“Whitney, I’m old and don’t want to have another heart attack. Can you please stop acting like there’s not a problem? Fix this for fuck’s sake. Do we want all your hard work blowing up because a kid gets shot?” With that she left, leaving us all in tense silence.

“If it were a matter of one person fixing this it would already be over. I know you can’t fix all of it,” Ron said exhaustedly. “But you need to do better than a slap on the hand.”

Day twisted his mouth to the side, and when he spoke I had to refrain from sitting on Ron. “It took a year to get this department back on track after I came out. Easton, you know that. It seemed like half the county was suspicious of me. If I take sides on this...” He trailed off, but his meaning was crystal clear.

Ron leaned in then and the menacing look in his eyes made me think that we’d be lucky if this thing didn’t end up in a brawl. “Please tell me this isn’t about your fucking popularity, Whitney. Do you know what it’s like to have two black teens about to get licenses with this mess going on?”

Ron’s emotional words seem to finally sink in. Day’s usually unaffected face went from realization, to concern, to what finally looked like genuine empathy for Ron’s distress. He uncrossed his arms and clapped Ron’s shoulder, before he spoke. “Ron, I’m not trying to say this is simple, I just don’t seem to have any good solutions for this.”

Ron’s shoulders relaxed a fraction, but he looked to me to respond.

“I’m not saying any of us have all the answers here, but we need to find them. This is our fucking job. We promised to do this. If people are scared for their kids we are failing at our jobs. To start, we need to let this community know, in no uncertain terms, that we do not think what is happening is acceptable.”

Day let out a long breath and turned to look at me. “I’ve made an active effort to recruit more minorities.” I sighed at his words because he just wasn’t getting it. “You know I even had that LGBT training last year, and how much shit I got for it. We’ve got a lot going on, with opiates addiction wreaking havoc in the rural areas.”