The world of American TV series: Starting with the L.A. Patrol.

Chapter 1194 Larry Griffin

"Each of these hats represents a family or life that has been destroyed because of Griffey Coal and Electricity."

The female owner's words made Jack and Clay look at each other in bewilderment. There were no less than seventy or eighty old hats densely packed on the wall, which meant that almost the same number of families had suffered misfortune.

"So how did Griffin manage to get away with it? I mean, we heard you guys filed a class action lawsuit." Clay volunteered to help carry the remaining fertilizer bags.

"Because we are all poor." The female owner held her waist and a self-deprecating smile appeared on her sickly pale face.

"We couldn't afford better lawyers, but Griffin had a bunch of experts speaking for him, saying that poor people like to smoke and eat junk food, so it's normal that the incidence of cancer and leukemia is high.

They found out that I smoked cigarettes in high school, so in court, their lawyer, Andy Witherspoon, said that my lung cancer was caused by those cigarettes.

"So the power plant was not shut down because of the class action lawsuit you initiated?" Jack asked with a frown.

"Of course not." The female owner thanked Clay for his help in a low voice and continued, "That's because the nearby coal mine is almost exhausted, and their board of directors sold the power plant and the coal mine."

"So Larry Griffin can get away with it unscathed, and live comfortably in his retirement with the money he earned?" Clay's eyes were filled with anger.

"Of course not. He has started a new business and transferred the money he earned to his girlfriend's name. So the lawyer told us that even if we win the lawsuit, we won't get any compensation, so most people give up."

The female shop owner's tone was full of sarcasm. "Want to know what his new business is? I bet you would never guess it."

"What is it?" Clay asked curiously.

In just a few moments of conversation, Jack and Clay easily moved hundreds of kilograms of fertilizer bags. The grateful female owner invited them into the store and took out a few bottles of cold beer from the refrigerator.

"He's now selling green products, like tree sap natural shampoo, silicone-free detergent, and his new company is called 'Blue Spring Flowers'."

The female owner unscrewed the beer cap and handed it to the two men with a disgusted expression.

-

"I remember seeing in the news that the governor of Alabama tried to raise the minimum living standard for receiving welfare benefits from $900 to $1100 per month. His explanation was that this would prevent the poor from being too lazy."

As the two drove to Pelham, a suburb of Birmingham, Clay, who was driving, seemingly casually brought up a topic.

"At first I thought this made sense. After all, if a person can only earn more than $1000 a month by working hard, and another person can live a similar life without doing anything, it would be better for him to just lie down and do nothing."

"So what now?" Jack knew, of course, that wasn't what he wanted to say.

"But it's not that these people don't want to work hard, at least not the ones I've seen." Clay sighed, "They've been working hard, but those rich people can easily make all their efforts go to waste."

Jack nodded in agreement. The conditions in the United States were extremely favorable. The land was vast and the population was sparse. Although there were large landowners everywhere, there was no contradiction between people and land as existed in Seris since ancient times.

For example, the town of Blue Springs where they were just now was not favored by large landowners because it was close to Mount Baker where the thermal power plant and coal mines were located. The undulating hills were not suitable for large-scale mechanized farming, and it used to have many small farmers.

The living environment of these small farmers is much more difficult than those small farmers in California that Jack knows. There is a lack of large metropolitan areas around them that can consume agricultural products such as vegetables and fruits, so they can only grow cotton or raise livestock.

But compared to large landowners who own thousands or tens of thousands of acres, small farmers have much higher production costs and labor costs.

Because they cannot use large agricultural machinery, cannot hire professionally trained agricultural workers from South Africa, and do not have a unified sales channel.

But even so, they still struggled to survive and tried to live a self-sufficient life until all their hopes were destroyed by Griffin Coal and Electricity Company.

The memorial board that the female shop owner showed them was just an abbreviation of the local area in recent decades. In fact, there is no essential difference between the rednecks living at the bottom of society and the black people, including in terms of discrimination.

However, despite the emotion and sympathy, the case still needs to be investigated. God knows how many explosives the Hammond brothers have prepared, and the FBI dare not just sit back and do nothing.

Larry Griffin has almost no assets in his name. The land he bought belongs to his underage daughter, and the car and the luxurious villa where Jack and Clay are now living are all owned by a charitable foundation that nominally belongs to his girlfriend.

"I don't remember any Greg Hammond." Larry Griffin, who received a call from the FBI, opened the door for the two FBI agents. After they stated their purpose, he immediately said that he knew nothing about it.

The old man was not tall, only about 1.7 meters at most. He wore a well-ironed handmade suit and his hair was combed meticulously, looking like a rich man.

The smile on Jack's face was as fake as the other person's. "He used to be a truck driver under you. He was one of the plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit, and he lost his daughter to cancer not long ago."

"Please come in and talk." Larry Griffin led two FBI agents and, after many twists and turns, they finally entered a special meeting room.

Along the way, Jack noticed that the walls of the villa, from the corridors to the rooms, were hung everywhere with abstract paintings of unknown meaning, and judging from the alarms installed next to the picture frames, they were obviously all worth a lot of money.

"That lawsuit is pure extortion. Those lazy people who don't want to work are always trying to make a fortune in various ways. They can't produce any evidence to prove illegal emissions. Please take a seat, gentlemen."

Larry Griffin gestured for the two to sit down. In the middle of the room was a small postmodern-style coffee table with cups and water prepared on it. Around the coffee table were several equally unique chairs.

Jack didn't recognize the coffee table, but he recognized the brand of the chair, the "Karuselli" chair from the Finnish brand "ARTEK", which costs more than 10,000 euros. He had seen a similar one in Rossi's study.

"I entrusted the case to the lawyer, and we won both the first trial and the appeal," Larry Griffin said in a relaxed tone.

While he was speaking, a well-maintained blonde beauty in her 30s walked in from the other side of the room and sat next to him. Jack, who had seen her photo, recognized her as Larry Griffin's current girlfriend.