Take a guess, how many people were shot by US police on Christmas.

[malthaussen]

16. Ah, the Nuremburg defense...

... it never grows stale.

I imagine there's a reason for that, too. The Institutional Man, the one who shows "loyalty" (whatever that is), who follows orders, who takes one for the team... this ideal is encouraged by a bureaucratic system that is more interested in "team players" than in actually getting anything done (to say nothing of right and wrong). Official cognizance must be taken, if somebody makes a loud enough noise about it, of wrongdoing, and some scapegoat or other picked (preferably from the lowest executive level possible) to appease the outrage, but nobody would ever be taken seriously who suggested reforming the whole system. Usually, it is some poor slob "just following orders" who takes the fall, too; what is ignored is that the poor slob would be out of a job, or (worst case) dead if he refused to follow the order.

Another sidelight on official recognition: three soldiers in a war somewhere raped a local bigwig's daughter, and he complained of the offense to the C.O. The advocate in charge of the prosecution was pissed at the soldiers... because they didn't kill the girl after they were done with her, and thus he had to be bothered to try them. Why didn't they just kill her? (This is rich): they said they "felt sorry for her."

-- Mal