Quote:Once again we offer that if the pursuing ship can show evidence that the "criminal" fled into our NFZ, they will be able to continue pursuit and use force. Now if Liberty has knowledge and proof that there are certain elements staging from our stations, provide proof and we will eject them.
What possible proof could Liberty pilots show in-chase, whilst approaching a freeport, that the person they are chasing has comitted a crime? It requires time to download any ship computer, and that has to be done outside of flight. Picture evidence of this kind allows the transgressor to get away. Maybe it lets that criminal get away just once, but in many cases, getting away just once means more lives lost within our borders. I cannot compromise on an issue that could endanger any number of citizens in Liberty. Besides, you imply that the word of an officer of the law is not good enough, and I would vehemently disagree.
Quote:Now we are at a potential impasse. You do not seem to realize that this is a negotiation. You make a request, we counter, and we go back and forth till we both get a little of what we want. Now we started with no one being able to violate our policies, we made a concession to allow your lawful forces to do so if they provided proof. Now if your forces can not be bothered with actually gathering proof before making arrests or even killing a "criminal" I feel very sorry for Lady Justice in Liberty.
In reality, that is not a concession. Without this 'concession', I understand that we would provide evidence as we gathered it, and you would keep them away from the Freeports, destroying their ship if they tried to use your facilities. With this 'concession', I understand that instead of you doing the destroying, our forces would. But the order of progression is wrong. What I have been told to gain is the consent of the Zoners for our forces to chase those ships, destroy them, and then provide evidence afterwards of the crime they have comitted.
Such a 'concession', as you described it, only puts Liberty pilot's lives at risk for no potential gain in the areas where we are actually interested in. That is, the sacrifice of our pilots to stop violent criminals from reoffending.
I hope you understand what I am aiming for, and I will not settle for anything less.
Quote:Yes I admitted an wording error on our part about anyone staging attacks on anyone else from our stations. Your comment pointed out to us that it was not clear enough. It is being fixed. Yet you throw that in our face and accuse us of not budging. Yet you have refused to change your stance at all.
I did nothing of the sort. As I said earlier, I saw that you had admitted that something was missed. As it was phrased in such a way that made it sound as if it were a mistake in the document before the discussion about it began, I assumed that you had always meant what I has asked for and that concluded that, since you did mean what I pointed out anyway, that you werent budging on that particular point. Was I mistaken?
Quote:Now the main areas of space we are talking about are outside Liberty. Truthfully it is no ones territory and there are no laws in that region. We have rules that folks must abide if they want to use our stations. If they do not, then they are asked to leave, forcefully if necessary, and black listed from that freeport. If their violation is bad enough they will be forbidden from the use of any Zoner installation.
You want to be able to violate those rules, freely with no proof of wrong doing, in an area of space that is not yours. Space where your laws do not hold sway. You ask for trust but give none in return and threaten our very existence in these systems. Is this how the Liberty government works? With threats? You want to be able to carry out your duties in a system where your laws mean nothing. Outside your sovereign space.
You are completely correct. There are no laws in the independant worlds region of space. Something that I may recommend the Liberty Navy to look at changing in the future.
I see a problem, however. You say you have laws that folks must abide by if they want to use your stations. Thats fair enough. But the Liberty forces rarely, if ever, use your stations. Going down a purely hypothetical path, what reason would the Liberty forces have to obey your laws in this case? Armed retalition?
The accusation that we want to violate those rules of yours freely without proof is, however, mistaken. We will provide proof if the enquiries are made by your council, and will give proper apology and proof of the reprimand of the officers involved if that evidence is unavailable for any reason.
I would contend the notion that our laws hold no sway in the independant worlds. They hold as much sway as there are naval and security force patrols in those areas, and of course, the frequency of those patrols are subject to change.
The Liberty government works in such a way that gives me full authority in dealings with groups that show intent to harbour known criminals a scant one jump away from house space. I'd like to think of the statements I make as more of a warning and less of a threat. That said, they can both overlap somewhat.
Quote:If you truly believe that all the criminals of Liberty are based out of Ames and Freeport 2 then you have more issues then just our little 5k around our stations. Why would criminals run to our stations when they can go to their own?
This discussion is not about what I truely believe, mister Nichols. I am simply here to make sure that Liberty's interests are served by any deal that results from these negotiations. Liberty's interests are very far-ranging, as you can imagine.
Quote:If we allow you to violate our No Fire Zone when you wish, then we would have to allow everyone to do so. That is not acceptable. You want to police the independent systems when you have enough issues within your own house. To give you free reign in the NFZ would open too many problems and threaten our very existence through out Sirius.
That, Sam, is your problem.
Regards, Harrison McRemitz
The secretary of state for foreign affairs.
PS: I might add that, as I have an objective which I will not go away having failed to achieve, I did come to the table with benefits that would be administered to the Zoners that you have already labelled as being unimportant. What then, would you like from us?
