Police Vs Navy

[Sarawr!?]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again.

Having at one point been a Deputy Chief in the LPI player faction, and now currently being a Vice Admiral in the [LN] player faction, I'm quite familiar with both sides of the Police v Military argument.

The Military factions -should- be focusing on warfighting and defending borders, but because of pirates flying heavily armed ships, including Capital ships, the Military is -needed- to 'police' House core space.

Police factions should be doing things like watching tradelanes and catching smugglers, but since that's boring often times, nobody wants to do that, SO the Military ID's and Police ID's wind up being pretty similar.

Hunting Pirates and Terrorists in space is NOT like hunting common criminals in a city or something.

Space law enforcement should ideally, and entirely be a Military matter (And would be anywhere else). But because of the way FL is, you can't have Police and Military Factions doing different things.

It's my opinion therefore, that unless a pirate is in a light or medium fighter craft, hunting them should be a Military matter.

While we can't actually wander around on planets, remember that inRP, people live on these planets, and that's where the Police presence would be the highest. You wouldn't see Liberty Navy people policing the streets of Manhattan, you'd see LPI people doing that.

But again, because we can't actually do that, the LN and LPI wind up doing a lot of the same things, because for example, LPI players don't wanna be bored and sit in the border areas the whole time watching for smugglers, because that's boring xD.

SO, they wind up doing the same things as the LN.

Now I'll actually take a side here and give an example, on my LN, if somebody tells me that say, somebody stole something, I'm gonna shrug them off and tell them that I'm a Soldier, not a cop, unless they stole a military ship or something.

It's hard to find 'common crimes' in Space, because it's mostly pirates or terrorists in heavily armed, high tech ships of war.

That's why Police and Military factions wind up doing the same stuff.

Most of the 'Common crimes' only happen if somebody comes up and says "OH NO SOMEBODY STOLE ALL OF THE X, Y, Z from A, B, C, call the cops!" or something

But in practice, the military and police factions wind up doing the same stuff.

It should be different, but it isn't, and it won't ever be, because Police and Military faction players don't want to bite a bullet and limit themselves to certain activities because "That's boring" or whatever.

Anyway, the Military and Police factions both serve a purpose, and if there's no Police around, then yes, the Military factions do often times pick up the slack.

Honestly though, I'm of the opinion that Space Police factions should be rolled into their Respective house military factions.

That's what people seem to forget

Planetary Policing =/= Space Policing. It's totally different, with totally different threats and circumstances.


You wouldn't see the Police hunting Pirates or Terrorists on the high seas in real life, It doesn't make -any sense-.

But it'll continue to happen here, because it's a game, and everyone needs something to do.




OH, I forgot, one thing you'll see the LPI do that the LN doesn't do, is harass people about 'broken lights' and the like. Also they'll often times try to clear up 'traffic jams' (A bunch of ships just hanging out doing nothing).

Dunno, if I had my way, the LPI would be looking for Smugglers and hunting low class pirates, and the LN would be fighting wars, hunting terrorists and putting down pirate warships, and stopping embargo breakers (And smugglers coming across the borders).

But yeah, ultimately it comes down to, given the way FL is, there's no way for the House military and House police factions to be limited in their roles without somebody being mad about it.

And if anything, the Militaries shouldn't be limited in where they go in their own space, since ffs, they're the -military-. It's their job to secure the territories of their nation.

Again, Space =/= to planetside stuff.

Oh and, in US territorial waters, the United States Coast Guard intercepts drug smugglers and people smugglers all the time, before they reach ConUS (Continental United States).

I voted no, by the way.

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