Act of Congress Hero of the Village Act

[EmeraldGuuy]

CONGRESS OF THE
COMMONWEALTH OF REDMONT
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A BILL TO

LET THERE BE A HERO OF THE VILLAGE




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The people of the Commonwealth of Redmont, through their elected Representatives in the Congress and the force of law ordained to that Congress by the people through the constitution, do hereby enact the following provisions into law:


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PART I — PRELIMINARIES

1. Short Title and Enactment

(1) This Act may be cited as the ‘Hero of the Village Act’.

(2) This Act shall be enacted immediately upon its signage.

(3) This Act has been authored by Vice president & Homeland Security Deputy Secretary _GreyMC, and named by Homeland Security Deputy Secretary SonOfALancer.

(4) This Act has been co-sponsored by Rep. rhein_FM and Senate President HatManMC.

(5) This Act amends the following acts:

(a) Criminal Code Act

2. Reasons and Intent

(1) Upon updates to Homeland v2, two new features have become available. These being jail, and the ability to defend other people.

(2) Congress needs to pass a law to enable these two features, and that is what this act does.

(3) Bail will be set at $150 per minute spent.

(4) To stop possible abuse, clarification has been added to the Detective Misconduct crime, including preventing people from taking cases where it may be self-defense.

PART II — AMENDMENTS

3. CCA

(1) Part I, §6(13-14) shall be added into the Criminal Code Act as follows:

(13) Bail
(a) When a criminal has been jailed, they may choose to pay bail to be released early.
(b) The price of bail shall be set at the minutes the criminal has remaining in prison, rounded up to the nearest minute, times the bail multiplier.
(c) The bail multiplier shall be set at $150.

(14) Third-Party Defense
(a) When an individual is attacked, another player may reasonably assist in defending against the attacker legally, including killing the attacker.
(b) The attack must have occurred within 25 blocks of the player for them to assist in the defense.
(c) Crimes committed can be appealed under a claim of Third-Party Defense, at which point all punishments are to be delayed until after the appeal.

(2) Part III, §17 shall be added into the Criminal Code Act as follows:

17 - Detective Misconduct
Offence Type: Indictable
Penalty: Up to 100 Penalty Units; Up to 60 minutes imprisonment; Suspension from the Department of Homeland Security for up to 2 months
A person commits an offence if the person:
(a) being a detective:
(i) takes a case in which they were directly involved as the murderer, including cases where the murder was legal through self-defense or third-party defense; or
(ii) takes a case with the intent to conceal or destroy evidence.; or
(iii) works with another, or multiple, detective(s) to illicitly create self-defense or third-party defense cases for gain.

(3) Part V, §3 shall be added into the Criminal Code Act as follows:

3 - Falsely Claiming Self Defense
Offence Type: Summary
Penalty: Double the punishment for the associated crimes
A person commits an offence if the person:
(a) falsely claims self-defense or third-party defense in relation to committing another offence.

(4) Section 10(1)(b)(i) of the Criminal Terminology Act shall be amended as follows:

(i) lawful self-defence or third-party defense as defined in Section 6(11) or Section 6(13) of Part I of the Criminal Code Act;

 

[antonfr]

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Presidential Assent

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The Hero of the Village Act brings the Criminal Code in line with the new Homeland features. It creates a bail system, so a jailed player can pay to leave early at $150 for each minute left on their sentence, and it creates Third-Party Defense, so a player can lawfully step in to defend someone being attacked within 25 blocks, including by killing the attacker.

These are sensible additions. Until now, helping someone under attack could technically land you with a murder charge, which is the opposite of what we want from good citizens. Bail gives players a fair way to get back to playing without sitting out a long sentence, and at $150 a minute it still carries a cost. The Act also guards against abuse: detectives can no longer take cases where they did the killing, even if it was lawful self-defence or third-party defence, detectives who work together to stage defence cases for gain commit Detective Misconduct, and falsely claiming third-party defence is punished the same way as falsely claiming self-defence.

However: the new third-party defence is looser than the defences we already have. Self-defence and Castle Law both require a proportionate response to an imminent threat, but the new section only says a player may "reasonably assist", and it does not say that the person being helped must be the victim rather than the aggressor. The numbering also needs tidying. Self-defence is §6(10) of the Criminal Code Act, not §6(11), and the amended Criminal Terminology Act now points third-party defence to §6(13), which is the bail section. The Criminal Terminology Act is also missing from the list of Acts amended in §1(5). Lastly, bail applies to indictable offences too, and at a far higher rate than the existing ten-dollar commutation rule, so the two should be looked at together. None of these are reasons to hold the bill back.

Overall, this is a practical update that lets the law catch up with the game and rewards players for protecting each other.

I thank Vice President and Homeland Security Deputy Secretary _GreyMC for authoring this bill, Homeland Security Deputy Secretary SonOfALancer for naming it, Speaker EmeraldGuuy for sponsoring it, Representative rhein_FM and Senate President HatManMC for cosponsoring it, and Congress for passing it.

This bill has been granted assent and is hereby signed into law.

antonfr
President of the Commonwealth of Redmont​