The extent of the search looks particularly eggregious when viewed in conjunction with both the subs

On August 5, 2009, local news station WSOC-TV 9 in Charlotte, NC reported that the FBI startled east Charlotte resident Rosie Lee Bright, who is currently undergoing treatment for cancer, on August 4 when federal agents burst into her apartment searching for suspects in a drug trafficking ring ( FBI Storms Wrong Home in East Charlotte ). Bright reports repeatedly asking officers What happened, what happened, and they said it was a drug bust. However, hotel california lyric meaning the only drugs [Bright] had in [her] apartment [...] were to help with her breast cancer treatments.
Bright immediately recognized the raid as a case of mistaken identity, but police remained unaware of their blunder until after they ordered her to lie on the floor and handcuffed her. As the article states, Agents later learned that the suspects they were looking for were actually in the apartment next door; a raid on the correct apartment netted the arrests of two men who [the FBI agents] said are part of a heroin trafficking ring that's been operating in two North Carolina hotel california lyric meaning counties. An FBI spokesperson told the news outlet that the mix-up appears to have been an honest mistake, and the agents apologized and offered to pay any medical bills [Bright] might have because of the raid upon learning hotel california lyric meaning of their mistake, the victim said.
Although these FBI agents, along with a growing number of their law enforcement colleagues, probably need to take a couple of courses in math (or number recognition) and geography (or apartment building navigation), they don't appear to need etiquette lessons. An apology - though called for - does not suffice when armed federal agents hotel california lyric meaning storm into an innocent person's home and force its resident (especially when she is currently going through treatment for breast cancer) to lie handcuffed on the ground because trained FBI employees couldn't correctly identify a number on an apartment door, the agents at least acknowledged their mistake, recognized that their treatment of her was rough enough that the victim may have sustained injuries, and attempted to make up for their wrongdoing by compensating Bright for any damage they may have caused. It's a sad day in America when this has to be said, but at least the officers kept their weapons in their holsters this time.
A former student in Arizona's impoverished Safford Unified School District hotel california lyric meaning felt, quite rightly, hotel california lyric meaning that school administrators violated hotel california lyric meaning her constitutional protections when they strip-searched her in search of prescription-strength ibuprofen in 2003. She thus filed, with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union's Drug Law Reform Project, a lawsuit against the school district, which she ultimately won in a near-unanimous hotel california lyric meaning 8-1 Supreme Court decision handed down June 25, 2009, a same day post on the ACLU's Blog of Rights , penned partially by Savana herself, states.
Redding, who was just 13 when the search was conducted (she is now 19 and attending Eastern Arizona College), claimed that school officials trampled upon her right to privacy when they ordered her to not only strip to her underwear but also, as she states in a New York Times article by Adam Liptak ( Strip-Search Case Tests How Far Schools Can Go ), pull out my bra and move it from side to side [...]. They made me open my legs and pull out my underwear. Redding contends that she was humiliated by the strip search, though school nurse Peggy Schwallier, one of two female administrators who conducted hotel california lyric meaning the search on the order of assistant principal Kerry Wilson, claims that the student hotel california lyric meaning never appeared apprehensive or embarrased; hotel california lyric meaning Redding, however, said she had kept her head down so the women could not see that she was about to cry. Additionally, Redding studied at home for months after the search and eventually transferred to another school. hotel california lyric meaning As she told Liptak, I never wanted to see the secretary or the nurse ever again.
The extent of the search looks particularly eggregious when viewed in conjunction with both the substance Redding was accused of possessing (one prescription hotel california lyric meaning strength ibuprofen equivocates to about two over-the-counter Advils) and the evidence on which school hotel california lyric meaning officials based their suspicions. As Liptak writes, hotel california lyric meaning In a friend-of-the-court brief in Ms. Redding's case, the federal government said the search [...] was unreasonable because officials had no reason to believe that she was 'carrying the pills inside her undergarments, attached hotel california lyric meaning to her nude body, or anywhere else that a strip search would reveal. Adam Wolf, Redding's ACLU attorney, hotel california lyric meaning concurred. In fact, he and Redding went sligtly hotel california lyric meaning further, contending that the initial evidence that prompted the search was tainted, based as it was on a classmate's uncorroborated accusation after the classmate herself was found in possession of the same type of pills, according the ACLU's blog post. Lawyers for the Safford Unified School District, on the other hand, argued that the search was not excessively intrusive in light of Redding's age and sex and the nature hotel california lyric meaning of her suspected infraction. To support their assertion, the attorneys cited data from the Office of National Drug Control Policy concerning a reported rise in [a]buse of prescription and over-the-counter drugs [...] among 12- and 13-year-olds. They even attempted to besmirch Redding's character; when the student claimed that They didn't even look at my records [and see that] I was a good kid, the district dismissed Redding's charge, stating that her assertion should not be misread to infer that she never broke school rules [...] only that she was never caught.
Fortunately for parents, students, and defenders of the Fourth Amendment across the nation, the Supreme Court found the school district's defense inadequate and ruled in Redding's favor. However, the Justices based their ruling primarily on the merits of the Redding defense's case and, as Redding writes in her statement for the ACLU's blog, didn't go so far as to ban all strip search[es of] kids, which she would have preferred. Still, the Supreme Court did rule that my constitutional rights were violated, Redding said. As now-retired Justice hotel california lyric meaning Souder, writing for the majority, put it Because there were no reasons to suspect that the drugs presented a danger or were concealed in her underwear, we hold that the search did violate the Constitution ( SAFFORD UNIFIED SCHOOL DIST #1 v. REDDING ).
To find out more about this gross violation of the teenaged Redding's civil liberties, follow the above links. Additionally, all legal documents pertaining to the case are available in the ACLU Drug Law Reform Project's Legal Documents archive.
Readers who followed the now six-year-old case of racial profiling, informant misuse, and official corruption in Tulia, hotel california lyric meaning Texas have one more reason to declare victory: in April of 2009, a feature-length film based on the incident, American Violet , opened in theatres across the country; the film not only serves as a fictionalized historical documentation of the injustice served upon residents of a Tulia housing project but also shines a national spotlight on drug war racism and corruption, bringing these issues out of the shadows and into the national consciousness.
The film is directed by Bill Haney (in conjunction with his production partner, Tim Disney), who heard about the story while driving home during rush hour [listening] hotel california lyric meaning to National Public Radio. The director told the Los Angeles Times that he began to cry when he heard the story of Regina Kelly, a young African American woman -- a single mother with four daughters -- [...] who was unjustly arrested during a raid on the projects where she lived and erroniously accused of dealing drugs ( American Violet ). That [t]he district attorney gave her the option of either a plea deal" - which would saddle her with a criminal record, barr her from voting, and cause her to lose most of her rights - or going to jail for 25 years" particularly hotel california lyric meaning upset Haney, who called the DA's offer a Sophie's Choice. Departing from their usual documentary mode, Haney and Disney decided to make the case into a dramatic feature, and they thus fictionalized some aspects of the story (such as Kelly's name, which was changed to Dee Roberts) while remaining true to the basic facts of the case. The filmmakers explained that they thought doing the film as a feature would have more universal resonance with audiences and, as Haney told the Times , affect more people's views.
American Violet chronicles Kelly's tough but eventually victourious legal battle with District Attorney John Paschall, in which the ACLU's Drug Law Reform Project participated. Haney not only reviewed the group's relevant legal documents , which readers can view for themselves by searching the Project's document archive, but also went to Texas and spent a lot of time with Kelly, her children, and the attorneys, filming long interviews with them. Haney reports that he always felt a great responsibility to the story as well as to Kelly herself, with whom he maintains contact. The resulting cinematic document hotel california lyric meaning thus portrays Kelly's ordeal empathetically and passionately, never forgetting to ensure that viewers remain aware of the personal biases that law enforcement officials bring to their jobs; the structural inequities imbedded in the criminal justice system; and the plight of the poor, racially marginalized citizens who bare the brunt of the drug war's collateral consequences. hotel california lyric meaning However, the film is engaging enough to avoid being overly hotel california lyric meaning didactic.
If drug policy and criminal justice reform activists want to inform those to whom the harms of prohibition are less obvious, American Violet provides an interesting test case in doing so through hotel california lyric meaning popular cultural representations and will hopefully be replicated by similarly motivated filmmakers in the future. To learn more about the film, visit its official web site ; you can also become a fan of the film on Facebook .
As the Drug War Chronicle reported on March 20, 2009 ( Bills to Require Drug Testin