Teafortwo - Pardon and ML for CPT/MPs

[Swagbag]

Player Report

Your Byond ID?

Swagbag

Date of Incident

March 9, 2020

Your Character Name?

Sarah 'Black' Smith

Accused Byond Key(if known):

Teafortwo

Accused Character Name

Finnian Cottier, Braum something

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

5:22 - 6:30

What rule(s) were broken:

Pardon and ML for CPT/MPs

Description of the incident:

Charlie SL broke his own squad requisitions window, MP Braum decided to arrest him for damage to government property as a result. The ensuing chaos resulted in clusterbangs being deployed, a riot/attempt to break in the brig from charlie and one or two delta after a delta marine was arrested for insubordination for disrespect. At least four people were brigged, charges I believe were in this following order, Damage to Government Property, 2x of Interfering with an Arrest and I believe one of Jailbreak was pardoned, two were left in the permabrig for another count of Jailbreak and one of assault with a deadly weapon which was handled appriopately by Finnian from what I saw.

However, I believe this is on the borderline of mass pardoning, considering at least three or four charlie marines were pardoned, do I think this was the best course of action to make the operation go smoothly for marines? Sure. But at the end of the day I can't help but feel this is possibly mass pardoning, even more so when two-three of those marines were pardoned in a short time together.

Evidence (screenshots, logs, etc):

I didn't save any evidence

How you would punish the accused:

Not even a warning, just a "talk" if any rules were broken at all for Finnian.

Possibly a note for Braum if he failed to follow arrest procedure as stated by multiple marines.

[50RemAndCounting]

I'll pull logs for this later.

[teafortwo]

Hey, I'm the CO in question. The accusation isn't too serious so I won't buckle down and defend myself, but here's what I remember from that round.

The Charlie SL smashed a glass slider in his prep and the MPs gave him 30 minutes for damage to gov't property. I reasoned later that they failed to charge him for resisting arrest (which would carry time) but the 30 min charge for DtGP was absurd given the nature of the damage.

To my knowledge, events transpired in the following way:
1. A number of marines protested and got arrested.
2. Some marines attempted jailbreak.
3. One or two marines attempted to use lethals against MPs.

With regards to MP conduct, I saw:
1. Absolutely unnecessary application of maximum time on punishments.
2. Improper understanding of how to charge prisoners.
2. Sexual assault from one MP, which made me suspect that this MP probably wasn't following ML in their earlier arrests.

Here was my strategy for handling the situation:
1. If the accused has committed a nonlethal capital crime and there's evidence or strong, first-party witness testimony for it, they get punished. I recommended minimum but as I noted to the MPs, that's their call.
2. If the accused has committed a lethal capital crime (e.g. shooting at MPs), I suggested (and approved of) maximum punishment.
3. If the accused has committed a nonlethal capital crime but there's no evidence or strong, first-party witness, I told the MPs to release them.
4. If the accused has committed a nonlethal non-capital crime related to the Charlie SL's unfair brigging, I pardoned them.

The outcome of this was:
1. Charlie lead was released. I pardoned the damage to gov't property charge and commuted its 30 minute sentence. I did not pardon the resisting arrest charge, but I was not made aware of this charge as the MPs themselves did not apply it.
2. Charlie medic, specialist, and maybe one more marine (?) were released on the basis that I could find no convincing evidence that they committed a capital crime. I saw claims of interfering with arrest IIRC but I felt the initial arrest of 30 minutes was absurd, so I would've pardoned these non-capital crimes.
3. One marine was caught dead in a jailbreak and the evidence and MP testimony was robust. Since the crime was non-lethal and related to the SL's unfair brigging, I asked the MPs to give minimum sentencing, per their discretion. I also formulated what I believed was a strong technical (per ML) case for why they shouldn't be perma'd. The MPs followed my argument and agreed.
4. One or two marines (I forget) used lethals against MPs. I asked the MPs to put them in perma.

[50RemAndCounting]

Novacti will be taking over logging.

[Novacti]

Yes. Logs will be deposited within the next 12 hours

[Novacti]

Allright, I'm extending the time by an additional 12 hours, starting from the end of the 12 hours I last called.

Going to need a bit more time.

[Novacti]

LOGS:

The initial arrest:

The marines getting rowdy and attempting to break their SL out:

The actual shots fired and hit during the attempted jailbreak:

The pardon appeal by Pierre 'Exfil' Floris who was Charlie SL:

Smith Talking to the CO regarding pardons:

Cottier looking into one of the crimes and finishing discussion regarding Joe's sentence and also finishing up:

Despite what it looks like, less relevant dialogue and action logs were omitted for ease of comprehension.

[Bancrose]

Frans and the boys will be responding shortly.

[smov]

This Report has been discussed amongst the Council and a verdict has been reached.

Firstly, We do recognize that Cottier broke the CO guidelines, by pardonning some charlie marines, whose charges were capital crimes (Jailbreak / Escape). We also investigated if the charges were jailbreak and not tresspassing, but upon checking the logs, there were multiple charlies actively disarming the MP personnel inside the brig, making us believe that the charlie marines were trying to free their SL, and not simply Tresspassing into the brig.

On the other hand, we understand that the CO in question tried to be fair, since the arresting MP applied a maximum punishment for a single, non critical, DGP (Damage to government Property) offense.
When the charlie marines tried to rescue their SL and eventually got arrested, they were put in perma due to the double ammount of time that was input in their SLs brig timer, thus making all charlies that tried to break him out, perma prisioners, which we think, that the CO in question, thought it was unfair to the prisioners.

However, there were alternative courses of action that the CO could have adopted to resolve this problem IC, instead of pardonning Capital crimes, which goes against the CO Guidelines. A fax to HC, asking for approval for a pardon would be reasonable in this instance, so if the CO in question or any member of the CO community have similar situations in the future, the best course of action would be faxing HC explaining the facts suggesting a course of action. If you do not have the time to do it, then aHelp the situation.

Having said this, The CO Council has decided to issue a Warning for this one. We would like to remind the CO community, that you can always ahelp or fax HC when in doubt, when you face these kind of situations, in order to avoid situations such as this one.

[Bancrose]

I concur with smov, You will be issued one regular warning for this offence.