Sightings

Uncle Sam Is Back. Or Somebody Stole His Helicopter.

Somebody has walls, armour and air support. Only one outfit in America ever had all three.

By the Rebel News county desk. Louisville, Thursday 17 March 1994. 1 min read.

A grainy black-and-white long-lens photograph taken from behind a window frame at dusk: a police Huey in a pale-over-dark paint scheme with a star badge sits on the flat roof of a warehouse behind a towering wall of corrugated steel and razor wire, one armed figure kneeling by it and another standing with binoculars, both faces blurred out, a red grease-pencil arrow drawn on the print. — Shot from a window. It's boarded up now. Photo: name withheld

LOUISVILLE. Drive the edge of Louisville long enough and you'll find it. You can't miss it. Nobody misses a wall that size.

The walls

Tall, thick and new, round a plot on the outskirts where nobody sane builds anything. The dead walk that city by the thousand, and somebody looked at all of it and thought: here. Here's good.

The roof

There's a helicopter up there. A police Huey, parked on the roof like a cat on a fridge. Think about the last time you heard one fly. Now think about who keeps one fuelled.

The traffic

The ones who've watched from the treeline, and lived, talk about armour. Plural. It rolls out the gate and comes back heavier. The people riding it carry more rifle than you own and move like they've done this before, somewhere hotter.

A grainy black-and-white telephoto shot through out-of-focus leaves: an armoured truck with slatted window grilles rolls out of the steel gate of a walled compound topped with razor wire and a wooden watchtower, a second armoured truck behind it and armed figures in plate carriers walking alongside, every face blurred out, a red grease-pencil circle drawn round the first truck. — The photographer didn't wait for the second truck. Photo: name withheld

The photos

The pictures on this page came to us in an envelope, from someone who won't give a name and asked us not to print where they were standing. They didn't stay to chat. Having seen the pictures, neither would you.

The theory

The army left. The government drew a fence round the county and stopped answering the phone. So who's this? An advance team, sent to take Louisville back one street at a time? A strike force that never got the memo?

Or somebody who found the keys.

Go and look. From far away, with binoculars, a full tank and the engine running. If they're the government, they'll have paperwork. If they're not, they'll have worse.