Jack of Harts

The mayor of Dallas did not accept Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base’s defiance of her lawful orders to arrest their Marine. He had murdered an entire group of peaceful protesters in cold blood, and the “security footage” the base had obviously cooked up and released was just to make the victims look like they deserved it. So the mayor denounced it as exactly that on live broadcast. The United States Marines had been murdering black and brown and yellow and red people for centuries. And Lieutenant Jacob Carter was the perfect example of that. Northern Minnesota pale skin. Bright blond hair. Shining blue eyes. Movie star square jaw. Wielder of the deeply problematic title, Cowboy. He was the very embodiment of white privilege, and it was time the people rose up and told them that their wanton campaign of terror and murder was over. The mayor of Dallas called and the protesters came. They screamed and spat, they threw bottles and rocks, and they showed everyone on all of the networks that the United States military was not welcome in their town. And when night fell, the gangs and the drug cartels and the anarchists came to burn everything down. But the defenders of Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base did not answer to the mayor of Dallas. They were ready when the looters and rioters came.

Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base housed various Texas State Guard, Army, Air Force, and Marine units when the Second Great Depression came upon us all. VMFA-112, the Cowboys, is the most famous of those units. They had been there for nearly a century, and their reserve status meant they had little of the turnover that line units had. Then their Lieutenant Jacob Carter saved an entire family from gang violence during the riots, and the security footage ended up released all over the networks. They publicly embraced that action as something all Cowboys should aspire to do. The other units on base had a similar history, and greatly enjoyed watching the young Marine in action. They were envious, in fact. The Metroplex was their home. They had no intention of leaving it. They wanted to defend it. That is why Fort Worth JRB had very few of the desertions most other bases saw. That is why they showed a united front to the police the mayor sent to arrest the young Marine. And that is why they were ready when the riots and looters came for them.

The mayors of the Dallas/Fort Worth/Arlington Metroplex welcomed the early protestors that heralded the Second Great Depression. They ordered the police to stand down and let the peaceful protesters be, and when the protests became riots and more, they mayors ordered the police to stay back and let the people vent their righteous feelings. Looters destroyed vehicles on the streets, broke into businesses, and invaded homes, taking anything of value they could find. Some neighborhoods they declared “Police Free” zones where no one could be forced to work against their will. Those zones quickly became hotbeds of gang and drug cartel activity, and thefts, rapes, and murders ran rampant. Those citizens who managed to drive the looters off with weapons soon had their weapons confiscated by the police at mayoral orders. The looters always came back the next night, neighborhoods burned, and citizens died. The flashpoint for Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base came when one of their Marines killed an entire gang caught in the act of looting a family home. The mayor of Dallas ordered his arrest for murdering peaceful protestors, and came prepared with a laundry list of other charges to hang on the man.