Re: [BNW] population statistics

["Ewan" <e.chilton@bcftcs.ac.uk>]

>     Absolutely. There are approximately 11,400 field agents and over
16,400
> other employees. That's less than 30,000 usually.

you are a gold mine of usefull information.

> > say that 1/6 of the total are defiance 500 defiance 4 factions 125
> militant
> > defiants in the city.
>
>     I think you over estimate the level of organization the Defiance
posses.
> I kind of envisioned them banding into a lot smaller groups. If they band
> together at all.

someone else said that the defiant source book says that there are 4
factions only one being violent and fanatical hence divide by 4 the
indivdual cells may indeed be seperate autonomous groups.

>>thats 25
> > cells in the city that actualy do violent stuff
>
>     And what do they do? Remember you have the largest standing army in
the
> world patrolling the streets as part of their duties.

now hang on a sec, I dont remeber reading about any army patroling the
streets, anbd I certainly think that the bok would have mentioned it. No I
think the army (or the g reater part of it) is off doing other stuff,
worring about russains, china, korea, shooting allies by accident etc Im
sure the regualr police force is up to the job of keeping joe public from
traffic violations etc.


>That's going to make
> the Defiance really popular when they start blowing away army patrols,
> especially if the BNW US has some form of national service. That would
mean
> that a radical Defiance "strike for freedom" that kills some family's
little
> Timmy is not going to make that family think the Defiance is nice when
they
> do something like that. I can see people singing "No Surrender" already.
The
> only reason I can think of that you would get "Loyalist" anti-defiance
> terrorists is because know body knows who Defiance are. Oh, except for
that
> publicly available Delta register. Opps. Hey, is this starting to sound
like
> the main theme of the X-men to anyone else?

yeah I do see connections to the mutant menace of the X-men and the Delta
threat of BNW however I didnt invisage the definace blowing away random army
patrols so much as blowing up a judge who sent down one too many defiance
member. or taking out the gadgetter workshop where a whole load of armegedon
suits are be ing maintained or robbing a bank to finance the greater good of
the definace movement etc etc Ok maybe little timmy would get blown away
occasionaly and im sure the government would play this up. but it pwoldnt be
passed the reasoning of radicals to sympathise with an 'ends justify the
means' killing of guards how got in the way of the fight for freedom.

>     I forgot to mention the historical police state you could use as a
> template for BNW. 1930's-1940's Nazi Germany. They had a minority to
> oppress, and I'm pretty sure that Hitler managed to change the law so he
was
> Chancellor for life. Remember, Hitler was legally and democratically
> elected, and was also incredibly popular.

I dont think you can make the comparison go the full distance, sure elements
of nazi german can be seen in BNW but I think that these are just general
properties of a dictator ship rather than a parellel between the two states

> BNW US has the Red Menace and height of cold war paranoia to help enforce
> the idea that the Federal Government needs to maintain marshal law and
> strict controls on all Delta's to ensure that your children don't end up
> speaking Russian as a first language.

>     I disagree with Ewan that officials would no longer be responsible to
> the public though. I just think that when it comes to Delta's or
Communism,
> no one, even public servants, will want to show signs of sympathies. It
> could ruin their carriers, lose the respect of their friends and family,
> even place them under investigation by local authorities, or persecution
by
> local "good citizens".

it is exactly these two points which I believe enforces the non benevolency
of the BNW US state. 1: JFK replaces congress with his lackies. Now these
lackies havent been elected therefore they have a job for life as long as
they back the prez in what ever he says. therefore they are not going to get
sacked/impeached/whatever for wrongfull dismissal of thier employees for
political reasons. there fore everyone below them if going to gradualy fall
into line in that they will become appointed by a higher power rather than
being elected or chosen fairly. People allready in positions of authority
will be replaced if they speak out too loudly. youmight get the odd honest
judge or mayor, but they will be worksing against the system trying to to
the best they can in a situation where there superiors or the FBI/DP can
replace them on a whim if they seem to be a sympathictic to a non politcaly
acceptable cause.

Ewan

PS. I esp. like the 'good citizens' idea