
The video, grainy and oddly framed, had the unmistakable look of Hathian’s old public-access channels, washed out colours, a static hiss in the background, and the faint echo of metal scraping somewhere just off-camera. The frame never strayed from a head-and-shoulders shot of HPD Inspector Krystal O’Neil, seated before a generic municipal backdrop: flag, seal, drab panelling.
Her hair was freshly set, though the wear of long hours showed in the slight heaviness of her eyes as far as I thought. Then again Krystal does look like shit some of the time. Her choice for riding the HPD rodeo some would say.
She began stiffly, voice clipped, a woman not naturally given to teleprompters. Her gaze dropped frequently, my view suggesting a reliance on notes and though her words were meant to inspire, it took her a moment to warm into them.
People of the great city of Hathian, I am honoured to address you this evening as a fellow city denizen and not just the guiding hand behind the HPD working tirelessly to keep you safe…”
The opening was polite, even ceremonial, but what followed edged closer to a manifesto. She laid into the Mayor, describing Bobby Boxer’s “anemic funding,” accusing City Hall of starving the department of its duty. A faint tremor crossed her tone when she spoke of “chaos” and “street gangs,” but her delivery sharpened as she declared she had gone outside City Hall for funding, via RICO seizures, “private philanthropy,” and community partners.
By the midpoint, O’Neil’s face flushed with more conviction. Her cadence lifted, and the script began to sound like something she believed rather than read.
My fellow Hathianites, I am here to announce that Hathian Liberation Day is nigh. I, Krystal O’Neil, am not afraid to step up and arm our city to reclaim our future…”
Here the rhetoric turned militant. She promised “more military arms and equipment,” openly tying July 4th’s parade of hardware to a coming expansion. Where the Mayor had offered only “fetid corruption,” O’Neil vowed a rebirth, one where the HPD would not merely police but “crush chaos where it lives.”
When she reached the subject of money, the nervousness returned in flashes: lip bite, darting glance downward, as if aware of the risks in admitting this on tape. Still, the statement was bald and open:
…$38,000 in private donations will seed this expansion, with more being pulled from criminal coffers to give bonuses to all officers commiserate with the number of criminals.“
The Inspector’s voice pitched upward at the close, attempting triumph: “Today is the day Hathian will be liberated to achieve its full potential! Thank you.” The last words landed on a faintly audible exhale.
The camera cut abruptly… No music, no fade. Just static.
Video Killed The Radio Star – The Observer’s Take
In the video (a copy of which is appended at the end of this article), O’Neil casts herself not merely as the ‘commander’ of the Hathian Police Department but as a kind of civic redeemer. She railed against Mayor Bobby Boxer’s “anaemic funding,” accusing him of leaving the HPD starved and the city undefended. She declared a “Hathian Liberation Day,” announcing that new military-grade equipment and weaponry had already been secured with private donations and seizures from criminal cases. The figure she offered, $38,000, was not that much though in scale but was pointedly framed as outside the Mayor’s reach. This struck me as odd, Mayor Boxer doesn’t appear to lack in money and with a former HPD Officer once donating $100k to charity via the Observer, I found it a strange detail. Sure $338k might get a few second hand military surplus trucks, but $38k? Did that get more than a beat up Toyota? Maybe if Krystal’s liberation day was to be run from the back of a Technical with a 50cal mounted on it! Another odd detail.
To anyone who saw the Fourth of July block party, with its surplus of hardware and spectacle, the message is clear however. That show was not a one-off. O’Neil promises a “new era of law and order,” one where the HPD will be equipped not like a police department but like an occupying force. Yeah dear reader, you know how they like to stack those domestic terrorism charges around the place? Was it a surprise to hear that maybe, ‘domestic terrorism’ is the new ‘assault on police officer’…
But the questions raised are larger than the broadcast itself. Why now? Why tape such a direct challenge to City Hall and Bobby Boxer (and yes he IS AN ASSHOLE)? And why package it in the stiff trappings of a low rent campaign speech, rather than the slick production that it is possible to make in this city? Maybe O’Neil would say that would have used the budget for something other than weapons, or maybe, just maybe, the Viper’s have a shit media setup when filming their ‘guests’.
I want to ask her. She is right here. But there’s sourcing a witness statement and then there’s sourcing a witness statement when the woman sleeps with a handgun under her pillow and you’re in Laveau where another body behind the Church is apparently ‘normal’.
Choices Matter
Some possibilities I wanted you dear reader to consider:
- The Ambitious Play. The Inspector may have ambitions beyond the HPD. When she speaks of “fetid corruption” in City Hall and of being unafraid to lead, she sounds less like a civil servant and more like a candidate. Is O’Neil positioning herself for the Mayor’s office or a power-sharing arrangement where the police hold sway over a weakened City Hall?
- The Shadow Backers aka Vipers. The repeated references to “private philanthropy” and “community partners” ring curious. Hathian’s businesses are rarely charitable for their own sake. Are wealthy interests, neé Annika, financing O’Neil’s escalation in exchange for protection or influence? If so, the Inspector may not be speaking only for herself but for her new friends. One wonders, considering her known background. Is there blackmail material? And no, for the one of you who e-mailed me asking me to do kinky stuff with her, not happening.
- The Hoax or Bluff. Hathian is a city where misinformation thrives. Could this be a calculated bluff, designed to rattle Boxer and embolden the HPD without actual new hardware waiting in the wings? Or worse: a deliberate provocation, intended to lure opposition (whether gang, mayor) into revealing itself, or any hand it might have? Boosting HPD morale is clearly part of her remit… but positioning herself like some kinda saviour? Hmm.
What is not in doubt is the tone: O’Neil positioned herself as saviour and soldier, openly challenging the Mayor’s authority, openly militarising the HPD, and tying her personal legitimacy to promises of “liberation.” For a weary city, that might sound like strength. For others, it might sound like the first notes of something darker than usual from our Police Force. And for me dear reader? If I was asked to bet… I’d say there’s more layers to it and yes, I will ask her when she wakes, but having first published this because if it’s not out there, then I have a sneaking suspicion it might, at least how I’ve positioned it above, not be allowed out. Once the door is open, she’ll have to engage with me to shut it. Therefore, sweet dreams Krystal. We’re going to have a good chat very soon! Because I’m not sure… honestly… if Hathian would want you as leader either? Bobby ‘fuck a secretary in the pool’ or Krystal ‘Gonna Start a War’ O’Neil. Some of you would want to be the secretary, some of you would want to be Bobby himself, and who would be left who wanted to be you, Krystal? Hmm.
Oh and reader? One detail lingers most of all… the nervous lip bite at the end of her declaration, just before the static swallowed her words. It was a human tell in a speech otherwise styled as ironclad. Was it nerves? Guilt of working with a gang? Or the weight of realizing she had just crossed a threshold she cannot walk back from?
A URL to Krystal’s Video ((In reality a NC)) is attached for you to review yourself.
