Starting at the Beginning --
Perhaps the best place to start is to start at the beginning of the precise moment we walk into a court of law?
As is true with most public buildings most courts have a double set of doors. When we walk through the first set of doors there is usually a second set of double-doors. Then we will typically find a metal detector with one of more "security guards" searching people, usually for guns and anything they may perceive as a "weapon" or some kind of a threat to court security.
Every security system in every court building is different with a different set of standards for judging security and security threats.
In some courts the security system systematically searches everyone, including attorneys, but not judges and judicial members of the court. Some courts allow judges to enter the building through an underground garage or another back door no one else is allowed to use. Other courts, usually in much older buildings, require the judges to enter through the front door but allowed to walk around the metal detectors and other security provisions.
In most courts, however, state and federal, we will find a strange pattern of discrimination. First, they will allow all judicial members, with or without identification, once they will have identified the person, to enter into building without further attention. Usually, they are allowed to bypass or walk around the metal detectors and, in some places, to walk through the metal detector gate even if the alarm goes off.
I have seen men, 8 to 10 feet from a security guard, pull out their wallet and flip out some kind of ID just for the security guard to nod his head up and down in agreement to allow them to pass without further scrutiny, clearly demonstrating we are not dealing with a real security system but some kind of racial, gender, social station, occupation or age discrimination system.
In many courts, attorneys are considered "judicial members of the court" and therefore allowed to either walk through or around the metal detector.
All strangers are subject to an illegal search for "weapons" and the severity of the search depends on the color of his skin, his manner of dress, occupation, social station, age, hair style and sex. Men are searched more carefully than women and Blacks searched more severely than Whites. Women with children are searched superficially or sometimes not at all. I have seen young women with children in a baby carriage allowed to walk through the metal detector without a challenge when the audio alarms go off. They could have been carrying several machine-guns and 50 pounds of C4 high-explosive without their being the wiser.
If a perfect stranger, usually a handsome while male, walks through the metal detector wearing a good-quality business suit and activates the audio alarm, the tendency -- with some exceptions -- is to ignore him.
As is true with most public buildings most courts have a double set of doors. When we walk through the first set of doors there is usually a second set of double-doors. Then we will typically find a metal detector with one of more "security guards" searching people, usually for guns and anything they may perceive as a "weapon" or some kind of a threat to court security.
Every security system in every court building is different with a different set of standards for judging security and security threats.
In some courts the security system systematically searches everyone, including attorneys, but not judges and judicial members of the court. Some courts allow judges to enter the building through an underground garage or another back door no one else is allowed to use. Other courts, usually in much older buildings, require the judges to enter through the front door but allowed to walk around the metal detectors and other security provisions.
In most courts, however, state and federal, we will find a strange pattern of discrimination. First, they will allow all judicial members, with or without identification, once they will have identified the person, to enter into building without further attention. Usually, they are allowed to bypass or walk around the metal detectors and, in some places, to walk through the metal detector gate even if the alarm goes off.
I have seen men, 8 to 10 feet from a security guard, pull out their wallet and flip out some kind of ID just for the security guard to nod his head up and down in agreement to allow them to pass without further scrutiny, clearly demonstrating we are not dealing with a real security system but some kind of racial, gender, social station, occupation or age discrimination system.
In many courts, attorneys are considered "judicial members of the court" and therefore allowed to either walk through or around the metal detector.
All strangers are subject to an illegal search for "weapons" and the severity of the search depends on the color of his skin, his manner of dress, occupation, social station, age, hair style and sex. Men are searched more carefully than women and Blacks searched more severely than Whites. Women with children are searched superficially or sometimes not at all. I have seen young women with children in a baby carriage allowed to walk through the metal detector without a challenge when the audio alarms go off. They could have been carrying several machine-guns and 50 pounds of C4 high-explosive without their being the wiser.
If a perfect stranger, usually a handsome while male, walks through the metal detector wearing a good-quality business suit and activates the audio alarm, the tendency -- with some exceptions -- is to ignore him.
posted by Alvah Buckmore, Jr., at 11:44 AM
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