Two Justice Systems

It’s the morning of January 6th, 2021. Jamal Stackhouse is a 17 year old who lives in Maryland and has been following the civil unrest on social media. Jamal has always idolized law and vigilantism and he can’t stand to see how Donald Trump has corrupted the idea of fraudulent voting and created rampant aggression amongst his followers. Jamal sees businesses in Washington, D.C. in danger, sees the Capitol in trouble, and sees that he has to do something to assist. He drives 30 minutes from his home in Maryland to D.C. and stops by his friend’s house who has been holding onto a rifle his friend purchased for him. Jamal takes to the streets, seeing all of the hyped up Trump supporters screaming and causing civil unrest. It’s now the afternoon and the rioters have broken through the Capitol. Jamal can’t stand for this and knows this is his time do more. He’s said in livestream interviews that he came to protect the Capitol and to run into harm’s way to help people but brought his rifle to obviously protect himself. He lastly mentions his med kit.
Jamal charges through, seeing the overwhelmed police force being overwhelmed by these angry and violent thugs parading around in viking horns and red hats. Jamal sees that they’ve broken through the barricade, they’ve gone through the doors, and are making their way through. Jamal is here to defend justice and liberty. He makes his way up the front where he sees a lone officer who looks like him in shade and persistence, being chased up the stairs and in that moment of connection, runs even deeper up to the front to stop these criminals.
Adam Johnson, a 36-year-old Florida man, takes ahold of the Speaker of the House podium and seeing that Jamal has aligned himself against their ideals, approaches the riled up Jamal who fires several shots killing him almost instantly.
Jacob Chansley, a 33-year-old Q-Anon enthusiast, pulls his horns down tighter onto his head and charges towards Jamal. Jamal, now knocked down, fires a few shots. The blood of Jacob splashes upon his patriotic face paint and he goes down as well.
From the other side, a 60-year-old Richard Barnett has his pistol and an envelope from Nancy Pelosi’s desk approaches Jamal with his gun out and the boy turns and fires a shot into the man’s arm.
Jamal runs away and makes it outside where more police have arrived, having heard there is an active shooter inside the Capitol. Jamal approaches the police with his hands up. Surely his idols and the people he came to protect will aid him and the people he’s seen hurt inside. The police aim their guns at him and yell for him to stand the fuck down or he will get shot. They tell him to stop moving and to lower his weapon that’s strapped around his chest. Jamal keeps his hands up, unsure of what to actually do. Several of the rioters yell that he should be arrested, that he is the shooter. Jamal stands still, sweating profusely through the commotion. He’s asked again to lower his weapon. Jamal reaches for it to put it on the ground when 46 shots ring out, piercing his flesh and he drops dead. He never got to use his med kit.

At a press conference, Sheriff David Beth says, “In situations that are high-stress, you have such incredible tunnel vision” and alludes to the assumption that Jamal came solely with the intention of violence towards the officers. He doesn’t mention Jamal’s love of law enforcement. Trump tweets support of the patriots that died and how he’s proud of the police for doing “what they had to do”. His Twitter is later disabled after he retweets a post using the hard r. Media outlets are split between calling Jamal a hero and a terrorist. On Fox News they question if he was sent by ANTIFA or Black Lives Matter.

There’s a morbid curiosity across the country as to if Jamal’s case had gone to trial, what would have occured. Judge Bruce Schroeder is a talking head on such a program and asked how he would’ve presided over Jamal’s case. Schroeder says he would have thrown the book at him for what he did to the poor victims at the Capitol. He blames MSNBC for how they probably radicalized Jamal, insisting that he would’ve thrown the book at Stackhouse and no amount of crocodile tears would’ve stopped him from seeking justice. In the middle of the interview, Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” begins to blare as Judge Bruce’s ringtone. The FOX correspondents wait patiently as Schroeder fumbles through his pocket to silence his phone and he then oddly thanks them and the troops.
LaKeisha Stackhouse, Jamal Stackhouse’s mother, is also featured on the news during a press conference. She reaches out to several pro-gun lobbyists, senators, and organizations. She mentions her son’s intention was simply to provide aid and he had a right to defend himself. Her cries have fallen on deaf ears. There’s only a slight chatter of a drug offense she had back in the 90s- marijuana possession. The New York Times and other publications talk about Jamal’s troubled past. They don’t ask what went wrong. They don’t question moral ambiguity. They paint the picture that he was bound to kill at some point. He played violent video games like Call of Duty and was a fan of Lil’ Uzi Vert after all. Uzi trends negatively for his lack of response while his fans question why the NRA didn’t catch the same flack for not saying anything. The picture they use of Jamal is universal- him holding an airsoft gun while donning a white bandana across his forehead. They question if he belonged to a gang or if he was a member of ISIS. No one takes the time to recognize the picture as part of a homecoming costume for “gangster day”.
The media chatter eventually dies down.
The protests in honor of Jamal dissipate after a while.
SNL briefly mentioned the incident on their cold open to a smattering of laughs and shock.
A month later, Jamal is a distant memory of another hashtag of someone killed by the police.
Some people question how different things would’ve been if he had varied look and background. How people would have reacted or what relief, patience, and payment he would’ve been given by politicians and the judicial system. If the police would’ve even killed him or if he would’ve been given water or Burger King.
Two months later, the story has disappeared from headlines, news outlets, and social media. The protests have halted and his family got some settlement from the state. Nothing big, just enough to quiet down the chatter of how police mishandled the situation.
Either way, the world has been taken storm by bigger and fresher news. Pete Davidson is seen holding hands with Taylor Swift.