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Police state: the walls are closing in

 
 
 
This is one thing about Amurica, land of the fee and home of the brave, that I find amusing. Not so free. Not so brave.
 
Jail Fees: Adding Insult to Injury

While traveling by bus earlier this week, I made the acquaintance of a fellow passenger who had just been released from jail in Alachua County, Florida, after spending a year fighting charges he was eventually acquitted of. Interesting guy with an interesting story, and one that puts a burr under my fur about how the law treats those accused of crimes. ... When he was booked into the jail, he was assessed a $50 fee for the processing. While he remained in jail, he was assessed a fee of $4 per day for his room and board (which, he told me, consisted of a hot breakfast, then bologna sandwiches for lunch and dinner every day). There may have been other fees, too, but we're already looking at $1,500 he was required to pay just to remain in a place he would cheerfully have walked right out of if allowed.
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What does that have to do with a Police State?

Yes, Jail fees, the bonding agencies, court fees, this stuff adds up, needs to be addressed years ago. But does this have anything to do with a Police State?
 
It actually ties in to a police state item I posted in the previous forum.

David Eckert and the Reality of the American Police State

David Eckert failed to make a complete stop at a stop sign after shopping at a Wal-Mart in Deming, New Mexico. Police asked him to step out of his vehicle. They said he appeared to be clenching his buttocks, citing this as probable cause to search his anal cavity for drugs. While detaining him, the police got a warrant from a judge. They took him to a hospital, and over the initial protest of hospital staff that these tests were unethical, they forced Eckert to go through a litany of invasive procedures. They x-rayed his abdominal area. They used fingers to examine his anus more than once. They gave him an enema and forced defecation -- three times. Then they sedated him and performed a colonoscopy, examining his anus, rectum, colon, and large intestines. Then Eckert was given the medical bill for these expensive procedures.

Of course, the police found no drugs, which is part of why this story is getting so much attention. But even if they had, is this sort of indignity, this degree of invasive coerced treatment, ever justifiable to search for drugs? This case raises lots of questions, not about the abuse of power, but about the power that’s being abused.
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Now it's bad enough that the police basically raped him for 14 hours. That is newsworthy in itself. But to then send him the bill when it was the police requesting the procedures over his objections is nothing short of the sort of contempt for the populace by the praetorian class that the banana republics show.

And even if they had found drugs, how could this sort of treatment be justified? But it won't come to a jury trial because there will be a peremptory motion to dismiss based on police immunity. It will be settled internally, the police will get a leave with pay (paid vacation) and reinstated. Any harsher punishment will involve the police union object and demand reinstatement.

It is said that in the banana republics, when someone was to be executed by firing squad, his family was made to pay for the bullet
 
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