# Quiz: who do you sue? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 16, 2005, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quiz-who-do-you-sue/294879 "2005-03-16T21:34:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Mtgman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Mtgman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mtgman)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2005, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quiz-who-do-you-sue/294879/101 "2005-03-17T20:11:22Z")
> [@Homebrew](#): > > Those deaths were of people in the houses when the IDF didn’t bother to make sure nobody was inside. If you read the cite from [Israeli-Weapons.com](http://Israeli-Weapons.com) you can see there have been instances of deliberately bringing down the house on the heads of people still inside. Knowingly providing the equipment used to commit war crimes, as the suit alleges, is indeed a serious matter. > [@](#): > > The Israeli armored D9, a.k.a Duby (lit. bear) has been used in standoff situations with armed Palestinians barricaded in buildings and rigged them with explosives and booby-traps. In order not to risk Israeli soldiers, the D9 shook the house until the occupants surrendered and then razed the structure in order to detonate and bury any explosives inside. This method was largly employed (with great success) in Jenin after 13 Israeli soldiers were killed by a combined ambush. This method was also used in Hebron: the IDF used the armored D9 to stop the local Hamas leader, Bassal Qawasameh; the later was killed by the collapsing house after shooting on the D9 (see photo from this incident). Enjoy, Steven ---
**Author:** ![Balle\_M](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/13edae/32.png) [@Balle\_M](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balle_M)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2005, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quiz-who-do-you-sue/294879/102 "2005-03-17T20:17:32Z")
> [@Homebrew](#): > > Did James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner die like idiots? No. IIRC, all three of these men were shot by the Ku Kluxers. Had they been playing chicken with a Three-K bulldozer and gotten squooshed, then yes they would have been idiots. ---
**Author:** ![Mtgman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Mtgman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mtgman)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2005, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quiz-who-do-you-sue/294879/103 "2005-03-17T20:19:48Z")
From the complaint > [@](#): > > On March 16, 2003, Rachel Corrie, a peace activist and United States citizen, > was killed by a Caterpillar bulldozer while protesting the demolition of a Palestinian home. > This is a civil action for compensatory and punitive damages against Caterpillar, Inc. for > violations of international and state law committed against Rachel Corrie, including war > crimes; aiding and abetting her extra-judicial killing; complicity in cruel, inhuman, or > degrading treatment or punishment (“CIDTP”) that resulted in her death; negligence; and > wrongful death. Enjoy, Steven ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2005, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quiz-who-do-you-sue/294879/104 "2005-03-17T20:39:32Z")
> [@Balle\_M](#): > > No. > > IIRC, all three of these men were shot by the Ku Kluxers. > > Had they been playing chicken with a Three-K bulldozer and gotten squooshed, then yes they would have been idiots. Yeah, but they were in Mississippi agitating for Civil Rights. It’s not like they couldn’t have known that was putting them in danger. You can disagree with the reason Ms Corrie was there. You can believe it was truly an accident. But to claim she was an idiot for getting killed is imbecilic. She was engaged in a non-violent protest with many others in a manner that had a track-record of success. She must have believed that the driver would stop. According to witness accounts once it became clear the driver wasn’t stopping, she did try to move but was hampered by the moving earth and then trapped by the dozer’s blade. Of course Emmitt Till probably didn’t think flirting would get him killed either. Seems young people can be wrong sometimes. ---
**Author:** ![Mojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Mojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mojo)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2005, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quiz-who-do-you-sue/294879/105 "2005-03-17T21:36:21Z")
> [@Homebrew](#): > > Yeah, but they were in Mississippi agitating for Civil Rights. It’s not like they couldn’t have known that was putting them in danger. You can disagree with the reason Ms Corrie was there. You can believe it was truly an accident. But to claim she was an idiot for getting killed is imbecilic. She was engaged in a non-violent protest with many others in a manner that had a track-record of success. She must have believed that the driver would stop. According to witness accounts once it became clear the driver wasn’t stopping, she did try to move but was hampered by the moving earth and then trapped by the dozer’s blade. Of course Emmitt Till probably didn’t think flirting would get him killed either. Seems young people can be wrong sometimes. And now that manner of protest doesn’t have the same unblemished track record of success. Maybe the next peace\* protester will realize that before playing chicken with heavy machinery. To compare her actions with Emmett Till’s is asinine. Her actions were Darwinesque, despite the fact that others who had done the same hadn’t died. \*IMHO she wasn’t agitating for peace, ymmv. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2005, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quiz-who-do-you-sue/294879/106 "2005-03-17T21:58:28Z")
> [@Mojo](#): > > Her actions were Darwinesque, despite the fact that others who had done the same hadn’t died. She knowingly engaged in an activity that risked her life in order to effect policy changed. She died as a result of risking her life in order to effect policy change. She’s being taken up as a cause celebre by other people in an effort to effect policy change. Her death may end up effecting policy change. In no sense that I see are her actions Darwinesque, unless you mean that, like Darwin, she’s going to have a substantial effect in the world. If that’s what you mean, you give her too much credit. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Mojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Mojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mojo)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2005, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quiz-who-do-you-sue/294879/107 "2005-03-17T22:29:58Z")
And I think you give her too much credit too. The only policy change her death will effect is a “WARNING: DO NOT STAND IN FRONT OF MOVING BULLDOZER” sticker. ---
**Author:** ![Harborwolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Harborwolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harborwolf)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2005, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quiz-who-do-you-sue/294879/108 "2005-03-17T22:48:03Z")
That and making her family a penny or two. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2005, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quiz-who-do-you-sue/294879/109 "2005-03-18T19:13:23Z")
> [@Mojo](#): > > And I think you give her too much credit too. The only policy change her death will effect is a “WARNING: DO NOT STAND IN FRONT OF MOVING BULLDOZER” sticker. Dammit, I called dibs on the crystal ball next! How come y’all keep bogarting it? Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Sevastopol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cdc98d/32.png) [@Sevastopol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sevastopol)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2005, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quiz-who-do-you-sue/294879/110 "2005-03-18T20:05:07Z")
> [@Duke of Rat](#): > > Yeah, it just doesn’t add up. > > 1. I’m standing in the path of a machine that, while moving very slowly, can kill me. > > - > > 1. I don’t move, even though I have time, and get killed. > > = > > 1. I’m dead. > > There is a lesson in there someplace, but I must be missing it. > > OH! Get the fuck out of the way, live to fight another day! (even has a nice ring to it, dontcha think??) Indeed, there is a giant and slow moving engine in play here. One that progresses slowly and nearly unstoppably to persons _who will not move out of the way_. The great engine of the law. A legal verdict stating that the US and Israeli governments and their corporations are in a confederacy of wrongfulness is a powerful thing. More so for what Ms Corrie presumably wished to achieve than an award of damages. Consider the damage done to the US by the Guantanamo verdicts, painting “War Criminal” indelibly in bold letters on the stars and stripes. ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2005, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quiz-who-do-you-sue/294879/111 "2005-03-18T20:12:03Z")
> [@Sevastopol](#): > > A legal verdict stating that the US and Israeli governments and their corporations are in a confederacy of wrongfulness is a powerful thing. 😕 Am I missing something here? I believe that Israel is just fine as it is, and is simultaneously illegal. I mean that in the same way that Napoleon and Alexander the Great were criminals, and the same way that American soldier killing hostiles is illegal. Theoretically. They fought for that land and died for it. If they were not fighting back, they would be killed. What do you envision happening, if your defintion of justice prevailed? ---
**Author:** ![Sevastopol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cdc98d/32.png) [@Sevastopol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sevastopol)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2005, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quiz-who-do-you-sue/294879/112 "2005-03-18T20:27:26Z")
Firstly, it’s no longer permissible to “fight for that land.” Only in defence. Wars of conquest are unlawful. To the present concern, should Ms Corrie’s heirs achieve a favourable verdict, that fact, of itself will advance her cause. ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2005, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quiz-who-do-you-sue/294879/113 "2005-03-18T20:32:33Z")
> [@Sevastopol](#): > > Wars of conquest are unlawful. Like they ever were? Face it, if the invading side lost, you can bet they would be persecuted in a court of law. Or anywhere. ---
**Author:** ![Sevastopol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cdc98d/32.png) [@Sevastopol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sevastopol)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2005, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quiz-who-do-you-sue/294879/114 "2005-03-18T20:39:44Z")
The international instruments that specify what is and isn’t lawful are comparitively recent. ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2005, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quiz-who-do-you-sue/294879/115 "2005-03-18T21:03:18Z")
“international instruments”, my ass! Let’s pretend I am one of my ancesters in Belarus. I am a peasent . It is illegal for me to kill another peasant. It is illegal for a knight of this country to kill me, _without having first been told to do so by one of his supperior officers._ A knight from a nearby country, not this one, comes by and cuts my head off. I clearly have a case against him in court. What’s that you say? The case is moot? I’m right, none the less. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quiz-who-do-you-sue/294879.md?page=5)