20 July 2026, Freewriters Community Daily Writing Prompt Day 3170: the wrong policeman
The Ludlows, Lees, Trents, and Stepforths did their absolute best to protect their very young people from the most devastating news of the day … so in 2020 it was quite a long time before the little Ludlows, Trents, and Stepforths heard the name of George Floyd, and found out that there were protests and riots all that summer in other parts of the country.
But Lofton County, VA had stayed quiet, having its own reasons to get all upset that summer and into the year previous – and after all, it was not the Black people of the county that had caused the terror attack in Tinyville or set the Ridgeline Fire because they had not been paid for about twenty years of hitman work and police corruption. In Lofton County, also, two policemen had not discriminated at all; they had ruthlessly tracked down and absolutely messed up criminals all the way to the highest classes there were.
So: the county was quiet, and the little Ludlows were cousins to Capt. Ironwood Hamilton of Tinyville and Capt. H.F. Lee of Big Loft and understood why. The little Trents and Stepforths also knew these two officers well, so, the four oldest of them were in agreement when the eldest of them, eleven-year-old Eleanor Ludlow, said about the whole matter involving George Floyd, “They just sent the wrong policeman. Cousins Ironwood and Harry would never.”
“Absolutely not,” eleven-year-old Velma Trent said. “Capt. Hamilton is a real peace officer. Arrests of folks just because they are Black have all come to an end here, for the first time in like forever.”
“Yeah, but there's another side to this,” Eleanor's ten-year-old brother Andrew said. “That is, if Cousins Harry and Ironwood really thought you were a threat, they would not be sitting on you for nine minutes. That's how we KNOW the person who killed George Floyd not only didn't need to do that, but also had no clue what he was supposed to be doing. When you are the Angel of Death and his favorite adjutant from Special Forces, you don't play around like that. Folks are either a threat and taken out, or left alive and put in jail where they belong – there's no middle ground.”
“Yeah, but see, this is what y'all are all missing,” ten-year-old Glendella said. “Y'all keep thinking people are actually in the job to do the job, and just don't know because they missed it. No. That's not it. It's like in Smallwood, VA where I am from, where Captain Wagner will not retire. We all know that downtown could be robbed blind and he's not chasing anybody down. We also know we don't want him shooting at anybody because cataracts are real. But, he needs something to do, so he just stays in there.”
Eleanor, Andrew, and Velma considered this.
“The trouble starts when you gotta actually have people that are just in the job to be in it actually have to go do stuff,” Velma said. “They are going to mess it up every time. Make them racists on top of it, and … yeah.”
“Yeah,” Eleanor, Andrew, and Glendella said.
“What they need is for Cousins Ironwood and Harry to take some time off and go do peace officer training,” Eleanor said.
“Uh, maybe not, though,” Glendella said. “Captain Wagner is real good for being mad that he lost two deputies the last time Cousins Ironwood and Harry had to correct some police stuff in 2019, and real good for being mad about friends of his Cousin Harry has run straight out of the Big Loft Police Department.”
“Yeah, but, maybe so, because sometimes people need to just get different jobs and need to be encouraged to go,” Velma said. “My family definitely feels safer in Lofton County now.”
“See, when you send the right police officers,” Eleanor said, “and they focus on getting the real bad guys, no matter where they are … .”
“Yeah,” Velma, Andrew, and Glendella said.