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The Bell Riots begin
The Bell Riots were a pivotal historical event on Earth in 2024. Started in San Francisco's Sanctuary District A, the riots and resulting after effects would help set the tone for the future of Humanity.
The Prelude
By the year 2020, the American government, reacting to serious problems of homelessness and unemployment, created special Sanctuary Districts, essentially walled off sections of the city grid, in most major cities. Unfortunately, while established with the benevolent intent of providing free housing and food, as well as prospects for future employment, the Sanctuaries, with little police protection and continued cutbacks, quickly degenerated into inhumane internment camps for the poor. Even though people with criminal records were not allowed inside Sanctuaries, it didn't take long for the homeless and unemployed to be joined by the mentally ill and other, more violent, social outcasts. These groups were later referred to by their slang terms, Gimmies, Dims, and Ghosts.
By late 2024, the twenty square blocks that made up Sanctuary District A had become a overcrowded slum. With the records of people inside the Sanctuaries not uploaded to the planetary computer network, and therefor not accessible using an Interface, the true conditions inside were unknown to the general public. American society believed that, despite the political upheaval affecting Europe at the time, the United States was stable and had found a way to successfully deal with the social problems that had been the genesis of the Sanctuaries. An "out of sight, out of mind" mentality had set in.
The Spark
On August 30th, three Starfleet officers, Benjamin Sisko, Julian Bashir, and Jadzia Dax, arrived in San Francisco from 2371, due to a transporter accident. Knocked unconscious during the transport, Sisko and Bashir were awoken by security guards Vin and Bernardo Calvera, who mistakenly believed them to be homeless. Lacking any identification, and with their combadges stolen, they were brought to Sanctuary District A, where they were processed in by health official Lee. Inside, Sisko and Bashir, in accordance with the Starfleet's temporal displacement policy, tried to not affect history while looking for a way out to find Dax. Jadzia was awoken and befriended by Chris Brynner, who thought she was mugged, and who found her a place to stay. The night of the 31st, Bashir was assaulted by a gang of ghosts trying to take his ration card. In the ensuing scuffle, a man stepped in to help him and was stabbed to death by Biddle Coleridge (B.C.), who ran off. Sisko checked the man's ration card and found out the man who died helping them was Gabriel Bell. Realizing they had changed the past, Bashir and Sisko, as Bell, joined gimmie Michael Webb, whom they met earlier, in gathering support for a rally outside the Sanctuary Processing Center the next day. (DS9: "Past Tense, Part I")
The Riot
"Gabriel Bell" in the Sanctuary District A processing center
Early in the morning on September 1st, the conditions surrounding the distribution of food rations sparked a riot where the ghosts lead by B.C., attacked the Sanctuary guards, quickly capturing the Sanctuary Processing Center and the rest of the district. Armed with the weapons of the overpowered guards, they took six center employees hostage, including Vin, Calvera and Lee. They were joined by "Gabriel Bell" and Michael Webb, who acted as the face and voice of the riot with police negotiator Detective Preston.
The Hostages in the processing center
Chris Brynner, who owned Brynner Information Systems which operated Channel 90 on the net, was convinced by Dax to break the law and reconnect the Processing Center after the police cut it off. Reconnected on the 2nd, and Sanctuary residents, like Henry Garcia, were able to tell their stories of imprisonment to the outside world. As a result, the American public became aware of the great injustice that had been hidden from them and further riots broke out in Sanctuaries across the US.
Over the protests of Detective Preston, the governor of California ordered National Guardsmen to retake the Sanctuary by force on September 3rd at 0500 hours. In the melee, hundreds of Sanctuary residents were killed, including Michael Webb and B.C. "Gabriel Bell" was shot protecting Vin and the other hostages, all of whom remained unharmed.
The Aftermath
The San Francisco Police Department SWAT team enters the Sanctuary District A Processing Center
Vin and Bernardo took Bell's and Bashir's ration cards after the riot, saying they would list them a casualties, and helped them return to their beam-in site, where Dax was waiting for them. Both went on to tell other people what happened in the Sanctuary, never knowing that Sisko was Bell. The away team was rescued by Kira Nerys and Miles O'Brien shortly thereafter.
In the wake of the Bell Riots and the senseless death of so many people, public opinion turned against the concept of the Sanctuary Districts. The Sanctuaries were abolished as the United States finally began to face the serious social problems it had struggled with for over a century. Because Bell had played a crucial role in protecting the hostages, and in the negotiations prior to the government assault, he was remembered as one of the central figures in the events and his name became forever associated with them.
The event was of such significance that its absence from Earth's history led to a timeline in which the United Federation of Planets was never created. (DS9: "Past Tense, Part I", "Past Tense, Part II")
External link
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