(This post is a follow-up to yesterday’s post, “Update on Helena-West Helena Police State: They could be ripping off my book for their press releases.” Catch the whole true story from the beginning, starting here.)
Cited in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Northwest Edition yesterday, also found at ArkansasOnline and other sources:
“Under the old curfew, everyone was subject to some minimal intrusion,” [Mayor James] Valley said. “Now, if people are sitting out in their yard talking, it’s not going to be a big deal. But if they are out drinking or smoking a blunt, that’s going to be a problem.”
Valley and Scott said police officers will continue stopping and questioning people in the saturation zones, just as they did in the first curfew zone. As long as a person has a “legitimate reason” for moving through the saturation zone, Valley said, he’ll be allowed to pass.
“And a legitimate reason can be basic. They don’t have to have a great reason,” Valley said. “It can be as simple as ‘because I am going for a walk.’”
“The officers are going to use common sense and traditional police tactics,” Valley said.
Papers, please…
Meanwhile, the ACLU of Arkansas noted that it’s illegal for police to stop and question residents without probable cause and raised concern that any arrests made in the new saturation zones could be thrown out in court.
As reported by MyEyewitnessNews (of the ABC and CW affiliates in Memphis, TN), and by CNN (search for “Holly Dickson”):
Police Major Ronald Scotts says, “When you have a high crime area police have the right. We have a right to contact people in high crime areas.”
Holly Dickson with ACLU of Arkansas argues, “They feel they have a right. They do intend to continue to saturate and question everyone who happens to be in an area. But that is the unconstitutional nature of it.” She adds, “The fact they think they can stop everyone for no reason.” Dickson says, “these residents giving up their right to travel, giving up their 4th amendment rights it’s not making them safer.”
Mayor Valley says, “I understand her view and I appreciate it but it’s academic. It works in the law schools of the world but out here on the ground what we’re doing is perfectly legal. Nobody’s constitutional rights are being violated.”
Valley says the police crime fighting action plan will run on a trial basis for 30 days and at that point city council will assess its progress.
Back to ArkansasOnline: “The mayor also plans to ask the City Council to approve $5,000 more each month in overtime for the Police Department to staff the saturation zones. He also plans to ask for additional money for new surveillance equipment and to rent vehicles for undercover work.”
I don’t know about you, but I sure feel safer. (NOT!) But then I again, I read Wendy McElroy. Hey, maybe George Orwell was right.
I swear, whenever I need story ideas for The Conscience of Abe’s Turn, I need look no further than the newspaper. How many ways can a police department abuse its citizens, if it feels a need to? Enough to make for plentiful Abe’s Turn story ideas.
The challenge I always face is making those ideas plausible in the context of the story. It isn’t enough to say that the villain Chief Baedes is evil, because he isn’t; he’s just wrong. And it isn’t enough to say he’s on a power buzz (even though he is), because he has plenty of good-sounding reasons for everything he does. And it isn’t enough to say that the story is based on real life (even though it is) and that it actually happened (even though it did), because this is America, and things like that just don’t happen here.
Well, actually, they do.
-TimK
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