[UA] Explain American laws to me

[Patrick O'Duffy]

Kevin Mowery wrote:

>     Hm, okay.  At the top level, you have the federal government, below that
> the states.  Each state is broken up into counties (except Lousiana, which
> insists on using a different name for them just to confuse me).  Each county
> has cities and towns and townships in it.

Australian government is a lot less hierarchical.  While states have some
autonomy, and shire councils a little within each state, it's always the federal
government calling 90% of the shots/

>     Another important thing: your average patrolman usually carries a
> pistol, some mace, and a baton.  In a patrol car, there are often shotguns
> in a locked rack.  Slightly heavier ordinance, including vests and helmets,
> may be in the trunk.  When the feces really hit the fan, many if not most
> big cities have a Special Weapons And Tactics (SWAT) team.

For the curious, we call them the Tactical Response Group here in Oz.

>     In America, it's seen as pretty much one of the great evils (unless you
> take into consideration all the great things pot does: it helps with
> glaucoma, it keeps rebellious youth on the couch instead of outdoors
> rebelling, it helps convenience stores (I don't know if you call them that
> down there--in Ireland they're "news agents")

If they're primarily selling newspapers, magazines and stationary, they're
newsagents (one word).  If it's a 7-11 or what have you, we've caught the US
phrase 'convenience store'.  Although 'corner shop' is still popular in regional
Australia, or with older people.

>     Yeah, I heard some of this on RPGnet.

Steve Darlington lives about 5 blocks from me; we're finally starting to play
together.

>  Our death penalty (some states
> have it, some don't, and I'm only certain about Ohio and Texas--both have
> it) has garnered a lot of international criticism.  Essentially, blacks are
> far more likely to end up on death row than whites for lesser crimes.

Pretty much the same here - but with the difference that our 'black' people here
are on a similar level of social oppression as the American Indians of the
1950s.

>     Oh, you can buy expensive guns, too, but there are places where you can
> drive up to the right corner with money on your passenger seat and someone
> will lean in and take the money and leave a .25 caliber piece of crap
> pistol.  I let player-characters buy these things, because I can just rule
> that on a botch the little bastard explodes.  A Changeling character lost
> most of his hand that way.

See, that piece of crap costs $500 here.

>     On the subject of sting operations, I don't know how it works in
> Australia, but in America law enforcement agencies have to worry about
> entrapment.

Same here, I think, but I'm not sure.

>     Another thing to consider when talking about law enforcement is the
> issue of "racial profiling."  Officially, this *never* happens.

Yeah, right.  And Australian police aren't racists, and Aboriginal prisoners are
never killed in custody.

Did you ever have that?  Back in the 80s, there was this rash of black deaths in
custody.  Some turned out to be suicide; a lot more turned out to be
police-assisted death, either through neglect or out-and-out murder.

>     If you're planning on having a lot of cops in your game, I recommend
> David Simon's _Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets_.

My library has it, but only as a sound recording.  I tried listening to a Greg
Rucka novel on tape this week; never again.  Prose is a visual medium for me,
I;ve decided, not an aural one.

>     In essence, they're extorting the abortion clinics by threatening their
> business in order to get them to change their practices.

Now personally, as a largely pro-choicish type, I'm okay with that - but it's
still kinda wacky.

>     When talking to cops, they are free to lie to you all they want in order
> to extract a confession.

There's a lovely practice over here called 'verballing'. Basically, if you talk
to a cop, be sure that you're being recorded.  If you aren;t being recorded, the
cop can say that you've made a confession to him, and his word carries more
weight that yours.

(I had a... run-in with the polcie a few years back.  Not the high point of my
life, frankly.)

> As soon as you ask for a lawyer, the cops are supposed to
> stop asking you questions.

Forgive me if I'm sceptical about this.  I've _been_ questioned by the police...

>     Many people dislike public defenders because they are typically
> overworked and, let's face it, most of the people they defend are guilty.

Me, I like them.  I got three years of legal defense, and it didn't cost me a
cent.

--
Patrick O'Duffy, Brisbane, Australia

Sumo is the most perfect of sports.  It has elegance, ceremony, danger,
art, speed, and, most important, two fat bastards smacking the shit out
of each other.

 - Spider Jerusalem, TRANSMETROPOLITAN #26



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