Chief Harris tells his cops to put their guns away, which leaves five cops standing behind him awkwardly, unsure what to do while Harris goes to hand David John the papers. Brandon makes a big show of taking the papers instead, reading them all the way through before handing them over to David John.
“You can search all you want,” Brandon finally says, “but you’re going to have to move your cars.”
“Excuse me?” Cunningham looks at Brandon like he wishes it were just the two of them in a windowless room, Brandon cuffed to a table, Cunningham holding a sock full of batteries.
Brandon is playing to the cameras. “Like I said, we’re just going to church. Are we under arrest?”
“This has nothing to do with you, Mr. Rogers,” Chief Harris says. The woman cop snickers.
Jessup can tell that it bothers Brandon a bit, imagines him in a cardigan, trying to run a children’s television show instead of wearing an expensive suit and putting himself forward as the new face of the movement.
He gathers himself nicely. “Well, then, if we’re not under arrest, then why don’t you move your vehicles out of the way so we can head to church. I think out on the road would do nicely.”
“Where is Mr. Collins’s pickup truck? I understand he has a 1994 Ford Ranger that he was driving Friday night. Our warrant includes Mr. Collins’s truck as well as the premises.”
Brandon looks genuinely confused. “Collins?”
David John quietly tells him that Jessup never changed his name. Brandon nods. There’s a flash of irritation, something that he hadn’t counted on, but he’s more interested in Chief Harris and playing to the cameras.
“Well, as you can see, Jessup’s truck isn’t here. He spent some time doing ministry work at the church yesterday, and wouldn’t you know it? Engine trouble. No, if you’re looking for his truck, you’ll have to come on out to the Blessed Church of the White America.” He feigns a look of concern. “Oh. But then, I’m guessing you don’t have a search warrant for the Blessed Church of the White America, do you? So sorry about the inconvenience, but I’m sure you can find one of your liberal judges—one who doesn’t go to church—who’s free on a Sunday morning. Now. About moving your cars?”
The cops grumble, but Harris shuts them up. While they are moving their police department vehicles, Brandon steps in front of the cameras, holds an impromptu news conference, which Jessup finds funny. In the movies, there’s always a scrum. Here it’s just three cameras, a slouchy middle-aged guy holding out a tape recorder, and a younger guy holding a notebook, his hair longer on top and buzzed on the side—must be from TakeBack, Jessup thinks—while Brandon acts like he’s in front of a hundred cameras.
“—jackbooted thugs. We’ve got kids in hoodies selling drugs and carjacking law-abiding citizens, but instead of dealing with the problem of urban crime, the Cortaca Police Department has decided to come after a young man simply because our beliefs don’t fit their liberal, global ideology. Jessup is a good kid. Honor roll, three-sport athlete, a literal choirboy at the church.”
Jessup has to stifle a laugh. Choirboy. Brandon’s an asshole, and he’d love to make the guy eat a fist, but he’s good with the camera. Jessup stays off to the side, watches the cops coming back down the driveway.
“Look,” Brandon continues, answering a question from the reporter from CNN, “there’s video of this so-called incident on Friday night. And it shows clearly that Kevin Corson was a troublemaker, a common thug menacing a boy who did nothing wrong. And despite Corson’s foul language and the unchecked animal aggression he displayed, Jessup stayed polite and calm.”
The cops walk by stoically, making it a point not to look at the cameras. One of the big white cops hesitates, giving Jessup’s mom a nod that seems to acknowledge how intrusive this is, a tacit apology for the fact that he’s going to be pawing through the kitchen and trampling all over the trailer.
“The only reason—the only reason—the government is here is because we’re white. If those roles had been reversed, if it had been a white boy yelling like that at a black kid, all of it caught on video, do you think the cops would be arresting the kid who got yelled at? Of course not. This is nothing more than a witch hunt, the Cortaca Police Department and the judge cowering behind political correctness.”
Round one to Brandon.