Hypothetical Piracy/Blackmail

[Jimothy]

I had a thought the other day. I would like to discuss it.


THE HYPOTHETICAL SITUATION

Lets assume three parties. For this, let's call them:
Pirate
Trader
Police

So, as they do, Mr. Pirate is sitting by 'his' trade lane, waiting for a Trader to come on by. He soon finds one, and has an interesting demand. Take this cardamine aboard, then call out in the system for Police support, and follow the instructions given to him when it arrives. After all, he's being pirated and it's the Police's job to intervene. If he does not, Mr. Pirate introduces his choice of laser, antimatter, or other destructive energies to this otherwise so far peaceful situation. Hypothetically, the Trader agrees, takes the contraband aboard, calls out for help, and waits.

A Police officer arrives. Just as he does, the Pirate cloaks, and so is not noticed. Mr. Police then proceeds to enquire as to the waste of his time, and the Trader is covertly instructed by the Pirate as to what to say.
"I'm just taking my precious cargo to [insert lawfully populated planet here]. It's a matter of life and death. Primarily mine."
The Police officer then scans the Trader, not that he didn't already, and declares the existence and illegality of the contraband.
At this point, the Trader is instructed to offer, bargain, and bribe the Police officer to allow the Trader to go free and keep his contraband cargo. He is told to allow Mr. Police to set the price of the bribe.

Once the deal has been concluded, and Mr. Police leaves the scene for plausible deniability should the Trader be caught again, the Pirate reveals himself, retrieves his contraband, and sends the Trader on his way.
(Possibly reimbursing the cost of the bribe also, depending on his affiliations, beliefs, and generosity)

Later on, the Pirate visits a computer-geek of ill repute, and has the recording of the situation that he made copied onto multiple stand-alone playback devices of some sort. It has no data-trail as it is not transmitted across any communications networks. He then proceeds to discreetly hire a patsy, likely through the use of another patsy, and while discuising his own identity, to deliver these recording to the Police officer they show. (Or, you know, simulates this by explaining this bit in preface to the message on the forum RP communication channel)
Enclosed within is also a note, explaining that there are multiple copies, and that from this day forth Mr. Police is, for all intents and purposes, the Pirate's lil' she-dog which may or may not encompass any, all, or some of Pirate's allies, friends, or indeed his entire faction, should he belong to one. The implied consequences being that Mr. Police's superiors receive one of the other recordings should he decline to demonstrate his best downward-facing dog and present his rectum for the Pirate's inspection and pleasure.

MY CAUSE FOR DISCUSSION

Corruption amongst many of our police factions (looking at you LPI) is widespread, celebrated, enjoyed, lore-friendly, and role-played frequently. Pirates are, by their nature, underhanded and perfectly happy with unlawful, or 'corrupt' actions. With that in mind:

• Were the Police officer in question to submit to his blackmailer, he would, on occasion, violate his sworn duty. If discovered by his superiors, would he be scolded, demoted, fired, arrested, hunted down and killed, or anything in between?
• If he were to refuse to comply, would the superiors care? Or would they simply bury the evidence as corrupt officers would? Is there a limit to how high the corruption can go within our role-played Police forces?
• Would the Trader be seen as a/the conspirator, and would his job, status as a lawful citizen, or even life be risked?

And my biggest stumbling point on roleplay related thoughts:

• Would the Police officer, or his superiors, clearly have much greater computing technology, or impeccable patsy-back-tracing detective skills to track down the original Pirate despite any and all in-role countermeasure he took to prevent same.

Now, I've also a couple of thoughts buzzing around my mind about the moral (read: server rules) implications of this. While everything about this hypothetical scenario fits perfectly with the majority of both Pirate and Police factions' roleplay, at the end of the day, one player is dictating another player's character's roleplay actions by limiting their choices.

• Due to the perfectly justified roleplay that leads to this dictation of choices, would Pirate's player still be considered to be powergaming (Or metagaming, whichever one is about forcing others' choices, and not using OOC knowledge)
• Would the Pirate be permitted to make such a complex demand of the Trader in the first place?
• Would the Police character be in breach of his ID under 'allying' with Pirate should he be instructed to attack a rival lawbreaker.
• Would Mr. Police be permitted to deliberately turn a blind eye to a piracy attempt nearby to him with a different Trader?

Finally, let me ask you this:

• How would you, or one of your characters, respond in one of these three hypothetical characters' shoes? What would you do to escape the situation, or how would you play it differently?

IN CLOSING

Please, don't feel you have to have any concrete answers. If you have any thoughts what-so-ever, whether to one of the above questions or something else entirely, please speak up. My mind races through many hypothetical situations for almost everything I do, from real life to, well... this. Sometimes if an idea is complex and/or interesting enough, I start to become a little neurotic unless I get it out in the open, be it by writing it down or discussing it, so, here I've done the former in hope of the latter.


TL;DR: Nope. There is no TL;DR for this. go back to flood, and leave this thread for sensible discussion. (Or to remain completely empty in reflection of my wasted time and energy for all to see what a complete waste of oxygen and bandwidth I am)

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I was formerly know as Spiritar.

It's been a while.

[Singularity]

Would the Trader be seen as a/the conspirator, and would his job, status as a lawful citizen, or even life be risked ?

The Trader can only be declared a Conspirator or any actions against the trader could only be taken, if the trader couldn't prove his innocence when asked, as in this case he was forced to "frame" the police officer. He can have his chat logs recovered from his transmitter beacon (in RP) and provide them when asked by higher police authorities. He can then prove that he was forced to do this against death warning --- Thats what I think.

Were the Police officer in question to submit to his blackmailer, he would, on occasion, violate his sworn duty. If discovered by his superiors, would he be scolded, demoted, fired, arrested, hunted down and killed, or anything in between ?

I believe if discovered by his superiors, he will be suspended or demoted.
Else, if the higher authority or the person who is given to handle the accused police's case happens to be corrupt guy, he too can have a play here. --- Thats what I think, so, not sure

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[mwerte]

Sounds like good times. Its not powergaming because the characters involved have the option to submit or not. For the trader the other option is almost cetain death, but thems the breaks.

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[Nightingale]

Although I do think this is an interesting concept in itself, I think it'd really only work if if was set up in advance by the trader and the pirate, since the idea isn't really supported by any of the pirate faction ID's. In-game, however, I'd say it'd be both plausible and a fun roleplay opportunity, at least.

To add some details, the only factions that I see which could pull this off would be the various House terrorists or the independant pirates. There'd be no backing up from either the ID or the rules if someone tried this on any random trader, however, since the ID's are pretty clear on what the pirate factions are able to do.

In short, a good and interesting idea, but sadly one which would be very hard to pull off without bending some set-in-stone rules, as far as I can tell.

Although, if the pirate was replaced with an IC employee and the whole thing set up as an insurance scam... That might be interesting.

[Highland Laddie]

Sounds like an overall fun scenario.

Although, if the pirate was replaced with an IC employee and the whole thing set up as an insurance scam... That might be interesting.

Even more sinister...but I think that may have a hard time playing out politically...with a lawful Liberty corporation trying to blackmail a dirty cop. It's more likely the dirty cop would kill the IC employee (or arrange for an "accident") and could just as easily say the claims were falsified, along with the evidence.

[McNeo]

If you're talking about Liberty specifically, I do not believe any of the Liberty lawful factions accept anonymous evidence of wrongdoing, because of the likelihood of ulterior motives driving the submission, the submission often being by an unlawful or a submission by somebody who may be otherwise breaking the law. I remember one time, a lane hacker in a lane hacker gunboat, who I had met on my [LN] just an hour previous, submitted a screenshot of [IND] smuggling cardamine after blanking out his ship.

The situation you describe sounds like good fun, but it needs to be quite careful because a lot of anonymous evidence is submitted for reasons that are not conducive to the law. Equally, if there are any edits at all in the screenshots, such as blanking out the owners ship, or otherwise other things which show laws being broken by the sender/origin, for example active cloaks in Liberty, then action will likely not taken.

That's my experience on the matter, may have changed in Liberty, since the example you give uses the Liberty Police Inc. I wouldn't be surprised if there were different precedents in other houses.

[Zelot]

We had a report like this when I was an admin. We decided that it was ok to make a demand that violates house laws, but it was not ok to make a demand of people that violates server rules.

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[Jonas Valent]

Very interesting role play concept as a member of LPI I would like to weigh in here.

First off Corruption in LPI inRP is fairly endemic and I have many times either taken bribes to turn a blind eye or to completely ignore a certain player who's paid said bribe.

Were the Police officer in question to submit to his blackmailer, he would, on occasion, violate his sworn duty. If discovered by his superiors, would he be scolded, demoted, fired, arrested, hunted down and killed, or anything in between?

Yes technically he would be violating his oath. However,
You would have to provide explicit evidence for our superiors to even look at the issue. Anonymous evidence wouldn't suffice. If such evidence was provided there would be mostly inRP consequences.

If he were to refuse to comply, would the superiors care? Or would they simply bury the evidence as corrupt officers would? Is there a limit to how high the corruption can go within our role-played Police forces?

It would have to be quite extreme for the superiors to take notice. As in any large corporation bureaucracy alone would bury minor issues. However, If there was massive corruption our superiors would be forced to take action simply from a PR standpoint.

Would the Trader be seen as a/the conspirator, and would his job, status as a lawful citizen, or even life be risked?

Possibly depending on how the RP played out. At the very least he would be considered a suspicious person. (Note: Most police players keep a record of any players they have had dealings with before and that trader would certainly be on his list for future reference)

Would the Police officer, or his superiors, clearly have much greater computing technology, or impeccable patsy-back-tracing detective skills to track down the original Pirate despite any and all in-role countermeasure he took to prevent same.

Almost definitely, A lone pirate cannot compete with the resources of a large corporation like LPI. He would almost certainly be found out.

I don't feel comfortable answering your questions on rule violations so i will leave that for mods or admins.

Finally, let me ask you this:

• How would you, or one of your characters, respond in one of these three hypothetical characters' shoes? What would you do to escape the situation, or how would you play it differently?

You would be much better off paying me a large bribe to ignore any future infractions. My character is not the type that would respond well to blackmail. By trying to blackmail me I would certainly distort any evidence and go to my superiors with it and explain the situation and it wouldn't end well for the pirate.

Thats my take on this idea. It is still a good RP idea though.


Edit: You would have much better luck trying to blackmail a low ranking officer then anyone Sergeant or above. LPI players Sergeant and above have some supervisory powers and would have an easier time burying the issue inRP.

[Coin]

Due to the perfectly justified roleplay that leads to this dictation of choices, would Pirate's player still be considered to be powergaming (Or metagaming, whichever one is about forcing others' choices, and not using OOC knowledge)

fyi, powergaming. it's fine to force the trader to take cardamine and do this complexe bit of rp, but bear in mind that the officer in question may just say 'drop the cardi, or die', and then destroy the cardamine. if the trader begs and begs to pay him a bribe, even over and above the amount of the value of the cargo, the officer might get suspicious.
there is nothing stopping the trader from sending a green message saying 'a cloaked pirate is nearby, he is making me do this' and then 34509835 x10(-1) caps arrive.
finally, the blackmail of the officer isn't really cool, as that's powergaming - you're forcing your RP onto him, ("you're MY she-dog now, bubba"). ofc, the officer can just change his name and you'll never know.

Would the Pirate be permitted to make such a complex demand of the Trader in the first place?

demand on the trader is fine

Would the Police character be in breach of his ID under 'allying' with Pirate should he be instructed to attack a rival lawbreaker.

well, if they don't group, its not a problem

Would Mr. Police be permitted to deliberately turn a blind eye to a piracy attempt nearby to him with a different Trader?

not really - its going against what his id says he should do

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