Chapter 11
TV EVENING NEWS REPORT
Network Nine, Pacific States Broadcasting: reporter VT
A witch registration centre in Portland, Oregon has been disrupted today. Some are calling it ‘an attack’ and saying the methods used all point to witchcraft.
The facility, at the Second and Oak Bureau, is reckoned to be one of the largest in the country, reflecting Portland’s high density of known persons of magical ability.
Images shared with us show crates of testing kits destroyed, and a broken refrigeration unit for the storage of samples.
Laptops used for registration data entry appear to have been scrambled or have become non-responsive.
Most disturbingly, staff working at the centre have reported feelings of dizziness, nausea, and confusion. ‘It’s like brain fog,’ one of them told me. ‘I could barely type my own name into the online assessment forms.’
Details are now emerging of similar events across the country, in what may have been a synchronised wave of action aimed at halting the controversial registrations.
Rep. Sandra Ortiz, who sponsored the Witchcraft Registration Act passed last week, has released a statement saying that, ‘This co-ordinated violence, aimed at public facilities and their innocent workforce, further demonstrates the lawlessness of the magical community. It shows how urgently we need to know the true number of witches walking among us and is alarming proof of how far they are prepared to go.’
A statement just received from the Moot, America’s representative body of magical persons, says: ‘We condemn in the strongest possible terms any unlawful interference with the registration process. However, we urge people not to leap to conclusions about who is responsible for any disruption that may have occurred. Crime committed by magical persons is one third that of the general population.’
We’ll continue to track this unfolding story.