Stardate Fun Pad!
~ The Case of the Empty Gallery ~
The Laundering · Edition · "Decorum" · ages 4 to 400
COLOR ME: the one public door to police governance.
PUBLIC GALLERY · 3 MIN (empty) THE RULES 3:00 THE CHAIR SCIENCE OFFICER
1 · A citizen tries
"I'd like to speak to the board about a real problem in my—"
2 · The rules
"Three minutes. Pre-register. On mandate. Be polite. Time's up. *buzz*" ⏱ 0:00
3 · Nobody comes back
"The room isn't closed, Captain. It's just not worth the trip. A court called selective refusal a breach."

The deterrence recipe 🍳

3 minutes + pre-register + on-mandate + be polite

= an empty room

No door is locked. Each rule is small and reasonable-sounding. Stack them, and the cost of speaking quietly outgrows the point of it. The room empties itself — and looks orderly doing it.

Color the empty chairs

all empty

"Undemocratic" is the critics' word. The house claim is narrower: an Ottawa court (Oct 2025) found that arbitrary, selective refusal is a Charter breach.

A holodeck artifact · The Laundering · "undemocratic" = critics' word; the house claim = the Oct 2025 court finding · open the real edition ▸