Strip Search

[Updated 1:58 PM]

Yesterday it was reported that the Supreme Court ruled that strip searches of people taken jail under any circumstances by police are constitutional. Despite much noise from a lot of people, the ruling made 100% sense. The problem is not whether strip searches are constitutional (they are) it is what we as a society have allowed the police to jail people for.

As the justices in the majority decision pointed out, strip searches are done for the protection of those who work with inmates and for the safety of other inmates. Unless you have worked in "corrections" you have no idea the kinds of people that enter the system and the violence that some of them are capable of. Throw in gang members and you'll be very happy to know that you are unlikely to be on the cutting end of a razor that was under someone's tongue or some other implement that was in someone's ass.

Trust.

Say for instance that a gang member is stopped for a bench warrant from a speeding ticket. Say that person is carrying a weapon on his body. Say that because the court ruled that he cannot be searched because the bench warrant was "petty" this gang member enters a holding facility and is not "thoroughly" searched and the weapon is not found. Say that upon entering the holding cell, he comes across YOU who were also held from a bench warrant. Say the gang member decides that YOU are today's meal and picks a fight with you and brandishes the weapon that was not found. Sucks to be you eh? Well at least you weren't searched.

Sucks to be you.

Hopefully this decision will move people to reconsider their support of legislation that allows for people to be arrested for civil offenses. It was the people who elected people, repeatedly, who made it legal to arrest people for past due speeding tickets. It is certain segments of society who wish to criminalize certain speech. It is a certain segment of society that has created "zero tolerance" rules for school children to the point where police are arresting minors for dumb shit. How did these people not think that these rules would eventually lead to such a thing as being stripped searched? You allow minor BS to lead to arrests, exactly what did they think would happen once the person was arrested? Did they not know the process of being processed?

Take the previous gang member example. If the police could not jail people for bench warrants arising from speeding tickets but rather could only cite you again or at worst impound the vehicle. Neither the gang member or you would have been in a holding cell in the first place. Life and limb spared.

Don't get mad at the Supreme Court for deciding that the people running a jail are generally in the best position to judge what actions are in the best safety interest of those that work under such circumstances. Get mad at yourself for allowing legislatures to write laws that jail people for petty nonsense. There are other means to get people who have committed "petty" things to be accountable without sending them to jails.

[update]

So while I was working out I thought about this some more. I considered that a lot of people, when they see particular laws being passed like to say "well if you're not doing anything wrong then you have nothing to worry about." I'm sure the people that passed laws that made it OK to arrest and hold people in jail for minor civil offenses thought the same thing. I'm sure not a few of them are in a position where now they see how such "minor" inconveniences and minor nicks in the Constitution can end up having you bent over and spreading your cheeks because you had the gall to go over 65 MPH.