[Montyfatcat]

Issue #1 - Mr Givens, we meet at last

This is the story of my experience with Raylan Givens, the man at the top of the Givens Family, who have impacted every citizen of Evocity in one way or another. As a writer of a paper like this, I guess this interview should be considered a jackpot of sorts, after all, the man has refused to give interviews about anything else in the past, but this was to be a strangely hollow victory, at least for me. Unfortunately, Mr Givens did not allow cameras or recordings within the interview area.

I was to be picked up by one of his men along Connectivity road, in order to meet him at a villa on the lakeside. Even the journey was eventful, me being run over on the way, and the driver turning up, only to be involved in a police chase, and for me to be run over as a consequence yet again. I finally got a lift to the bottom of the road, where I was greeted by an armed guard, who frisked me for devices, weapons etc. On entry I was greeted by Mr Givens himself, holding his signature weapon, a MAC -11. We greeted each other and then got down to the interview. 

I started with the obvious question to ask when a man has a movie being made about him, what did he think of it. Now this is where my frustrations started. He refused to answer, although the reason was a fairly legitimate one. The reason being, he is working on the production company for this new movie. Now this poses an issue, at least for me as a film lover, about how accurate this film is going to be. After all, Mr Givens could simply cut anything that would be seen as critical of him, or that portrays him in a poor light. This brings up other concerns about identity politics, but that isn't the concern of this paper, maybe The Rockfordian could pick this one up.

Upon the mention of any gangs that troubled his thoughts, I received a pause, a furrowed brow and then a plain and simple "Nope!", reinforced with a "Not at all". Now, if he hadn't furrowed the brow I would have believed him more readily, after all, he does control a seriously large gang. To put it into perspective, he had five armed guards at the villa alone. Serious fire-power for a humble reporter like me. My issue is that he seemed to be thinking of an unpleasant memory, like there WAS someone, but not any more.

Now here comes another question dodge, honestly my Year 9 Geography teacher would slap the hell out of him for this level of not answering questions. I asked hims whether he had any particular memories for his "Fire Insurance" sales, anything unique. This is where he dodged the questions. I tried again and again to get him to remember a particular anecdote but he just kept saying every encounter shined as bright as each other. It was at this point a strange fellow with a vietnam-era US Infantry uniform and an M14 walks in, yells "HELLO" and then goes and sits on the loo for the rest of the interview. I have no idea either.

I decided to ask him about whether, for a man 40 years of age who sits on what is essentially a pile of gold, was he planning to retire any time soon? Well, he answered, in the most roundabout fashion, no. They are planning expansions, but he appears to not want to retire. Now I decided, "I'll ask where he came from, that'll be a simple question". What does he say? "Justice." As you can imagine, I was rather irked by this, is it not that difficult to say where you are from? But NOOOO, "I stem from justice". Towards the end of the interview every question was either just left unanswered, or dodged with some frustratingly thick levels of bullshit.

Even as I walked away, all I could hear was the rattle of MAC-11s as they ripped into a van that had driven down their driveway. Overall I'm rather disappointed, the man who has a movie coming out about him will refuse to even talk about it, and he generally acted in an unnecessarily cloak and dagger fashion throughout the interview.

Article By James Bastard

[StephanGH]

How weird... A crime boss refused to answer questions