Community Standards

[Stelllyo]

Los Santos, and Its People

                   Dear Citizens, I joined this Police Department June 18th, 2017. That's not the beginning of my story though. My story began when I was 16. Growing up, my father worked every day of his life so that he could provide for my mother and I. He was a Police Officer like I am now. He joined the day that I was born, but before that, he was just another thug in the city of thugs. Lake City was hard on him growing up. When the factories shut down, and the meat companies all moved out, there wasn't any work. Meanwhile, the rich lived in their penthouses and drove their luxurious cars, while my father had to watch his family be torn apart by the decline. He did what any young man his age would, and he started working the streets and back alleys. He would rob, steal, and cheat his way into any sort of dime or dollar he could get his hands on. When I was born, he looked at himself in the mirror real hard and decided to change his life. Change himself.

                  He joined the Lake City PD. My mother said the day he became a Cadet, he was so happy. He worked so hard every day, putting his life on the line so that we didn't have to live in the slums. Then, things got tough. He took a pay cut, and we had to move. He started cutting corners, and it got him places. He ranked up so fast, but at what price? My father became someone he hated. He would plant evidence, or hurt people for it. He truly lost his way. We could see it every night he came home, stinking of alcohol and sweat, that he just wasn't the man that I grew up with. My mother left him when I was 14, and after that, It just got worse. He truly did try to be that dad he once was, but me being so young, I just didn't see that. I didn't see that he was drowning. 

                  When I turned sixteen, I walked out on my own party, because I didn't get some present that I wanted, I walked out on my own dad. When I came home, he just told me he wanted to spend some time with me, but I still turned him away. The next day, he never came home. I got a call, and It was my father's partner. My dad had been shot and beaten, after trying to chase down a mugger... He went in alone and paid the price. When I got to the hospital, my dad looked at me, and smiled.. his last words were "I just wanted to be the hero that you deserved".

                  After that, I went down a dark path. I started hanging out with my cousins and my friends, and I dropped out of school even. I did things for a quick dollar that make me wretch at the thought. One day, I thought the same thing that my dad did.. "What am I becoming?".

                  So, I came here. I came to Los Santos to escape my past, but I have realized that I can't. We as sons are bound to relive our father's lives. We may not want to, we may not even try, but it is our destiny to make the same mistakes that they do. I think my fathers greatest mistake, was trying to do good in a world that has no good left. To try and save a city that doesn't want to be saved. I look at myself now, and I realize that's just what im doing. I joined the Department June 18th, and since that day, I have worked tirelessly to try and be a role model for you Citizens. I have worked hard, and I have lost many a friend. I lost my first Partner, and I've even had to hold the very Cadets who I've trained in my arms, as they bled out like dogs in the street. I have worked for this city in ways that you will never know, and I have sacrificed so much for you. I have seen greater men do the same. 

                  It is not my hope to die for a City, that would not live for me. I will continue to serve this great city, and I will continue to work my hardest to preserve what little shred of hope it has left.. but I will do so hoping that the great men who I have served with, and continue to, will gain the respect that they deserve. I have been given too much senseless hate, and I have had too many gunshot wounds from people I am simply attempting to help. I am not a killer, and I am not a soldier. I am a helping hand, and a loving soul, and I am here for every Citizen.

                  Sometimes I just wonder if every Citizen has my back the way that I have there's. I hope that you that have taken the time to read this, think differently about the men and women that serve this city and its inhabitants. Realize that we are men and women like you and that we may have seen the things that you have seen. We have loved like you have loved, and we sure have lost as you have lost. We make mistakes, we hurt over them. We cry, and we laugh, and we look at this dark city, and we hope for the light to shine on it. I simply hope that the Citizens of this city have the same hopes, and would be more kind in the future to help us achieve them.

 

Sincerely,

Detecive I

Zachary Vaun