Lunatic Roberts UPHELD arrest of 12-year-old girl for eating ONE frenchfry

[StefanX]

"A 12-year-old girl was arrested, searched and handcuffed. Her shoelaces were removed and she was transported in the windowless rear compartment of a police vehicle to a juvenile processing center, where she was booked, fingerprinted and detained until released to the custody of her mother, some three hours later — all for eating a single french fry in a {Washington, DC} Metro rail station."

Those are John Roberts own words - in a decision he wrote upholding the DC transit police arrest of a 12-year-old girl for eating a single french fry in a Metro subway station.

This guy ruled that arresting, searching, handcuffing, transporting, fingerprinting, processing and detaining this 12-year-old girl for 3 hours over eating a single french fry did not violate the 4th Amendment's guarantees against "unreasonable search and seizure".

And that pretty much tells you all you need to know about John Roberts. He's out of control and he hates the Constitution.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/3273651

[bluestateguy]

1. but overturning the conviction would be legislating from the bench

n/t

[StefanX]

4. I assume that was sarcasm!

Because as we know... overturning the arrest would be reminding the police to obey the Constitution's rules against "unreasonable search and seizure". A twelve-year-old girl eating a single french fry is not a danger to herself or others, and never needed to be arrested and handcuffed and hauled off and fingerprinted.

The cops fucked up big time on this by violating the 4th Amendment - and Roberts is clearly some kind of twisted sadist for letting the cops get away with this, instead of doing his sworn job to uphold the law.

[wli]

2. goose stepping down the Strasse like the rest of them

We know exactly where these freaks are coming from and it's not pretty.

[fooj]

3. WTF?

:banghead:

[Tommymac]

5. If only she had eaten a Freedom Fry ....

:sarcasm:

Roberts is NOT a moderate. Don't be fooled.

[the_spectator]

6. He was just ahead of the curve -

looking towards the day when we hammer the poor with regressive fat taxes, as well as cigarette taxes, and when excessive consumption of carbohydrates becomes a crime.
:sarcasm:
(It's coming people, just you wait!- First they came for the Jews, etc.. then the obese, then the overweight, then the generally Not Hot, etc. etc.)

[Erika]

7. I wonder when he's going to have his 4 year old arrested

for domestic violence/battery when he tried to bite his mother? It's never too early to enforce the laws according to the hardliner GOP's.

[KitchenWitch]

8. Can I ask what was so unlawful about eating the french fry

Did she steal it, or were there "No Food or Drink" signs in the Metro station? If she stole it, certainly the police could have written it up and notified her parents. If it was the case of food being prohibited, couldn't they have just spoken to her?

[StefanX]

10. There was rule of no eating in the transit system

From the article: "Roberts wrote, the question that came before him was not whether Metro's policies on enforcing a rule of no eating in its transit system were a good idea. What came before him on an appeal was whether Metro's policies violated {the girl's} constitutional rights under the Fourth and Fifth Amendments."

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/3273651

So basically this guy was saying, if there's a rule of no eating on the subway system, I can't change that rule... and if the police decide to enforce that rule by arresting, handcuffing, detaining, transporting, fingerprinting and processing a 12-year-old girl for 3 hours, so be it (and the 4th Amendment be damned).

This guy obviously has serious problems.

[KitchenWitch]

11. Cool-not the situation, but thanks for the clarification

And they say we do not live in a police state. :evilfrown:

[Zorra]

9. I bet he became the laughingstock of the courthouse for that. n/t

[DanCa]

12. okay now am scared (nt)

[StefanX]

13. The whole country would be scared...

...if some Dems would run some attack ads about Roberts and the French Fry Case.

Hello out there - Dem leaders - anyone listening? This is your grasroots calling... The focus group has spoken.

Run some attack ads about Roberts and the French Fry Case - and even if Roberts wins, the whole country is going to hate the Republicans for this one.

[DanCa]

You know I am not big on attack adds but this case is different

John q public and mary normal has got to know about this.

[StefanX]

15. If you're not big on attack ads, then this post from Billmon is for YOU

http://billmon.org/archives/002040.html

We all have an aversion to attack ads - it's normal. Billmon argues it's also why we keep losing.

If you need some convincing about why we might need to use some attack ads, read Billmon's post.

It's guaranteed to be highly controversial - because it addresses a major Dem blind spot. It's probably one of the most important bits of strategy analysis from Dems to come along in the past few decades - any Dem involved in communications, framing, etc should read it.

http://billmon.org/archives/002040.html

[DanCa]

16. okay it's book marked.

It's time to stop playing by marcus de queensberry rules and become a street fighter eh? It'll take some old habbits are hard to break.

[Zhade]

14. Yeah, but he's not worth opposing, we only have so much energy!

</ignorant, defeatist bullshit>

[DELUSIONAL]

17. They should send HIS brat son to Gitmo

Parents who can't teach their kids to behave -- should be locked up.

Yep -- I can be as nasty as their side -- applying the same "rules".

I understand that the brat boy bit his mom -- so he needs to be locked up for assault. That is a hell of a bad kid. Spoiled brat frat boy to be -- who will probably get away with murder some day.

-- wow -- that was a fun rant.

[bobbieinok]

18. see DU discussion and note especially points made by some posters

that there's more to the story

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4146887