Zouichi crossed his arms, considering Cazali. "There are a number of humans on the Council, yes. But also some nonhumans."

He closed his eyes for a moment. "In theory, it's a good system. There are several Councilors to balance each other's opinions, there's a captain to take over when battle requires. However, in practice... I believe the laws here are applied unevenly, that law is sometimes adhered to even when it doesn't serve the people it governs, that the people who make and enforce the law often confuse authority with right, and that few people on board see a problem with this. The result is that a lot of the time verdicts are simply handed down with no real way of really understanding how decisions were made in the first place." Don't even get him started on the communication issues, Cazali. Seriously, don't.

"But for what it's worth, I agree with you. Having one blanket policy applied to all the people here has already hurt us, and yet it seems unlikely to change. At the very least, however, let me say that when someone physically threatens crew members here, the response is swift."