Resolved: on balance, police are more responsible than protesters for recent civil unrest in the United States
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- Contention One: The police start the unrest and cause the protests.
- Subpoint A: The protesters wouldn’t have done what they did if the police didn’t do what they did in the first place.
- Subpoint B: Contention Two: The police aren’t reacting in an appropriate way to handle protests, and causing the protests and civil unrest last longer
- Subpoint A: The militarization of police isn’t an appropriate action and the resources that are given to the police aren’t being used correctly with the
- Subpoint B: Inappropriate actions by police incite even more anger and provide more reasons to protest.
Aff Case 5Outline: Eric Garner. Michael Brown. Tamir Rice. Walter Scott. Freddie Gray. Michael Slager. What do all these people have in common? They were all wrongly killed by police officers, and all of these incidents sparked events of civil unrest across the U.S. “On Staten Island, N.Y., the July 2014 death of Eric Garner because of the apparent use of a ‘chokehold’ by an officer sparked outrage. A month later in Ferguson, Mo., the fatal shooting of teenager Michael Brown by officer Darren Wilson ignited protests, and a grand jury’s decision not to indict Wilson triggered further unrest. In November, Tamir Rice was shot by police in Cleveland, Ohio. He was 12 years old and playing with a toy pistol. On April 4, 2015, Walter L. Scott was shot by a police officer after a routine traffic stop in North Charleston, S.C. The same month, Freddie Gray died while in police custody in Baltimore, setting off widespread unrest. The policeman in the South Carolina case, Michael T. Slager, was charged with murder based on a cellphone video. In Baltimore, the driver of the police van in which Gray died, Caesar Goodson, was charged with second-degree murder, with lesser charges for five other officers. There have been no indictments in the earlier cases.” John Wihbey and Leighton Walter Kille, July 1st, 2015 My partner and I firmly support the resolution that “Resolved:On balance, police are more responsible than protesters for recent civil unrest in the United States.” We define “civil unrest” with the definition given by Sternheimer in 2012, which is that “Civil unrest involves a disruption of the typical social order; it can involve a strike or protest, and it can be peaceful or involve violence.” We define “responsible” as being “Liable to be called to account as the primary cause, motive, or agent”. We classify recent events of civil unrest as those which have occurred within the last year to limit our discussion to events which are still relevant to this debate.
Who is causing these recent major events of civil unrest? What are the protesters protesting? Police. Police cause these protests, and even if our opponent can prove that protesters worsen and lengthen civil unrest more than police, they wouldn’t have had any unrest to lengthen or worsen without the actions of the police. Keeping in mind our definition of “responsible”, the police are obviously the primary cause of civil unrest, and therefore the party most responsible for it. Subpoint A: The protesters wouldn’t have done what they did if the police didn’t do what they did in the first place. In the cases of Baltimore, New York City, and in Ferguson, among others, the original protests started due to what the police officers had done beforehand. Darren Wilson, in the case of Ferguson, killed Michael Brown, and protests started August 9, 2014, which caused police to respond with the usage of weapons including tear gas, rubber bullets, and beanbag rounds which only perpetuates the unrest and contributed to the riots that included the burning down of QuikTrip that was responded to with more unjust police action. Subpoint B: Contention Two: The police aren’t reacting in an appropriate way to handle protests, and causing the protests and civil unrest last longer. According to Ryan J. Reilly, who, it is interesting to note, was wrongly arrested by police during the Ferguson unrest, of the Huffington Post, said that “The aggressive tactics with which various law enforcement agencies greeted protesters in the St. Louis region last August following the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, were deeply flawed and oppressive of citizens exercising their constitutional rights, according to a forthcoming report commissioned by the Justice Department” (Ryan J. Reilly, Huffington Post, July 1, 2015). It is the job of the police to end civil unrest, so when they fail to do so, or when their actions make the unrest even worse, it makes them all the more responsible for civil unrest. Subpoint A: The militarization of police isn’t an appropriate action and the resources that are given to the police aren’t being used correctly with the protests. During the riots in Ferguson a picture was taken of an officer with a military grade rifle pointed at a group of people with his finger on the trigger. According to an article which was titled “The Fundamentals of Firearm Safety”, which was posted online by the University of Oregon, you must “Keep your finger off the trigger and outside the trigger guard until you are ready to shoot.” The fact that this officer had his finger on the trigger indicates that he was ready to use a military-grade rifle on protesters, and that he was prepared to cause damage to a community and bring on more civil unrest. In the article from Oregon it also specifies that “positively identify your target and the threat it poses.” This officer definitely wasn’t correctly identifying anything about the protesters because these protesters were peaceful and causing little to no harm to the community. “Keep your finger off the trigger and outside the trigger guard until you are ready to shoot...Positively identify your target and the threat it poses before firing at it.” University of Oregon Subpoint B: Inappropriate actions by police incite even more anger and provide more reasons to protest. Robert Patrick reported in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on August 2, 2014, that a police officer named Ray Albers, who was present at the Ferguson unrest, threatened protesters by pointing his gun at them and saying “I will [expletive] kill you”. He was asked to identify himself, to which he responded “Go [expletive] yourself”. He was unnecessarily increasing tensions and anger among the protesters and he was making the unrest even worse. “Albers pointed the gun at a peaceful protester after a ‘verbal exchange,’ Members of that crowd verbally confront the officer, who appears to say, ‘I will (expletive) kill you. Get back.’ Asked his name, he responded, ‘Go (expletive) yourself.’” Robert Patrick, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 2, 2014 Directory: wp-content -> uploads -> 2015 2015 -> Police Militarization 2015 -> 2015 ihbb championships: hs history Bowl Round 4 – Prelims First Quarter 2015 -> Wrtp/big step · 3841 W. Wisconsin Ave., Milwaukee, wi 53208 2015 -> Rao bulletin 1 December 2015 html edition this bulletin contains the following articles 2015 -> Darton College 2015 -> Training Workshop on Planning and Implementation of Multi-Sectoral Development Programme (MsDP) in Bihar Date : 6th 2015 -> Rao bulletin 15 June 2015 html edition this bulletin contains the following articles 2015 -> Rao bulletin 1 September 2015 html edition this bulletin contains the following articles 2015 -> Rao bulletin 1 August 2015 html edition this bulletin contains the following articles 2015 -> Science, and transportation united states senate Download 0.83 Mb. Share with your friends:
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