Chapter 3: Has our county maintained a good balance between keeping citizens safe and respecting privacy? Do the authorities abuse the power given to them through the fourth amendment?
There have been many cases where the authorities abuse the power given to them through the fourth amendment. They do not get penalized for their abuse of power because most citizens do not know their rights. The government and authorities use their interpretation and the language of the fourth amendment to manipulate the citizens of the United States. As a result innocent people are getting tricked into being guilty.
"Knowing your rights can help you catch the authorities abusing their power to scare you." ~ Jordan Hairston
A recent example of the authorities abusing the power given to them is the case of Ms. Bumpers. Ms. Bumpers, a fairly large old woman, had been evicted from and refused to leave her apartment. The landlord called the police. The police came with a shot gun, a hand gun, shields and beating sticks. When the cops burst into Ms. Bumpers apartment, she grabbed a knife and started swinging it at them. One of the cops, Officer Sullivan, took the shot gun and shot the old woman's hand off, leaving her unarmed. He proceeded to shoot her in the chest, this last blow killed the heavy, old, unarmed woman. In February 1987 a New York Supreme Court Justice found Officer Sullivan innocent of manslaughter charges. There was a lot of controversy about this awful event. Many said that the Officer should go to jail and others say he was just using self defense. If it was really self defense, why didn't Officer Sullivan stop when the woman was unarmed with no hand. Patricia J. Williams wrote in a piece on this ince"Since 1984 Mayor Koch, Commissioner Ward, and a host of other city officials have repeatedly termed the shooting of Eleanor Bumpers as completely legal. At the same time, Ward admitted publicly that Ms. Bumpers should not have died"
Citations:
http://dncdn.dvlabs.com/ipod/dn2013-1106.mp4
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop-and-frisk_in_New_York_Cit
http://www.nyclu.org/issues/racial-justice/stop-and-frisk-practices
http://dncdn.dvlabs.com/ipod/dn2013-1106.mp4
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop-and-frisk_in_New_York_Cit
http://www.nyclu.org/issues/racial-justice/stop-and-frisk-practices