tagged w/ Strip Search
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On Monday, April 2nd, the Supreme Court voted 5-4 that people may be strip-searched for any offense, even if there is no reason to suspect they are carrying any contraband.On Monday, April 2nd, the Supreme Court voted 5-4 that people may be strip-searched... more
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FROM ARTICLE: Don't have time for finer points!
Remember, you don't need to have done anything wrong to be arrested in America any longer. You can be arrested for walking your dog without a leash. The man who was forced to spread his buttocks was stopped for a driving infraction. I was told by an NYPD sergeant that "safety" issues allow the NYPD to make arrests at will. So nothing prevents thousands of Occupy protesters – if there will be any left after these laws start to bite – from being rounded up and stripped naked under intimidating conditions.
Why is this happening? I used to think the push was just led by those who profited from endless war and surveillance – but now I see the struggle as larger. As one internet advocate said to me: "There is a race against time: they realise the internet is a tool of empowerment that will work against their interests, and they need to race to turn it into a tool of control."
http://tinyurl.com/6p7pfxcFROM ARTICLE: Don't have time for finer points!
Remember, you don't need... more
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LOrion
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added this
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1 month ago
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This newest chapter in America’s police state chronicles is yet another example of the Supreme Court’s partisan infection, having ruled along party lines in a 5-4 vote, with the conservative majority deciding the case.
http://veracitystew.com/?p=33146This newest chapter in America’s police state chronicles is yet another example... more
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If you plan on flying to Grandma's house this Thanksgiving, the Transportation Security Administration, or TSA, is giving you an unsavory choice: let them see a naked image of your body or let them grope your chest and crotch.
Sound unreasonable? Well, it's all in the name of safety and will be the reality of air travel out of LAX and virtually every other U.S. airport in the near future.
TSA's Advance Imaging Technology (AIT), better known as full-body scanners, are capable of producing a nude image for remote security screeners using special x-ray technology that focuses on the skin.
Those wishing to opt out of the scan will face an "enhanced pat down," which includes officials using the palm-side of their hand on sensitive areas like the breasts and crotch, according to Christopher Ott, an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) spokesman in Massachusetts.
This was confirmed by a middle-aged couple flying into LAX from Norfolk, VA Monday night. "They felt all over," the woman said, running her hands over her body. When she said the search didn't make her feel uncomfortable, her spouse blurted out, "But her husband did!"
The unnamed couple said it was the last time they would fly.
While not all airports or all terminals have received the full-body scanners, technicians were installing a new scanner at LAX's Terminal 1 Monday night
Critics call the scanners a "virtual strip search," violating the Fourth Amendment, which guarantees citizens protection from unreasonable searches that violate their dignity and personal privacy.
"This technology involves a striking and direct invasion of privacy," an ACLU backgrounder states. The graphic images produced by the scanners "amounts to a significant assault on the essential dignity of passengers."
Both the machines and the new pat downs have drawn fire from all sides.
Israeli security expert, Rafi Sela, who designs airport security systems, has claimed that he could get past the scanners with enough explosives to bring down a 747. "AIT scanners are useless," Sela said in an email. "The system is useless."
Last March, even the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported doubts that the technology would have detected the bomber last Christmas.
American Muslims might represent the social group most antagonized by the new procedures. The Fiqh Council of North America issued a statement last February saying it was, "deeply concerned about the use of nude body scanners," as Islamic teaching forbids men or women to be seen naked. The Council could not be reached for comment on the new pat downs.
Clearly, being forced to choose between a virtual strip search and a frisking that would be sexual assault in any other setting is outrageous. Without suspicion that you are breaking the law, these searches are unconstitutional.
You only have to imagine a man viewing your son or daughter naked or feeling your girlfriend up and down to grasp how flagrantly wrong this is.
Don't be afraid to get angry. Tweet it, Facebook it, and talk about it. Speaking out is the only way to reverse a security policy as demeaning and unlawful as this one.
http://www.studentvoiceonline.com/opinion/virtual-strip-search-awaits-holiday-travelers-1.2401871If you plan on flying to Grandma's house this Thanksgiving, the Transportation... more
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In order to ensure the security and safety of all Americans, there is one solution to the immigration crisis: complete body searches at every state border crossing. Magnetic Resonance Imaging stations can successfully process millions of Americans daily and eliminate the threats posed by energetic foreign workers.In order to ensure the security and safety of all Americans, there is one solution to... more
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While many civil liberties experts are focusing on the recent Supreme Court decision involving the intrusive search of a 13-year-old girl, plaintiffs' lawyers nationwide have been winning huge settlements in class-action suits on behalf of women and men subjected to strip searches by local police departments.
Damages have reached into the millions in some cases. Los Angeles County recently paid $27 million to settle a class-action suit, New York City paid $22 million, and Washington, D.C. had to pay $12 million.
Despite the substantial settlements, most cases have been resolved with out-of-court agreements that limit publicity. As a result, some legal scholars believe that the invasive practice continues, sometimes even in jurisdictions where settlements have been paid.
All over the country, there are jails that carry out blanket strip-searches of anyone who is brought through their doors, whether the charge is heroin smuggling or unpaid parking tickets. Though these policies have been found unlawful time and again, many police forces continue the practice.
Last month, the Supreme Court ruled that the strip search of then-13-year-old Savana Redding by officials at her Arizona school was unconstitutional. The case was the first of its kind to be taken on by the highest court. At the appellate level and below, however, this is familiar territory and cases filed on behalf of victims of unlawful strip searches in jails, detention centers and schools are common. In almost all cases, the plaintiffs have won.
"In this country, people are presumed innocent till found guilty," said Charles LaDuca, a partner at the Washington law firm of Cuneo, Gilbert & LaDuca, who has worked on more than 25 of these strip search cases. "When these people are arrested for non-felony offenses, they have not been tried, but they are forced to get naked...in front of the arresting officer and often a roomful of other people."
If a person is brought in on a drug or weapons charges, strip searches are lawful because they are regarded as an element of jail security. In other instances, however, plaintiffs' lawyers have found fertile ground in pursuing cases involving people subjected to the searches after arrests for misdemeanors.
The trend of prosecution of these strip search cases started slowly in the 1970s, but the number began to rise in the late 1990s. Today, nearly 100 class-action suits have been filed against counties and municipalities around the country contending that these searches are unlawful and violate the Fourth Amendment.
Though police forces often justify the use of strip searches, saying they are necessary for jail security, the Fourth Amendment and the accumulated case law specify that strip searches can only be performed if there is a "reasonable suspicion" that a person has contraband, usually drugs or weapons, hidden on their bodies.While many civil liberties experts are focusing on the recent Supreme Court decision... more
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The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a school's strip search of an Arizona teenage girl accused of having prescription-strength ibuprofen was illegal.The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a school's strip search of an Arizona... more
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The justices in January accepted the Safford school district case for review, and will decide whether a campus setting gives school administrators greater discretion to control students suspected of illegal activity than police are allowed in cases involving adults in general public spaces.
The case is centered around Savana Redding, now 19, who in 2003 was an eighth-grade honors student at Safford Middle School, about 127 miles from Tucson, Arizona. Redding was strip-searched by school officials after a fellow student accused her of providing prescription-strength ibuprofen pills.
The school has a zero-tolerance policy for all prescription and over-the-counter medication, including the ibuprofen, without prior written permission.
"In this case, the United States Supreme Court will decide how easy it is for school officials to strip search your child," Adam Wolf, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union who is representing Redding, told CNN Radio on Sunday.
Wolf told CNN Radio his client was traumatized by the search.
"School officials undoubtedly have difficult jobs, but sometimes they overreact -- and this was just a clear overreaction," he said.
Redding was pulled from class by a male vice principal, escorted to an office, where she denied the accusations.The justices in January accepted the Safford school district case for review, and will... more
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The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Friday to decide whether a public school violated the constitutional rights of a 13-year-old student by conducting a strip search of her for ibuprofen.
School officials ordered the search in 2003 of Savana Redding, who was in the eighth grade.
Following an assistant principal's orders, a school nurse had Redding remove her clothes, including her bra, and shake her underwear to see if she was hiding ibuprofen, a common painkiller.The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Friday to decide whether a public school violated the... more
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This lady called the police to report an assault; she is led into the back of a police car and asked some questions. Next she is handcuffed and taken to the county jail, she is held down by up to 7 police officers and forcibly strip searched.
keep visiting the website http://www.shamed.me/ for shamed stories.This lady called the police to report an assault; she is led into the back of a police... more
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afridi
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added this
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3 years ago
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She was a 13-year-old honor student. She may or may not have given her friend prescription-strength ibuprofen, though the girl certainly didn't have any on her. An assistant principal, acting on the word of a scared fellow student, brought the eighth-grade girl into his office and subjected her to a strip search. In the presence of the school nurse and the assistant principal's administrative assistant, this young woman was forced to strip off her clothes including her underwear, exposing first her breasts and then her pubic area, on the erroneous suspicion that she was hiding . . . ibuprofen. At this Arizona middle school, students are prohibited from carrying drugs -- even over-the-counter medication -- into school.
Last month, The Times reported that a panel of judges on the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned (in a 6-5 decision) previous rulings that condoned the actions of the assistant principal, who is now finally considered liable for damages.
The student was searched by women, the nurse and the administrative assistant. It's still abuse. I've been through these searches. Regardless of your gender or that of the people searching you, it's a violation of your rights.
I spent six months in federal prison for civil disobedience a few years ago. What vividly remains far and away the worst part of the experience was being strip-searched. After receiving a visit, I ran the random (sometimes not so random) risk of having to strip off all my clothes, including undergarments -- just in the way this middle-school girl was forced to strip -- and bend over and cough. As a survivor of sexual abuse, these strip searches were particularly traumatic. Given the percentage of incarcerated women who are also survivors of abuse, these strip searches were traumatic for most women. Some guards used their power punitively. Such searches can re-traumatize survivors, and even for women and girls on the outside, sexual abuse and assault are far too common.
Until this recent successful appeal, school officials, supported by not one but two previous sets of judges, had (almost) gotten away with an unfathomable violation. In their zeal to completely eliminate student access to all drugs, in what will forever remain a failed endeavor (we can't keep drugs out of prisons, so how can we keep them out of schools?) that neither teaches our children about fact-based decision-making nor builds trusting relationships with them, those fighting the drug war have unapologetically crossed a very serious line. There is no moral defense for their reprehensible actions. They were not protecting the safety of students. What are we doing to our students by treating them in such a manner? Why are we doing things to 13-year-old girls that appear to be preparing them for prison?
While the Arizona assistant principal might be exposed to a civil liability, it's not nearly enough. Everyone who stood by should be fired for the unconscionable abuse of this student. Everyone who participated in this horrific violation -- including the nurse and the secretary -- deserves nothing short of being expelled from our public schools immediately. They should be nowhere near our children, ever -- let alone responsible for their protection.
Thanks to the drug war, middle-school administrators are behaving like prison guards -- and that scares the hell out of me. It horrifies me that an assistant principal, his administrative assistant, a nurse, five of the 11 judges in this case and two previous sets of judges all thought this act was acceptable.
Is no one -- not even 13-year-old young women and their bodies -- safe from drug war zealots?
She was a 13-year-old honor student. She may or may not have given her friend... more
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Alameda County has agreed to pay $4.3 million to settle a lawsuit filed by youths who said their civil rights were violated when they were strip-searched at Juvenile Hall after family visits and for minor offenses.
Under a settlement approved Tuesday by the Board of Supervisors, $2.8 million has been set aside for the 7,000 claims that are expected to be filed by youths who were strip-searched under certain conditions in the past several years, said the plaintiffs' attorney Mark Merin.
Depending on the circumstances, claimants could get from $300 to $2,500 for each incident, Merin said.
An additional $225,000 will be given to the three named plaintiffs who filed suit in U.S. District Court in San Francisco last year. All three said that they were subjected to group strip searches between 2003 and 2005 for misdemeanor offenses.
County officials could not be reached for comment.
Less than a month ago, the supervisors approved a $6.2 million settlement of a federal class-action suit involving illegal strip searches at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, which houses adults. In that suit, filed in January 2006, Daniel Schaffer said he was strip-searched after he was arrested for a traffic warrant.
"We're very pleased that the juvenile authorities have cut out strip-searches," Merin said Thursday. "They're no longer strip-searching kids routinely upon arrival at Juvenile Hall."
Merin said "the most bothersome thing" was the fact that youths were strip-searched - often in groups - immediately after family visits.
"So not only was it a discouragement to visit with your family, knowing this was going to happen afterward, it was particularly embarrassing because they had to expose themselves in front of their peers. I hope the message finally gets through to the penal institutions and Juvenile Hall that they have to be more respectful of their clientele."
The youths who filed suit "did, in fact, view the naked bodies of other juvenile detainees as they were required to expose their body cavities for visual inspection by defendants," the complaint said.
Merin said California law prohibits routinely strip-searching Juvenile Hall or jail inmates between the time of their arrest and their first bail hearing or adult arraignment, if the arrest was for a misdemeanor not involving violence or drugs.
Continued story at the link.Alameda County has agreed to pay $4.3 million to settle a lawsuit filed by youths who... more
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If you have a problem with school officials strip searching 13-year-olds for Advil – or if you care about the government’s standards for informant use and invasive searches – you can take relief in yesterday’s ruling by a full panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, which ruled 6-5 that students cannot be strip-searched based on the uncorroborated word of another student who is facing disciplinary punishment.
“A reasonable school official, seeking to protect the students in his charge, does not subject a thirteen-year-old girl to a traumatic search to ‘protect’ her from the danger of Advil,” the federal appellate court wrote in today’s opinion. “We reject Safford’s effort to lump together these run-of-the-mill anti-inflammatory pills with the evocative term ‘prescription drugs,’ in a knowing effort to shield an imprudent strip search of a young girl behind a larger war against drugs.”
“It does not take a constitutional scholar to conclude that a nude search of a 13-year-old girl is an invasion of constitutional rights. More than that: it is a violation of any known principle of human dignity,” the court continued.
In addition to finding the strip search unconstitutional, the court held that the school official who ordered the strip search, Vice Principal Kerry Wilson, is financially liable in the case and cannot claim qualified immunity. The ACLU co-represented the student, Savana Redding, before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, which decided to reconsider the case after a three-judge panel ruled 2-1 that the strip-search was legal.
For a case like this, it’s hard to understand how the unconstitutionality of strip searching Redding could even be up for debate. Consider how flimsy the government’s case was:
* No physical evidence suggested that Redding – an honor roll student with no history of substance use or abuse – might be in possession of ibuprofen pills or that she was concealing them in her undergarments.
* The strip search was undertaken based solely on the uncorroborated claims of a classmate facing punishment, who was caught with prescription strength ibuprofen – the equivalent of two over-the-counter pills of Advil. (And why on earth might a teenaged girl have ibuprofen?)
* No attempt was made to corroborate the classmate’s accusations among other students or teachers.
* The classmate had not claimed that Redding currently possessed any pills, nor had the classmate given any indication as to where they might be concealed.
* No attempt was made to contact Redding’s parents prior to conducting the strip search.
If you want to get some background information on the abundance of scientific literature describing the serious psychological repercussions of being strip-searched at age 13, you should check out the briefs of support that were also filed by the National Association of Social Workers and the Rutherford Institute.
“The strip search was the most humiliating experience I have ever had,” said Redding in a sworn affidavit following the incident. “I held my head down so that they could not see that I was about to cry.”
As Reason’s Jacob Sullum insightfully observed in his article on the case, “The School Crotch Inspector”:
“There are two kinds of people in the world: the kind who think it’s perfectly reasonable to strip-search a 13-year-old girl suspected of bringing ibuprofen to school, and the kind who think those people should be kept as far away from children as possible … Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between drug warriors and child molesters.”
The same safeguards and regulations on informant use that we have been advocating in the context of criminal drug proceedings apply even more so to the context of school, where young people are particularly vulnerable to unsubstantiated rumors and finger-pointing by vindictive peers. If you have a problem with school officials strip searching 13-year-olds for Advil... more
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Suspecting that a student had violated a policy against prescription or over-the-counter drugs without permission, public school officials in Safford, Arizona, ordered a search of Savana Redding.
A school nurse had her remove her clothes, including her bra, and shake her underwear to see if Ms Redding was hiding anything.
The 2003 search, prompted by a tip from another girl, did not find ibuprofen, which is found in common medications like Advil and Motrin to treat pain like cramps and headaches. Higher doses require a prescription.
Previous court decisions ruled the school did not violate the US Constitution's Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches and seizures because officials have a legitimate interest in protecting students from prescription drugs.
The 6-5 ruling by a panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday overturned an earlier decision, setting out its reasoning in an extensive 75-page ruling with many details on the complications of eighth grade life.Suspecting that a student had violated a policy against prescription or... more
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AT LEAST 16 schoolgirls were made to strip naked by their teachers in eastern India after one student complained she had lost her pocket money.
Officials said the girls in Jharkhand state were taken to a room and strip-searched one by one at the weekend, while teachers looked for the missing money, which was a little over a dollar, Ratan Kumar, a senior police officer said from Dhanbad.
"The order to strip and search the girls was not fair,'' Officer Kumar said.
Many students were crying and begged for mercy, police said.AT LEAST 16 schoolgirls were made to strip naked by their teachers in eastern India... more
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Woah! Its like she won the McDonald's Monopoly game. "Jury awarded $6.1 million Friday to a woman who said she was forced to strip in a McDonald's back office after someone called the restaurant posing as a police officer."Woah! Its like she won the McDonald's Monopoly game. "Jury awarded $6.1... more
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