Retrokinesis - Mass Pardoning,

[solidfury7]

Player Report

Your Byond ID?

Solidfury7

Date of Incident

August 29, 2019

Your Character Name?

William 'Jester' Crimson

Accused Byond Key(if known):

Retrokinesis

Accused Character Name

Audrey Aulin

Approximate time and date of the incident (Central US Time for fastest results)

6PM ISH GMT, 1PM CST

What rule(s) were broken:

Mass Pardoning, Unlawful Arrest, Attempt to circumvent the rules

Description of the incident:

During briefing, there were marines who were causing quite the ruckus by throwing CAS flares (which as 15 points from the SL vendor and pretty valuable) around the Captains podium.

Seeing as these were CAS flares, (and a full pack of them) I detained the Bravo Specialist and Bravo Smartgunner for wasting them all and throwing immovable bright green flares at the XOs podium, which prompted responses from the XO.

These individuals were detained, and other individuals began to join in with equally bad behaviour, from setting up machines guns and the portable barricades at the Captains podium, aiming at them.

To a few other things of equal "Early game shannigans tier" such as interfereing with arrests, as many of the moderation know, I prefer to deal with this early games shannigans ICly, rather then letting them get boinked and noted.

Myself and a new MP detained the 4-5 marines with correct procedures, during this time, the Captain awakens or arrives, and he begins to ask the specific charges of each individual, and such things during processing, I tell him, and my MP team member and I begin adding notes while processign the 5 prisoners along with my new MP.

The Captain continues to press the charges over and over, and I inform them I will be with them shortly, I just need to get them all in a cell as procedure dictates.

This is the procedure as the CMP


Set the timer
Put them in an orange uniform and shoes
Give them a standard headset
Take their ID off
Buckle them to the bed, flash or stun them and recover your handcuffs, then exit the cell.
Search their belongings.
Update their records with their "Prisoner" status, charges and the time they are serving.

However, many of the individuals lacked records beyond very quick notes, such as the charges, and the Captain increasingly began demanding responses, while a CMP and a brand new MP deal with 5 prisoners, all with specific protocols which must be followed and obeyed, and who all must have accurate records so that the appeal (and crime)

However, the Captain continued to attempt to interfere with the arresting procedure. Captains cannot alter marine law. I informed him that I must continue with my prisoners (some who were buckled in the MP lobby now) before dealing with any specific orders, such as pardons.

I inform another MP to handle the pardon once he's finished with the prisoner he is handling, as my other MP is newer however, I eventually do it myself. This action later comes back to cause issues, as because I had to deal with both the Captain and a pardoned prisoner, another prisoner (An Alpha Medic) was forgot about and spent around 10-15 minutes unattended in the central brig, waiting to be processed like the others.

Before the alpha medic situation however, the Captain begins ordering a mass-pardon of all prisoners with Disordely Conduct. I tell him that that Mass-pardons are not permitted by the CO Council, therefore I will not follow what I view to be an unlawful order.

This agitated the Captain further when after some time back and forth, I inform the Captain I will allow her to pardon them if she so wishes, but I will not personally be acting on a mass pardon of 4 people. This agitated the Captain, who took offence to me telling the Captain I would not interfere with her "mass-pardoning" which I strongly advised her against, and I quickly sensed that the Captain was exploring the idea of BEing me.

The Captain orders that I am detained for "Neglect of Duty", by this point, another MP has awoke, the MPs at this point (even the brand new one, who exclaimed to the Captain that there were only 2 of us and we were exceedingly busy ensuring prisoners were treated correctly as dictated by procedure) were hesitant to detain me. I ended up detaining myself and preparing to file a report, I believe this is my first Captains report ever, as those of you who know me know I prefer to let most things roll ICly, its more fun for all involved.

However, I hear a prisoner while Im preparing to write my fax that the Captain has ordered all prisoners times be reduced to 1 minute, with some of these individuals having Timers of over an hour from crimes within the brig (such as insulting the Lieutenant who was on their side, ironically and myself.)

This shows an evident attempt to circumvent the rulings regarding mass-pardoning and pardoning in general, and an obvious attempt to abuse the privileges that Captains hold.

Her actions, such as detaining a CMP for NEGLECT OF DUTY who was following marine law to the dot

Her attempt at mass pardoning

And then the attempt to get around the mass pardoning by simply reducing all timers to 0 (Which require both the MPs and prisoners to be told the reason why this is occurring, which I am unsure happened) just shows that these actions were designed to circumvent rulings which were made for a reason, for convenience.

Evidence (screenshots, logs, etc):

Logs will show the relevant information. So, please post the logs of the situation.

How you would punish the accused:

I'll leave that up to the council, although It does show the issues with having a Captain being the highest authority of marine law, however not be accountable to the same standards of a CMP, despite being whitelisted.

[Economicairborn]

Logs:

'Sensitive' logs sent to the Council for review.

[Retrokinesis]

I apologize in advance for the length of this rebuttal, but the report itself is largely based on arcane technical matters so delving into the intricacies of marine law is unfortunately unavoidable. I'll try to keep it as brief as possible while still recounting events from my perspective.

I woke up as CO a few minutes after the round had already started, with the XO having already formulated a plan and announced briefing for 12:17. He did well the previous round and I firmly believe in letting XO's take operational command if they ask for it, so I left briefing in his hands and started teaching a new SO some of the basics. As we were walking to briefing later, squad comms started buzzing about mass arrests and the M word. I decided to look into this immediately, before it potentially turned violent.

I made it down to the checkpoint behind the briefing bubble and see multiple marines handcuffed at the brig table, with the CMP bringing another in as I arrive. Multiple queries about the situation and related charges met with no response. When pushed, the CMP listed the charges but refused to explain the situation because he "had to finish proper procedure" or something along those lines. At this point, I issued a pardon for the three or so prisoners, all of whom were currently within my field of vision. At no point did I announce any kind of blanket amnesty for all parties or otherwise permit massive criminal violations to take place.

I was forced to reiterate myself several times before the CMP finally acknowledged the pardon, claiming that he hadn't heard it on the MP channel. It was rather hectic all around so I didn't find that particularly surprising. Nor did I find it surprising when he announced he would fax High Command to report it. I expected as much. What I did find surprising was him refusing to carry out the order, stating it was illegal because marine law required him to finish brigging everyone before he could release them, and explicitly accusing me of not knowing marine law in front of the prisoners, two MPs, and the SO who had come down to sort out why her squad's only medic had been detained for 15 minutes immediately prior to initial deployment.

Squad comms were actively calling for MPs to break up a fight on the Alamo and the CMP continued brigging a prisoner I had just pardoned. Combined with his previous attitude, this is what convinced me that the situation was unsalvageable and so I ordered the CMP arrested, stating both the crime (neglect of duty) and the sentence (the minimum, 15 minutes). One of the pardoned PFCs later came to the CIC and asked me to look over a complaint fax he wanted to send to HC regarding the CMP, which I sent from my office.

The report references "procedures" and "mass pardons". Let's break those down point by point. Marine law says the following about procedures:

Arrest Procedure
Compliant Suspect (not resisting or running)

Verbally inform the suspect you are taking them into custody and the charge.
Order the suspect to the ground.
Handcuff the suspect.
Bring the suspect to the Brig for processing.

Non-Compliant Suspect (resisting or running)

Prepare a non-lethal method of neutralization
Apply until they are no longer resisting
Secure the suspect and Inform the suspect of their charge
Bring the suspect to the brig

Nothing relevant there; they were already arrested and in the brig when I arrived. Next section.

Detainment and Brig Procedures

Note: If the prisoner is removed from his cell for ANY REASON the timer is PAUSED. Time spent outside a cell does NOT count towards time being served for the crime. To properly brig a prisoner verify the following checklist in no particular order:

Set the timer
Put them in an orange uniform and shoes
Give them a standard headset
Take their ID off
Buckle them to the bed, flash or stun them and recover your handcuffs, then exit the cell.
Search their belongings.
Update their records with their "Prisoner" status, charges and the time they are serving.
Once the timer is over, let them grab their belongings, escort them out of the brig and set their record status to "Released".

If a prisoner is SSD at the end of their sentence, redress them, secure their pouches and place them in the brig Cryo.

Well, this is the procedure, but includes nothing prescriptive about brigging procedure being uninterrupted or overriding pardons or such. What does marine law have to say about COs that might be relevant?

Pardons

The Commanding Officer may exceptionally pardon criminals if they believe it is in the best interests of the operation. Only Minor and Major crimes may be pardoned. Capital offenders may not be pardoned except in special circumstances with the permission of High Command. The Chief MP or and MP in their absence may appeal pardons to High Command via fax. The Commanding Officer may be held responsible for further criminal actions committed by those they pardon, and should High Command reverse the decision, they must ensure the condemned return to serve their time without incident. Failure to do so may result in removal and arrest at the discretion of High Command.
Brig timers

From this, we can glean that the rules for pardons are as follows:
1. Only the CO has pardon authority, which is not the same thing as hearing and granting an appeal that the CO, CMP, XO, or an MP can do.
2. Capital crimes cannot be pardoned.
3. MPs may appeal pardons to HC.
4. If HC reverses a pardon, the CO - as the one who issued it - is held accountable for anything the pardoned individual does while being re-detained.

I fully expected the CMP to fax HC in protest and explicitly stated it was his right to do so. But nowhere does it establish any kind of protocol or procedure for how pardons are issued. Absent an explicit requirement that they be presented in writing or only after the person in question is processed and brigged or that they must remain brigged while the CMP faxes their appeal or the like, such requirements cannot be inferred to exist. The CMP's argument for disobeying the order to release the prisoners is that it was an unlawful order and must be disobeyed. However, absolutely nothing in marine law indicates that to be the case.

That's what marine law has to say on the topic. But there's more elsewhere, specifically in the CO Code of Conduct:

Marine Law and You:

As it stands, Marine Law makes you the highest Judiciary Official aboard your vessel. You have the final say on anything that happens law related. By extension of this, you yourself cannot be arrested without the authorization of High Command. Make no mistake however, you are not above Marine Law, nor can you change Marine Law like General SOP. You are expected to maintain the same level of professionalism as the CMP when handling Marine Law related business aboard your vessel. You are also able to Pardon criminals if you deem it necessary, but not if they have committed a Capital crime. If this is abused in any way, you will find yourself sharing a cell with the man you pardoned and possibly punished when the mission is over.

This is a reiteration of points 2 and 4 as listed above. Again, nothing about pardon procedures. Is that everything, then? Not quite! Standard Operating Procedure has something to add:

Security

The Commanding Officer has final say on law enforcement in his operational area as outlined in Marine Law. It is the duty of the Chief MP to ensure procedure is observed and the law is carried out in a just manner. Should the Chief MP believe the Commanding Officer is abusing his position, he must contact High Command for permission to relieve him.

MPs have a duty to enforce Marine Law and ensure order is maintained, and breaking Marine Law would incur in neglect of duty charges. To this end, other members of crew may not interfere with their actions when enforcing the law, such as barring them from entering an area if they have reason to be there. However, when ordered to, MPs must leave sensitive areas such as Operation Theatres unless performing an arrest. Additionally, MPs have a duty to keep the ship and shipside crew safe. In such matters, they must obey the orders of officers in accordance to their position within the ship.

Ah, "procedure"! Specifically, the CMP must "ensure procedure is observed". We've already covered what procedure is and what it isn't. Mainly, that there is no formal procedure for issuing pardons and no requirement that prisoners be fully processed before or while one is issued. However, this does explicitly state that an MP breaking marine law can be subject to neglect of duty charges. As nothing about the order was unlawful, it was unlawful for the CMP to refuse to follow it. The literal definition of insubordination in marine law includes "failing to follow a lawful order from a superior". This would mean, as an MP, breaking the law would subject the CMP to the more serious neglect of duty rather than insubordination. However, as an officer, the CMP specifically can be charged with neglect of duty in addition to any other crime.

I specifically ordered the minimum sentence for neglect of duty to be applied. I would have been fully within my rights - without even needing to attempt to pretzel marine law or invoke CO privileges to alter timers - to order the maximum sentence for both insubordination and neglect of duty: demotion and 35 minutes imprisonment. I didn't, because I felt your actions were misguided rather than malicious. I will note that even if I had given you the max for both, it still would have been less time than you gave a PFC for saying mean things about you.

The other point left to address was me ordering the timers to be reduced to 1 minute. For context, this was after I had issued the pardon repeatedly, after the CMP had been arrested, and after only one prisoner (the bravo specialist, I think) had been released. The other MP was busy detaining the CMP and the MP left to deal with all this was very new. Considering how much time I had already spent dealing with this issue (thankfully, the CIC was well-staffed) I opted not to spend even more time explaining the specifics of CO pardon authority and whitelist codes of conduct to a seemingly-overwhelmed MP. I also would have had to issue another pardon to cover the insubordination charges from insulting the CMP, so I opted to put it in the simplest possible terms and reduce the sentences of the remaining prisoners to 1 minute. The relevant sections of marine law state:

Laws and Punishments

Charges: Only one charge may be applied per person, per unlawful event, except Resisting Arrest which can be optionally added on to any charge. It is the duty of the arresting MP to determine which charge to apply. The Chief MP or CO may override this decision ONLY before the prisoner has been brigged unless he/she is giving the prisoner a lower time than the arresting MP. The Minimum Punishment should be used in most cases unless it is a duplicate crime or several crimes have been committed and only one can be chosen.

and

Brig timers

The Commanding Officer may alter brig timers beyond the parameters specified in Marine Law and may reduce or increase a sentence. When doing this, they must provide the prisoner and MP with the reason, and if the timer is increased beyond the maximum punishment, the prisoner has the right to appeal to High Command.

There is zero ambiguity about the CO's right to reduce sentences, regardless of whether the prisoner has been fully brigged already or not.

In summation, the CMP chose to disobey a lawful order based on an interpretation of law about procedures that isn't correct and a ruling that doesn't exist about a topic that no one except him ever mentioned. I don't believe the "people only play MP to softgrief" stereotype and won't attempt to assign motivation to Solidfury's actions either in-game or concerning this report, but - if I did not know he was a frequent and usually solid CMP - I would have assumed he was someone attempting to bait a BE or pretzel marine law for fun.

[Bancrose]

I am going to be personally overseeing this.

Some have argued what type of breach this is. But what you're arguing is a Whitelist Breach.

So the CO Council, Emerald, Soldier, and I will be passing judgement on it.

Anyone who has nothing to contribute other than opinions should not even bother posting. Unless you're a direct witness. Keep the argument civil and I'll try and work through this as quickly and painlessly as possible for everyone involved. Someone will get logs for this at some point. Carry on.

[Bancrose]

Its been a full week, Are there any points you still want to bring up?

[solidfury7]

I'm currently typing this from my phone, I've been working a lot, so apologies with the delay on replying to this, there is a lot I'd like to cover, however I'll try keep it condensed and limit it to the most important topics.



I would like to say some of the issues highlighted in this post have been aided by Sirlordingtons ruling and expansion that Non-Military Police personnel cannot interfere with the arrest procedure which has made the arresting procedure since this event a lot smoother, and allows the Military Police to actually maintain a competency level by completing records, and ensuring all prisoners are treated as stated in protocol, without having Lieutenants and IOs barging in demanding why "X" is in cuffs and you're dragging them half way across the ship.

It has previously that it has been stated that mass pardons should not be occurring for minor situations, this was itterated by Sirlordington, I did a bit of digging and it's also mentioned by a council member on discord. Here is the relevant log.

scsnv: James-Frederick Cerwick28/07/2019
Lordington has established that we cannot and should not be giving out mass pardons for silly reasons

As the situation was (if I recall) a green alert, near the beginning of an operation, I am not alone at finding this to be a "silly" reason, as this was reminent of the old role based/squad based pardons which happened on-mass in the past until such behaviour was clamped down on. My attempts at dissauding the Captain were simply to keep him in the clear, marine law, mixed with rulings and Captains authority can be a tricky thing to handle. This was not a critical section of the situation, this was the result of early game shannigans and people going out their way to get arrested by repeatedly breaking laws within the brig or the early game shannigans. As some individuals will know, I've been pushing for the "Early game shenanigans" to be permitted, rather than be placed under the OOC protections. Protections which were added because of the past lynchings which derailed the rounds and the fact that the game became Marines vs MPs.

I will once again, strongly contest the actions regarding the timer reduction. Reducing multiple prisoners timers to One minute from timers ranging from 45 minutes to 1 hour 30, is a bad precident to set and could easily become a way to "evade" the pardoning rules set down by the Council and staff. The same technicality could be applied to marine law, and one could technically accept every appeal in existance due to not being 100% evidence. I believe rules-as-intended plays a key role in this specific situation.

Regarding the "Neglect of Duty" charge, I would like to list the actual charge.

"Failure to perform one�s role to an acceptable standard. For example, a Commanding Officer failing to properly organize and ensure his personnel are given orders, failing to follow proper procedure in detriment of one�s duties, or ship crew leaving the ship without authorization from the Commanding Officer or their Department Head. Any officer who commits a crime may be charged with Neglect of Duty in addition to the appropriate crimes."

I am going to contest the Neglect of Duty Charge., which is stated above. This is considering that all I did was refuse to follow what I believed to be an unlawful order personally, but informed you that you may do so instead. Applying Neglect of Duty was a misapplication of law, especially when insubordination would perfectly fit the charge you believe my character committed.

Below is the charge for insubordination


"Failing to follow a lawful order from a superior. Using offensive names or being directly disrespectful to someone of a higher rank or position. "

Choosing to apply a criminal charge which is LESS fitting than another criminal charge has been something which has previously been ruled upon, ironically, against me, when I applied a contraband charge on someone rather than assault (As impairing chemicals were used in the attack), resulting in the timer being 5 more minutes, if I recall. Considering the conditions which I was in (1 brand new MP and myself being online) It would be difficult to argue that I was neglecting my duty, without opening a can of worms to understaffed departments not being 100% effective. This can be seen and is even stated in your post, when a secondary MP awakes, when I brig myself. The whole MP department began to fall in to dysfunction.

The final thing I'd like to address is the following quote.
"I will note that even if I had given you the max for both, it still would have been less time than you gave a PFC for saying mean things about you."

The individuals in detainment were spamming insults to both your Lieutenant and I. These are /major/ crimes. As CMP, you /cannot/ cherry-pick what you apply when it comes to major crimes, nor does the relevance of their crime even come in to the situation. They were detained, under IC marine law and under OOC rules. It has no place in this argument.

[Retrokinesis]

I would like to say some of the issues highlighted in this post have been aided by Sirlordingtons ruling and expansion that Non-Military Police personnel cannot interfere with the arrest procedure which has made the arresting procedure since this event a lot smoother, and allows the Military Police to actually maintain a competency level by completing records, and ensuring all prisoners are treated as stated in protocol, without having Lieutenants and IOs barging in demanding why "X" is in cuffs and you're dragging them half way across the ship.

This is completely irrelevant to the argument at hand. The law - marine or otherwise - does not operate based on intent. The law is the law and any "expansion" - although let's call it what it is, an actual modification - created by SirLordington cannot possibly be considered to be authoritative when he apparently didn't deign to share it with anyone except you, nor update the actual text of marine law with it. Even if we were to take his statement in the other report as an explicit modification of marine law (and, if that's the case, the marine law page still hasn't been updated with it) then it would not apply ex post facto to the situation you reported.

Changing aspects of the law for your own benefit does not retroactively render people guilty or innocent when they weren't before.

It has previously that it has been stated that mass pardons should not be occurring for minor situations, this was itterated by Sirlordington, I did a bit of digging and it's also mentioned by a council member on discord. Here is the relevant log.

Another statement made after the fact that was apparently not important enough to mention in public beforehand, as it was neither added to the CO code of conduct nor announced in the whitelist-announcements Discord channel that exists solely for that purpose. In the absence of such an explicit announcement, it cannot be reasonably assumed that scsnv was speaking ex cathedra in his capacity as a CO Councilor as opposed to merely giving his opinion as a player or moderator.

For clarification, I also looked up the statement you quoted. I found it amusing that he was talking to you, where you were specifically arguing in favor of the CO pardoning someone to avoid conflict with the MPs:

As the situation was (if I recall) a green alert, near the beginning of an operation, I am not alone at finding this to be a "silly" reason, as this was reminent of the old role based/squad based pardons which happened on-mass in the past until such behaviour was clamped down on. My attempts at dissauding the Captain were simply to keep him in the clear, marine law, mixed with rulings and Captains authority can be a tricky thing to handle. This was not a critical section of the situation, this was the result of early game shannigans and people going out their way to get arrested by repeatedly breaking laws within the brig or the early game shannigans. As some individuals will know, I've been pushing for the "Early game shenanigans" to be permitted, rather than be placed under the OOC protections. Protections which were added because of the past lynchings which derailed the rounds and the fact that the game became Marines vs MPs.

And you are entirely within your rights to find it to be a "silly" reason. Fortunately for all of us, neither marine law nor the CO code of conduct operate on terms as vague and subjective as "silly". You also continue to be the only person using the term "mass pardon" in relation to this, in-game or out. It was not "role based/squad based pardons", and I would argue that it wasn't "on-mass" (sic) either as every person involve was physically within my line of sight at the time. Would you prefer if I had said each of their names individually? Either way, it doesn't matter as there is no formal procedure for how a pardon must be conducted.

And yes, you're quite correct in that roundstart shenanigans are an OOC issue. It's one of the questions on the moderator application, in fact. You clearly didn't consider it a big enough deal to ahelp it for staff to deal with, as I don't think you'd actively ignore server rules purely because you disagreed with them.

I will once again, strongly contest the actions regarding the timer reduction. Reducing multiple prisoners timers to One minute from timers ranging from 45 minutes to 1 hour 30, is a bad precident to set and could easily become a way to "evade" the pardoning rules set down by the Council and staff. The same technicality could be applied to marine law, and one could technically accept every appeal in existance due to not being 100% evidence. I believe rules-as-intended plays a key role in this specific situation.

I will once again note that rules-as-intended are completely and utterly irrelevant. See above for my reasoning. This isn't a debate we're having in command chat on the Discord, it's a formal report you made with the intent of some kind of action being taken. The standards of evidence are completely different.

I am going to contest the Neglect of Duty Charge., which is stated above. This is considering that all I did was refuse to follow what I believed to be an unlawful order personally, but informed you that you may do so instead. Applying Neglect of Duty was a misapplication of law, especially when insubordination would perfectly fit the charge you believe my character committed.

Insubordination would perfectly fit the charge I believe you committed, yes. Insubordination which, as you stated, is a crime. However, you left out the part that I previously quoted from Standard Operating Procedure that reads "MPs have a duty to enforce Marine Law and ensure order is maintained, and breaking Marine Law would incur in neglect of duty charges". This was the basis I used for said charge, as I stated in my first response.

The final thing I'd like to address is the following quote.
"I will note that even if I had given you the max for both, it still would have been less time than you gave a PFC for saying mean things about you."

The individuals in detainment were spamming insults to both your Lieutenant and I. These are /major/ crimes. As CMP, you /cannot/ cherry-pick what you apply when it comes to major crimes, nor does the relevance of their crime even come in to the situation. They were detained, under IC marine law and under OOC rules. It has no place in this argument.

As CMP you cannot ignore major crimes, you are 100% correct on that point. I was not the CMP. I made the call to take that decision out of your hands, which you refused to comply with. This was well within my established legal authority as CO and your opinion on the matter belonged in a fax to HC, not in this argument.

[FGRSentinel]

Before I give the Council's full ruling, there are a number of things that need to be said.
Firstly, the specifics of this report have forced us to tackle certain questions before we could address the issues with it. First and foremost, the claim of mass pardons and their validity. A quick search shows that it does not exist in Whitelist guidelines, Marine Law, or Standard Operating Procedure on the forums or the wiki. The Council has taken it a step further: we looked through all publicly available documentation, all announcements on Discord, and all posts on the new forums. Of these, none support the existence of a mass pardon rule in any way, shape or form. The Council has discussed it and decided that we cannot, in good conscience, punish someone for hidden rulings. However, due to certain complexities and issues regarding the unusual circumstances of this report, the Council will be looking into potential changes to mitigate certain issues.

With this out of the way, we will address the core of the report: the various pardons. This is also somewhat complicated so I�ll explain what led to our decision on this in detail. At the start of the round, a number of Marines were arrested for round start antics that, before now, have happened in almost every round without much issue or complaint. The crimes the Marines were charged with included Resisting Arrest, Disorderly Conduct, and a number of other crimes and arrested Marines included Alpha�s only medic. This, naturally, angered many Marines and led to threats and talk of mutiny. As this was going on, Retro made repeated attempts to request information regarding the situation and the various crimes, with mixed success as the situation was worsening. This left her with two options: pardon the Marines or risk a mutiny, which is often a headache for everyone involved and generally in the CO�s best interest to avoid.

With these considerations in mind, the Council has ruled the Pardons VALID.

Beyond this, there are two other aspects left to address:

First, the Neglect of Duty charge against Crimson is, naturally, not a WL issue. The Council does, however, wishes to state that it agrees with Retro�s assertion that an MP failing to carry out Marine Law is NoD, not insubordination.

Lastly, the incident with the brig timers. The CMP was instructed to carry out a legal order and pardon the Marines, as stated above, and neglected to do so for one reason or another. With the CMP brigged and pardons still needing to be processed, Retro chose to reduce the timers to one minute. Her decision, while unorthodox and not an intended use of the CO�s pardon privilege, still falls within the confines of the whitelist guidelines and is an acceptable decision in this case considering that all the pardons were valid. However, the Council wishes to state that this was a very exceptional case: the events of this report that led to all this occurring are so convoluted that, for all intents and purposes, nobody would realistically expect them to happen in the first place. The Council may look into this on its own to determine if guidelines need to be adjusted to limit the chances of this happening again. Regardless, the Council has ruled this VALID.

In closing, the Council feels that no whitelist guidelines have been broken and no action needs to be taken on our part.

[RobBrown4PM]

Report closed until such time management can get around to finalizing this.

[Bancrose]

I concur with the CO Councils Decision.

Do know that as a reaction to this thread, I will be putting up changes to the Pardon to create a procedure that everyone can better understand.