This deference of the privileged to the privleged is apalling.
You are missing the point. It's not a question of deference.
172 should
have been desysopped the first time he unblocked himself.
But _who_ do you want to decide if an admin should lose his
privileges? The community or one person (Ed Poor for example)
and desysopping is not as severe as blocking
someone,which any sysop is allowed to do.
Not permanently, sysops are only able to temp block people.
It might even be a good idea to sunset
sysop powers, say every three months (although not all sysops at once) to see
if the sysop can get elected again.
I'm not sure that's a good idea at all.
172 had been engaged in other abuses of his sysop power, and had even
been disciplined by the arb committee (as a user not a sysop I believe),
but desysoping him (or her) should be been an easy and trivial addition
to the discipline at that time. It is not like sysop powers are some right.
I agree that sysop powers are a privilege and not a right. But I do
think that the AC or the community (via a RFC) should be the ones to
make the decision.
Theresa