Originally Posted by dalem

Hah! I appreciate the sentiment but I think you'd find me extremely unelectable. Besides, I'm hardly qualified.

As ruler of Daletopia, however, that's a different story.

Originally Posted by dalem

Like I said, if the issuing power declares foodstuffs to be allowable contraband, or whatever, then fine, grab the bread and wade away.

But tires, hubcaps, TVs, clothing, and the like, that's gonna be be bad.

And Julie, we both need to acknowledge this is the Real World, and the Real World is pliable. Let's say there is a huge storm and flood in Daletopia. My staff is informing me as to just how bad the situation is and how much worse it is going to get, and the liklihood of the civil infrastructure breaking down in the short term is very real.

So I declare Martial Law, post the bills, yell it over the bullhorns and broadcasts. I am going to inform public and staff alike that I have authorized a "shoot on site" policy for looters.

Police Chief Julie comes to me and says "You know, anything below the floodline is going to most likely be gone - a lot of people, even people that think they have prepared, are going to be screwed out of food and other necessities."

Let's say that the situation is so dire, or that I am so stupid, that I cannot even deputize all available people and personnel to "raid" stores and establishments for all necessities and set up and guard "collection points" where citizens can come and draw basic loads of food, medicines, diapers, batteries, etc. for their use.

Or let's say I even can do all that but that still leaves a fair number of folks stranded and foundering.

I'm gonna order you to post as many teams at as many corners as is feasible with orders to shoot looters on sight.

That is not a license to kill and you and I both know it. I would expect that if officers Leader and M21Sniper are posted at a corner and they see a woman wading away with a TV they would yell for her to drop it, challenge her, then threaten her, THEN shoot her, then call for a chopper to get her out.

If she's wading away with a bag of diapers, then I hope they would look at each other, nod, then whistle quietly to themselves and look the other way while she sloshes away. But if I'm visiting them (and most likely getting in their way) they would need to go through the same motions as above, while properly thinking I'm a jack*ss and should get the hell back to my office before I make things worse.

It's discretion. As the leader of Daletopia, I have to be firm, and be ruthless, and demand that. As the police chief of Daletopia, you have to make sure that only people who can exercise proper discretion are serving on your force, so that in case of emergencies like the above we know we have a police force instead of a gang of thugs or milquetoastes.

-dale

Originally Posted by dalem

See? Daletopia is a reality-based community.

-dale

Originally Posted by Julie

And astralis is still expecting milk and honey and harems of willing women that comes as a matter of course.