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"Call of duty includes a moral responsibility. That's why war criminals can be brought to trial against the "following orders defence"."
Well of course... However, call of duty and moral, actions and orders, legal as they may be in a conventional sense of the word, do not necessarily correlate.
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Well of course... However, call of duty and moral, actions and orders, legal as they may be in a conventional sense of the word, do not necessarily correlate.
National law is not the issue. During the 1930s and into the 1940s in Germany the popularly elected government passed legislation restricting rights and institutionalizing racism and eventually genocide. The Nazis did not act against the law but enacted laws legalizing their activities. Much of the "crimes against humanity" committed by the Nazis was legal including slave labour and medical experiments in concentration camps.
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http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/21/ethnic-minorities-likely-charged-drug-possession
Shocking stats also well explained here about the situation in the USA linking also to class as well as race http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01pzz69) there punishment for possessing crack cocaine (used by poor whites) is 8 times longer than for possession of coke (used by rich people).
Explains the reefer madness phenomenon -
The Nazis did not act against the law but enacted laws legalizing their activities.
A popular myth. The Nazis acted against the law at all times, including in violently suppressing dissent. The mere fact that they passed various Notverordnungen and the Ermächtigungsgesetz to formally dissolve or suspend existing law is an unimportant nuance. Each time they pushed dissolution of the rule of law further and it was only replaced by a vacuum of the rule of might. It is, of course, very easy to claim that you're not acting against the law if you've largely overruled it.
You can try to claim that the Nazis acted lawfully in all this, but it is highly dubious that their Notverordnungen even fulfilled the criteria for such orders set down in the Weimarean constitution, as noted here (I think you read German so I'll link to these articles in German):
Note also that the Notverordnungen were not laws as such but *orders *modelled on the Roman example of a dictator being granted dictatorial powers in time of crisis. Dictatorship was meant to help in times when ordinary rule of law might not be up to the task in hand, but just as dictatorship was abused in ancient Rome, the possibility of Notverordnungen was, too. Effectively, all that happened was that a dictatorship was set up, but without any of the safeguards that were always meant to accompany such orders.
The Nazis had no interest in the rule of law whatsoever but only ticked certain formal boxes until they had sufficiently suppressed opposition to feel strong enough to take the next step. (Later steps included the Nürnberger Gesetze etc.)
Finally, these things were not passed freely. Parliament was violently intimidated. Without this, the Ermächtigungsgesetz would not have been passed.
(1) Largely abolishing freedom of the press and the right to assembly:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verordnung_des_Reichspr%C3%A4sidenten_zum_Schutze_des_Deutschen_Volkes
(2) The "Reichstagsbrandverordnung"--centralisation of the totalitarian dictatorship by abolishing federalism and citizens' rights, etc.:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verordnung_des_Reichspr%C3%A4sidenten_zum_Schutz_von_Volk_und_Staat
Beschränkungen der persönlichen Freiheit, des Rechts der freien Meinungsäußerung, einschließlich der Pressefreiheit, des Vereins- und Versammlungsrechts, Eingriffe in das Brief-, Post-, Telegraphen- und Fernsprechgeheimnis, Anordnungen von Hausdurchsuchungen und von Beschlagnahmen sowie Beschränkungen des Eigentums auch außerhalb der sonst hierfür bestimmten gesetzlichen Grenzen wurden für legal erklärt.
In English: Limitations to personal freedoms, to the right to free speech (including freedom of the press), to the right of free assembly, and to the inviolability of mail confidentiality (there is no convenient English term to translate "Briefgeheimnis" et al.), as well as legalising house searches and limitations to property beyond what was legally set down before were declared 'legal'. Really?(3) Finally, the Ermächtigungsgesetz, the only actual law in this sorry charade. This was only passed by parliament following massive intimidation of members of parliament (including threats to them and their families and the SA and SS further intimidated MPs by turning up in the chamber of the Reichstag), itself rather unlawful. It was by no means a free vote.
The law essentially removed any involvement of the Reichstag in decision-making and rendered the constitution irrelevant:
All of this happened within a few months of Hitler being appointed Reichskanzler.
Obviously, whole rooms could be filled with the literature on the Machtergreifung, but not for a minute should anyone think that the Nazis acted lawfully.
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^ this.
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http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/21/ethnic-minorities-likely-charged-drug-possession
"The effect is still more marked in some parts of the capital. Police in the affluent area of Kensington and Chelsea charge black people caught in possession of cocaine seven times as frequently as white people. The differential for charging for cocaine possession was between five and six times for areas including Richmond, Harrow and Wandsworth."
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Rugs are bad, mkay.
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Damn, he's rolled a fatty there.
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NSA illegally collected thousands of emails, US admits
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Prisoners aren't allowed phones, but they are allowed car keys?
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I reckon there's room for both.
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http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/21/ethnic-minorities-likely-charged-drug-possession