The U.S. Supreme Court rules that strip-searches and body cavity searches of everyone arrested in the United States for any reason, including for minor traffic offenses, are perfectly legal.
First They Came For My Junk
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication, WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "The Stringer."
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Welcome to an America that has the highest level of everything, including ridiculous costs for the simplest things – except civilization. Welcome to an America that is only second to another as a “failed civilization, like Britain”, where everything is constantly monitored and taped. Don’t blame me guys, I wrote about this 35 years ago – when America had a chance to take one road or the other. My doctorate was based on “The USA as a Lifeboat”. The central idea was that you can only take a limited amount of people on a “lifeboat”, and we have since included so many people that there isn’t a boat or ship in the world that could get us where Ted or anyone here on this forum could hope to. We are sinking because we can’t seem to comprehend that everyone cannot get on board. Strip-searches for anyone who does anything construed as anything? – That’s straight from a history of repression that matches and goes beyond this…. Are we completely complacent? YES WE ARE.
I’ll worry when they lock you up for treason and seditious acts, Ted….
“Arbeit macht frei!”
I’m going to ask again- can you back up your claim about “Cavity searches” or not? If you can, please do. If not, you’re engaging in a clever form of “poisioning the well” against liberals, and should quit it.
Apparently Whimsical thinks that, despite decades of escalating evidence of the US police state, only if Obama fails to be reelected could police, at all levels, conceivable begin to operate outside the letter and spirit of the law.
A few years ago, Mr Rall had a cartoon that every president MUST be worse than his predecessor. At the time, I couldn’t see how anyone could possibly be worse than Bush, Jr, but I was too myopic: Bush, Jr mostly limited killing foreigners to Iraq and Afghanistan, and never ordered the assassination of a US citizen, and never signed the NDAA.
While Bush, Jr did a lot of terrible things, Obama seems to have continued most of them (all the baksheesh in Iraq had already been promised to Friends of Bush, Jr, so no point hanging around, but what other Bush atrocity has Obama stopped, or even mitigated?).
Plus Obama keeps adding new and improved atrocities of his very own.
I know: Obama finally gave us healthcare for all Americans. Meaning, everyone HAS to hand over premiums to an insurance company or go to jail, a massive windfall for the insurance CEOs. Which was the one big thing America lacked that Obama has provided, and it WILL be upheld by the Supreme Court, since the insurance company CEOs will make sure that it is.
But what to do?
Back before Mr Rall was born, the US voters agreed that the US absolutely had to send most young men to Vietnam at some point between their 18th and 26th birthdays, since the alternative was another Munich, and most voters had seen “Blitz Wolf”.
Many of those young men disagreed and protested, until the National Guard shot and killed some at Kent State, and the possibility of being shot by the Viet Cong and dying a hero seemed like a lesser evil than the certainty of being shot by the National Guard and dying a traitor to the US. So the war dragged on for ten years, and the protests had absolutely no impact and gradually faded out–what got the US out of Vietnam was Watergate.
But Presidents are more careful now, and they and their staffs avoid the Watergate Hotel at all costs.
And meanwhile, the Obama Reelection committee is offering free training for all the Occupy Protesters to teach them that the only hope for staving off an unmitigated police state is to re-elect Obama, who promises a mitigated police state.
So what to do?
(tongue in cheek, but with a grain of real truth) Want to have most of your problems and inequalities disappear? Have Denmark co-opt the US Government and force some civilisation back into the USA.
Nope – that won’t work, the Danish probably don’t want anything to do with our inner cities full of millions of angry dis-enfranchised people, and a nation that has more real violence and hatred going on in its cities per capita than anywhere else in the world, except maybe Somalia or Afghanistan? What to do with a nation full of a combination of berserk people and complacent ignorance?
From the SCOTUS, Inc. ruling:
“There also may be legitimate concerns about the invasiveness of searches that involve the touching of detainees. These issues are not implicated on the facts of this case, however, and it is unnecessary to consider them here.”
This is hardly the specific, judicial sanction against physical touching of denuded detainees, that has been claimed to be an integral part of this decision in comments on this topic.
The quote is on page 19 of the decision on “FLORENCE v. BOARD OF CHOSEN FREEHOLDERS”
http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/11pdf/10-945.pdf
Please. Let’s all calm down about this.
1. Obama was for it.
2. He’s the lesser of two evils.
3. Therefore, this is a good thing.
4. See you — well, those of you who haven’t been arrested for jaywalking and strip searched as a way of conditioning you to be passive and compliant — at the polls!
Thanks, one hit wonder!
If you’re right (which given your track record is doubtful, but still), then the Supreme Court did NOT in fact approve body cavity searches. Ted, when you don’t stick to the facts, not only do you weaken your own arguments, you make all liberalism by extension look bad.
Alex, careful, your ODS is showing.
And where are my manners?
Here’s the link to the article in Salon about this. The article has several interesting links within it.
Whimsical,
It isn’t “derangement” to be outraged about systemized humiliation being incorporated into the jail system solely for the purpose of shaming members into the public into being more compliant.
If these people are being arrested for minor violations, why do they need to be “processed” into a jail in the first place? No leash on your dog? Fine, arrest them, fingerprint them, give them an appearance ticket, send them home. They need never be put in jail at all.
The point here is that now you have a situation in which law enforcement is going to HAVE to strip search everyone. Why? Any well-run jail is one in which procedures are followed at all time. It makes no sense to strip search a random group of arrested people, just like it makes no sense to use a condom every other time. Add to that the very real risk of lawsuit a jail would run if an inmate was assaulted with something smuggled into the jail because someone wasn’t searched.
Poo-poo all you want, Whimsical. This is a significant ruling, it will have a significant effect, and it puts us all that much further down the road toward a police state. But let’s put it to the test. I don’t know the answer to the following question: In what other countries are the police authorized to strip search people arrested for minor, non-violent offenses?
And sorry everyone about the defective link in the previous post. Damn, I hate those things.
Alex
Oh, the ridiculous chain of logic in your original post pretty clearly qualifies as derangement, especially given that you’re the only one making those claims.
Ted, what I want to know is why on his monitor the TSA chap sees the shameless passenger with his hands lowered to protect his groin, while the cartoon clearly shows him raising them over his head. Those monitors seem almost dodgy as those Diebold voting machines so beloved of voting authorities in certain districts in your country ; wonder if they leave a paper trail ?…
Henri
Don’t worry everyone. Just Whimsical your way through life and everything will be fine.
I repeat: The Whimsicals are the major impediment to getting progressive policies pushed through the corrupt congress and presidency. Until you deal with the Whimsicals, who are the enablers, then nothing will change. Until the enabling apologists are dealt with – and I mean in the most severe terms – you can expect more of the same. As long as they exist, the Obamas of the world will continue to use them as leverage against any real progressive progress.
I like how all the TV crime dramas make it look like it is essential for law enforcement to have these abilities if they are ever going to catch those criminal masterminds.
The fringe left is their own worst enemy when it comes to getting progressive policies passed; in large part because they listen to the evil whispering of right wing-plants.
My strategies would get the “People’s Budget” passed in 3 election cycles, 4 tops. But the far left would rather work the far right to destroy all the things they claim to care about.
Whimsical,
You need to work on actually making arguments on your own, not just issuing blanket assertions that the other person has been illogical. The reason no one else is engaging in the discussion is because, quite honestly, your arguments are infantile. You don’t debate, you just dismiss the other person’s point and consider that to be good enough.
I made several very rational points, and you ducked them all. Quite frankly, I am tired of your chicken shit bait-and-run childishness. Either act like an adult or just don’t respond to my posts.
@alex
No, you made a ridiculous chain of logic in a failed attempt to be funny, which is what I responded to.
I didn’t respond to your other points, because believe it or not, I agree with them. This was a terrible decision. But you could’ve said that without bringing Obama or the lesser of two evils into it and I would’ve let it go, because you would’ve been right.
Your attempt to bring Obama and the utterly ridiculous “lesser of two evils” argument into every damn discussion is childish, illogical and clearly demonstrates derangement, which is what I was actually responding to (and you didn’t respond to at all). Pot calling the kettle black, much?
As for your infantile ultimatum, fuck you. I will continue to respond to any posts I choose, in any manner I choose.
http://reason.com/archives/2009/10/19/were-all-felons-now
In his new book, the Boston-based civil liberties advocate and occasional Reason contributor Harvey Silverglate estimates that in 2009, the average American commits about three federal felonies per day. And yet, we aren’t a nation of degenerates. On the contrary, most social indicators have been moving in a positive direction for a generation. Silverglate argues we’re committing these crimes unwittingly. The federal criminal code has become so vast and open to interpretation, Silverglate argues, that a U.S. Attorney can find a way to charge just about anyone with violating federal law. In fact, it’s nearly impossible for some business owners to comply with one federal regulation without violating another one. We’re no longer governed by laws, we’re governed by the whims of lawyers.