Debating Society

[Slavoj Zizek's Balls]

Today I am going to our debating society. Naturally I wish to take up the far left point of view.

The House believes that it is now time to arm the British Police on a routine basis.

^ Is the motion.

So my esteemed comrades, I'd like to know how you would tackle this question.
Personally I would mention how the police are totally unnecessary as they do not deal with the situation at its source and thus we should focus our energy on stopping crime before it exists. Of course, this isn't exactly going to be within the confines of the debate as most debates are very "in the box". Sucks.

[Jimmie Higgins]

What is the rational given for "now" being the time? The riots?

I don't know how formal debates work or what one could argue and still be within the parameters of debate, but this sounds like a tough topic for this format.

To reall take on this question from a radical class perspective, the question has to become what role do the police in our society play, why do government officials (and our unelected rulers as well) want this now?

The British basically invented the modern police for capitalism to deal with the concentration of working class people in urban areas. So the police have always primarily been an organization for controlling people, not "stopping crime".

I'm not sure about the situation in the UK, but in the US, statistics show that cops stop a crime in progress maybe once or twice in their carreers. I guess if all else fails you can just walk to the podium and say, "Do you want to be policed like in the US" and then play a bunch of youtube videos of cops shooting people in the US; when the film is over, drop the microphone onto the floor and walk offstage. You should recieve some good technical points for that debating style :cool:

[Slavoj Zizek's Balls]

What is the rational given for "now" being the time? The riots?

I don't know how formal debates work or what one could argue and still be within the parameters of debate, but this sounds like a tough topic for this format.

To reall take on this question from a radical class perspective, the question has to become what role do the police in our society play, why do government officials (and our unelected rulers as well) want this now?

The British basically invented the modern police for capitalism to deal with the concentration of working class people in urban areas. So the police have always primarily been an organization for controlling people, not "stopping crime".

I'm not sure about the situation in the UK, but in the US, statistics show that cops stop a crime in progress maybe once or twice in their carreers. I guess if all else fails you can just walk to the podium and say, "Do you want to be policed like in the US" and then play a bunch of youtube videos of cops shooting people in the US; when the film is over, drop the microphone onto the floor and walk offstage. You should recieve some good technical points for that debating style :cool:

I assume that the rationale is due to the murdering of two unarmed police officers. If I must stay within the parameters I assume that I cannot change the question. If anyone wishes to state otherwise, by all means go for it.

[Slavoj Zizek's Balls]

It was terribly linear. Just awful really. You had to stick within the confines of the motion and it was really difficult for me as a member of the audience to bring in a leftist sort of refute of one of the two sides arguing for/against the motion. Next one is on whether euthanasia should be allowed or not.

[blake 3:17]

Was there any interesting discussion? I always stayed away from debating societies, but there've been a few at the University of Toronto lately I've been curious about.

Are you in England?

Many revolutionary socialists have opposed gun control on two related principles. The first being that the State shouldn't have a monopoly on violence, and secondly that our side will need arms come The Revolution. I'm not convinced of the wisdom of this.

From my very quick checking, it seems that there are select police with guns in England. If it is a question of issuing more guns to more police, I'd say we should oppose it on two main grounds. First being that the primary victims of police violence are the working poor, people of colour, people with disabilities, and other oppressed people. The second, and maybe the one to present first, is that more violent, more deadly policing DOES NOT STOP CRIME, and DOES NOT REDUCE VIOLENT CRIME. Organized criminals, wealthy and poor, will recognize the need to arm themselves in response and there will simply be more stupid senseless violence.

The federal Conservative government got rid of a long gun registry here recently. The divide on the issue was largely presented as an urban/rural one. There was some truth to this, but the much larger divide in opinion was between men and women. I was initially agnostic on the issue, but came to support the pro-gun control position because of what women had to say.

Anyways...

I think most radical Leftists support euthanasia rights. I do too provided there is a proper system of checks and balances to ensure that people, and in particular people with disabilities, are not euthanized against their will.