My attitudes about stop-and-frisk and other police practices in which privacy and security are balanced in various ways was permanently influenced by a case that arose in Illinois during the 70's, my public defender days - too long ago to provide a link, alas. It seems that a housing project in Chicago grew so frustrated by gang violence that the tenants, acting through a management committee, voted to require as a term of the lease that implicit consent to premises search be granted, so that the police could search for weapons.
And who objected to the inclusion of this provision? None of the tenants. The ACLU filed suit. None of its members lived in the projects. They all lived in Evanston or safe parts of Chicago. But they couldn't stand by and let the uninformed tenants of the project decide for themselves how to deal with gangs. So they filed suit, and as I recall, prevailed. The purity of the Fourth Amendment was preserved by a lot of outsiders who live in green; leafy suburbs far away from the actual issue. So it goes to this day.
Stop-and-frisk policy should not be made by the posters to this site, or the editors of the New York Times, or even the mayor of New York. What should happen is plebiscites in as small an area as practical, one, two, three city blocks. (I understand that most of the homicides in Chicago occur in a remarkably small area of the city, no more than a few square blocks.) If the residents of the area vote in favor - and the academics, the limousine liberals, the BLM advocates (most of whom are in the first two categories) are going to be amazed at how many do - you post the area with warning signs. 'YOU ARE NOW ENTERING A STOP-AND-FRISK ZoNE. PROCEEDING FURTHER CONSTITUTES IMPLICIT CONSENT TO SEARCH'.
One last thing - as city prosecutor, I'm going to announce that I am not going to prosecute drug offenses and the like that arise from the frisk - only weapons and related felonies.
And you include this plebiscite in EVERY election in the area, so the consent (or lack thereof) is constantly renewed.
Some issues defuse fairly easily - though not completely - if you look at them as problems and not talking points. I've described myself as a Populist in this and other contexts, but I for sure do not mean in the Trump or Boris Johnson mode. I mean I trust the common sense of the people to make sensible decisions for themselves. I trust them on this issue as well.
Recent Comments