{"id":800,"date":"2011-09-23T13:53:03","date_gmt":"2011-09-23T18:53:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=800"},"modified":"2011-09-23T13:53:03","modified_gmt":"2011-09-23T18:53:03","slug":"losing-more-than-liberty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=800","title":{"rendered":"Losing More than Liberty"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\"\"<\/a>\u201c<\/span>The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution\u00a0 <\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

What could be more explicit? <\/span><\/p>\n

Albert Florence was a passenger in a car traveling on a New Jersey road when the driver was pulled over by a New Jersey State Trooper.\u00a0 Florence was taken in to custody on a non-indictable civil matter unrelated to the traffic stop.\u00a0 Even though he claimed the unpaid matter had been taken care of, the trooper brought him to the jail to be booked.\u00a0 In the booking process, Florence was told to strip, hold his hands out, lift his genitals, and raise his tongue with his mouth open.\u00a0 All of this took place with a jailer standing within an arm\u2019s length.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

If that wasn\u2019t bad enough, Florence was transported from the Burlington County Jail to the Essex County Correctional Facility after 6 days.\u00a0 At Essex, he went through a similar naked routine as he did upon entering the Burlington County Jail. This time \u201che and four other detainees were instructed to enter separate shower stalls, strip naked and shower under the watchful eyes of two corrections officers. After showering, Florence was directed to open his mouth and lift his genitals. Next, he was ordered to turn around so he faced away from the officers and to squat and cough.\u201d\u00a0 After a day spent in the Essex County facility, the charges against Florence were dropped and he was released.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Strip searching is getting out of hand.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Shoshana Hebshi has become somewhat of a household name since September 11 of this year.\u00a0 Spend some time reading her blog of Sept. 12 on her website <\/span>http:\/\/shebshi.wordpress.com\/<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0 She is continuing to write further on this matter and I, for one, plan to check in periodically. If you don\u2019t know, Shoshana is a married suburban mother of twins who just happens to have a parent who is Jewish and one who is Saudi Arabian.\u00a0 She sat next to two men from India on a plane from Denver to Detroit. Someone on the plane reported that the three (who didn\u2019t know each other from Adam) were engaged in suspicious activity \u2013 evidently the two men used the lavatory.\u00a0 Upon landing in Detroit, the plane was diverted to an isolated designation and the three were removed from the plane in handcuffs, interrogated, strip searched, and allowed to leave after a considerable amount of time. <\/span><\/p>\n

Shoshana describes her observances, her fear, her apprehension, and her embarrassing moments.\u00a0 She had to urinate before being removed from the plane, but she couldn\u2019t in the cell because of the lack of cleanliness, and because <\/span>\u201c[n]ear the ceiling above the toilet there was a video camera.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

When she was free to leave after hours of being held, a federal officer \u201capologized for what had happened and thanked me for understanding and cooperating.\u201d\u00a0 Yuk!<\/span>\u00a0 Thanks for cooperating?<\/span>\u00a0 And, if she hadn\u2019t?<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0He told her: \u201cIt\u2019s 9\/11 and people are seeing ghosts. They are seeing things that aren\u2019t there.\u201d He said they had to act on a report of suspicious behavior, and this is what the reaction looks like.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0 She doesn\u2019t know how this will affect her.<\/span>\u00a0 For one thing, she claims she will no longer fly on September 11.<\/span>\u00a0 I would quit flying altogether.<\/span>\u00a0 Of course, I haven\u2019t flown since 1999.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Shoshana sums it up properly by noticing what we all have experienced.\u00a0 \u201cThis country has operated for the last 10 years through fear. \u201c<\/span>\u00a0 In a more recent blog she wrote that \u201cthe story is <\/span>not<\/em> about me. It\u2019s about our rights. We live in a country that was founded on distinct principles of freedom and democracy. We have a <\/span><\/span>constitution<\/span><\/a> to protect those tenets. There is nothing clearer than that.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Two years ago, several high school girls in Atlantic, Iowa, were strip-searched as a result of a claim by another student that her $100 was missing.\u00a0 A lawsuit over the incident was settled on Tuesday (Sept. 20) of this week when an attorney for the school issued the following media release:\u00a0 \u201cAfter the investigation of all the facts involving the searches of several girls at the Atlantic High School several years ago, the Atlantic Community School District has determined that the searches violated the school’s policy and state law regarding school searches. The school district acknowledges that the involved girls did nothing wrong.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Albert Florence, Shoshana Hebshi, and four unnamed girls in the Atlantic Community School District were all ordered by different levels of government (state, federal, local) to remove clothing from their body and stand naked in front of an agent of government [Note:\u00a0 The girls in Atlantic were never totally naked, and each had to disrobe to different degrees of nudity, shaking bras and panties being part of the procedure].\u00a0 None of them were charged with a crime.\u00a0 None of them were a threat to the government or to society.\u00a0 Yet, they were forced into humiliation and embarrassment.\u00a0 They cooperated.\u00a0 But what if they hadn\u2019t?\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Does our Fourth Amendment mean anything anymore?\u00a0 The Atlantic high school girls are compensated for what they had to endure; Shoshana Hebshi has been in contact with the ACLU; but here\u2019s the scary part.\u00a0 On Wednesday, October 12, the United States Supreme Court will conduct oral arguments in the case of <\/span>Florence v. Board of Chosen Freeholders<\/span><\/em><\/a>, 621 F. 3d 296 (3d Cir. 2010).\u00a0 The sole question before the High Court is \u201cwhether the Fourth Amendment permits a jail to conduct a suspicionless strip search of every individual arrested for any minor offense no matter what the circumstances.\u201d\u00a0 This is Albert Florence\u2019s case.\u00a0 Don\u2019t think for one minute that this is a slam-dunk case.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit held that \u201cthe strip search procedures described by the District Court at BCJ and ECCF are reasonable.\u201d The Appeals court reversed the \u201cDistrict Court’s grant of summary judgment\u201d and remanded the case \u201cfor further proceedings consistent with [its] opinion.\u201d\u00a0 In coming to this conclusion, two of the three circuit judges based their reasoning on balancing \u201cthe Jails’ security interests at the time of intake before arrestees enter the general population against the privacy interests of the inmates.\u201d\u00a0 They gave more weight to the security interests.<\/span><\/p>\n

And there you have it.\u00a0 Ben Franklin\u2019s famous quote was almost obscure until ten years ago.\u00a0 Since terrorists have successfully drove Americans into a state of fear following 9-11, we have \u201csacrificed liberty for the sake of a little temporary safety,\u201d and have deserved neither.\u00a0 We have allowed the government to ransack our bodies.\u00a0 Children are constantly told not to allow strangers to touch them or allow them to see their private parts.\u00a0 How do you then explain to a child what happens at airports when TSA workers grab people inappropriately \u2013 including some toddlers?\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019re losing our safety, our liberty, and our dignity.\u00a0 But most importantly, we\u2019re losing our Fourth Amendment.\u00a0 Sadly, no one seems to be offering a reward for its safe return.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We have allowed the government to ransack our bodies. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,17,56],"tags":[285,282,284,234,283,286,287,230],"class_list":["post-800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-criminal-justice","category-issues","category-privacy","tag-aclu","tag-albert-florence","tag-atlantic-community-school-district","tag-fourth-amendment","tag-shoshana-hebshi","tag-third-circuit-court-of-appeals","tag-tsa","tag-united-states-supreme-court"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=800"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":812,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800\/revisions\/812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}