Trigger Warning: World AssemblyIt's not often that criminal justice bills come through the WA, and there's a few very good reasons. The thing that makes the WA challenging is its diversity. Every imaginable species, technology level, social organization, government system, and moral code is represented, which makes justice systems especially hard to legislate (
Believe me, I know). Further, most bills that come through the World Assembly that would effect national policing also include a nation's armed forces. The "International Security" category description reads: "A resolution to improve world security by boosting police and military budgets." See that? Police
and military budgets are affected by this category. I
suppose you could shoehorn a policing/criminal justice proposal into the "Political Stability" category (A resolution to restrict political freedoms in the interest of law and order) or, stretching the categories further, Human Rights or Moral Decency. World Assembly resolution categories are a subject as mysterious as the deep blue fucking sea; for more on them and their inherent mysteriousness,
read here. There is also an ongoing GA rules consortium that will further increase collective confusion about the categories, so stay tuned, or not.
My point is - it is impossible to account for the myriad different justice systems that exist in the NS world, and there is no "criminal justice" category that specifically refers to justice reform or legislation, making criminal justice an especially tricky subject in a place where literally everything is tricky. I'm instantly skeptical of all criminal justice bills for this reason. If the author isn't a regular commenter, a high-profile delegate, or a prolific author of resolutions, I'm highly skeptical. When I saw that the author of the proposal currently at vote, "Law Enforcement Education," was none of the above, I decided I should take a closer look. The first line of the preamble told me everything I needed to know about this bill. It reads: *ahem*
RECOGNIZING The growing distrust of law enforcement by the general public,
OK, here's the thing. You might read this and think, who doesn't recognize this, especially in America? It's the national conversation right now! That is correct, and I cannot deny that. I also cannot deny the necessity and importance of that conversation. However, this is not Congress, it is the World Assembly. Real-life events have no bearing on our fictional nations, unless you want them to. Several early commenters noticed this and took the opportunity to gloat about their nations' excellent police-community relations.
The... distrust? Of law enforcement? Erm. Dare I say, not in our nation. One could argue, not in a great many nations. If this is an issue in your nation, perhaps you should do something about it at a national level, yes?
Perhaps there is a problem with law enforcement and the public in your nation, but the Federation does not have any such problems. If you wish to set this up in your own nation, so be it, but how this is an international remains to be seen.
"Looking forward to campaigning against this monstrosity."
That last one sums up my feelings as well. Not only is the act meta-flawed, both the premise of the act and the way in which it goes about its goals are trash. The act continues to state that education of both police and public (enforcing a false dichotomy and us vs. them rhetoric that is abhorred by modern policing scholars) will be the salvation of both.
UNDERSTANDING That by educating both the public and the police on how to maintain a healthy and mutual relationship we would resolve this issue
NOTING That the World Assembly supports global stability and the protection of citizens. By educating both the public and the police we will lower crime and increase safety.
ACKNOWLEDGING That this is a two way issue, the public needs to be educated on how to respect the police and in turn the police need to be educated on how to respect the rights of the public.
The author has barely defined a problem, but we should be convinced that education is the issue. Nevermind that there was never any evidence presented to show that a lack of education was responsible for the problem in the first place. Let's explore the danger of that implication. We are throwing money at a problem, without knowing how it will affect individual nations, without clear evidence of what the problem is, and without any idea whether our proscribed methods will be effective. Speaking of methods...
Since, you know, you don't mention how long or how often these meetings must be. Perhaps if we hold a five-minute meeting once every ten years, would that do?
Well. Again, a five-minute course that says, "treat your citizens as you would treat your grandmamma" would once again fit the requirement.
Yes, the World Assembly is literally that far up their own asses about these issues, but the point remains! This is why you cannot attempt to micromanage national affairs in an international legislature. There exists no middle ground between "too invasive" and "not far enough" when each individual nation is so diverse. This bill has the trifecta of flawed World Assembly resolutions: 1. Not an international issue, 2. Micromanagement, 3. Category issue. It's ranked as "significant," meaning it is among the most powerful and far reaching bills the WA can pass. Actually, it isn't but the author said so and the mods agree, probably because of how many people it will affect and how much change will be necessary for individual nations.
As a future law enforcement professional, I understand thoroughly the challenges facing the profession in the coming years and how much the culture must change if we are to effectively do our goddamn jobs, but this piece of hot garbage is not helping anything. It will waste ridiculous amounts of your nations' money though. Unfortunately, by the time you're reading this, the bill has probably passed and become law. Rev up those repeals, boys.
-PB
