On Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 2:57 PM, Kerim Aydin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > 2. When you break a SHALL, you take a risk. Half the time you'd get > off with an Excused anyway because it was accidental. Why would anyone > be wanting to support criminality, unless they had an axe to grind?
Because it means that SHALLs are ignored. Since the with 2 support requirement was added, in several months, only three people have been found GUILTY of anything, one of which was a partnership: out of these, only ehird was actually punished (for Phill). Each of the other two cases included a sentence of APOLOGY, which the ninny blatantly ignored. In a totalitarian state, everyone is always guilty of something, so that the police always have a reason to arrest anyone. Agora does not have a totalitarian government, but as everyone racks up unpunished Rule violations, it is the community which will, more and more, always have a reason to bring criminal charges against someone thought to be acting improperly. The change to require support has turned the criminal court into a glorified system of equity: nobody can be punished even for the worst Rule violation if it's considered in the best interests of the game, and more importantly, anyone can-- and people do-- get away with minor but intentional Rule violations because nobody cares enough to gather support and punish them. This is already the case with contracts, which too often are assigned null equations, often by judges judging long after the point has been made moot, and no doubt you want to extend the rule of Equity as far as possible, Goethe, but I think that officers should publish their reports on time, that the CotC should assign cases on time, that judges should judge on time (yes, including myself), that ninnies should apologize, and obey equations, and that the Rules of Agora not be considered an obstacle to the orderly functioning of the game. The PBA allows fines, and the Rules allow community service. Let them be used: the CotC can handle whatever frivolous criminal cases may arise. A war of criminal case and counter-case was no common occurrence before July, and whatever pointless cases were created were called primarily because no Rule prohibited it. If you intend to call frivolous criminal cases when this proposal passes, I assume you will be prepared to apologize. Proto-proto: Abolish the pre-trial period. It delays criminal and equity cases excessively, especially the latter because it's rarely ended early; the judge can solicit defenses as necessary.
