Chapter 78: The Chief Commissioner Has a Message for You

Once, when Carter visited a boss from Zhejiang, he heard him say a sentence: "Give the tiger a mountain, give the monkey a tree." It means that as a boss, what you need to do is provide your employees with a suitable stage, then let these professional people handle the professional matters!

Although KFC originated in Kentucky, it was in Salt Lake City where it truly expanded and thrived. There was the first commercial store of KFC, also the first KFC restaurant to use the Colonel Sanders logo. Mr. White, the manager from Salt Lake City, was undoubtedly a professional in managing KFC restaurants.

After seemingly casually agreeing to Mr. White's request and taking a stroll around the restaurant, Carter bid farewell and left. This restaurant was only a temporary need, and he would see the results in a few months. From the bottom of his heart, Carter wasn't too concerned about it.

"Sheriff Carlos is here. I've arranged for him to wait for you in the reception room. Why are you coming so late today?"

"I went to the KFC restaurant on the highway. It's opening tomorrow. If you have time, you can go and try it out. I was wondering why there was a police car outside. Let me go and check!"

Handing the backpack to Goodman, asking him to take it upstairs, Carter walked into the reception room.

"Uncle Carlos, I'm sorry to have kept you waiting for so long."

As a habit, Carter took out a cigarette and handed it over before sitting down and asking:

"What brings you to me this time? If there's anything I can help with, just let me know."

"Thank you. I knew you were trustworthy."

Taking the cigarette from Carter as usual, Carlos smiled with relief.

"Do you know about the recent feud between O'Neil and Trifali's gangs?"

"I have a vague idea. What's the matter? How does it concern me?"

Carter frowned slightly at the mention of gang matters. A police officer driving over to see him, dressed in a police uniform, clearly didn't seem like a private conversation. It seemed more like an official order, so his response had to be careful.

"They've been causing chaos every night for almost half a month now. Surely everyone in Douglas is aware of this? The mayor is very displeased. The pressure on our police department is immense. I won't hide it from you. I have nothing to hide from you."

With a bitter smile, Carlos's face, surrounded by smoke, looked somewhat dejected.

"Carter, you know how many people we have in our police department."

"Well, around two hundred, right?"

"One hundred and eighty-seven. That includes the chief, female officers, campus police, everyone. Only one hundred and eighty-seven people! The mayor wants us to calm down this dispute within three days. But as you know, just Trifali's biker gang alone has over a hundred and sixty people, not to mention O'Neil's side. Black people are like peanuts in the field. Pull out one, and you can pull out a bunch. If this goes on, who knows how many more black people will join in."

In a small town with nearly fifty thousand permanent residents, less than two hundred police officers were clearly not enough. Perhaps in China, this number would seem normal, especially considering some communities had more than fifty thousand residents and were still managed by fewer than two hundred officers. But in the United States, the situation was completely different.

The police-to-citizen ratio of 1:267 already represented poor law and order. Normally, the police-to-citizen ratio in U.S. cities should be around 1:200 to maintain relative law and order. To achieve better security, this ratio needed to be further reduced.

With 187 Douglas police officers, subtracting administrative leaders, internal staff, and special industry police such as campus police, the real police officers patrolling the streets or serving as frontline mobile law enforcement personnel might only number around 150.

Under normal circumstances, these 150 officers should be sufficient. Because in a capitalistic country, there was no way to achieve egalitarianism. The communities with higher tax revenues would naturally receive more police deployment. Thus, these 150 officers' patrols would mainly be concentrated in the white communities. Considering the police-to-citizen ratio in a white population of around twenty thousand: 1:133, this seemed appropriate.

This was also why Carter hadn't felt Douglas was chaotic. On the contrary, he felt quite safe there. But when a big mess like this happened, with these few police officers, they were indeed stretched thin.

"But what's the use of you coming to me if your police force is stretched thin?"

"I'm not here to ask for manpower. Even with four armed security guards from the bank, it wouldn't solve the problem. I... I'll just say it plainly. Didn't you help a black man named Duke get off the hook last time? Chief William wants to ask you to deliver a message to the black community and work for them. We'll deal with Trifali's side."

"It's not good to resort to violence. Why can't they sit down and talk things out? The mayor has given three days. Chief William believes this is the only way to resolve the matter within three days. Of course, I think so too. If the police intervene violently, it may only escalate the conflict further. After all, most of the police officers are white. You know, they're not usually impartial. If they have to take sides, it's difficult to negotiate."

After Carlos finished speaking, he looked at Carter intently, his expression not showing any awkwardness. Just a slight sense of emotion, as if a sheriff like him had to ask Carter, a mere child, for help, or even their chief asked Carter for help.

Who made Carter, a white man in Douglas, have the best reputation among black people? Finding a black person to pass on the message wasn't reliable, and they didn't trust each other. What if they encountered a "translator of Snow Wolf Valley"? It would be like lifting a rock only to drop it on their own feet. As for finding other white people...

Who dared to go? Who would try? To see if they could walk into the black neighborhood and walk out unscathed.