h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Department of Defense Law Enforcement - A826841
Author: Two Bit Trigger Pumping Moron - U35376

Another entry on federal law enforcement. This one covers several aspects of the military both at home and abroad and their law enforcement powers.

This article needs to be retitled so it's apparent that it applies to the United States, and only covers federal level stuff. I was wondering about omission of the Coast Guard throughout the article, so I think your note needs to be near the beginning.

I think the term installation needs elaboration.

I think the phrase 'just like police officers' needs to be modified. MPs sometimes act as judge and jury, and this is expected of them, especially if they are dealing with laws that Congress has passed over the Law of Assumption. Sometimes, they can report an action to the offending soldier's superior officer, and punishment is decided by this officer then and there, without what would be considered 'due process' in a civilian setting. No civvy policeman should do this.

The word appreciate doesn't make sense to me in context.

The Law of Assumption is more nebulous in practice than you have written it here. Congress has gone out of it's way to assert laws that supersede state law. The first instances of this were when the military was racially integrated. Most recently and controversially, there are now laws about domestic violence, which crime is something soldiers seem prone to do. Sometimes, it pleases the military to ignore state law - there's a nude beach near where I live, and it borders a military base. Folk tend to wander over past the decrepit fence. Even though public nudity is illegal in my state, often, the MPs just shoo folks off base and tell them not to come back again. When they do prosecute, the citation on the ticket is usually trespassing on a military base, a federal offence.

Whose 'Law of War'? Is this a United Nations or Geneva Convention thing?

>This article needs to be retitled so it's apparent that it applies to the United States, and only covers federal level stuff. I was wondering about omission of the Coast Guard throughout the article, so I think your note needs to be near the beginning.

I've changed the title of the entry, although I'm not sure it's necissary. The title of The Special Constabulary [A662979] doesn't say it specifically referes to the UK.

I've changed the beginning a bit to address the Coast Guard.

The Department of Defense (DoD) has multiple law enforcement agencies. The Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and the Air Force
do not generally involve themselves in civilian law enforcement. The military is generally responsible for the defense of the United States of America while law enforcement is left to the law enforcement agencies at the federal, state, and primarily the local level. However, DoD has a very limited in the role that it can play in law enforcement.


The Coast Guard is a military uniformed service, but they are not part of the Department of Defense. They are part of the Department of Homeland Security. During times of war, they are attached to the Department of the Navy. The Coast Guard is a law enforcement agency in its own right. Some members of the Coast Guard are granted the power of arrest.

>The word appreciate doesn't make sense to me in context.

That's because it's supposed to be appropriate:

Felonies are investigated by the appropriate Military Criminal Investigative Organization (MICO).

>I think the term installation needs elaboration.

How about if I just change the words a bit:

MPs maintain order on military bases.

>Whose 'Law of War'? Is this a United Nations or Geneva Convention thing?

The Law of War is sort of generic. Much of it is codified in the Geneva Convention. It's sort of like Common Law.

>I think the phrase 'just like police officers' needs to be modified. MPs sometimes act as judge and jury, and this is expected of them, especially if they are dealing with laws that Congress has passed over the Law of Assumption. Sometimes, they can report an action to the offending soldier's superior officer, and punishment is decided by this officer then and there, without what would be considered 'due process' in a civilian setting. No civvy policeman should do this.

Civilian police use discretion all the time. We can and do exercise it all the time. The best example I can think of is if we catch a kid out past curfew, we can call the parents and have them come collect the kid. While the 'due process' that takes place under Article 15 is different from what a civilian would face, it's not that radical a difference. It's sort of like going before a magistrate on a disorderly conduct violation.

>The Law of Assumption is more nebulous in practice than you have written it here. ... there are now laws about domestic violence, which crime is something soldiers seem prone to do. Sometimes, it pleases the military to ignore state law - there's a nude beach near where I live, and it borders a military base. Folk tend to wander over past the decrepit fence. Even though public nudity is illegal in my state, often, the MPs just shoo folks off base and tell them not to come back again. When they do prosecute, the citation on the ticket is usually trespassing on a military base, a federal offence.

If you can help me clarify the Law of Assumption, I'd appreciate it. I'm going on what I remember from taking MP sub course (although I was never an MP, and talking to federal officers about the law of assumption. My explanation is simplistic because my understanding of it is.

Again, I don't see anything all that different about the MPs shooing off the people on the nude beach and what civilian cops would do. I've causght people having sex in public places, etc, but I've never charged anyone with Public Indecency. I've just made them button up and leave. The closest I've ever had to making an arrest for something like that is arresting a guy for DUI after he and his girlfriend drove up to my roadblock while they were naked.

I was just trying to do a thumbnail of the Law of Assumption. If you can help me with it, do so.

If you were or are in the military, perhaps you'd like to sign in oat the Barracks [A572799].

You have a heading "Posse Comitatus" but nothing in the entry seems to make clear what the Latin phrase means or why it's in the heading. Being rather ancient myself, I understand the latin, and having wondered what the H*ll a posse was in westerns as a child, I know why it's there, but maybe more of an explanation in the entry is in order.

If you understand the latin, cna you give me a direct translation. My understanding is that it means 'the power of the sheriff.'

posse is the infinitive of "to be able" or "to have power". In Medieval Latin (from which Judicial Latin is derived), posse also became a noun meaning a force, or a band of men. Comitatus is a noun often used by Tacitus to describe the band of retainers that served a Germanic lord; in effect, it is also a band of men. In later Imperial times it came to refer to the Imperial court, and, the Imperial court in a good deal of European jurisprudence came to be imitated by pretty much every government. Comitatus looks the same in both the nominative "the court" and in the genitive "of the court" or "the court's". And so, a posse commitatus is a band of men, or a force, of the court. So, really, you're right, it is (a group having) the power of the sheriff, but it's roots are in the old fashioned "let's round up a posse and go git those varmints!"

don't even get me started on what sheriff means.

Is this any better?

The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878

The Army used to be heavily involved in law enforcement, particularly in the old west. In 1878, Congress enacted the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibited the Army3 from assisting law enforcement directly except when authorized by the Constitution or Congress. These

that's a H*ll of a lot more readable than what I wrote! That'll do just fine.

It doesn't explain the term or the background, but it gives it a little more context.

I think that's all that's necessary. If someone wants to know more about the term they can look it up. At least now the Heading is connected.

*snip* Civilian police use discretion all the time...

In the case of spousal abuse, no discretion is (supposed to be) possible. An MP is required to make the report, and the punishment minimums are listed specifically by Congress.

*snip* If you can help me clarify the Law of Assumption...

It's a real mess! If you wish to keep it a thumbnail, just say it usually but not always applies, and that the notable exceptions are in which an ideological Congress has chosen to stick it's nose in a State's business.

Congress is usually quite specific: drug laws are more draconian and supersede local laws (this one was aimed at the hippies in the city of Santa Cruz CA), domestic violence (VAWA was considered successful, so it was extended by clever activists who were able to prove military men are more likely), abortion (much more difficult for a soldier), racial discrimination (president Truman integrating the armed forces against the Southern States, about a decade before Martin Luther King Jr), and in specifically excepting the military from State ecological protections (aimed at Alaska). In most of these cases, what is a crime and what specifically should be done differently is specified. There was some talk about Boy Scouts must be accomodated by the military even though a State decides they violate their own equal protection laws, but I am not sure if it ever got passed, so you could probably ignore it.

*snip* ...different about the MPs shooing off the people on the nude beach...

Well, in this case, not really. There's no federal law against nudity, and the California has no say on whether trespassing on federal property is illegal. It's true that they may choose not to piss people off enough to get them to write their representative, and this would be a discretionary action. But when they do decide to prosecute, they choose to ignore State law, and use the Federal one instead.

*snip* ...sign in oat the Barracks [A572799]...

I used to wargame a lot, was in a commune, and am friends with a gunsmith and some hunters, and so I've known a lot of soldiers and veterans. I myself am gay and so I may not serve, even if it please me. This infuriates my patriotism a great deal and has for decades.

I'll make some changes over the weekend.

>In the case of spousal abuse, no discretion is (supposed to be) possible. An MP is required to make the report, and the punishment minimums are listed specifically by Congress.

Familiy violence varies from state to state. Georgia only requires that officers report any allegation of family violence. It also allows us to make warrantless arrests for misdimeanors not committed in our pressence if it was an act of family violence. When I was with the PD, policy required that we make an arrest when we had probable cause in any case of family violence. I let a couple slide, and there were a few I couldn't figure out. The family violence law is so absurd, that it doesn't only include violence. I've used it for forgeries, and a friend of mine arrested a guy for bigamy under the family violence act.

Two months?

This has been hanging around for two months?

I kept looking for Posse Comitatus as I was reading this, and you didn't disappoint.

I'm not enamoured with the title but the only suggestion I have is to make it in passive voice - 'Law Enforcement Roles of the US Department of Defense'.

But I don't like *that* any better...


Aside from the title, your content is fab!


- Jimi X

It's been four weeks. As far as I'm concerend that's bare minmum that I want my entries in there. I'm slow to do much on the Guide, and I'm always worried that someone will pick something that I haven't finished fixing. It's happened before.

How's it going, TBTPM? Are you happy for this to go in yet, or would you like to wait a while longer so you can add more?

Sam.

I think I'm done with this one. I don't intend to do anything else with it unless someone can find something. I'm not a good critic of my own work until after it's submitted.