A lot of the current terrorism laws stem from the post-9/11 panic. A lot of them won't exist in Earth Bet because the World Trade Center incident did not happen. Terrorism charges were a lot more narrowly defined and a lot less inclusive before the 9/11/2001 attacks.
That said, the RICO laws would exist since they were enacted in the 1970's.
I'm not saying what happened with sinking the ships wasn't a crime, just that it probably wouldn't be called terrorism before 9/11 and so probably wouldn't be called terrorism on Earth Bet.
I'm not saying what happened with sinking the ships wasn't a crime, just that it probably wouldn't be called terrorism before 9/11 and so probably wouldn't be called terrorism on Earth Bet.
One or two authors have done a reasonable job of trying to frame alternate legal situations for Earth Bet. But they're up again the Doyalist 'Earth Bet is IRL 2011, but with supers' and (maybe) Cauldron (and Simurgh) meddling.
Taylor woke up. This was her room, she knew that ceiling. Though there was a smell of paint. She felt... rested. Her power felt... happy. And, a little smug. In the distance, maybe downstairs, she could hear conversation.
It was... nice. But, somehow wrong. She could feel memories of a terrible fight, disjointed scenes, great loss. Hadn't... she been shot? Her arm came up, felt the back of her head. Her hair was shorter there, but nothing was otherwise out of place.
Wait a moment! That was her right arm! She felt it, all the way down from the shoulder, with her left hand. All felt right (ha!), no joins, bones, muscles. skin, felt OK. The light was a bit dim, coming through her curtains, but the only difference was her right hand looked a bit paler than her left.
What was that? Something underneath the back of her neck? Was it there a moment ago? A large... Starfish?!?
Holding a note, "Hi Taylor, Please put Sammy the Starfish in his tank, he's been working hard. Done my best to fix stuff for you, Love, Taylor".
What?
In a daze, climb out of bed, stumble across the room, put starfish in tank. Get a cheerful wave in response. Looking around, this wasn't her bedroom, in Brockton Bay. That didn't still exist, after all. She thought. But, someone had tried hard?
A rumble from her stomach.
Over to the door, dressing gown from the hook on the back. Open it. Smell of...
Bacon!
"Taylor?"
"Yes Dad!"
"You've woken up, about the time she said you would. Come down, there's someone I've been chatting with, I think we'd... both like to get to know, better. Just so you're not too confused, this is Earth Alph."
"Coming!"
[BEST HOST]
[SMUG]
---
AN: If you can't help yourself, who can you help?
AN: Who do you think Danny was chatting to, downstairs???
(AN: If you can't troll yourself, who can you troll?)
What's even better is that most of the people responsible for the blocking of the bay will no longer be at WWM after all this time, and would be targeted in a personal capacity rather than WWM being the only entity being prosecuted as a result. I'm reasonable sure this is one of those situations wherer there is no statute of limitations in play, so both the current and the former execs are going to get nailed to the wall for all this.
I believe that the phrase "jointly and severally" is going to appear somewhere in any prosecution.
It's a shame that there's not what ammounts to a Corporate Death Penalty (here or IRL), such that deaths caused by (pick one or more: negligence of a corporate officer, budget cuts obviously affecting safety, OSHA violations, ignoring known problems, long-deferred maintenance, etc.) have more than just a financial penalty. As it is, death or permanent injury to an employee, contractor, or visitor has only a monetary pricetag (barring specific traceable-to-an-individual criminal actions), so the company can just say "Oh, well that will only cost us $x thousand dollars if anyone gets killed" and treat it as a cost of doing business.
In particular, I'm thinking about many of the various industrial accidents, some with quite widespread effects, which through "cost-cutting measures" or deliberately ignoring safety recommendations from engineers & others who would know, cost lives, and the approvers of those measures knew that was a likely result prior to approval. The vast majority of these don't result in any significant costs to those decison makers (monetary or their own lives/well-being).
Safety is expensive.
The things that WWM has done would generally fall into "deaths & other injury" caused by corporate officers' decisions (likely with the addition of significant criminal penalties, depending on available evidence, though exactly how those work against corporations is...unclear). Going against the officers & others who would be/have been aware of criminal activities using RICO is probably the best we can get...plus hopefully some civil cases to wipe out all WWM assets.
RICO for sure. Terrorism might not be viable, but an ambitious and clever prosecutor might go for piracy ... and possibly insurrection.
And, hell, Brockton's an old port city. I'm sure that intentionally blocking a port is illegal in some way in its own right.
And good God, the civil cases are going to be brutal. The damages for WWM intentionally blocking the Bay are going to set records.
And that's just based on what we currently know about, and that the Taylor and Lisa found and gave to the FBI. There's no way that the FBI doesn't find out about more illegal activities now that they've got a solid starting point and cause to dig. Even if Taylor and Lisa don't give them anything else.
Imagine this WWM having to foot the bill for cleaning up the Bay under Superfund laws? Not just the cost of removing the ships and dredging the harbor, but probably the repairs to the infrastructure that decayed because of the blocked port.
The only problems I'm seeing are possibly the statute of limitations for some of the civil suits. Not the Superfund, but the rest. I think the standard is 7 years to file before the limitations run out.
You must be kidding. I'm sure Lisa and QA will jump in with both feet then. If the narrative doesn't take a different turn, we simply don't have a chance. I'm afraid we're in for a Spider-Detective-style investigation.
Imagine this WWM having to foot the bill for cleaning up the Bay under Superfund laws? Not just the cost of removing the ships and dredging the harbor, but probably the repairs to the infrastructure that decayed because of the blocked port.
The only problems I'm seeing are possibly the statute of limitations for some of the civil suits. Not the Superfund, but the rest. I think the standard is 7 years to file before the limitations run out.
The mess that is the statute of limitation in the US. That depends on the nature of the crime (terrorism most likely), jurisdiction, and if worse comes to worse for the defendant if the Continuing-violations doctrine applies.
I am not sure, but I think the Statute of Limitations is not applicable in some types of Federal cases.
If you shoot a federal senator, and are found 30 years later, there is no Statute.
As well, many of these big shipping companies, you find the senior executives move from one to the other all the time. So long as they are not in direct competition they are positively incestuous. So, if the exec from one company is found guilty, All the shipping companies will find their insurance premiums hiked, because they cannot prove his actions aren't reflected in their business practices.
Many companies will need entire new teams of senior executives. Just so they can stay in business, and that's without the FBI and Treasury doing company wide audits.
Yeah, this is going to be messy. Not to mention the links most shipping and transport companies have to organised crime....
You must be kidding. I'm sure Lisa and QA will jump in with both feet then. If the narrative doesn't take a different turn, we simply don't have a chance. I'm afraid we're in for a Spider-Detective-style investigation.
Oh, I know that Taylor and Lisa aren't going to stop digging on their own, and will almost certainly find more things to provide the FBI.
I'm just saying that what they already found and gave to the FBI is more than sufficient for the FBI to find plenty more through its own investigations.
They've kicked off what's probably going to be one of the biggest cases in recent history. Only problem is that because it is so large, it'll take time for everything to come out through the legal process. Especially if they want to get ahead of people trying to shut down the investigation or bury evidence/witnesses/suspects.
That's a bit unfair! You (just) need to understand their culture, better.
(And, Starro (from 1960) is an alien that happens to look like a starfish. So, that doesn't count. And, all those sea urchins needed eating, anyhow!)
Also if a cape is involved at any part of it she could use the laws that got Lustrum sent to the birdcage on them, try them as minions and all but guarantee that any capes that work for them turn evidence.
To be honest, with the mega-corp that did the blocking? They'll just go bankrupt (since a number of well-paid senators and representatives owe lots of blackmail money to them) and reappear somewhere else and smugly talk about how utterly horrible that such an evil company existed. The laws are written to allow such things for big enough organizations. Hell, even tiny ones. The Lincoln Park Pirates 'go out of business' regularly and start up under a new name. (If you know Chicago or filk or Steve Goodman, you know who I'm talking about.) And they're a perfect example of owning a few important gov't people as well.
I'm pretty sure this applies to murder generally, so if the execs can be proven to have ordered any assassinations, they're screwed even if the Statute of Limitations has run out on everything else.
I'm surprised Taylor didn't say something like "Mommy and daddy got a little frisky, and a few weeks later I hatched from an egg, grew up as a naiad, and molted into this".
Same answer but, "Huh? Just like you. Mommy and daddy got a little..." as if the dragon fly doesn't realize humans don't work that way. Give a little more reason for people to think some society of insects is out there.
I'm pretty sure this applies to murder generally, so if the execs can be proven to have ordered any assassinations, they're screwed even if the Statute of Limitations has run out on everything else.
Yeah, my sister and I are recovering non-fiction detective and forensic program addicts and I'm quite certain one of the programs talked about a case where a murderer had heard some crime had a seventeen year statute of limitations and thought that applied to all crimes and as a result after denying being the murderer and publicly speaking about being unfairly harassed by the police one day stood up on a stage and said, "It's was seventeen years to the day last week, so now it's safe for me to say that yes I did it. And since the police can't do anything about it here are the details." And was them shocked to be arrested and thanked for giving an unprompted confession in public on camera.
I didn't find that case with a quick googling, but the search did say that in multiple states sex crimes against minors and in most murder have no statute of limitations. Commit a murder at age nineteen and confess or have evidence turn up when you are ninety and you can be prosecuted.
And that article shows that Gesellschaft is in charge of Germany. Because everyone knows that they're the most recent version of the Nazis, and they RUN OUT OF GERMANY. Germany in the real world has some of the harshest laws out there regarding Nazis. They do NOT want to slip back into that mindset, even with Neo-Nazi groups cropping up in Germany all the time. (And regretting it when they get caught ...)
And that article shows that Gesellschaft is in charge of Germany. Because everyone knows that they're the most recent version of the Nazis, and they RUN OUT OF GERMANY. Germany in the real world has some of the harshest laws out there regarding Nazis. They do NOT want to slip back into that mindset, even with Neo-Nazi groups cropping up in Germany all the time. (And regretting it when they get caught ...)
Just another example of Wildbow not doing his research. My personal head Cannon is that they claim to run out of Germany. It all probability they'd be set up in a neighboring nation.
Just another example of Wildbow not doing his research. My personal head Cannon is that they claim to run out of Germany. It all probability they'd be set up in a neighboring nation.
Depending on just how Russia's doing, it could easily be there. A neo-Nazi group as a deniable way to destabilize old Cold War adversaries... And you know, what, I think I'll actually use that...
