Viokoro Velan challenges the Myrskytuuli Regiment’s control of law enforcement
October 3rd - YC 120
Nannaras X
At the end of every month, leaders representing the CORE sit down for a meeting with the revered Patriarch, report on their progress in their respective fields, and discuss plans for the month ahead. This meeting also serves as a chance for them to voice concerns and suggestions of their own.
While these talks happen behind closed doors, ZANIE is supplied officially recorded minutes of the meeting. Some of the dialogue may be redacted, but ZANIE has the authority to report on anything in the minutes that isn’t.
And there’s nothing more noteworthy than the Chief Fabricator of Salvaged Fortunes Industries, Viokoro Velan, voicing her concerns about the Myrskytuuli Regiment being responsible for both the military of the Raata Zaibatsu, and the law enforcement for its civilians.
We go now to her exact words from the minutes.
“Let me just get to the point, I do believe the police force should be a separate entity from the Myrskytuuli Regiment.”
“These officers we have patrolling the streets and stations are not trained like police officers. They’re trained like soldiers, they think like soldiers and have the equipment to represent that…I go to the food market, right? And there’s a woman, fully dressed in armor, and she has a rail rifle as long as my arm! Like, just look for at my arm for a second, it was about THIS long! It even had a scope on it! Just…Why? Myself and everyone in that market were there for fruits and vegetables, and standing guard is someone who looks like they’re ready for an ambush of Matari guerilla fighters. It’s pure overkill.”
“Forgive me Patriarch, I know my tone may be out of line and making this unprofessional. Especially with me taking a little long with this. But I have to stress to you why this is a problem. Many of my colleagues have mentioned how uncomfortable it is to see this kind of stuff when walking down the street. Speaking for myself however? I find it scary, it’s unnerving and honestly, inefficient. Our military is also our police? No offence, but am I just ignorant about how the Raata Empire did things? Did lords have their troops keep the peace in their fiefdoms? If so, I must say that method of keeping the peace is outdated and nowhere near efficient today.
“So Patriarch, I implore you to consider separating the Myrskytuuli Regiment and the police. This is better for your people…I-I mean our people - Our people shouldn’t have see fully armed soldiers walking around when they leave their homes. Soldiers that are trained to fight and kill - not to enforce laws and make arrests. There should be a clear distinction between the military and law enforcement…"
- Viokoro Velan
The Patriarch opened the floor to debate immediately after Viokoro was done. Monden Searbier of Lucrative Excavations was the first to declare support for Vikoro’s plea. Matron Tuilina Malioka, Tokitu Yaken and Stelmari Oksasio argued against it, citing how the system has been nearly perfect in functionality and pointing to the incredibly low crime-rate in Hoiyori. Along with this, Tokitu mentioned the difficulty for making such a drastic overhaul to the system. If what Viokoro said was true about select Regiment personnel not being properly trained for law enforcement, replacements for every Regiment soldier assigned to Hoiyori would have to be trained. A time consuming effort to fix something that isn’t broken.
For afterthoughts on this, ZANIE reporters have approached voices in the debate.
The Patriarch closed the debate after hearing both sides of the argument. However, instead of declaring his decision. The Patriarch postponed the subject until the Myrskytuuli Regiment concluded their investigation into the missing fishermen ships and crew. This to avoid shaking up the Regiment during a delicate situation involving the security and safety of the Hoiyori colony.
“It’s tyrannical to have your military in absolute control of law enforcement. Enforcing the law is a delicate matter that requires focused training. But our guys are trained to fight in warzones with SOME training on how to make arrests…Oh, and this isn’t anything classified - but these soldiers watching Hoiyori? Any of them can be shipped out to a conflict zone at any time…So if anyone here wants to sign up to keep law and order in Hoiyori, it comes with the caveat of being sent off to fight some battle “For great honor"…I can say for certain that I’ll be holding the Patriarch’s feet to the fire about this subject once the investigation ends.”
- Monden Searbier
On the other side of the debate, ZANIE managed to get ahold of Stelmari Oksasio of the Stelmari Exchange for his opinion of the situation:
“Personally, I don’t see a single thing wrong with the current system. Hell, back on Pavannaka I, my boys were a bunch of jarheads and they did a bang up job in keeping the peace in my town. I made sure that they were packing heat too, we had GEK-38 assault rifles, we had bolt pistols, we had a few MH-82 HMGs around…You walk up to two numbskulls brawling in the streets with a GEK in your hands - I guarantee you those two would stop and stand at attention. Is that not what we want? Immediate cooperation? Oh, but it’s overkill, right? Nah, because when some pirate raiding party shows up I’d like my first responders to be fully capable of smoking them. Not some schmucks with tasers and peashooters.”
- Stelmari Oksasio
Tokitu Yaken and Tuilina Malioka were unavailable for comment.