On the Ever Evolving Conspiracy to Commit and Command Responsibility

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How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg.  – Abraham Lincoln

Here is something that most americans know: those who plan crime, as as responsible as those who carry out the crime.  What most don’t realize is that law is almost uniquely american, and has evolved over time because americans believe you are uniquely responsible for all your actions yet overtime  even his has further evolved to be that someone  is responsible all the time for anything that happens.

The conspiracy to commit crime, comes mostly from the RICOH statue, passed by the federal government to clamp down on the mob.  The RICOH statue is itself an evolution of the “oliver twist law”,(contributing to the deliquency of a minor) which protects minors from others usuing them to commit crimes and locks up the user.

A mob boss, like the child boss in the story,  rarely ever does any actually crime himself, but because of the structure of the mob often was complicit in the planning and operations of criminal activities happening under his watch.  As the mob got bigger and bigger, it was recognized that removing the boss usually dismantled a group.   The reasoning being of course, normal people don’t sit around and plan crimes, Ergo, Conspiracy to commit..

The conspiracy statue has future evolved, in that all members of the crime are as responsible for the maximum level of punishment that each individual member of the crime commits.  This is represented in many area’s as “if someone dies in the commission of a crime, then all are responsible for the crime.”  I doubt if there is an american who watches CSI or LAW and ORDER who doesn’t know either the RICOH, conspiracy or the other parts of the crime. 

The problem is that this sense the person at the top is actually the one in charge is at fault, has invaded all parts of our culture.  It used to be if a captain of a boat went to sleep and the helmsman runs aground, then we’d say the helms man was at fault.  A investigation would check if the helmsman was properly trained, but in todays society, that captain would be sued, and if anyone died, probably tried for murder sometimes irrespective of the action of the helmsman.  A crane fails, the City manager of inspectors loses his job thou it was his inspectors that failed to check the crane.  A soldier fires real bullets into a crowd thinking they were blanks and a high ranked commander is let go, thou he had and never had direct contact with that soldier or his training.  Employees in a training program access innapporiate information, yet it’s their boss, 9 levels removed who apologizes for their actions. 

Law enforcement uses all the tools given to it.  The RICOH statue has been used to prosecute russians and columbian cartels and madam’s of bordellos.  It’s not their fault a prosecutor tries to lock someone away everytime an accident happens. 

Why were these commanders punished?  This surrounds the theory of command responsibility, which is defined as: A commander has a duty to see that his people, and followers, conduct themselves lawfully (which ever law that is) and to punish when they do not.  The commander is responsible for maintaining that sense of morality (which ever morals those are) and is ultimately responsible for things he should reasonable know or anticipate. 

By this, the conspiracy statue applies to almost anyone in charge of someone esle.  especially corporations leaders and presidents.  There is precious little the president can do about the economy, the Federal Reserve is Independent, Wall street is really corporations and markets really just ignore everyone, but when it all goes wrong, it’s his fault.   Corporations leaders can only reasonable predict the outlook of their products based upon the changing winds of their consumers, and military commanders deep in a war can only control so much what a scared or angry soldier does when faced with bullets. 

This pages follows at least a few simple rules:  

• Someone is not always responsible.    
• Sometimes people are responsibly for this own actions. 
• Someone’s Arrogance is not a reason to sue someone, (thou kicking them between the legs may pass). 

Sometimes the world will have to live with that. 

OceansOfThought @ July 4, 2008