Supreme Court OKs Strip Searches For Minor Offenses

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   ptosisposted 13 years ago

   
   
   From: http://www.npr.org/2012/04/02/149866209 … -offenders
   
   
   "people have been detained and strip-searched for offenses as minor as driving with an inoperable headlight, having outstanding parking tickets, violating a dog leash law, and riding a bike without an audible bell. None of these people could have anticipated being arrested, he said, and none would likely have hidden weapons inside their body cavities."
   
   
   
   How to you feel about this? Have you ever been arrested? Told to go naked, bend over and asked to spread your own butt-cheeks? ( I have).
   
   this country is no longer my country. With global warming - thinking about moving to Canada where there are still some personal privacy rights left.

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      wildernessposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Your post is a little misleading; you are not being strip searched as some kind of punishment for committing a minor crime.  You are being strip searched as protection for the people you will be in close proximity with.
      
      Never having been in the situation of a police officer detaining a person or being put in the same jail cell with a complete stranger I do not have any kind of handle or understanding on just how much danger there is in these kind of situations.  The SC apparently thinks they DO understand and feel they have made an appropriate call in line with the constitution. 
      
      Now obviously everyone in the country will complain that THEY are no danger to others and should not be searched, but the cops don't have the privilege of knowing that to be true.  There HAVE been cases of hidden weapons that have posed a danger so the claim that everyone is always safe is obviously false.  Just how false is the question and the Supreme Court has made that call.  You don't like it, I don't like it - nobody likes it except the people that could be hurt from a pat down that didn't find the weapon soon to be used.

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   glmclendonposted 13 years ago

   People will be searched, but lets have the good sense to know when and how far to go. Are you trying to enforce the law or tryign to be mean?

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      ptosisposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Oh - please don't say that I'm being mean - AZ just passed a law against that recently and I could get arrested and then jailers could go "third base" on me.

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   Will Apseposted 13 years ago

   If you are comfortable with using leg irons for prisoners, you can hardly complain about the humiliation of body searches.

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   True Curesposted 13 years ago

   They do it for the publicity more than anything.  Our government isn't concerned about violent crimes and homicide.  They are only concerned with how the people feel about the role law enforcement plays. 
   
   Strip searches are not going to make the streets safer but they give us something to talk about and keeps us busy.  We are like toddlers and we have to be given stuff to occupy our time so the grown-ups/government can do what they need to do without our interference. 
   
   If the media and the people didn't make a big deal out of strip searches they would stop doing it. 
   
   As for crime, well crime is profitable on both sides of the law so get use to it.  It's up to each of you to chose whether you will live your life in fear or not. 
   
   I can't imagine living a life of fear, fear of being mugged or being diseased but I know I stand alone there.  I pick up hitchhikers and I sometime hitchhike.  I eat all my meat medium rare to rare.  I drink water right out of the creeks.  I don't kill snakes when I see them and I am not afraid of bears.  The only thing I fear is ignorance.  I'm not bragging, I'm just pointing out that living in fear is a choice and nothing more. 
   
   There is no reason to strip search anyone but because of fear it has become acceptable.  Ya made your beds now you must lay in them.

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   Repairguy47posted 13 years ago

   They are being searched before they are put in jail, seems like a logical thing to do.

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   ptosisposted 13 years ago

   I'm talking about suspicionless strip searches. I know most Americans are OK with strip searches for OTHER people. I am asking if anybody has been strip searched. There are 10 states in the US that already ban strip searches without a good reason.
   
   New Jersey - Which is really weird because the case came from NJ.
   Florida
   
   But I don't know what the other states are (tried googling)
   
   This recent decision overturns a 1979 SCOTUS ruling that there had to have a reason. Now they say it's just SOP - no reason is needed.
   
   And since this is all for "safety" then TSA can have that for SOP also for bombs implanted in fake boobs. http://voices.yahoo.com/beyond-full-bod … 35808.html
   "Will Mr. Whipple of Charmin commercials be training TSA not to squeeze hard but to perform a simple feel?"
   
   
   
   I argue that you would be enraged if your virgin daughter was to undergo a strip search such as 13 year old Savana Redding by school officials looking for the equivalent of two Advils"
   
   "Justice Stephen Breyer said strip searches improperly "subject those arrested for minor offenses to serious invasions of their personal privacy." Breyer said jailers ought to have a reasonable suspicion someone may be hiding something before conducting a strip search...people like Florence "are often stopped and arrested unexpectedly. And they consequently will have had little opportunity to hide things in their body cavities."
   
   Besides that - it simply is not effective - " ..  in Nassau County, of 75,000 strip searches over a five-year period,  ...  three instances in which contraband was found on the detainee’s body or in a body cavity ... "  - http://ossining.patch.com/blog_posts/ho … reme-court
   
   I am appalled that some folks think this is OK because it's for "security" - the present SCOTUS is a legacy of Bush 43 and it's going to remove more and more of what America used to mean - freedom from a abusive government.

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