Appellate Law

Poor people subject to 24-hour curfew

By S. COTUS

AP reports:

ELENA-WEST HELENA, Arkansas (AP)  -- Officers armed with military rifles, some with laser sights, have been stopping and questioning passers-by in a neighborhood plagued by violence that's been under a 24-hour curfew for a week.  Chief Fred Fielder says only those acting nervous or lacking good reasons for being out get extra attention.

On Tuesday, the Helena-West Helena City Council voted 9-0 to allow police to expand that program into any area of the city, despite a warning from a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas that the police stops were unconstitutional.
...
Chief Fred Fielder says only those acting nervous or lacking good reasons for being out get extra attention.

So, remember kids.  To ensure that the constitution applies to you: 1) don?t be poor; and 2) don?t be nervous.  If you can?t do these simple things, you don?t deserve freedom.

And speaking of poor people, C&F reviews Speaking of Crime: The Language of Criminal Justice, by Larry Solan. 

It points out another reason why the poor are poor.  They don?t have lawyers.  They say stupid things like ?Maybe I should think of contacting an attorney . . ." which is definitely NOT the way to request a lawyer and assert one?s rights under the 5th or 6th amendment.  One does this by having a lawyer and arranging the meetings in advance with the lawyer.  Only communists and atheists meet with the police without a lawyer.

Now, of course, if a cop says "Have you a way of opening the trunk from there?" it is consent to search the trunk.  Real people know this.  Poor people don?t.  That is why they are poor.

Full post as published by Appellate Law and Practice on August 13, 2008 (boomark / email).