Police State: Georgia?

Y'all bend over!

Yep, Georgia. Being pulled over for nothing gets you a strip search in Georgia. Not one example here, but many.

Officers are supposed to pull drivers over for traffic violations, but a Channel 2 Action News investigation found traffic stops leading to a violation of another kind.
   
Driver after driver told investigative reporter Jodie Fleischer officers searched inside their pants while they were stopped for minor traffic violations. In several cases, the invasive searches targeted passengers who were riding in the car. 

Imaginary? Nope.

 Channel 2 obtained internal Forest Park police records showing that a captain noted a unit-wide problem with violating search policies six months prior to the Phillips traffic stop. The Forest Park police chief says he has now “ramped up training in this area.”

Now, I'm just a Canadian with no right to self defense of private property. But really, if a cop decided he needed to strip-search me for a TRAFFIC STOP, I'm pretty sure I'd be a rich man afterward. Lawsuits can be very rewarding.

What's behind this abuse of power by policemen? The one cop who spoke in this article said this:

"I've seen drugs concealed on people everywhere so we are going to try and pat them down first, for weapons, and then, if permission granted, we're going to search further," said Wesley Nunn, the commander of the drug task force who searched Kassars.
          
Nunn said his cases are different than a regular traffic stop. In this one, an informant had offered a tip that Kassars and his roommate were carrying drugs. He believes that gave him probable cause, plus Kassars agreed to allow it.
          
"I've been turned down many times on searches. You can't search, get a search warrant," said Nunn.

He added that if Kassars hadn't consented, he probably would have taken him into custody to search him at the jail.

That's awesome, eh? That's what I want to hear from a cop: "Somebody (who may or may not be an enemy of yours) said you are holding drugs, that gives me probable cause to strip search you.  I can do it here in front of witnesses, or I can take you to jail in cuffs and do it there." With the "and then punch you out for wasting my time" part left unsaid.

Basically the typical Us-vs.-Them mindset, coupled with zero consequences for misbehavior. They can do anything they want, or at least they think so.

When dealing with a cop who thinks he can do anything he wants, I'm going to chose strip searched in front of witnesses every time. That way if he decides to beat me down when I'm cooperating, I'll be on YouTube before the ambulance shows up.

Which might save my life.

The Phantom