That January, the last of criminal Swekia died.
The country began to undergo a profound transformation. Rendered useless, police officers were demobilized, along with their commissioners, investigators and scribes. With the jail cells empty and deserted, jailers were also resigned. Old and obsolete prisons were demolished. Many architects went hungry because there were no more prisons to build. The confession booths were left empty and preachers had no more topics for their sermons.
Then automobile manufacturing plummeted, as police fleets were deactivated. Arms manufacturers shut down their malevolent establishments with massive layoffs and a sudden spike in the national unemployment rate. Safe box and electronic security system producers needed to diversify their industrial line, not without heavy losses.
In the midst of all this, numerous stocks brutally plunged in the Stock Exchange. Two large banks went bankrupt, followed by a noisy concordat which the Central Bank refused to cover for, this time.
In the intellectual world, prompt changes were noted. The country’s federal universities closed their courses in Criminal Law, now victims of the new students’ lack of interest. The former lawyers and criminologists suddenly found themselves thoroughly unoccupied. Specialized writers in criminology were interrupted in their analysis and interpretation of heavy volumes of the penal code and legislation. Four technical publishers were shut down.
The Supreme Judicial Council was no less in chaos. Appeal judges, magistrates and ministers of the Supreme Court were all relieved of their duties after the Central Power decided to abolish the Ministry of Justice. A surge of public commotion was roused when the ex-minister committed suicide, ingesting an equestrian dose of potassium cyanide.
Meanwhile in the streets, children were playing peacefully. Traffic signals were respected. Security guards couldn’t get a job anywhere. Doors were left unlocked and windows without their grates. No one feared anyone.
* * *
But the scale of the business world teetered dangerously and the future seemed unsustainable. The men of Wall Street met behind closed doors and discussed at length various economic plans to address the new and unforeseen conjuncture. A fifth-generation supercomputer was programmed with all available data. For several days, amidst the eager expectation of financiers and captains of industry, the cold machinery ground and churned out the viable alternatives.
At the end of the second week, the behemoth disgorged a long strip of lined paper out of its gray throat. It was the Great Plan. With immediate effect, the project established the formation of a brigade of criminals, specially trained in burglary, kidnapping, murder and bribery. In less than a month, a wave of terror had spread across the country.
* * *
The masses soon demanded the reinstatement of the Ministry of Justice. Judges and prosecutors were readmitted. Lawyers resumed their codes. The Legislative Assemblies worked at full steam, approving excessive laws, the death penalty and court martial. Torturers were redeemed from shadow, wielding brand new devices of brainwash. Technical courses for executioners were opened.
Construction companies earned rivers of money with the planning for new prisons. Armament factories worked in three shifts and wages rose 300 % across the region. The steel mills no longer produced enough steel bars to meet the demands for window grate manufacturers.
On the Exchange Market, stocks rose to the ionosphere. Genius inventors created sophisticated electronic detection and security devices. Police dogs were trained in the fields, employing idle hand labor from men of the countryside. The newspapers began selling in double, drawing on scandalous headlines about police matters. Medical clinics once again became clogged with drug addicts and psychiatrists earned ten times more pay.
On the street, the little girls are run over. High school students buy crack rocks at the front gate. Young girls are seduced by their tutors. Fear overwhelms minds and hearts afar.
But crime is just too important to do away with…
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