Police Work, Politics and World Affairs, Football and the ongoing search for great Scotch Whiskey!

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Another example of objective media reporting.

Now AP, like many in the mainstream media  would never look at an issue through an ideological viewpoint.  Right?

The legal standing of searches is obviously something a cop would be interested in so this article caught my eye.  Now here are the basics:
  
Supreme Court doesn’t say if it will hear appeal over routine strip searches at NJ jails By Associated Press, Monday, March 28 2011

WASHINGTON — Albert Florence was strip-searched twice in seven days in two New Jersey jails after he was arrested on a warrant for a traffic fine he had already paid.

Florence said he should never have been ordered to undress for the searches, much less been arrested. He sued over his treatment, but a divided panel of federal appeals court judges in Philadelphia said that it is reasonable to search everyone being jailed, even without suspicion that a person may be concealing a weapon or drugs.

Most other federal courts have ruled otherwise, and now Florence is asking the Supreme Court to take his case. The high court will decide in the next few weeks whether to hear his appeal.

The Constitution’s Fourth Amendment does not prohibit all searches, just those determined to be unreasonable. Florence argues that even if his arrest were valid — everyone agrees it was not — the jailhouse searches were unreasonable because he was being held for failure to pay a fine, which is not a crime in New Jersey.

There was no reason to believe he might be smuggling drugs or a weapon into jail. Indeed, Florence says, there was no reason at all to think he might be going to jail.... 
 
No Mr Florence the search is reasonable.  We don't know if you are armed or not.  All we know is you are under arrest and we have to make sure for our safety (and the safety of other prisoners) that inmates are not armed.  To paraphrase Reagan, "We don't trust but verify!"

Now here is the interesting part Of the article.  
...Florence, who is African-American, had been stopped several times before, and he carried a letter to the effect that the fine, for fleeing a traffic stop several years earlier, had been paid.

His protest was in vain, however, and the trooper handcuffed him and hauled him off to jail. At the time, the State Police were operating under a court order, spawned by allegations of past racial discrimination, that provided federal monitors to assess state police stops of minority drivers. But the propriety of the stop is not at issue, and Florence is not alleging racial discrimination.

OK AP why even mention the man's race?  He is not alleging racial discrimination and the issue is was the search unreasonable.  Again, why do you bring race into it?  

I think we know the answer.  You have a template and the fact a black man was arrested because of an error is of course proof of racism in your eyes.  Maybe you should b a little diverse and tolerant in your thinking.

No comments:

Post a Comment