The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #140645   Message #3246095
Posted By: GUEST,999
28-Oct-11 - 10:17 AM
Thread Name: BS: Wall Street Protesters...
Subject: RE: BS: Wall Street Protesters...
There'll be lots of that, Bobert. Reminds me of Orwell's Animal Farm. When the law doesn't do what ya want, change the law. However, the base is covered for the BIG MONEY folks:

"United States

The principle of the Riot Act was incorporated into the first Militia Act (1 Stat. 264) of 8 May 1792. The Act's long title was "An act to provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions".
Section 3 of the Militia Act gave power to the President to issue a proclamation to "command the insurgents to disperse, and retire peaceably to their respective abodes, within a limited time", and authorised him to use the militia if they failed to do so. Substantively identical language is presently codified at chapter 15 of title 10, United States Code.[13]


To this day many jurisdictions that have inherited the tradition of English common law and Scots law still employ statutes that require police or other executive agents to deliver an oral warning, much like the Riot Act, before an unlawful public assembly may be forcibly dispersed.
Because the authorities were required to read the proclamation that referred to the Riot Act before they could enforce it, the expression "to read the Riot Act" entered into common language as a phrase meaning "to reprimand severely", with the added sense of a stern warning. The phrase remains in everyday use in the English language."

From Wikipedia