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Bill: Preservation of Law Act
Details
Submitted by[?]: Free Reform Coalition (FRP)
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: January 2061
Description[?]:
| Recognizing that police cannot defend themselves adequately against armed assailants. Recognizing that 'credible threat' is a disincentive to criminals. This bill will allow police forces to carry lethal weapons while on duty. |
Proposals
Article 1
Proposal[?] to change The weapons used by police forces.
Old value:: Police officers may only carry non-lethal weapons.
Current: Police officers may only carry non-lethal weapons apart from specially trained firearms units.
Proposed: Police officers carry standard firearms.
Debate
These messages have been posted to debate on this bill:
| Date | 08:15:59, May 09, 2005 CET | From |  Free Reform Coalition (FRP) | To | Debating the Preservation of Law Act |
| Message | 'Standard firearms' also includes defensive equipment such as kevlar jackets etc. |
| Date | 08:45:49, May 09, 2005 CET | From | Free Reform Coalition (FRP) | To | Debating the Preservation of Law Act |
| Message | 'Standard firearms' also includes defensive equipment such as kevlar jackets etc. |
| Date | 10:05:12, May 09, 2005 CET | From | Leviathan Party | To | Debating the Preservation of Law Act |
| Message | Non lethal weapons also includes kevlar jackets. The only thing this would preserve is the codification of excessive force. |
| Date | 13:27:55, May 09, 2005 CET | From | Labour Party | To | Debating the Preservation of Law Act |
| Message | I still don't like this. Whilst I have no objection to police being armed appropriated in response to certain situations I am not convinced that routinely arming the police with lethal weaponry is a good idea. |
| Date | 13:42:07, May 09, 2005 CET | From | LibCom Party | To | Debating the Preservation of Law Act |
| Message | Given that we have strict firearm licensing conditions, it shouldn't be necessary for the police to routinely carry lethal weapons. |
| Date | 23:31:48, May 09, 2005 CET | From | Free Reform Coalition (FRP) | To | Debating the Preservation of Law Act |
| Message | Considering that a police officer may enter a situation where he or she doesn't have time to run back and get a handgun from the car, it still seems necessary to arm police. Also, consider the fact that the alternative which are Tasers, are often ineffectual. There have also been reports of excessive force by taser use because they are not lethal. If you are worried about excessive force, then that is a matter of training police officers better. Which we will agree to as part of this bill. What it amounts to is that civilians can do a better job defending themselves than the police can. |
| Date | 00:13:57, May 10, 2005 CET | From | Free Reform Coalition (FRP) | To | Debating the Preservation of Law Act |
| Message | The Serdica Times wrote an article about this very issue: http://www.takeforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=219&start=0&mforum=particracy |
| Date | 12:47:30, May 10, 2005 CET | From | LibCom Party | To | Debating the Preservation of Law Act |
| Message | There are plenty of non-lethal weapons besides tasers. And in any case, tasers are now considered 'less lethal' rather than 'non-lethal'. OOC: Police in the UK seem to manage pretty well with neither guns nor tasers. |
| Date | 22:28:17, May 10, 2005 CET | From | Leviathan Party | To | Debating the Preservation of Law Act |
| Message | In additiona, community policing has been shown again and again to be more effective than traditional 'law and order' law enforcement. |
| Date | 06:47:43, May 11, 2005 CET | From | Free Reform Coalition (FRP) | To | Debating the Preservation of Law Act |
| Message | OOC: good point libcom, also, did you read the article I posted in previous discussions? it was pretty neat, apparently there has only been one time in history where britain felt it need to give police guns, and that was after a rash of police murders by some unknown criminal. it was in 1976 or so. IC: we have no problem with community policing, thats probably what our citizens do anyway, considering that they can get guns under a license, they are much more of a threat to criminals than police are. |
| Date | 07:14:01, May 11, 2005 CET | From | Leviathan Party | To | Debating the Preservation of Law Act |
| Message | Community policing is not civilians in a neighborhood watch, it's a method of policing that stresses community relations and cooperation between the police and civilians towards a common goal, rather than the police as an external force imposing law upon the community. |
| Date | 15:17:20, May 11, 2005 CET | From | LibCom Party | To | Debating the Preservation of Law Act |
| Message | FRP, surely our strict license conditions preclude citizens carrying their guns in the street! |
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Voting
| Vote | Seats | |||||||
| yes | Total Seats: 12 | |||||||
| no |
Total Seats: 88 | |||||||
| abstain | Total Seats: 0 |
| Random fact: Hundreds of vessels were lost while traversing the cold waters of the Sea of Lost Souls. It is located between Seleya and Majatra. |
| Random quote: "When strangers start acting like neighbors, communities are reinvigorated." - Ralph Nader |