This female officer was just put on suspension.
Allow me to explain just how shallow that action is.
First, the department already ignored complaints for this same thing. They did nothing.
They only did something when it was plastered on Fox News.
What does that tell you? They aren't concerned at all about the 4th amendment aspects of this, they are concerned with their PR.
This female officer was just doing as she was taught. Doe that mean she was justified? Absolutely not - for reference please look up the Nuremberg trials.
But WHO is at fault here?
The fault has many levels.
1) The people who believe that their views (religious or otherwise) on drugs trump the constitution. These uneducated voters blindly insert politicians into the system who follow their views regardless of whether their views are lawful or not. Some Christians need to wake up and realize that if they want to believe that Romans 13 tells them that they have to follow the "law of the land" then they better learn the law of the land (the constitution) and hold their politicians and enforcement to it. (Example - We tried to insert our morality into the law of the land with prohibition and it failed. Christianity isn't a religion of force. It is a religion of choice. We are not here to change hearts by regulation. We are here to change hearts by example and persuasion.)
2) The politicians who KNOW the constitution, yet bow to the will of the voters to keep getting elected. I AM TALKING TO YOU REPUBLICANS HERE! (This happened with the founding fathers also, some of whom were staunch slavery opponents, but they kept slavery out of fear of the voters.)
3) The lawyers who use semantics to and eisegesis to interpret law in ways to make regulations that fit their preconceived end result. in other words, they twist the law in order to find loopholes that will allow them for force the will of whoever hired them on everyone else. (Example: Twisting the second amendment to take away "certain" gun rights while pretending to follow the constitution by allowing "some" gun rights......I'm talking about you Chicago, New York and soon to be the whole country)
4) The enforcers who enforce these unconstitutional laws and regulations. These can be broken up into a few categories:
a) The President, Governors, Attys General, Mayors, etc who are elected/appointed to enforce unconstitutional laws (Reverse example - A State Attorney in Illinois recently announced that the laws in Illinois regarding gun ownership are unconstitutional therefore, his office will REFUSE to PROSECUTE based on those laws. - See - each level can make a difference!!!!!!_)
b) The local police/sheriff department entrusted by the (a) group to enforce the unconstitutional laws.
c) The officers entrusted to train new recruits in how to enforce the law and follow the law.
d) The supervisory officers.
e) The officer on the street.
Unfortunately there is a break between 4a and 4b where there is little chance of holding accountable those who violate the constitution. In other words, the first thing to happen is this lady officer is put on suspension. She might be fired. They might discipline the supervisory officers and "change" their training. (right)
But this buffer zone is what keeps this foul system in place. It never goes high enough to make a difference.
Ideally it would make it's way up the chain and everyone up to the president would lose their job. But that's not possible.
So what are our alternatives?
The only alternative is to work it from both ends and try to excise the entrenched power that controls this machine of injustice.
No matter what we do it will not be easy and it won't be free.
From the top, we, as a society need to educate our children on the law of the land. There is no reason any of our kids shouldn't know WHY our country was formed, how it was formed, and the form it finally took. The constitution only takes 35 minutes for the average citizen to read. It's not that difficult. The amendments take a little longer and, will also serve to show how we, even through the amendments, (after the first ten) have progressively become more and more wordy with our laws to the point where it is ridiculous and becomes hard to understand. But we need to learn it ourselves and teach it to our children. I would suggest the book "Paul Revere's Ride" also. It is the most concise and complete explanation of the events that birthed this country that I've ever seen.
From the bottom our law enforcement officers on the street need to first, learn the constitution, just like stated above, then utterly REFUSE to follow procedures that violate that supreme law of the land. It won't be easy. People will lose their jobs. The problem starts HERE. The good officers on the street fall into a few categories:
1) The corrupt - there is nothing that can be done about these but to root them out and fire them.
2) The up and comers - these guys will do whatever it takes to move up in the ranks no matter what it takes to feed their own ego and add one more ATV to the garage. These guys are almost as bad as #1
3) The misinformed - Those who do what they do because they have been brainwashed into believing that they are doing something good, without fully understanding that the ends does not justify the means when the means violate the supreme law of the land. The irony of these guys is that they will arrest people for confusing "crimes" who didn't even realize they were doing something wrong, but yet won't look inward and see that they are doing the same thing. These guys need to be educated. If that doesn't work you can rest assured that they really belong to #1 or #2 but have fooled us into believing they are honest.
4) The honest public servant - Most of these guys are afraid of losing their jobs. They are great men and are the ones who should be on the streets enforcing just laws. They will most likely lose their jobs if they try to do what is right. But they can rest assured that there are other jobs out there and their loss of job is a small sacrifice compared to the men who lost their lives in the Revolutionary war and left orphans and widows in order to put that law of the land into effect.
It starts with #4. They need to learn and educate #3. Their integrity needs to rub off on #2 and they all need to come together and excise #1.
Up from there the supervisors need to instruct their guys not to break the law and to remain upright and honest. The ones who don't need to be fired immediately. They need to learn the constitution and refuse to order their men to violate the it.
The trainers need to refuse to train in unconstitutional methods.
And most of all, the captains, sheriffs, Mayors, etc need to demand that the law be followed.
You can bet that when the legislature starts passing bad laws and those below them refuse to enforce them, things will begin to change in this country. Just like we have seen happening with the State Attorney in Illinois.
This is a tough issue and will require tough sacrifices.
And finally, if you are a police officer and you see nothing wrong with these women in the video being searched, please look at #1,2, and 3 and determine which officer you are and do what you have to do to become #4. (If you are number one, please turn in your gun today and quit)
If you are a citizen and you haven't read the constitution in its entirety in the past 2 years please go read it. Then read Paul Revere's Ride when you get the chance to see what real citizens are willing to go through for the freedom to travel without someone sticking a finger in your ass.
