Police in Australia have been strip searching children, hoping to find drugs

[frauenfelder]

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/11/12/police-in-australia-have-been.html

…

[TobinL]

Dear Australia.
Small thanks for making the USA look good for once.
But mostly WTF? How could you not think this was going to end badly?

[anon50609448]

@frauenfelder

The New York Times reports that girls as young as 12 have been stripped searched at music festival by Australian police eager to make drug arrests see naked young girls.

Bulllllshit on the drugs excuse. They are sexually abusing children for their entertainment because the law apparently allows them to do so. They are empowered by drug laws, but this is not about drugs.

[jandrese]

If this is the case the best way to smuggle drugs into the venue would be to give them to your ugliest friend.

[DonatellaNobody]

[SoylentPlaid]

Remember kids, don’t do drugs. You could ruin your life and career prospects and have to earn a living in an unsavoury and despicable profession. Like cop.

[redesigned]

there better be DAMN GOOD probable cause before ones civil liberties are violated and one is subjected to something as draconian as a strip search. strip searches are and should not be routine procedure and never done without seriously good cause.

[anon50609448]

Multiply that by ten when you’re talking about a 12-year-old. And on top of that make sure there is a guardian or someone from child services present at the very least.

[redesigned]

@anon50609448

Multiply that by ten

at least! agreed

also, don’t do something worse than the thing you are trying to prevent. is keeping a few drugs out of a place where so many are getting through, really worth a child’s dignity and sense of safety? nope.

i like the idea of “serve and protect”, not the current attitude “catch and bust”. so much of the power over that police do actually contradicts their primary purpose of public safety to the point of them being part of the problem rather than the solution.

[capnjimbo]

It varies by state, but the dogs used to justify Australian festival searches only have an 18-37% success rate in detecting possession.

[johnd]

The NSW government is the Liberal Party, equivalent to your Republican Party. The Liberals have a history of kiddie fiddling, so it’s not surprising they support this.

[Wanderfound]

Darryl Mason (DarrylMason)

[anon50609448]

@redesigned

i like the idea of “serve and protect”

A friend of mine once said, “The police somehow traded us their ‘held to a higher standard’ for our ‘protect at all cost’.”

[Wanderfound]

@redesigned

i like the idea of “serve and protect”, not the current attitude “catch and bust”. so much of the power over that police do actually contradicts their primary purpose of public safety to the point of them being part of the problem rather than the solution.

'Cos “public safety” has never really been their primary purpose.

[Wanderfound]

BTW, here’s a useful Twitter account for folks living in NSW:

Sniff Off (sniff_off)

[GulliverFoyle]

@anon50609448

@redesigned

there better be DAMN GOOD probable cause before ones civil liberties are violated and one is subjected to something as draconian as a strip search.

Multiply that by ten when you’re talking about a 12-year-old. And on top of that make sure there is a guardian or someone from child services present at the very least.

No. I’m sorry, I get where you’re coming from, but this is never okay unless there’s a legitimate reason to believe there’s something dangerously toxic or explosive to be found, and even then, the “probable” cause should stand up to scrutiny in a court of law.

[GulliverFoyle]

@anon50609448

A friend of mine once said, “The police somehow traded us their ‘held to a higher standard’ for our ‘protect at all cost’.”

And then failed to do even that, especially from cops.

[anon50609448]

@GulliverFoyle

No. I’m sorry, I get where you’re coming from, but this is never okay unless there’s a legitimate reason to believe there’s something dangerously toxic or explosive to be found, and even then, the “probable” cause should stand up to scrutiny in a court of law.

That’s exactly what I was getting at. A cop’s suspicion that a 12-year-old might have drugs doesn’t even come close to what you’d need to strip search them. The bar should be incredibly high, it’s hard to even imagine what it would be, and even if you met that bar the child should have someone there who is there to protect them in the room, someone who doesn’t give a rats ass about what crime they may have committed.

[GulliverFoyle]

@anon50609448

someone who doesn’t give a rats ass about what crime they may have committed.

Agreed, but I’m saying that the only justification is if whatever they believe the kid to be hiding poses an imminent and immediate threat to them or bystanders. If if they think the kid is guilty of a crime, that still doesn’t justify traumatizing them IMO.