New Zealand Police Act Wiki Lets You Write the Law

PhoenixOr writes "New Zealand is now on the top of my list for cool governments. They've opened a wiki allowing the populace to craft a new version of their Police Act, the legislative basis for policing in New Zealand."

Comments

Polity and Custom of the Camiroi

[Beryllium Sphere(tm)]

This was a science fiction story in which anyone could create a law. The visitor from Earth created a law saying that only qualified people could create new laws, arguing that otherwise someone might create a stupid one. The native said "Someone just did, in fact". The revert happened almost immediately, and the visitor was advised not to start a revert war: the reverter was described as "very good with the ritual sword".

Re:Polity and Custom of the Camiroi

[miruku]

on a related note;

http://www.pyrsf.com/chapters/Wikiworld/Wikiworld.htm

Vote for Deletion

[speaker of the truth]

I submit that the Title isn't notable enough with this google search only revealing one relevant link. As such I propose we delete this page.

Re:kiwis use wikis

[Tuoqui]

Now if only this would catch on... we might actually see laws that are representative of what the people want instead of some asshole with a few hundred thousand dollars more than they should have in their pocket.

nice!

[i_b_don]

Hm... so this means that young male techno-savy people are going to write the laws now? What do you think they will be?

1. Piracy is legal for any copyright that is represented by the RIAA or MPAA
2. Cute girls can't wear shirts
3. The new legal drinking age is 13
4. People over 50 aren't allowed to vote

???

d

Re:nice!

[mwvdlee]

2. Cute girls can't wear shirts

So now they'll be wearing raincoats and turtleneck sweaters.
Thanks, dude.

why is it...

[User 956]

Why do i get the impression that the new Police Act will consist mainly of LOLcats?

Re:Not such a good idea..

[Anonymous Coward]

Opening a wiki for creating laws is insane. It would just invite vandalism, and instead of leading to formation of new laws, it would waste money and manpower involved in maintanence and moderation.

Yeah. I heard that someone also had a wiki to build an encyclopedia, but that's just as insane. It would just invite vandalism, and instead of leading to an informative and complete reference, it would waste money and manpower involved in maintanence and moderation.

A Public Relations exercise

[gihan_ripper]

From the wiki (emphasis mine):

An official Bill is currently being written-up by parliamentary drafters, but in parallel there's an opportunity for others to suggest how a new Policing Act might look by contributing to a wiki Act.

OK, it's unrealistic to believe that New Zealand would let anyone write the law. That would lead to anarchy. However, what they're doing is trying to get people interested in the law-making process, and in the laws themselves by opening up this wiki. I can see a number of purposes this could serve:

1. Educational: teaches citizens about laws and law-making.
2. Political: by getting citizens involved in the process, they're more likely to support the new Act.
3. Police PR: gets citizens to think about policing in a new way and perhaps gain a new respect for the Police.

Re:A Public Relations exercise

[bug1]

"OK, it's unrealistic to believe that New Zealand would let anyone write the law. That would lead to anarchy."

Quite the opposite.

Anarchy is the absense in laws, so letting anyone write laws would move New Zealand further away from anarchy.

Allowing anyone to repeal laws might lead to anarchy.

citation needed

[Anonymous Coward]

Police officers may not shoot people at random [citation needed]

Did you read the article?

[Jane Q. Public]

The wiki does not allow people to write law. It is just for citizen input.

Wow...

[nebaz]

According to the New Zealand Police Act, the elephant population has tripled in New Zealand.

Re:Not Practical In The U.S.

[dangitman]

As pointed out elsewhere, the people who would participate are too self-selecting. They would just be too small a segment of the U.S. population.

Well, yes. Citizens of New Zealand would be a very small segment of the US population.

Can I contribute?

[OrangeTide]

I'm not from New Zealand, but I think with a name like "Police Act" that the law should roughly state: The beatings will continue until morale improves.

It's worth reading this rant on that popular joke slogan.

Re:Not such a good idea..

[dangitman]

Laws have to be constant, same for everyone, and not open to discussion or question.

WTF? Laws should be constant? So slavery never should have been abolished, I guess. They should not be open for discussion? Sounds like fascism to me.

It should be the exact opposite - laws should change to reflect the times, and they should be constantly discussed and questioned.

Re:kiwis use wikis

[Petrushka]

I live here, nothing cool about our government.

Hmm ... loathing of government for no stated reason ... high probability of right-wing lean ... posting as AC ... do I detect a denizen of nz.general?

Re:kiwis use wikis

[Petrushka]

Not so fast. They've set the wiki up with a rather short-sighted password policy: any editor can set a password on any page that can protect that page from being edited or even being seen by anyone else. I'm having difficulty finding any pages that don't have passwords set ...

Awesome re-branding

[PhilHibbs]

Alternatively, it is proposed that all police forces throughout New Zealand be renamed "The New Zealand Yum-Yum Teddy Bear Strike Force Z"

Re:kiwis use wikis

[WhatAmIDoingHere]

You act like the default relationship with the government should be love. You should hate your government until they give you a reason not to.

Re:WikiWar

[TheRaven64]

How about:

Smoking marijuana is <blink>il</blink>legal. That ought to keep everyone happy.

Re:kiwis use wikis

[Elemenope]

Hating your government for no good reason is nearly as silly as loving it on the same basis. I would say one should be rationally engaged and emotionally disinterested in their government unless and until that government unduly interferes in your life or perpetrates some act you consider to be unjust.

But maybe that's just me.