Mr X Comes to Town

I'm telling this story because TODAY, after four months, I have been provided with a dram of good news in this matter...

The Backstory- On August 10th, 2018 I was scanning the online edition of the Podunk Weekly Shitrag and found this headline: "Man charged with loitering after found passed out on bench outside of business". Being a college town, there was not much that was unusual about this piece at first - just a typical case of cops being... cops. But I read on to discover the guy was almost 50 with an out of state address. Hmm... somethings amiss. So Google: "[man's name] [city] [state]". The first listing from March of 2017 was "XX Year Old XXXXXX XXXX Reported Missing - XXXXXXXX News Network". He was also reported as probably being off his medications. Next things next, I called the police agency listing the Missing Person's Report (MPR) and I was told that the MPR had been cancelled.

{so far this has taken all of 2 minutes with public search engines}

I called my friendly local police. The "officer" at the desk slurred his name so bad I had no idea what it was. I pointed this out to him but said it didn't matter. "Are you aware that Mr. X is an indigent, off his meds, and the subject of a recent MPR?" He asked if I worked at the grocery store that reported Mr X. "No, is that important? I just know a screw-up when I see one and felt you needed better intel. Have a nice day."

What Happened- The article in the local paper mentioned that Mr. X was "passed out" on the bench at 11:30pm. The police information makes no mention of alcohol that I have seen. Mr. X was SLEEPING. The grocery store manager had a problem with this and called the cops. The cop came, woke him, and told him to move along. "Go fuck yourself" was the reply. Well done! Not Illegal. Risky though. The 23 year old newly minted authority figure exacted revenge in the form of "Loitering". I will not bore you with § 124-14 of the law in question but suffice to say, Mr. X wasn't breaking the cited statute. The ticket he received however demanded he appear in local court at the start of September - a month away. Mr. X took his ticket and moved on.

Epilogue I - The System- I kept track of that date and come the fateful appearance time, Mr. X didn't show - odds on he was far far away by then or in a cage somewhere else for some other perceived foible. The "judge" set a new appearance date in yet another month. When it came and past, he issued a warrant.

Epilogue II - Loved Ones- Within half an hour of reading the newspaper, I had doxed Mr. X, found his sister via an obituary, and was diligently sending her a tweet (I don't tweet, I created the account for this). Three weeks passed and I gave up on looking for a reply. After nearly four months, I chanced to check in and saw that a month before she had responded asking what I knew (she doesn't tweet much either it seems). Only yesterday we connected and she was happy to tell me "We have located him! He is safe. "

Epilogue III - The Fallout- In my community, I'm viewed as a merchant and have a (regretted) backstory of supporting local law enforcement. What I got to see was that, even with those supposed benefits I was ignored, kept at bay, and mansplained to repeatedly - even by folks I felt liked me personally. I didn't "become" an anarchist for the esthetic. I aspire to Anarchism because of truth I've seen with my own eyes. #ACAB was one of the last things I was wrestling with - it went against YEARS of programming supported by privileged experience. I have poor Mr. X to thank for allowing that final piece fall into place. I wish him and his loved ones all the best and I rage on, towards a world where stories like his are footnotes of a fucked-up bygone era.