Being Stopped for a Search

For John, BLUF:  If you give your civil rights away then you don't have them.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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From Simple Justice:  A Criminal Defense Blog, we have Lawyer Scott H Greenfield writing "Hot Cash And Cold Consent".

The Drug Enforcement Administration has been so incredibly effective in eradicating demon narcotics that it no longer has any cartel kingpins that require its time and, instead, its agents can hang around bus stops.  Bet you didn’t realize that these guys deserved a statue.

Federal drug agents may be racially profiling and unjustly seizing cash from travelers in the nation’s airports, bus stations and train stations.  A new report released by the Office of the Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Justice examined the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)’s controversial use of “cold consent.”

What makes this unusual, to the extent it is unusual, isn’t that it happens, but that Mike Horowitz, DoJ Inspector General, calls out the DEA for engaging in these “interdiction” approaches.

Quoting from the IG Report:

But after reviewing the DEA’s policies, the Inspector General concluded, “cold consent encounters and searches can raise civil rights concerns.”

You think? Here is an example that (1) raises civil rights concerns and (2) suggests how indiscriminate it is:

In one incident, DEA agents cold-stopped an African-American woman at an airport and allegedly subjected her to “aggressive and humiliating questioning”; the woman was a Pentagon lawyer and travelling on government business.

General Curtis LeMay is alleged to have said that he could not distinguish between the incompetent and the unfortunate.  The DEA agents in this case were definitely one or the other or both.

The easy thing to do is just give in to some DEA person when they flash their badge  The right and proper thing is to politely say no.  You owe them human courtesy, but you don't owe them answers to questions, so don't get started.  Do not consent to being searched.

Hat tip to the Instapundit.

Regards  —  Cliff