Setting fire to someone else's property and then leaving your ID behind—what was anyone supposed to say about that?
The newspaper's cover and article presented two entirely different impressions. On one side was the laughable "idiot," while on the other was the unsettling trampling of law and order.
Without a special order signed by the president, the Federal Military was not allowed to enter cities and carry out missions at will. Doing so would make the public uneasy.
The Federation was a free and equal society, and this was reflected in every aspect of life.
You could spit on a statue of the Federal Founding President without worrying that someone would arrest you for disrespecting him.
You could also loudly tell other people in public what you thought of the current ruling party, its policies, and a whole range of other issues. Whether your opinion was positive or negative, whether you criticized them or not, no one would arrest you.
Because all of this was built upon the foundation of a free and equal society.
Federation citizens did not particularly like soldiers—or rather, before the war, Federation citizens had not particularly liked soldiers.
That was because the Federation military had played a very negative role in the past. Whether it was the massacre of indigenous people or the suppression of resistance movements, the military had always been involved.
On the one hand, the Federal Government needed to rely on the military's deterrent power for many issues. On the other hand, it had to consider matters from the public's perspective and weaken the military's influence.
Like the previous president—the isolationist one. His primary means of coming to power had been ensuring that the Federation remained isolated and continued to disarm.
Aside from those issues, there were also some less obvious reasons