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Bill: Minister of Justice: Adequate Equipment for Police Officers
Details
Submitted by[?]: Hutori Conservative Council
Status[?]: defeated
Votes: This is an ordinary bill. It requires more yes votes than no votes. This bill will not pass any sooner than the deadline.
Voting deadline: November 2583
Description[?]:
| The Hutori Conservative Council believes that it is absolutely imperative that the men protecting our communities from the perpetual threats of crime be appropriately armed, not only to defend others and neutralize perpetrators, but also to protect their own lives from the serious threats they encounter on a daily basis. Currently, our police officers may only carry non-lethal weapons - ie, tasers, batons, beanbag guns, etc. But these weapons are derisory in comparison to the lethal weapons, both legal and illegal, that are often brandished by violent criminals. Simply put, our police forces are 'out-gunned' by many criminals, and how can a criminal truly fear and respect the law if he knows that the very defenders of the law and justice are not armed well enough to give them more than a small bruise? If Hutori wants the police to do their jobs, and to do their jobs effectively, they must be equipped appropriately for the dangers they may face on a daily basis. A well armed police force is a police force that can adequately protect our communities from danger. The HCC does not believe it's fair to the community that their protectors be virtually incapacitated, nor do we believe it's fair that they be defenceless on a personal level, essentially leaving their own lives in serious risk with no means for self-defence. We propose, therefore, that all police officers be given standard firearms, and that special units be trained with high-powered weapons in order to address situations in which criminals are posing a serious threat, beyond the threshold of the average police officers. We propose this in protection of the law, in protection of police officers, in protection of the citizens of Hutori, and in protection of justice. |
Proposals
Article 1
Proposal[?] to change The weapons used by police forces.
Old value:: Police officers may only carry non-lethal weapons apart from specially trained firearms units.
Current: Police officers may only carry standard firearms apart from specially trained firearms units.
Proposed: Police officers may only carry standard firearms apart from specially trained firearms units.
Debate
These messages have been posted to debate on this bill:
| Date | 18:53:49, May 28, 2008 CET | From | Conservative Union Party | To | Debating the Minister of Justice: Adequate Equipment for Police Officers |
| Message | We could support this. |
| Date | 00:52:30, May 29, 2008 CET | From | Hutori Conservative Council | To | Debating the Minister of Justice: Adequate Equipment for Police Officers |
| Message | How could parties possibly reject this proposal? It's not asking for police to be armed with flame-throwers - it's simply asking that police officers be given standard firearms. What on earth could parties have against this? (OOC: I don't know of one country in the developed or undeveloped world where police officers don't carry guns of some description.) |
| Date | 01:37:46, May 29, 2008 CET | From | Democratic Socialist Union | To | Debating the Minister of Justice: Adequate Equipment for Police Officers |
| Message | A gun with rubber bullets isn't lethal, but VERY effective. It doesn't kill, but it does the same work. |
| Date | 04:11:46, May 29, 2008 CET | From | Hutori Conservative Council | To | Debating the Minister of Justice: Adequate Equipment for Police Officers |
| Message | Rubber bullets can be effective, but when criminals regularly brandish high-powered firearms, which they can aquire whether these guns are legal or not, how can rubber bullets be expected to compare? Certainly, against rioters, or unarmed criminals, rubber bullets may do their job effectively. But we do not want to put police officer's lives at risk, and the security and safety of the community at risk, in the highly likely scenario that a criminal is carrying a gun significantly more lethal than the bean-bag guns and tasers carried by police officers, merely because some parties seem to object to an adequately equipped police force, for reasons beknownst to us. Our police forces are at risk of becoming a joke. What's next, are we going to down-size their weapons even further because bean-bag guns make a nasty bruise, and it's against the seemingly very elaborate rights of criminals? Maybe our police officers should carry feather guns to tickle criminals, or better yet, just give perpetrators a big warm hug next time they're in a confrontation. Criminals will have no hesitation to use lethal force against our police officers. It is only logical, then, that our police officers must have the capacity to use lethal force against criminals. |
| Date | 04:17:13, May 29, 2008 CET | From | Democratic Socialist Union | To | Debating the Minister of Justice: Adequate Equipment for Police Officers |
| Message | Yes well, your bill is set to fail. |
| Date | 06:16:20, May 29, 2008 CET | From | Hutori Conservative Council | To | Debating the Minister of Justice: Adequate Equipment for Police Officers |
| Message | Yes, and yet with no good reason, at least none that has been made apparrent. |
| Date | 15:21:39, May 29, 2008 CET | From | Conservative Union Party | To | Debating the Minister of Justice: Adequate Equipment for Police Officers |
| Message | British police don't carry standard firearms (I believe the PSNI do though). |
| Date | 17:00:25, May 29, 2008 CET | From | Liberale Partij (L) | To | Debating the Minister of Justice: Adequate Equipment for Police Officers |
| Message | This is going to cost the government money, which we think could be better spent elsewhere. No real ideological objections or anything. |
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Voting
| Vote | Seats | ||||
| yes | Total Seats: 122 | ||||
| no |
Total Seats: 156 | ||||
| abstain |
Total Seats: 23 |
| Random fact: In cases where a party has no seat, the default presumption should be that the party is able to contribute to debates in the legislature due to one of its members winning a seat at a by-election. However, players may collectively improvise arrangements of their own to provide a satisfying explanation for how parties with no seats in the legislature can speak and vote there. |
| Random quote: "All history has been a history of class struggles between dominated classes at various stages of social development." - Friedrich Engels |