Gideon

Gideon is a transport vessel within the Fleet.

During Laura Roslin's removal from office and Colonel Tigh's enactment of martial law, Colonial marines lead by Lieutenant Joe "Hammerhead" Palladino killed four unnarmed civilians during a riot on that ship.

The civilians onboard were protesting Roslin's removal from the presidency, martial law and the dissolving of the Quorum of Twelve, as well as hindering in an effort to resupply battlestar Galactica. During the protest, where coffee and other objects were thrown at the Galactica party, the marines heard a shot. Believing that they were under attack, they fired into the crowd, until Palladino managed to weakly regain control of the situation after the damage had been inflicted. (Resistance)

Reporter D'anna Biers would later hype the incident as the "Gideon massacre" to try to turn civillian opinion against the Galactica ("Final Cut").

Etymology

Gideon is the name of one of the biblical characters in the Book of Judges.