Unusual methods of enforcing the law in this spaceport (d10)

from Mothership - The Hive-mind discord channel

d10 Result

1

Chivari
After a long period of lawlessness the locals have taken to enforcing their own laws. If an infraction is made public, usually after an ugly whisper campaign a critical mass of 1d6 x 10 angry feudists will build an effigy of the offender and parade it along the ring, banging drums. If not stopped after an hour or two 100 or more locals will have gathered, some well armed, and even armored. The mob will burn the effigy, march to find the culprit, and beat, mutilate or kill them, always with a dose of humiliation. The offender is then paraded around the ring. Charismatic victims have been known to dissuade the mob, but flight, hiding or fighting is considered proof of guilt.

2

Any visiting spacer must nominate one of their spare/redundant organs as collateral before entering the station. A moderate to major infraction against the station charter means you are due for harvesting. On the flipside, if you are the victim of a crime, you can end up with an extra kidney or two as recompense.

3

Local company bylaws force all competitors' ships to offer their goods at local, physical markets for retail stationside for a week before proceeding. Ships found hiding cargo from inspectors are seized, have their engines/drives ripped out and their bulkheads fused with the station, and the offending hidden cargo compartments are opened up as new market stalls.

4

Any and all acts of violence or civil unrest are neutralized by application of psychotropic chemicals through ventilation ducts. A squad of androids is typically dispatched to deal with the offenders while they are incapacitated. As a side effect, a notable number of station residents often start riots just to get high.

5

If a ship is caught smuggling goods through port in a novel enough way, the station's security chief interrogates the crew to find out who did it, then offers the offender a job at double whatever the Company's paying them. No one who refuses the position is allowed back on the station.

6

All port law enforcement officers are previous offenders fitted with bomb collars and biometric telemetry devices monitored off-site. Offending androids are slotted into the port's cloud computing and surveillance system. Release from service can only be obtained by apprehending someone who has committed a similar, or worse, infraction.

7

Calculus of Indenture
All new arrivals must complete a long, boring and irksome set of personality, skill and aptitude tests. The human resources corp in charge of the station uses these to determine market value. The higher your value/skills the more severe criminal penalties are. Also the greater surveillance you warrant. All penalties are in periods of indenture - offstation, in ugly bad places usually - or death. This has resulted in a station of wealthy, rule following, skilled company indentured with an absolutely murderous underclass that is largely ignored as lacking value - except for death squad/organ harvesting sweeps to harden new security indentures.

8

Smaller infractions are charged with an unusual community service involving the individual being stripped, lathered up to the neck in a sticky dark engine grease and then covered in resinprint feathers. So decorated, the guilty party is to stand like a statue at one of the fountains or bench+rest locations. A plaque below them reading their name, what the person did, and on what day -- usually a theft or violent crime. The charge is typically 5 hours, twice a day for 30 days.

9

Any and all visitors to the station may be brought up on charges, regardless of guilt or innocence. This culture of paranoia cultivates a strange mixture of good behaviour. The enforcement officers do not explain the reason, nor is there an appeal. The station AI generates individual "guilty" of a crime at semi-random intervals. Random triggers include, first person in orange jumpsuit, lack of hand washing, too many shopping bags. There is only one punishment - banishment from the station.

10

Empathy Kittens
On docking, each crew member is assigned a fuzzy alien kitten-analogue and required to name it. They may carry it with them or have it kenneled (for a small fee.) These creatures have minor empathic projection and a calming effect in general. Androids, being immune to empathy, enforce the law via threats to the physical and emotional well-being of the empathy kitten you would have bonded with. Are you willing to steal if it means your empathy kitten doesn't eat? Or is hurt by an android in front of you? You may think you're a hard case, but the suffering of your bonded empathy kitten can cut right to your core on a psychic wavelength you may not be ready for.