S.F.'s broad jail strip-search policy ruled OK

[Newsjock]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco acted legally in strip-searching thousands of new jail inmates over a 21-month period, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday, sparing the city from millions of dollars in potential damages and allowing the sheriff to reinstate a policy he suspended six years ago.

In a 6-5 decision, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco overruled the standard it had set in 1984, which most courts nationwide have since followed: that strip searches are justified only for inmates who are suspected of committing violent or drug-related crimes or of concealing contraband.

San Francisco sheriff's deputies were entitled to strip-search newly arrested inmates, regardless of why they were arrested, to combat a wave of drugs and weapons being smuggled into jail, the court said Tuesday.

... Dissenting Judge Sidney Thomas said the ruling gives jailers "the unfettered right to conduct mandatory, routine, suspicionless body cavity searches on any citizen who may be arrested for minor offenses, such as violating a leash law or a traffic code, and who pose no credible risk for smuggling contraband into the jail."

... The lead plaintiff in the lawsuit in Tuesday's ruling, Mary Bull, said she had been arrested on suspicion of vandalism during a protest, refused to consent to a strip search, and then had been forcibly searched, thrown face-first onto the floor and left naked in a cold room for 12 hours. She was later released without charges.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/02/09/BA911BV2ER.DTL&tsp=1

[Rapier09]

1. Sexual humiliation of women or men

Not only shows a lack of imagination but does nothing to deter any real criminals.

Just allows cops to brutalize citizens who end up in minor trouble.

[Jefferson23]

2. I am embarrassed and ashamed for this court decision..the authoritarian lives on.

[NutmegYankee]

3. Why wouldn't this be considered Rape?

[winyanstaz]

4. More nazi tactic police state bullshit.

[EFerrari]

5. This is especially lovely for women who are falsely accused of DV

by their violent partners -- something that happens all the time as these guys try to mitigate their impending serious time. On top of having the situation flipped on you, you get this little extra bonus trauma.

Shame on you, 9th Circuit.

[midnight]

6. Just why?

[Rapier09]

7. There is no "why" in this situation

Police draw their power by what they can do to you under the law.

It is a mixture of bs and power-tripping.