Virtual Manchester.

Are you sitting comfortably?
> Then I shall begin…

"Once Upon A Time", there lived an Architect.
He was a clever man and he came up with an idea for a new place for people to live.
He called this place Virtual Manchester.
This was seen by many people as a nice place, gradually they moved to live there and it grew to the size of a small City.
Upon moving to the City everyone was given a free car – and there own personal registration number.
This allowed the Architect to record who lived there – and their movements in and out.

There were two types of accommodation available.
The City Centre had bigger & better houses, these had access to the main Facilities and were let on payment of a small rental charge.
There were other houses available on the outskirts of town – from which the City Centre was visible – but out of bounds.
These houses were also nice and well kept, but had only smaller local Facilities. For some they were sufficient.

The Architect had the foresight to realise that the Community needed to be given a set of rules to live by.
Those not signing up to do so were not allowed to move there. He called these rules The Law.
Most people understood why the various laws were in place – and indeed welcomed them as generally they made the City a nicer place to live. The law abiding citizens rarely gave much thought to the laws as they were not breaking them so had no need to fear them.
The Architect also established a small volunteer Police Team to keep the peace and deal with any offenders.

Eventually the Architect tired of his new creation and sold it on to a Management Company. He then went away to pursue other interests in life. The Management Company were a disparate group of individuals who did not work well together, but they did employ a Consultant to oversee the City and keep it running in good order.
Eventually this Consultant bought out the Management Company and became sole owner of the by now well established City. He was a happy man. He hired a City Mayor to look after things day to day for him.
The new owner of the city existed under authority from the Government of the country.
This National Government liked to make bigger laws which the owner of the City was forced to comply with, so this took up much of his time when new ones were introduced. When not busy with them he would come up with ideas for making the City even better and implement them. Indeed his spent a lot of time introducing schools to educate the Youth of the society.
Only those in the City Centre could access the schools, but again many of those people liked them and sent their Youths there.

Life in the City was good. People went about their business unhindered and enjoyed living there. Most didn’t spend all their time there – working and visiting friends elsewhere – but when they returned home they felt safe and generally well looked after by the authorities.

However, as in most populations of people there were some who didn’t live totally within the law.
Some made minor mistakes, like driving too quickly, parking in the wrong place, or even having two or more houses! - which was very strictly forbidden.
Depending upon their crimes, they were variously either fined, or sent to prison, sometimes for life, or indeed expelled from Virtual Manchester never to be allowed to return.

The odd one was more malevolent and spent his time actively outside the laws, doing such things as selling narcotics. One person in particular kept getting caught.
When he was young he would be issued with fixed penalty fines – which were of no consequence at all to him as his next drug deal more than adequately covered the fine with money to spare.
Over time he was given so many fines that eventually he was sent to prison for a short period.
This made him think, and he started figuring out ways not to get caught in the future.
When he came out of prison he was more careful but did go straight back to his old ways dealing drugs. In particular he found a lucrative market dealing with the Youths. They seemed to be generally well off and were worth more to him as commodities. He did keep getting caught, and after more fines and further incarceration, eventually he was sentenced to life in prison!
He didn’t like that idea, so he appealed.
He was allowed out and returned to the Community under a new name.
Fortunately the Police Team recognised him and tied him to his past.

Over time – and it was a long time – as he continued selling drugs he became so good at it that he very rarely got caught. By now he had established a wide clientele who were happy to purchase from him and obviously didn’t report him to the police – unless occasionally someone got a bad batch of product in which case they might do so in revenge.
When any nosey member so of the general pubic thought they had seen something suspicious and reported it, they were told by the Police that their allegation(s) would be investigated thoroughly and appropriate action would be taken.
This man made a very good living and was easily able to afford the rent to live in the City Centre with access to all the best Facilities. He Upgraded his house several times on the back of his drug dealing profits and although the Police still had him in their sights they didn’t get much fresh evidence against him as he kept himself and his activities “under the public radar”. Any reports they did get were simply shelved.

One day the Chief of Police came across this shelf, recoginised the modus operandi of the person concerned – but not his name. When he looked into the file further he recalled that man as a person he had dealt with some years ago and immediately took the pile of old paperwork to the Mayor with the intention of mounting another prosecution – for which he would need extra manpower. The Mayor agreed to the increase in staff and a new recruit was brought in to the Police Team to help. (He was very able and quickly became good at his new job.) However, the Mayor refused to sanction further persecution of the drug dealer instructing that evidence of previous crimes should be ignored and with insufficient current reports of ongoing wrongdoing the man should be left to carry on his business in peace.

The law against drug dealing remained in force and other minor suppliers still got fined until they stopped offending. This pleased the main supplier as he kept full control of the market with no other effective dealers being allowed to operate there.
He was so happy that he wrote a letter of thanks to the new Police recruit asking him whether he would like some cheap drugs in return for continuing to turn a blind eye. The recruit was having none of that, reported the approach to the Chief, and threw the letter in the bin so he wouldn’t have to be reminded of it again. The Chief thanked him for his report, told him the matter would be fully investigated and promptly placed the conversation on the shelf with the file now gathering dust.

Eventually things moved on.
The Architect was never seen in Virtual Manchester again.
The Management Company was dissolved.
The owner of the City kept on going with various improvements believing that day to day matters were being dealt with by the Mayor and his Police Team. - It is unlikely that he was even aware that the dealer was operating there.
The Mayor carried on doing a good job at City Hall, keeping the streets clean and the public transport running.
The dealer kept up his business and became very rich.
The Police Chief took early retirement and began writing short stores which he published for people to enjoy as light entertainment.

In short “everyone lived happily ever after”.
Except: the small number of disillusioned members of the public who could see what was going on and that nothing was being done, and the new Police recruit who eventually came to be Chief himself. He remembered the days when the old chief was in charge – and whilst he was happy with his promotion he did miss the experience and guidance of the older officer.

The dealer eventually owned one of the best houses in the City and had a large circle of friends. He lived on to a ripe old age, never being bothered by the Police ever again. (The wider effects of his illegal activities on the Community are unquantifiable and will never be known.)

…

[Editors note: “All characters and events depicted in this story are entirely fictional. The City of Virtual Manchester does not of course really exist. Any similarity to actual events or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental."]

And the motto to this short story is?:
If ever you are on in Virtual Manchester and you receive a letter from a dealer, do "Report" it.
Your little bit of extra evidence just might be the straw that breaks the camel's back and finally gets something done

...

***Postscript:
Unbeknown to the retiring Chief of Police, a leaving party had been arranged for him to which the owner of the city was invited.
They got together over a couple drinks and this whole sorry story came up in their conversation.
The owner was appalled at what had been going on, and as it happened, enough members of the public made further reports to make a difference to the thinking of team at City Hall, so he immediately came up with a new law which resulted in the drug dealer having both hands tied behind his back and a voice mask applied preventing him from making future contact with other residents. - Young or old.
He wasn't expelled from the City, - but he was left in no doubt that any attempt to carry on his illegal activities would result in a return to prison - probably again for life this time.

Furthermore, the owner reminded the retiring Chief that he needed to submit the "early retirement request form" necessary to complete his service.
As it happened the chief had the paperwork in his pocket but, as his pockets are very deep and due to the copious amount he'd had to drink by that time, he just couldn't find it.
By the following morning it seemed to have gotten lost.

The Chief decided not to waste time trying to find it and he couldn't be bothered writing it all out again. So he simply returned to his desk, declined to confirm the full promotion of the recruit, who was instead appointed Deputy, and all was well in VM.

...

Thanks for reading - and if you enjoyed this - then at least it brightened up someone's day


Feedback to the author would be very welcome: