Laws in Rapture

* See also Rapture Society
* See also Security_Systems
* See also Government_In_Rapture
* See also Criminals_In_Rapture
* See also Rapture_City_Council
* See also Overlooked_Crimes
* See also Ryan's War_Measures
== Rapture Lawless ? ==
"It is Absurd - People Implying that there were 'No Laws' in Rapture -- IGNORANCE in the Extreme." - Andrew Ryan
NO, Rapture is not similar to that implausible Police State Fantasyland that Columbia is.
Societies Which Exist and Work HAVE Laws.
There are also Societal Norms which limit acceptance of criminal behavior.
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== ""There are "No Laws" in Rapture - DERPPPP!!!!DERPPPP!!!! : The sound of the fanbois' simpleton protests/head-explosions."" ==
Rapture Without Some Degree of Societal Legal Oversight ?? - NO LAWS ??
Who says there wasn't - Or Worse : Could NOT BE ?
Many Players might not understand such concepts and instead have been constantly fed fantasy in movies/tv/comic-books which they might equate Rapture with.
Rapture obviously 'worked' up to the time the Terrorism and Chaos started. So the City had to have many social/law mechanisms to keep things running properly. The writers avoid mention/examples of THAT fact in the game ( It is part of smearing Ryan as a Tyrant and Objectivist Rapture being an inescapable FAILZ. ) 
The game offers only the vaguest details ( But then, the game is NOT a documentary, it is a Purposely-Created Fail-topia-based Shooter game ). Unfortunately (for us), in their contrivance, the writers did not create a plausible setting. Instead, they created A Simplistic FAILure-causing Strawman story.
* A Modern Complex Society ( which Rapture is shown to have been ) Cannot Exist without Laws and Enforcement of Laws. It is An Impossibility. (( Historic Wild West situations were always significantly dependent on the law-abiding/justice-controlled rest of the country to exist. ))
* BUT the Game DOES NOT SAY SO. There is an Absence of such being mentioned/included. Omission is not Proof. The Law system within Rapture is not explained. So much is kept Vague. Logical attributes of the way Societies Work should be the ruling factor in a place which is not supposed to be Bad Fantasy.
* Rand-ian Objectivism HAD Laws, so spinning it differently is a "Contrived to Fail" fake situation for the game.
* There are Constables in Rapture. What would they supposedly do with No Laws giving them authority ? How do you ever maintain Public Order without Laws enforcing such ? Public places cannot be secured by "Private Security". Normal Rapture was never indicated to be some fundamentally-unsafe Gun Totin' society.
* There is a Rapture City Council, which presumably would create Ordinances when needed. ( Rapture is set in TOO dangerous/fragile an environment to supposedly let anybody/everybody 'Do Whatever They Want' - thereby endangering everyone there. )
* No Laws is Such Ignorance about Real World Societies and how they really work. Example : Try to have City-sized commercial arrangements ( big business in Rapture we are shown to exist ) without any binding contract law ... How else do you run a complex commercial society without some Laws ( ie - contracts and social conventions - and some way to Arbitrate disagreements ) ?? 
* NO LAWS is Anarchy. In a society of 'go getters' who MIGHT (if allowed) push/exploit any societal conventions as a grey area 'If they could get away with it' is a recipe for disaster LONG before the happenings of the Kashmir Incident ( almost a decade of the city operating previously ). Rapture IS shown to have operated as a City for many years.
* Fontaine was supposed to be the exception ( otherwise he would have competition with people more ruthless/capable than he was ). Even then, the gamewriters had to CONTRIVE to have Fontaine's crimes be/stay well-hidden, because being exposed would have ended him very quickly in the fairly normal society Rapture was shown to be.
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Watch out for the 'straw-splitting' when the deniers/ignorant do attempt to ignore all of this reasoning. Rapture is not supposed to be a Fantasy game setting. 
Stating "It is Just a game" ... ( and thus "The Plot Says so" ) simply just makes BioShock a gamewriter's INTENDED Flawed Creation of a Fail-topia, to be used to justify the game's Mass Player Violence. (( This excuse typically is the 'Last Resort' for those who deny logic and need a way out of their losing argument. ))
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Lack of Government/Law In Rapture Is A Fallacy :
Law is more a matter of degree, not absolutes, for societal controls. You need Constables to enforce laws. You need paperwork to have commercial contracts ( and a legal system to see them kept ). A complex modern society cannot operate in Anarchy ( and the story has Rapture run a normal society upto the point of Kashmir bombing ). The Rapture setting was actually more like pre-big-government America. The degree to which it is organized is more the difference ( less socialistic regulation ).
The gamewriters either did not Understand or Care to-explain/show-enough of what Societally SHOULD HAVE BEEN in their contrived Failtopia Shooter-game setting. ( They could NOT explain such illogic without severely changing the smear against Objectiism/Libertarianism they foisted upon Rapture and Ryan. )
Note that Ryan said : " I will make No law." -- NOT "There is No Law" nor "There are NO Laws".
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Societal Norms ( https://www.britannica.com/topic/norm-society )
Mores ( https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mores )
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"RAPTURE CERTIFIED"
Who does such a "Certification" ? (If No Laws ?)
Would some independent entity use that expression ??
Implies the dog food is 'certified' for its wholesomeness ...
A regulatory standard ? It sound like something official.
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No Laws in Rapture (?) :
The problem is an old one.  At the level of complexity for a Modern City ( Civilization which Rapture emulated ) where people want certainty in their lives, so they can make more than trivial decisions.  I've mentioned before the question of HOW can you have any Commerce of any good size ( bigger than a popcorn stand ) without Commercial Law existing ( so that contracts can be created and enforced ).  When laws are written down, then people can point to them and say "THAT'S what it says, and I did X within The Law", instead of some judge ruling arbitrarily ( subjectively, as they feel like it - law by whim ), and the unfortunate non-mindreader people getting stung ( or corruption being empowered by it ).   
Hammurabi's code, Magna Carta, The US Constitution, etc ...  All employed important solid/fixed legal (well-known) basis to make decisions upon, via expectation of law adherence ( which then could create expected behavior within the Social Contract ). Even the system by which 'Laws are decided' is itself defined as a Law ( ex- How do you decide when consensus is achieved, as without consensus the laws are not effectively binding. ) 
Courts implement law (as do Police), and again the complexity of all the interactions of people within a city are too much for some simplistic 'everyone should play nice' expectations - or worse 'All do what you want, or can get away with' arbitrariness of unwritten nebulous ASSUMED laws. No laws being written down is hard to conceive of other than being legal/societal Chaos ( Police are NOT judges and need to know exactly what they are to enforce, and any 'private' Police similarly must be limited and be held accountable ). Ryan said : "I will make No Law", He is giving the power to decide the laws to the Citizens,  but he would STILL have the laws be enforced consistently, and offenders to face a legal court to maintain lawful order - All so that the Achievers which he ( and his Philosophy ) are trying to foster -- To have a stable environment, and not face Law based on who has the most gold, or the biggest club, or can throw a bomb the soonest. 
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All/Only Private Police/Security ???   As I said before : Commercial areas where someone will pay ... fine.  But what about all the places where no one will/can pay ?   What is the default for such places ?   The 'Law of the Jungle' ?  The 'Wild West' ?   Would Ryan want a city half filled with chaos, with 'bunker mentality' ?    Not very likely for what Rapture was supposed to be.   Commonly understood laws IS the basis of order ( If the City was not public atheism, they could at minimum point at the Bible to reinforce 'law', but in Rapture they don't even have that backbone of Western Civilization ). 
The People decide what the laws are.  OK, but how is that then to be achieved ?   How do you have recognized consensus, UNLESS you announce the decided rules being made TO the populace, so they know what Law they have to live under ( and count on having enforced upon ALL the population ).    
SO again by simple logic ( and assuming that Rapture isn't supposed to be a feeble Idiot Fantasy place where 'Law just happens by Magic' ),  such a society requires a plausible set of Laws and a Law Enforcement system to exist.  Written Laws ( whatever they are - sufficient for a 'City' full of thousands of people ) - Much of it originally being preset BEFORE the immigrants came ( Yes - Predefined as a system minimized from what exists 'up there', but allowing for Personal Rights and security of personal property ).  That system would be defined to allow needed additions/modifications to be made by consensus ( including representative bodies like the Rapture City Council ), already in effect across Rapture's time of existence (10+ years). Courts of some kind would be appointed by consensus, with Representatives to Interpret and be given Authority to apply those Laws. Then should exist some kind of CONSISTENT law enforcement under the common laws for ALL the public places ( it can still be hired from a private entity to provide the manpower - but needs to ADHERE to the common laws ).  Within the scope of private property there would be allowed further 'security' enhancements ( but STILL to be constrained by the overriding common laws ). 
To blame Rapture's fall upon 'No Laws' and 'only individualism' is plain foolishness and intellectual dishonest, and an insult to us. 
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Morals Basis of Social Conventions "
Morals are also the basis of alot of Social Conventions ( those things which simplify interactions and increase efficiency ) -- which our Modern World really cannot exist without.
People like predictability ( something dating back to the first realization of tides/animal migrations/season/agriculture ) because if they can get some assurance they can predict things correctly, then they don't have to waste as much effort maintaining versatility ( countermeasures against risks ), and can concentrate on other things which are to their advantage ( ie- more food stockpiled with a reasonable assurance someone won't simply steal it ).
Social Conventions have most people 'play by a set of rules', which people/citizens largely agree upon ( or if they don't agree, at least they know how things will work )
Morality is used to justify many of those Conventions. 
Lack of Conventions ??? Anyone who thinks that Anarchy is 'cool' ( ie- the current 'romanticizing' of it ) is someone who has no understanding of what actual Anarchy is, and never really experienced it themselves.
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Absurdity of 'No Laws' ( Who Came Up with That Crap ? ) :
SO vague, and the writers didn't elaborate much about how things worked while you walked through 'Ruins'.
What kind of punishment could those people guilty of major crimes be faced with ? -- External Exiles might reveal the City, so thus that solution requires Incarceration in Prison/Jail. How do you allegedly do all this with 'No Laws' ??  It is part of the WRITER'S poorly fabricated/contrived fallacy of Ryan's "beliefs". It is so loosely/illogically, and is obvious that there would EXIST Laws against Murder and Robbery/Thievery, Destruction of others Property, etc ...  Expecting the Citizens to enforce it all themselves would cause a climate too chaotic for a large scale 'city' society, and for a complex economic system ( which has its own Commercial Laws which need to be enforced - ie - Contract Enforcement ).
The MMORPG will have alot of "Splainin to Do" "I Love Lucy" - Ricky Ricardo saying ... to try to resolve this utter lack of logic in the Solo games' portrayal of Rapture.   Perhaps there will be  the other 90% of the Audio Diaries which we never heard ...   Ryan making the "Only One Law - Smuggling", is so obviously a setup, ( with strung up Smugglers prominently displayed , without corresponding signs saying 'Traitor', and Audio Diaries agreeing with the punishment as risking the entire city's safety ) -- The game designers making sure Ryan was "a bad guy" for somehow 'breaking his own 'philosophy'.   BTW, How many guns were smuggled in to help Fontaine/Atlas easily terrorize the city and kill citizens with ?? ( No game mention made ... )
Again, we have to remind ourselves that BIOSHOCK was created to sell as a (FPS) [Slaughter-Fest_Game_Element|Blast-Fest-Slaughter]] game with some story and nice nostalgia invoking/interesting settings, and some purported 'meaning'.   Playing loose with logic, beating us over the head with contrived situations, and running us like a pawn through it all was just the easier path for the Gamemakers ( and with All the Hype about it supposedly being somehow better/different than all the other similar games out there ).  The Rapture Reborn MMORPG can have something better than that.
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Local Restrictions : You don't need a 'Red Light District' Unless ... :
Example : Sirens Alley ...
Thus it is implied ( intentionally or not by the writers ) that there are variances of 'rules' within Rapture, and that it is all NOT always a "free-for-all" "anything-goes" type of place. ( The writers maybe don't understand the concept of a 'Red Light District' as was done in American History ? Not understanding that it is a designated/regulated area of licentiousness, compared to the way the writers otherwise indicated that Rapture was supposed to be ?? ( supposedly No Regulation ... )
Again - Rapture IS NOT a place with NO LAWS. Apparently (as seen) you can have local ordinances restricting such 'entertainments' from designated areas, and allowing them in others.
Private Property probably can have its own rules - within its own confines.
'Local' ordinances reasonably would have to be plainly posted ( and some overall Rules For Rapture would be in effect - which we might find copies of in Rapture in the MMORPG ).
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"Conveyances" (Legal Term) :
The transfer of ownership or interest in real property from one person to another by a document, such as a deed, lease, or mortgage.
Rapture HAS to have some legal process to handle disputes of property, and even just to transact ordinary business. Simple Laws and minimal government interference is possible still. Name one civilization organized by Anarchists (you cannot). Anarchy ( as implied in this game by the writers ) is a Strawman Argument used to denounce Individualism - It IS Quite illogical and dishonest ( Preaching ignorance at Players, mostly whom neither know nor care ).
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Simple Laws like : Making It ILLEGAL to Interfere with Someone Else's Business Operations :
It is too easy to sabotage a competitors business ( example in the Novel ) which leads to reprisals and general disorder and damage.
The City could simply not run with some 'no laws' system and the constant feuds and Vigilantisms which would result.
The equivalent is Personal Property being safe and having Protection of The Law.
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Dewey, Cheatem and Howe ?
Are there Any Lawyers in Rapture ? :
"No Laws" is just Game Developer/Designer BS ( illogical fabrication to setup Rapture to Fail ).   A City of 20-40 thousand people without Laws is an impossibility and ludicrous.  There would be many disputes and certainly  Safety 'Laws' and ordinances that would have to be enforced.   Disagreements would have to be arbitrated.    With Laws come 'Courts' of Law and Judges and 'Advocates' (Lawyers).   Expecting some part-time handful of people in a 'City Council' to make more than a token few 'decisions' for a whole city is fantasy ( as dim as there being No Police or No Laws ).
So thus there would be Lawyers, who no doubt (under Ryan) would not be allowed to become worse-than-useless middlemen, impairing peoples lives and businesses as they exist in our world today.   Commercial Law requires people to draw up documents and the 'let the buyer beware' atmosphere would have various businessmen protecting their end of most 'deals' with agreement 'on paper' and of an appropriate form.
Rapture Failed ( rather was CREATED to fail for the plot ) because people like Fontaine and Sofia Lamb ( actively working against/disrupting the established order and organization ) were not checked by any Laws and enforcement powers of a government.  They were shown getting away with what is a perverted view of 'individualism' -- where they destroyed other people's achievements to seize power/gains for themselves -- NOT part of any Objectivist's allowed social contract.
Ryan wasn't an idiot, he would know real laws would have to exist, but with sufficient checks and balances to give the individual the power to correct most things or have a larger body correct according to the general consensus. Objectivism and Rand's ideas are not Anarchy ( They might be portrayed so by some dishonest Socialists and Communists ), as was perpetrated by the writers upon Rapture to give an easy excuse for its failure, so we could go around 'shooting up' what was left.
When I think about it, this element of the scenario, is as much a ludicrous fantasy as Infinite BS is.
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No patent Laws in Rapture ???? :
Patent Laws == Lawyers + Proving == Middlemen + Manipulation == Parasite Fodder
All the 'Surface' ideas were available without restriction and such information continues to be brought in even after the City was 'isolated'.   Ideas that were beneficial like Otis Elevator brakes which prevent failing elevators plunging 20 floors and killing everyone in them.  Royalties likely weren't paid for use of such things.
Various scientific/technical journals (generated in Rapture) usually were sparse on actual details of how things were done, which protected the original developer who would want to produce/sell goods.
It was understood that any idea could be taken by someone else and improved and if it could be made practically into a better product it would be accepted.  Even with reverse engineering there is often a lot of expense to duplicate someone else product.  "Ideas are cheap - a dime a dozen", there is still alot of skill required to turn them into something practical.
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You Think Ryan "Erased All Documentation of Him/Her" - Allegedly Done For Sofia Lamb And 'Johnny Topside' ?:
Rapture was not The Soviet Union with well-staffed state apparatus in place to carry that out.
Sofia Lamb was sent into Exile ... Something Ryan apparently did to various 'enemies' - made them disappear from Rapture Society ( "exiled", not murdered like Sofia Lamb or Fontaine would have done ).  Jail/Prison is a kind of exile, is it not ? Criminals which warranted permanent Exile, and who had 'fellow traveler' followers - Ryan would have them 'removed' in this way to minimize the damage they could still cause to the City ( Dead martyrs can sometimes have more effect than live fomenters of rebellion/disruption ). More a case of making them 'Out Of Sight', To Be 'Out Of Mind'.
Another one of those things so easily said/implied for 'The Plot', but not that easy to do for real - Even in a Police State well beyond whatever Rapture allegedly turned into by the time of BS1.   Ryan might also have threatened/ordered the remaining newspapers to no longer mention this particular "Persona Non Exista", and clean whatever 'open' government (minimal ?) records there were, and seize any/all her Assets. Did he really need to ? And then, Dionysus Park ( Lamb's big 'FU' to Ryan's and Rapture's Philosophy ) still then kept operating ?? -- It sounds like Ryan didn't 'seize' that. Maybe it was quickly put under 'new' management so as to not cause any bigger stink ... Stanley Poole (still under cover) being left in charge ( His destruction of Dionysus Park seemed more his attempted coverup over Eleanor's fate, rather than some kind of 'orders' from Ryan to 'do the place in' ... ).
But could/did Ryan order all old copies of newspapers speaking of Sofia Lamb be collected (ala 1984), and the same for all Sofia Lamb's books ?? We still saw these all over - But perhaps she had more of her bizarre mutterings printed up later ( however that egoism being achieved when everything else was in near ruins ) ?    We still see her name on her psychiatric 'Clinic', and posters on the walls advertising her services.  So, any 'cleansing' was not quite as thoroughly despotic as the Game's Writers tried to portray it ( or simple gamemaker sloppiness/rushing ).  Perhaps for Ryan, it was better to have her flakey ideas still visible for people in Rapture, to decide for themselves.  Ryan's Newspaper could explain the Council's action and visibly lay out all her seditious activities. 
By BS2 - With Ryan allegedly dead and Sofia Lamb having long-previously emerged from Exile, was there actually any campaign to have her festering poison exposed and fought against ??   
AND Why would a ( <* Spoiler Alert *> Ryan_is_still_Alive ) still-living Ryan wait so many years to be rid of her ? In my MMORPG storyline, the rest of Rapture effectively did close/wall itself off from Sofia Lamb's little 'Collective' - Perhaps helped by Ryan's hidden influence ???   Perhaps it was simpler to let Lamb and her Cultists kill themselves off - Achieved by leaving them following Sofia's insane ideas and policies -- and The_Rapture_Family's self-implosion later serve as 'an object lesson' to New Rapture ).
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== CRIMINALS IN RAPTURE ==
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Rapture May Have Had 'Hitmen For Hire' ? :
Objectivism doesn't automatically make anyone 'a Saint'.  There likely would be some/many vicious/ruthless people who wound up there (like Fontaine) in Rapture.  How many criminals might be dodging the law and other criminals who headed to Rapture as their sanctuary.  The vetting of 20000-40000 people could not be perfect, and many could slip past inspection.
Ryan's Constables would have other crimes to deal with beside the Smuggling problem ( Again, if there are 'No Laws in Rapture' then what exactly do those Constables enforce ?????????? ).
"The Crucible of the Chaos" ( sounds like good title for a documentary about Raptures late history ) did not wipe out all the 'criminal types' ( It is actually likely their 'culture'/proclivities was a survival trait in 'Ruined Rapture' ).
'Noir' scenarios for 'Gumshoes'Gumshoe is a euphemism for Private Investigator and New Constables ( Art Deco landscape ... It fits like a shoe ).  Pre and Post-Fall.   New Rapture will have its 'Constables' ( with Player participation role-playing and missions ), and we can have "Old Rapture" 'Flashbacks' ( also with possible Player interaction ).
Of course, with the 'Winnowing of the Chaff', the surviving people of New Rapture would be more likely to better enforce their own 'Laws', but it is a society of 'Personal Responsibility' much as Ryan had wanted it to be.
An interesting 'idea' plot (rumor ?) might be a shadow group of criminals/conspirators behind the whole 'Lamb' thing - Eventually seeking to toss Sofia Lamb into 'the chum bucket' once she did their work for them ... ( Seems that plan was something disrupted also. )
Links to the 'Mafia' on The Surface ??  Perhaps 'Fertile Ground' for Player generated ideas/game involvement.
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Law And Order Actions (Vague - So Much Left Unexplained) :
In more 'normal' times, violent Splicers (and other criminals) were 'handled' by law enforcement, and the incidents may have been alot less frequent earlier than after the "Kashmir Incident". Combat-Plasmids ( and general ADAM-abuse ) became ALOT more common once the %27civil war%27/Anarchist-Uprising started. SO such incidents may have been rare upto the time of Kashmir ( and Fontaine's Splicer Army ). The evidence for that is a bit meager for us to pin down the true ADAM-violence situation. This Audio Diary seems to be talking about the Shootout, but technically doesn't actually say much. 
That is the problem with so much speculation - even the little evidence in-game we are given is Vague. It did perhaps require less game company development skill/effort than it would have to make it 'precise' ? Think : "Oh yeah, it is clever to make the Players use their imagination" ??? ... SORRY NO - The omission and few clues are a serious 'rats nest', and is more for intentionally misleading.
Ditto with 'the Fontaine Futuristics "Nationalization"' timing, and certainly there's the ("EVIDENCE" SHOWN OF) separate actions of the investigations into Fontaine's "empire". Plausibly, Ryan had to justify to the Public/Citizens the actions he had taken (ie- The Shootout), and he needed certainty that he had stopped the Smuggling -- We certainly saw an extensive investigation setup (Sullivan's) at Neptune's Bounty in the Wharf Masters office.
Fontaine probably had planned his "Death" well in advance, and had been positioning resources ( away from his existing establishments, which had been likely to be well searched ... THAT would have been smart/probable - If we ignore the moronic exploits of the BaSx Fontaine as writers who never saw the original games character ). Fontaine would NEED to completely separate his new "Atlas" identity. If Ryan found out, then the whole 'we are just poor people protesting' cover for the mayhem would turn into death warrants on Atlas for fomenting Terrorism and Murder. That's why being 'trapped like a rat' in Fontaine's Department Store (in BaSx) was against his plans ( and why it is illogical to see (allegedly clever) 'Atlas' acting the 'Big Man' there, short of what he needed to do to simply escape ).
Vagueness ... I thought the dates on the BaSx Audio Diaries made the different events' timings overly tight ( same for events of the whole DLC ), and there are a number of Conflicts to be found - with dates that make the story questionable ? That makes such detail 'evidence' questionable. How soon Fontaine's Department Store started being used as a 'Prison'? - We don't know ( the whole Suchong events complicates/overlaps ). Anyway, Fontaine had (available) lots of resources, and with the apparent ease that Booker/Elizabeth arrived, a question might be why HE hadn't long previously escaped. "Fontaines Department Store"/ is like no Proper temporary 'Prison' I ever heard of ( and rather convenient for the Burial At Sea DLC's plot ). It is all too loose a story - if Splicers were 'caught' to put them there, then chaining them up under supervision and NOT letting them run free is a logical measure for the expediency involved - but THAT wasn't done ( Pretty pathetic - but it is "the plot" they chose ... it IS "DLC" after all, DLCs which generally have a notoriety for slackness ).
Later, you have social Order somehow maintained in BS2 ( but then Collectivists have usually ruled by 'A Gun to the Neck' method ). It is hard to say how many of Sofia Lamb's followers were Splicers (or non-Splicers), and that being by later times when there was likely much less ADAM available ( Little Sisters having been killed or were getting too old ). It is also easier to control/coerce Splicers who have lost their power ( when their Combat-Plasmids don't work any more -- We have many years of time involved for that whole vague situation to have developed ). There is similar uncertainty about details for facilities at Persephone - How they handled the many Insane "Too Dangerous" Splicers, still with their dangerous powers, or simply are too insanely violent. We saw isolation tanks and prison cells still occupied ( those plate covered cells ) which might work for any Non-Houdini Splicer ( even for them IF the Houdini Teleport ability wasn't all a faked Teleport power as has been suggested ).
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So for much of this assumption of early Citywide Mayhem (and fatalities), we are chasing after logic with very few facts to go on. Some completely impossibly incorrect dates introduced in Burial At Sea ( such as those specified on the Audio Diaries like "Product Recall" - Which has Fontaine recording it supposedly on a date AFTER he was supposed to be dead ) which also brings ALL of the BaSx DLC dates into question/doubt. Another point is : These "Sunk" inmates may likely be leftovers from The Shootout, and with others from "dead" Fontaine's criminal organization from across the city, some violent Splicers from the 'poorhouses' and the 'protests' ( those who committed crimes ), and various non-Splicer ringleaders (conspirators) like Atlas ( WHO SHOULD have been separated out, and NOT left in that stupidly 'open' prison ).
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Seriously, the Steps there would be a constant source of broken limbs and cracked skulls ( even if the patrons did not imbibe alcohol there ... NEED a Rapture Newspaper article for such an event ).
Level Designers frequently are so clueless. ( With all that Infinite-ized huge space in Rapture now seen in BaS, and this one designer STILL has to crowd/dressup the details like this. )
Yes, very nice .. a kind-of Parisian Street Cafe type scene, but you might have 'NOTICED' that the REAL ones (google it) DON'T have fatality-producing steps in their vicinity ... ANYWHERE. ( Again - DO NOT LET 'GAME DESIGNERS' DESIGN ANYTHING FOR REAL LIFE - IF YOU DON'T WANT LAWSUITS OR WORSE ).
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Audio Diary : "Vandalism":
Andrew Ryan (BS1) : "It has been brought to my attention that some citizens have discovered ways to... "Hack" the vending machines. I should not need to remind each and every citizen of Rapture that free enterprise is the foundation upon which our society has been established. Parasites will be punished."
Stealing is against the Common Law.
I find it odd that the writers have this kind of phrasing which sounds rather Vague.
Having anyone caught stealing immediately having their hand chopped of by a mob isn't conducive to urban living.
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Audio Diary : "Watch Fontaine"
Andrew Ryan (BS1) : "This Fontaine fellow is somebody to watch. Once, he was just a menace, to be convicted and hung. But he always manages to be where the evidence isn't. He's the most dangerous type of hoodlum ... the kind with vision."
"Once, he was just a menace, to be convicted and hung" - HUH ?? So a known/visible criminal ?
This term "Convicted" implies a Law System. One "Evidence" is required for. 
"the kind with vision" - the why of this is not explained in THIS Audio Diary
It is writer manipulation setting up Fontaine as Ryan's 'Arch' Rival.
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