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From: ark@alice.UucP (Andrew Koenig)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: a good example
Message-ID: <4229@alice.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 28-Aug-85 17:30:31 EDT
Article-I.D.: alice.4229
Posted: Wed Aug 28 17:30:31 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 30-Aug-85 08:37:12 EDT
Organization: Bell Labs, Murray Hill
Lines: 30

I saw a news article today about a woman who was strip-searched
for a dog license violation, and was all set to be incensed until
I read further.

The details changed the picture a bit.  Apparently, the woman's
dog escaped from her yard.  As a result, police charged her with
failing to keep a city license on the dog's collar, failure to
immunize the dog, and allowing it to run loose.  She got a court
date, intending to show papers there that proved that the dog had
indeed been licensed and immunized.

However, she never showed up in court.  Some time later, she was
stopped because her car was out of registration.  When the cop
did a routine license check, he discovered that she was wanted
for failure to appear in court and took her to the police station.

At the station, further checking disclosed that she had been arrested
on drug charges twelve years earlier.  The police department has a
standing policy in that town: if someone is arrested who has ever
before been arrested on drug charges, the prisoner is strip-searched
for concealed drugs.

Now, I'm not going to try to argue about whether this particular
policy is right or wrong -- I can see arguments on both sides.
Rather,  I am presenting this article as a warning against
jumping to conclusions.  The situation described in the first paragraph
is utterly absurd.  Once the facts are known, the situation becombs
at least plausible, at least if you take the view that not
showing up for a court date is a much more severe offense than
not registering a dog.