Hello:

Should we STOP strip searching people (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/us/justices-approve-strip-searches-for-any-offense.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120403), or should we STOP arresting the WRONG people?

In the case that was before the court, the plaintiff should NEVER have been arrested. It was a glitch. THAT'S where the problem is - not in jail. In this digitized age, should we expect MORE from our police forces? Letting jails strip search ANYBODY who comes through the door, COVERS up for incompetent cops who arrest the WRONG people.

excon

Well ex there are machines so I quess you want every police office to be equipted with them. I seriously wonder why strip searches would be necessary but I know they are used in drug cases when it is anticipated that concealment might be beyound what would be revealed by strip. I know you will be interested, the debate on criminalisation is heating up here so I expect it might even become an election issue, any opportunity to divert attention from corrupt behaviour and the carbon tax is no doubt welcome

well ex there are machines so I quess you want every police office to be equipted with them.Hello clete:

They already are. But, what makes THIS case worse, and you're not going to like my suggestion, is that the victim KNEW there was a "glitch" in the system that mistakenly showed a warrant, so he HAD a notarized document FROM the court advising any police officer who should READ it, that the traffic ticket was PAID and the gentlemen DOES NOT have a warrant...

This was a simple traffic stop. He was the passenger in his wife's BMW. I don't know WHY his history was run in the first place. In any case, it was so he SHOWED the cop the document. Didn't do no good. The cop hauled him off to jail. Yeahhh, he's black..

excon

You have a very different penal system there Ex and apparently some over zealous cops, but undoubtedly they have procedure and now he can sue for wrongfull arrest. I wasn't aware that you had a go directly to jail system

I wasn't aware that you had a go directly to jail system
.There was an arrest warrant based on faulty charges . It was a miscarriage of justice . I hope Albert Florence sues and wins big time... not because of the strip search ;but because of a wrongful arrest over a clerical error over fines.
I don't think that the strip search was a violation . It is done for the protection of the prisoners and the correction officers.

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I don't think that the strip search was a violation . It is done for the protection of the prisoners and the correction officers.

I was just reading about this case and your statement bothers me. Apparently the a bare majority of the court agrees with you. I don't! This man was arrested for not paying a fine! How does a person like that pose a threat to correction officers and/or prisoners. More likely they pose a much greater threat to him.

I understand the need for security and even the paranoia in these scary times. But we give up liberties at our peril. Now I don't know enough about this case, but unless this guy did something that made the guards feel he was a threat I can't find justification in the prison's actions.

I hope the court's ruling does not affect Mr Johnson's ability to sue the police for for false arrest.

I would guess someone going into lock down poses the potential for a greater threat than your run of the mill air traveler . Yet we routinely and allow for the potential of a groping by a rent a TSA guard or taking a full naked image for the privilege of boarding the plane.
With all due respect ;jails are crowded and if a prisoner is going to be introduced into the general population, then it is up to the prison officials to ensure the safety of all the prisoners and guards as much as possible. I think they should have a degree of latitude ;especially if they don't have the space to segregate the minor offenders from the rest of the population.

Perhaps jails should have the same scanning ability of the TSA. Then it wouldn't be so invasive.

Perhaps jails should have the same scanning ability of the TSA. Then it wouldn't be so invasive.

I would go along with that.

But your analogy is faulty. A person boarding a plane is doing so voluntarily for a purpose, to get from point a to point b. A person incarcerated in a jail is not doing so voluntarily, so the reasons and circumstances for that incarceration need to be looked at to determine the potential for danger.

Johnson was arrested at a traffic stop, he did not turn himself in, so he wasn't prepared to be arrested. He was under observation from the time he was arrested. So where would he have gotten contraband or weapons that only a strip search could reveal?

This is what bothers me about this case. From everything I've read this was not someone with a criminal record, but a financial executive. He was arrested in his wife's Beemer for god's sakes. I can't see how anyone could think he could be a danger and least not to the point of a strip search.

The conduct of the Prison officers is all about reducing the individual and coercing, so making them vulnerable from the start, but surely they don't do a strip search to put you in the local lockup pending a committal hearing. I thought you had rights over there. Last I heard a warrant was to arrest, not incarcerate, is Judge Dread with us already

I am not against strip searches for criminals, but it seems this was an intentional harassment case, that could have been setted at a desk, and not at two county facilities. I mean why would they run the passengers info for a traffic stop if they weren't looking to do dirt?

Why wasn't he challenging his unlawful arrest?

You can challenge no arrest until you get out and get a lawyer. You ever heard of someone challenging an unlawful arrest? They get charged with resisting. That the cops followed through with the arrest processing without checking his story was a travesty.

Hope he gets paid, and some reprimands follow the cops involved. Sounds like profiling to me, since he was the passenger.

OK, unlawful detention.

This is a very bad decision, police will just use it to target the poor, minorities and other vulnerable people. The police just want to humiliate people and can now use this ruling to justify it.

It's the next step from profiling!