Just a little legalese
In other words, check out this YouTube clip of my brother giving a Three Minute Thesis!
I probably should have done this bit before revealing the sarnothi in full... HINDSIGHT. XD
Just a little legalese
In other words, check out this YouTube clip of my brother giving a Three Minute Thesis!
DUN DUN DUN!!!
I was going to post this exact thing!
It’s a bit late for this but anyways. http://www.dramabutton.com/
Woo! Captain Todd, giving out ORDERS awwww yeah. That’s lovely.
“The first duty of every Starfleet officer is to the truth – scientific truth or historical truth or personal truth. It is the guiding principle on which Starfleet is based, and if you can’t find it within yourself to stand up and tell the truth, you don’t deserve to wear that uniform” TODD.
I really like how the cop handled that.
Way to remind me of The Picard Song. XD
Wait. Is Officer Martin warning Todd to stand down because Selkie’s ethnicity will open a can of worms for the Sarnothi in general and/or Todd & Selkie specifically? Or is he quietly telling Todd that he gets it and he’s on their side?
I’m reading it as “you’d better not make trouble, boy, or we’re going to serve and protect the boop out of you.”
More like: I’m “in-the-know” and was sent here to keep things under wraps.
No no. He’s just saying that Todd had best be sure of what he wants to achieve here, and to make sure he can back his claims.
On the one hand, he’s treating Todd as an irate parent, and telling him to be clear. On the other, Martin is aware of Selkie’s race, and is telling Todd to be wary of too much attention being drawn to them too quickly.
A lot of people reading this comic have gotten very fiery in what actions they think should be taken, but faults do NOT have to be delt with in a grand manner; if someone is truly unsuitable for their job, it is better to transfer them than sack them outright.
There’s also the possibility of the cop trying to point out “Hey, you could nuke entire careers, here. And not just the few people you dislike.” This is the sort of thing that might spiral out of control and take a good chunk of faculty with it (the press and public generally don’t care much about facts).
If there’s already significant “racial” tension with the Sarnothi, and it’s a volatile situation that sparked a civil war and riots in the past, I’m not sure concern over anyone’s *career* is even a factor in wanting to handle this quietly.
At first I’d have said that it was a mix of your suggestions, but then I re-read the comic and saw Benjamin’s thought and you know, that cop’s words could be interpreted in many, many ways. Including “racist” ones, so to speak. I mean, this WAS the cop that brought Hamud to the orphanage, so I believe he IS on the side of Good, but I was raised by the Socratic method… and… you just… have to consider every possibility. Even if it makes you sad. And believe me, it’d make me VERY sad if it turns out Officer Martin isn’t all that great, because I liked him from his intro with Hamud. :/
… I now find myself genuinely bothered that I can’t tell where Officer Martin was going exactly with his warning.
(I’ll admit that maybe it’s the angry face and red background in panel 8 when he hints that he knows more than he lets on; that kinda makes me fear the worst. Especially the red.)
I kinda took out as trouble, but not from the officer. From his superiors. He knows what will happen, and how much worse it could be if he did anything extra.
He’s not telling Todd to do ANYTHING. He is reminding him of the special situation he is in with Selkie, and to be VERY CAREFUL about the path he chooses, because it WILL have consequences that WILL affect his daughter.
It’s HIS choice.
I’m really liking this cop.
Well, I may be misinterpreting this, but it really seems that the cop was threatening Todd. Also, looks like Todd has been served a bit of humble pie.
He’s just warning Todd that since he has a child whose race is a national secret, that Todd should want to prioritize discretion over vengeance.
And possibly warning him that he should explain to Selkie that she also shouldn’t draw more attention to herself than necessary, in particular regarding 911 calls.
This is exactly how I read it. The cop wants Todd to be sure he really wants to do this at the risk of exposing Selkie to an official investigation and possibly the public shitstorm that would result.
That’s exactly how I interpreted it. That, given Selkie’s status, “people” are aware when something happens, and if he starts making a big legal stink, things could get ridicuolusly messy in particularly ugly ways. The last thing the Men In Black would likely want is a foster parent of what is essentially an ET going to court over an abuse case.
It’s also quite possible he’s pointing out that the people who caused Selike to call 911 are *already* in a heap of trouble due purely to the fact that they were messing with a National Secret. If he goes and makes a further legal stink about it, things could go from merely unpleastant for them to spectacularly ugly, in a Guantanamo Bay sort of way.
Maybe a side helping of concern over inter-species relations?
That’s not a threat, it’s a WARNING.
I take it more that he’s warning Todd not to draw too much attention to himself and Selkie by making accusations that can’t strictly be proven.
I’d assume the cop simply meant that due to Selkie’s appearnt race the people who are responsible for her well being will know.
I’d like to add I called it, police aren’t there to enforce school conduct and it’s not their place. Causing more issues would just call attention to selkie
As I said before, “Consequences of one’s actions,” and “repercussions”. Tread carefully, Todd.
Before you put it on your plate, before you even slice the cake, make sure that it is the pe of cake yu want a slice of, Todd.
Piece, not pe. that is piece of cake you want a slice of.
That was REAL Coca-Cola on my keyboard.
Still a wonderful bit of advice. If I did needlepoint I’d put it on a pillow or something to hang on my wall.
Plotting is difficult when you make it up as you go along…maybe the matter can be addressed when you reprint these in book form…
Not so much “made up as I go along”, although this part was written after the Sarnoth discussions were already established, yes.
I disagree. I like the progress of events. Since we’ve learned about Sarnoth and their civil-esque war, I think it actually gives greater emphasis on the situation. We’ve seen how badly the current events are affecting the Sarnothi people but we’re just getting to the real meat- how the world will perceive Selkie. Here we see one side of it- the government aspect. They are all aware of the situation & trying to superimpose safety. But what happens at the PTA meeting? People will talk. Word will get out. Police & government officials NEVER want to look like they aren’t doing their job correctly. A Sarnothi child is integrated into human society as an experiment, to see if the rest of the population can follow, yet that child ended up in the hospital while she was in an ELEMENTARY school. What follows could be a veritable crap-storm. I think you set this up perfectly.
i agree with nikkasaurus about the sequence of events, i mean if you posted this same page BEFORE Todd was (and us by default) privy to the background of the Sarnothi Civil War, then his reaction in panel nine would be weird… there would be absolutely no logical reason for him to be THAT stunned just by the officer saying that red-flags will get raised due to her ethnicity… BUT since we WERE given the history of the Civil War… THAT makes it much more effective in zooming in on his “keep Selkie SAFE (because she’s my daughter) and blast Principal Hobbit to smithereens!!!” versus his “OMG! if this goes public then the whole thing about the Great Lakes and an entire “alien” race is living down there gets out, ugh… Agent Brown will KILL ME!!! so i better NOT push too far on this case” all the while in the back of his mind he’s thinking about what the crazy whack-jobs and religious fanatics would be doing… yeah, Agent Brown ( and Agent K) was right about “A” human and his specific responses vs “humanity” in general and the mob reactions thereof… that said, in the panel where the first-strike on the tower? was shown getting blasted by a beam weapon… yeah… we would NOT do so well if we were trying to defend ourselves against attack by the Sarnothi… I’m sure that that scene will also be playing out in Todd’s mind too…
I think Ashton is getting hell regardless…I view Officer Martin’s words in panel 8 as a promise of that, since the superiors (read Agent Brown) will be less than pleased.
The cop has twice mention “can you prove this” that just sounds similar to the ordeal with Trunchbull. I know I’ve been pretty against him but it’s like Dave is trying to remind us that the whole thing wasn’t all his fault, like the discharging of staff. Doesn’t change my general opinion of him though.
Well, that was terrifying.
Revenge and seeking justice can cloud the mind. Seeing only black and white and none of the grays, seeing only the goal of justice and not the consequences at hand. Looking back and seeing that for a moment you became the same thing as what you hate (not saying that he did but just saying both parents have aimed or at least threatened his job over their kid).
Looks like the principal is gonna be in an extreme amount of trouble thanks to that call alone.
Man, the way officer Martin acted today made me go back & double check that he actually did day what department he was with. If he’s just announced himself as “officer Martin” I’d think he could more in the “agent” field of the varying law enforcement agencies (very much akin to our good old grumpy pal agent Briwn)
But, after seeing he did give department, and that others recalled him dropping Hamud off at the orphanage, I think he just may be a cop who happens to be fully aware of what’s going on regarding Selkie & her people (it would make sence that there would be some emergency personel who’d potentially have contact with a big national secret who’d know what’s up, just in case)
Anyway, lighter footfalls for Todd, PTA meeting incoming (but coffee first), and I doubt this will be the last we see of Officer Dex Martin.
Also, if he can find staff willing to testify – including the gym teacher that was fired – then yes, he CAN back this up. Unless personal testimony from people who were told to shut up or they’d get fired (and were) or shut up or they’d get fired (too) still counts as heresy? And there’s more to this than just Truck & Selkie. I can’t find it in the archives but wasn’t there a case of Amanda and some girl, where Amanda fought back and was the one who got in trouble? I remember her as a female version of Truck with ignorant parents (based on their conversation when they came to get their daughter). Lillian was there to pick up Amanda. I can’t find it when I search for either Amanda or Lillian though. Point being, we’ve been focusing on Truck but the issue isn’t just Truck… there seems to be a lot of hostility and bullying, specifically towards the orphans.
I couldn’t find it either. What I did find was Amanda talking about how she started the fight. So that makes it a little different than what happened to Selkie.
https://selkiecomic.com/comic/selkie363/
(This wasn’t on the page for Amanda, though. Dave might still be working on tagging some of the strips.)
Here’s the aftermath of that fight. That’s all we saw of it.
Thank you! That’s exactly the page I was trying to find! 🙂
SELKIE says Amanda picked a fight with Big Tammy and lost, but did she really? Seems counter intuitive, considering that Amanda’s got a fairly sharp sense of self preservation even if her mouth trips her sometimes (“I didn’t say F-Intertwined Gender Symbols!”). We never did see the start of that fight with Tammy, did we? My brain is probably making stuff up, but I’d swear I saw a strip that had that the other way around and Tammy started it.
I… really need to get off my butt about those gorram tags… XD
You know in hindsight, maybe Devil Todd had a point…
Heh, Todd kinda looks like a blonde Officer Martin here:
https://selkiecomic.com/comic/selkie258/
Uh… since she was suspended doesn’t that mean that it is in her record? I know it doesn’t prove why but I’m guessing this principal would buckle under scrutiny.
Wait, what? Now the cop is threatening Todd? Over race??? WTF?!?