Re: OT: Corpses, etc. (was: Re: Gender in conlangs (was: Re: Umlauts (was Re: Elves and Ill Bethisad)))

At 03:21 PM 11/9/03 +0100, you wrote:
>Quoting Isidora Zamora <isidora@...>:
>
> > Well, of course, if it spreads outside the pub or threatens to become a
> > riot, then the authorities need to step in.  That goes without saying.  I'm
> > sure that they keep an eye on any establishments that they know to be
> > habitual offenders in this respect.  I mean, if a place has a reputation
> > for producing a brawl every night, they'll watch it.  On the other hand,
> > there are a few places in the city so rough that the soldiers have been
> > instructed *not* to enter them.  They're allowed to deal with anything that
> > spills out beyond the doorway, but they're not to step inside because it's
> > really too dangerous, unless you're going to send in a full score of
> > soldiers to subdue the place.  It's better to leave such places to fester
> > on their own rather than to let soldiers be killed and achieve no real
> good.
>
>Why not send in the full score, subdue the place, hang the patrons and flatten
>the place?
The only capital crimes in Trehelan are killing (not in delf-defense),
theft (fourth offense only), treason, and military desertion.  So hanging
the patrons (or the owner) is not an option (though I'm sure some people
wish it were.)  Subduing the place then hauling everyone off to court and
having them sentenced to a pulic whipping is a possibility, for all the
good it would do.  A whipping isn't likely to make much of an impression on
the sort of men who frequent that rough of a tavern.

>(In the early, unstable years of the Keshean Empire, a neighbour of Taireza,
>the military would have done roughly that, but in a different order; first
>flatten the place, then retroactively sentence the patrons to death.)
That's one way of dealing with the problem.  I think that the idea of a
retroactive death sentence is why a burglar may be killed by the property
owner, and he will not be charged with murder.  (And the property owner has
the right to kill even an unarmed burglar who has surrendered - and that is
nothing short of murder, as far as I'm concerned.)

One option for dealing with a rowdy bar is probably to have the city
authorities shut it down as a danger to the public.  I am sure that there
have to be laws that allow for that sort of thing.  Shutting it down may or
may not involve the use of force - probably depends on whether the owner is
co-operative or not.  If not, they use force.

Isidora