Why was palpatine arrested
If it was Illegal to be a sith than it would be illegal to be a Jedi
And he was just trying to defend himself during the duel against mace
So why was palpatine arrested
Why was palpatine arrested
If it was Illegal to be a sith than it would be illegal to be a Jedi
And he was just trying to defend himself during the duel against mace
So why was palpatine arrested
Source?
Novel of Revenge of the Sith
That’s not canon anymore.
It's a complicated one to say the least.
Moose is right in that there's no moral equivalency between the Sith and the Jedi. They're both Force users with lightsabers but that's where most of the similarities end; the Sith are a dangerous group hellbent on destroying the Jedi. With solid evidence, I doubt there would be much issue with a lawful arrest carried out by proper law enforcement.
That said however, the Jedi who moved to arrest Palpatine all held military rank. This complicates things in that Palpatine was an elected official who was in office due to a lawful use of his constitutionally-conferred emergency powers. An arrest of this manner could justifiably be called a coup d'etat, considering that it was the aim of the Jedi to affect political change through a unilateral use of force.
In this context, Palpatine's violent response to the Jedi would be an entirely legitimate act of self defence. We can look at this from two angles; firstly, in accepting the Jedi are a rogue attacking force, Palpatine would in effect be the military Commander-in-Chief defending against an opposing and attacking military force. No issue here. We could alternatively look at it as Moose did, with four police officers surrounding a suspect.
In the real world (and please don't take this as legal advice), where a police officer draws a weapon on a person where there is no solid evidence that a crime has been committed, and the other person genuinely believes that they are about to die, it would be arguable that for the suspect to then shoot the officer would be a legitimate act of self defence.
In this case, the simple "Oh well my mate who's also a part of my religious gathering told me he was guilty of being a part of another religious gathering" would likely not meet the evidence requirement for such a use of arms, in some countries. Don't shoot police officers, kids.
I think this comes down to the simple idea that sometimes it's okay to break the law for the right reasons. It's the idea that all revolutions, coups and riots in history have been built on; it's not as simple as legal = good / illegal = bad. Were the Jedi right? Yes. Does that mean that it's wrong to suggest they were acting illegally? Not at all.
Hope that helps, @Moose05
Interesting. The quasi-religious and military nature of the Jedi in the Clone Wars does indeed complicate things.
I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Chancellor himself encouraged the Jedi to take on military roles for the explicit purpose of being able to take this defense.
It's certainly a credible idea. Order 66 was programmed into the Clones from day 1 afterall.
It's worth pointing out that public opinion was dead against the Jedi coming up to the end of the war - per Dave Filoni's TCW commentary and the protests outside the temple in the Ahsoka arc of Series 5. I think that, even had Palpatine not directly ordered Order 66 to be executed, there would have come a point at which the public would have demanded that the Jedi be excised from the Republic by any means. That would ultimately lead to the same result come what may.
There was no proof that he organized the entire clone wars for example. So he just told the people that he was unjustifiedly attacked in his office. That's how people kept supporting him.
I think there was probably quite a lot of proof, the only issue is that the Jedi didn't bother to collect it.
That could be because the Republic, like the US, doesn't allow a sitting premier to be prosecuted. Alternatively, it could be that Mace Windu thinks he's a cowboy. Ultimately, we don't know either way.
I’ve actually given this matter some thought while doing a rewatch of ROTS. There’s a couple things to consider that I don’t think have been brought up in the discussion.
First off, Anakin was given a mission to spy on the Chancellor by the council. When Obi-Wan tells him of this assignment he reacts by declaring it treason, but Obi-Wan counters that the Republic is at war. It’s not known at this time what the legal definition of treason is in the Republic, but my guess is that Anakin’s protest is mainly borne out of his personal attachment to the Chancellor and isn’t definitive evidence that the act is prosecutable as treason. Combine that with Obi-Wan’s counter (maybe treason is defined differently in wartime under Republic law?), I think it reasonable to ignore this exchange. I just brought it up for the sake of covering all my bases.
Anakin is told of the Palpatine’s Sith identity by Palpatine himself, and when he relays it to the Mace, he says that he’s been trained to use the dark side. Given that Anakin’s lead is pretty credible and that Sith are known to use the Force as a weapon (lightning being used prominently by Dooku in combat with the Jedi), it makes sense for the Jedi to approach the Sith as if they’re always armed. In this circumstance I think it’s reasonably justified for the Jedi to make the arrest with weapons drawn and ignited. Given the history of Jedi and Sith conflict, I would not be surprised if the Republic granted the Jedi the explicit power to do exactly this.
I’d also argue that the more secular and worldly nature of Anakin’s mission also removes the religious element from the picture.
With all these factors in play, I think the most comparable real-world situation is a team of law enforcement officers conducting a raid on the location of an armed and dangerous suspect based on a tip from an undercover officer, Anakin’s cover already being blown notwithstanding.
In the real world (or at least in the United States), such a raid would probably require a warrant, but it’s not known whether Jedi require one in the Republic. Since such a thing has never been discussed before, and since this is a movie about space wizards intended for children, I’d guess that that’s a non-factor.
When the Jedi enter the office, it’s clear that Palpatine isn’t feeling any fear. In fact, his line “are you threatening me, Master Jedi” is delivered in a hostile and aggressive manner. Windu’s greeting, informing Palpatine that he is under arrest and Windu’s later response “the Senate will decide your fate” conveys that he has no intention of killing Sidious then and there. I don’t think a self-defense plea would hold up if this evidence were known.
Of course, my knowledge of Star Wars greatly exceeds my knowledge of law, so I could be wrong in my logic, but I don’t think these factors (with the exception of Anakin’s protest) can be ignored in judging the legality of the attempt to arrest the Chancellor.
The Empire was right. #DarkSide
What do you think?