The Supreme Court on Monday ruled by a 5-to-4 vote that officials may strip-search people arrested for any offense, however minor, before admitting them to jails even if the officials have no reason to suspect the presence of contraband. http://www.salon.com/2012/04/03/the_obama_doj_and_strip_searches/singleton/ http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/us/justices-approve-strip-searches-for-any-offense.html?_r=2 Thoughts? Opinions?
Yeah, I don't agree with this. I'm not understanding, though. Is it regardless of whether they suspect a person of something or not? Also, I'm assuming they just take the person's clothes off and not touch their private areas -- at least I hope it's that way. Either way, though, regardless of whether they touch a person or not, if they're down in that area, it would be natural for a person, if it's a male, to get an erection, which would make them highly uncomfortable. Does the law even stop and think about that? Probably not. That would be my guess, anyway -- they don't care how uncomfortable it makes a person feel.
It does say that the officers do not require any proof or justified suspicion to do the search, yes. But it's not at all going to be a situation where the officer is touching you, or at least I hope not (because, let's face it, how would that pass), nor is it in any kind of arousing context. It's humiliating, really, especially if you've not got anything on you. I don't fully disagree with the use of strip searches--my viewpoint is that, if people can be protected from it, and it's done properly, I don't mind the government encroaching a bit on my rights. However, doing something like this without a requirement for probable cause is just asking for trouble. Still, not surprised. My faith in American politics has basically gone down the tubes.
I can see this getting really bad,really fast. At least it will give kids a reason not to carry around drugs.
You ever seen those traffic police videos? The amount of These acts of invasion of privacy have been slowly increasing in the law these past 5 years at least. This type of act wouldn't have likely been viable 5 years ago, it would've been seen as too much of a jump, too invasive, but after 5 years of slowly moving towards an act like this it is viable and in place. Talk about change. You ever seen those traffic police videos? The amount of people who drive crazy because they're high or even sober and still drive like mad men and get caught with drugs on them... I doubt that'll change the thoughts of a number of criminals.
