Why Didn’t Odo Arrest Rom and Krax in the Episode The Nagus?

[Ro_Laren]

In the first-season episode The Nagus we saw Grand Nagus Zek apparently appoint Quark as his successor. Towards the end of the episode, Krax (Zek’s son) and Rom put Quark in an airlock to kill him. Rom was about to open the airlock when Odo, Zek, and Maihar'du walked around the corner and stopped Rom. Why in the world didn’t Odo arrest Krax and Zek?? Do you think Quark just didn’t want to press charges? I can’t see that stopping Odo from making an arrest. What are your theories?

 

[Ln X]

Because no one pressed charges and Quark wasn't killed.

 

[Ro_Laren]

^ Yeah, but I can't imagine Odo letting anyone get off the hook that easily. What about "in real life?" Would the police let someone off the hook if they caught someone abotu to murder someone else? Even if the potential victim didn't want to press charges?

 

[The_Baroness]

I think normally he would have arrested them.

but they were trying kill Quark....

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Perhaps it is legal under Ferengi law to (attempt to) kill your business rivals.

 

[bbailey861]

^At the very least it's probably expected.

 

[BruntFCA]

Isn't the station under Bajoren law? Maybe in Bajoren law if Quark didn't press charges then there was nothing Odo could do.

 

[Timo]

Would the police let someone off the hook if they caught someone abotu to murder someone else? Even if the potential victim didn't want to press charges?

Well, they do. Daily. What else is to be done? Whenever the police are called to sort out a domestic fight, odds are that one or the other of the spouses would have been dead without the intervention - and will be dead anyway in a few weeks or months or years. But arrest isn't really a practicable option there, as the world has far too many potential murderers to be contained in the holding cells, let alone the prisons.

Odo would probably be well acquainted with this sort of thing, what with having sorted out the troubles of a people under brutal occupation and subsisting in various desperate ways, with nobody to vent their anger on except those subsisting in a different way. Everybody around him would be a potential murderer, just one word or gesture away from pressing the trigger or swinging the axe.

On the other hand, even those who got to carry out their intentions might walk, as Odo is interested in justice rather than in law. If the victim deserved to die, Odo would be quite likely to let the matter pass - he would have no particular interest in bowing to Cardassian law during the Cardassian occupation, or to Federation law during the Federation occupation, or to Bajoran law whenever it managed to make its voice heard. Those would be Solid things, and Odo knows better.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Jono]

My guess, apart from Quark not pressing charges is that Zek stepped in and used financial and/or political pressure to ensure Krax and in extension Quark stayed out of gaol. Odo would be immune, but a cash and resource strapped Bajoran government would be a far easier target for side stepping the legal system.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Isn't the station under Bajoren law? Maybe in Bajoren law if Quark didn't press charges then there was nothing Odo could do.

No Bajorans were harmed, or even involved, in this plot. Rom and Krax acted according to Ferengi tradition, and Quark was the only possible victim.

DS9 may be a Bajoran station, but I'm assuming that Quark is given wide latitude to run his bar according to Ferengi customs. He treats his workers as a Ferengi (not a Bajoran) would, and is paid in Ferengi (not Bajoran) currency. The bar is essentially the Ferengi embassy, so Ferengi law applies.

 

[Tina Lawton]

No Bajorans were harmed, or even involved, in this plot. Rom and Krax acted according to Ferengi tradition, and Quark was the only possible victim.

DS9 may be a Bajoran station, but I'm assuming that Quark is given wide latitude to run his bar according to Ferengi customs. He treats his workers as a Ferengi (not a Bajoran) would, and is paid in Ferengi (not Bajoran) currency. The bar is essentially the Ferengi embassy, so Ferengi law applies.

So, I was watching this nature thingy on PBS, and they said "No Bajorans were harmed during the filming of this documentary."

 

[Timo]

Also, Odo didn't interfere when two Klingons were engaged in all-in-the-family stabbing in "Sons of Mogh", or when Quark stabbed a Klingon in "House of Quark". Where he a conventional police officer, he would have had to push formal charges even in the latter case despite fully well knowing it was a silly accident - after all, Quark publicly bragged on being a killer. Being Odo, though, he just let it pass, and concentrated on crowd control.

Is it all indeed because no Bajorans were involved, thus nobody was breathing on Odo's neck? Klingons certainly wouldn't want foreign law enforcers to interfere.

The problem there is that the Ferengi in "The Nagus" were wrecking the place, what with them bombing each other and all. Odo would have every reason to interfere to get that to stop. Did he give up on it only because he saw the "resurrection" of the Nagus meant end to it all anyway?

Timo Saloniemi