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[Josephus]

Ah. I have to run next door to check the news, so don't expect me to be very updated.

He may be desperate. Even with extortion, an SPO's wage is terrible, barely enough to live on. He might have just snapped.

[lordnincompoop]

Police get paid next to nothing, just like Josephus said. Thus the bribery and corruption.

[Azzuro]

He must have a machinegun or something, because he just opened up a row of bullet holes on the window.

Edit: I think the police threw in a tear gas canister, because there's green gas escaping through the cracks.

Edit2: A dead body's stuck in the door.

Edit3: Two people just came out of the emergency door, so there's still people alive inside.

Edit4: Yeah, I think it's over. A bunch of hostages have escaped and police are in the bus.

[Josephus]

The pictures show an M16, probably illegally acquired.

Police get paid next to nothing, just like Josephus said. Thus the bribery and corruption.

It's even less than you think in the Philippines. If a copper stops you for a "traffic violation" and asks for just enough money so he can buy lunch, there's a 50-50 chance that he's actually telling the truth.

In retrospect, I think I did hear about this earlier today. I must have been zoning out.

[RedKing]

Yeah, in general paying your police and army shit for wages is kind of a recipe for bad things. This has been true for...well, as long as there have been police and armies.

[lordnincompoop]

Yeah, in general paying your police and army shit for wages is kind of a recipe for bad things. This has been true for...well, as long as there have been police and armies.

Definitely. You get exactly as much loyalty as you pay for. If the other side happens to pay better, then screw patriotism; my kids need feeding.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

It's always been like that. You did not want to skip out on paying your knights, and you really, really did not want to skip out on paying your mercenary soldiers if you were a feudal lord.

[RedKing]

Of course, paying civil servants shit for wages is not a great thing either. You don't get coups or shakedowns, but you do win up with massive corruption as bureaucrats start skimming off the public treasury and/or demanding bribes to get applications and other paperwork moving through the red tape.

(See: Nigeria, China, numerous other countries)

It's always been like that. You did not want to skip out on paying your knights, and you really, really did not want to skip out on paying your mercenary soldiers if you were a feudal lord.

Yes and no. If the knights were poor enough, they couldn't field forces without help from their lieges, which kinda left them screwed. Happened in the later Tokugawa period in Japan and in various places in Europe as the Crown consolidated power. That was kind of the death knell of the feudal system in both cases--when retainers had so little power vis-a-vis the Crown that they became relegated to bureaucrats and administrators instead of actual military commanders.

And you could get away sometimes with not paying mercs as long as you let them pillage the shit out of whoever you were fighting.

[lordnincompoop]

Of course, paying civil servants shit for wages is not a great thing either. You don't get coups or shakedowns, but you do win up with massive corruption as bureaucrats start skimming off the public treasury and/or demanding bribes to get applications and other paperwork moving through the red tape.

(See: Nigeria, China, numerous other countries)

Pretty much every country out there has at least some corruption.

Ah, money. It's amazing what we'll do for it.

[scriver]

Forgive me? He jumped on me, ruined a brand new shirt, refused to get the fuck off of me, spent an hour refusing to get the fuck off of me, started biting me, though a few blows to the face stopped that, then sat spitting on me. All of that, especially the last two, is grounds for being beaten to a bloody pulp, yet he remained unscathed because I had no wish to make things worse. (I was also the one to pay for the beer in the first place, because he had no money and swore he'd pay me back for half of it) And what does he do? Drive off in front of me, after trying to convince the other people there not to give me a ride home, then blocks me so there can be no rational discussion. And that's the most offensive part. A drunken fight is one thing, and is easily forgotten. Calculated, sober acts of cowardice and malice are another thing entirely.

I hear you. I was only jesting earlier, though after re-reading my post I realise I might have come of as rather douchey. It's just really strange behaviour. Except for the money part. It's always like that.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

It's always been like that. You did not want to skip out on paying your knights, and you really, really did not want to skip out on paying your mercenary soldiers if you were a feudal lord.

Yes and no. If the knights were poor enough, they couldn't field forces without help from their lieges, which kinda left them screwed. Happened in the later Tokugawa period in Japan and in various places in Europe as the Crown consolidated power. That was kind of the death knell of the feudal system in both cases -when retainers had so little power vis-a-vis the Crown that they became relegated to bureaucrats and administrators instead of actual military commanders.

And you could get away sometimes with not paying mercs as long as you let them pillage the shit out of whoever you were fighting.

If you don't pay local soliders, they might consider trying to overthrow you, but it isn't very likely if you pay your mercs or knights. Plus, they still live in the area, and another lord would eventually be given claim of the land even if they did win. So that isn't too much of a problem.

If you don't pay your knights, and they aren't so poor as to need you to support them, then they stage a coup and kill you. Given the number of entries in the Code of Chivalry about loyalty, they would probably try to do so with as little fuss as possible so they don't die themselves when someone else is appointed liege lord of the area.

If you don't pay your mercenaries? You are so very screwed. They'll probably offer their employment to the enemy. While they're still in your city if defending, or your war encampment if attacking. Thus, they'll raze the area while already behind your defences, and burn you alive or somthing equally horrible. If you even have mercenaries in the first place, then your local soliders and knights obviously aren't enough on their own, and so the mercenaries stand a good chance of winning. It's fully possible that your mercenaries wouldn't have even had a chance to do any pillaging, much less be allowed to do so with what little spoils a weak lord would get.

[Maggarg - Eater of chicke]

I can't afford the USB vinyl player I was saving up for :<

[scriver]

mercenaries!

Metal is completely correct. There's a reason two thirds of Machiavelli's advice for rulers comes down to: "Don't use those assholes!"

[Maggarg - Eater of chicke]

I wish I was called Machiavelli. It's such an awesome name.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

His full name and title are even more awesome: Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli, Secretary to the Second Chancery of the Republic of Florence.