The widow warning the sergeant not to step on it.
And Pike placing his boot directly over the object.
The footage of the general's intervention was reviewed separately.
It showed that the officer had drawn and raised the baton while the widow stood directly in front of him. The general restrained the raised arm only long enough to stop the immediate threatened movement, then released it when the baton was lowered.
The review did not support Pike's assertion that the general had attacked him without provocation.
The investigators submitted their findings to the appropriate prosecuting authorities.
The police department also began a separate administrative process.
Pike was notified of the allegations.
He was given an opportunity to respond.
And he was represented through the procedures available to him.
The department did not simply terminate him because the video became popular.
It examined the conduct under the standards governing public employees and police officers.
After the required review, the city sustained multiple serious misconduct allegations and terminated Pike's employment.
The criminal case proceeded separately.
When Pike learned he had lost his job, he sat alone in his kitchen.
For years, his identity had been built around the uniform.
The authority.
The patrol car.
And the feeling that people stepped aside when he entered a room.
Now the badge was gone.
The city had removed him from his position.
And the public knew his name for reasons he had never imagined.
At first, he was furious.
He blamed the general.
The young officer.
The shopkeeper.
And the people who recorded the confrontation.
He told himself that nobody understood the pressure police officers faced.
He repeated that he'd been having a difficult day.
That the widow had asked too many questions.
That the crowd had made him feel threatened.
But those explanations became harder to maintain whenever he watched the recordings.
The widow was seventy-nine.
She was holding a paper bag.
She had asked to show a receipt.
And she had repeatedly pleaded for him not to damage her husband's badge.
Pike knew what his boot had done.
He remembered the deliberate movement.
He remembered the brief satisfaction he felt when he crushed the object she valued.
And he remembered the slap.
For a long time, he had described his temper as toughness.
Now the video forced him to confront a different description.
Cruelty.
He shut off the screen.
For several minutes, he sat in silence.
Then his wife entered the kitchen.