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Cops Fighting Mandatory Drug Tests

Jabberwocky

Frumious Bandersnatch
Joined
Nov 3, 1999
Messages
84,999
Cops Fighting Mandatory Drug Tests — Claim It’s ‘Unconstitutional’ to Screen Police Urine

William N. Grigg | 12/9/15 said:
In an unprecedented protest against the routine offenses against due process and bodily integrity carried out in the name of the “war on drugs,” the union representing Pittsburgh police officers has condemned workplace drug and alcohol testing as a violation of the Constitution [3]. Their zeal for the right to privacy only applies to themselves, however, not to the public they supposedly serve. [my emphasis]

NBC affiliate WPXI reports that the Pittsburgh Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police “has filed a civil rights grievance against the city, claiming officers have been order to undergo drug and alcohol testing that is in violation of their contract.” Union attorney Bryan Campbell describes the policy as “an illegal search and seizure.”

To which those not protected by Blue Privilege might respond: Welcome to our world, FOP.

Under the contract between the City of Pittsburgh and its paramilitary affiliate, police officers can be subjected to drug or alcohol tests only in three circumstances: When an officer displays signs of impairment on the job, fires a weapon, or is involved in a vehicle crash. The union’s complaint arises from a recent pursuit that ended in a car crash. Two officers who participated in the chase but were not directly involved in the crash were required to undergo testing.

Another blatantly obvious reason for police opposing public scutiny of their urine is that it could reveal the usage of such things as anabolic steroids. Police officers are no stranger to ‘Vitamin S’ as many of them have not only been caught using the rage-inducing hormones, but selling them as well. [4]

Chief Cameron McLay insists that the terms of the contract allow him to require tests of all officers involved in a pursuit, irrespective of whether they were also involved in a collision. Union attorney Campbell suggests that the city is sacrificing the rights of his clients in order to protect itself in the event of a lawsuit: “They [the officers] don’t forfeit their constitutional rights to protect the city from a civil liability.”

The union complaint may be as much a negotiating tactic as an assertion of Blue Privilege: Since April it has been involved in highly contentious contract arbitration with the Mayor over budget restrictions imposed through the city’s “Act 47 plan,” [5] a financial restricting program for municipalities trying to stave off bankruptcy. [6] The plan called for a pay freeze this year, followed by a one percent raise next year, and raises of two percent in 2017 and 2018. These increases – which would be eagerly and gratefully received by people in the still-struggling productive sector – are disdained by the police union as insufficient.

Police in Pittsburgh have eagerly supplemented the revenue stream through the officially sanctioned theft called “civil asset forfeiture,” seizing more than $700,000 in cash and 11 vehicles in 2013-2014 (albeit much of the haul was collected subsequent to charges that generally resulted in a plea bargain). Special interest lobbyists associated with law enforcement are voluble in opposition to a proposed state bill that would place some restrictions on the practice [7]. During the last legislative session, anti-reform lobbyists denounced the bill – which would reinforce the constitutional principle that punishment should be imposed following an actual conviction – as a “drug dealer’s bill of rights [8].”

Residents of Pittsburgh who are found in possession of small amounts of marijuana can still face criminal charges that “can cost [them jobs, housing, and leave them with a criminal record,” pointed out the Post-Gazette on November 17. [9]

Criminal defense lawyer Patrick Nightingale, executive director of the Pittsburgh chapter of the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), points out that someone found in possession of a minuscule amount of cannabis will “still have to be fingerprinted, they will still have their offense recorded in a national database. They will still have a rap sheet.”

The City Council is considering a measure that would permit the police to issue a non-traffic citation instead of a misdemeanor summons for possession of less than 30 grams of marijuana or eight grams of hashish. This would result in a city fine of $100 and seizure of the contraband – in other words, it would offer a reduction in prohibition-related penalties while preserving the drug war infrastructure. This helps explain why the proposed city ordinance is supported by the Pittsburgh Police Bureau, whose personnel are seeking to retain their special immunity against the kind of drug war-inspired infringements of personal liberty routinely inflicted by them.
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-po...laim-its-unconstitutional-screen-police-urine

Sounds like a great way to deal with the already rampant corruption among drug law enforcement... :\
 
You know society is fucked when the people around you have as much lack of trust in the police as people in China.
 
This song goes out to the coppers.. whats good for the goose is good for the gander.

NSFW:
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HELL YES to performance enhancing drugs being screened as well or are so many of you naturally muscle bound and agro like the hulk ?

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cops.jpg
 
i guess that explains why they call it a fraternal order :p
 
Hey pissin in cups isn't hard....been doing it since I was twelve. I bet they will have some way to divert the test results though
 
The police backlash towards the implementation of body cams and drug testing is highly indicative of a group of individuals with much to hide from the public. And it also speaks volumes regarding the enduring legacy of double standards which is slowly but surely coming to light thanks to social media and the information age in general.

Thank goodness the truth is finally being revealed, and it's no surprise that they are pissed off at not being able to abuse their tax payer-funded and public-entrusted positions of authority. The ultimate betrayal would be for this information to be suppressed from the public domain.
 
The police backlash towards the implementation of body cams and drug testing is highly indicative of a group of individuals with much to hide from the public. And it also speaks volumes regarding the enduring legacy of double standards which is slowly but surely coming to light thanks to social media and the information age in general.

Thank goodness the truth is finally being revealed, and it's no surprise that they are pissed off at not being able to abuse their tax payer-funded and public-entrusted positions of authority. The ultimate betrayal would be for this information to be suppressed from the public domain.

We swear them in indirectly in the states. I think it should be our rights to pull cop cars over and demand to search (aka tear aparat everything inside it) and then throw said contents in the streets and just let them off with a warning.
 
Amazing. If ANYONE should be tested it should be the people with the authority to chase people at high speeds and shoot and kill them.
 
Stop complaining and either find a way to quietly beat the test, stop doing drugs, or get rid of drug testing in general. I think that all holders of that position should be drug tested and psyche evaluated on a routine basis as the job is demanding and it often sets the tone for the way the public views the streets. In my mind there are two factors to how safe people feel. One is how person to person interact so when there are shootings and an over all lack of respect for life people get scared. The inverse is true too when there are over zealous cops around people are afraid for their safety as well as privacy. I think because both are so important to how we feel about living in a town that if you are going to patrol the streets for people committing crimes against each other you have to patrol the streets for crimes committed by police as abuse of power can only occur if power is granted and for that reason there needs to be a way to ensure police officers are conducting in the proper way.

If you want a job that gives you authority over people you forfeit your right to not be "searched by the people" in the same manner they search us. If I think an officer is behaving in a manner unbecoming of an officer i should be able to request a full search of his previous tickets and actions as a cop in a sort of audit. If that could be done accurately and fairly it may help because right now they can be watching me but we cant watch them in the same fashion.
 
Seriously, next time a cop messes with me I'm going to explain that whole concept to him and demand my fyndamenal rights may be exercised in precisely such way. I think we all know what will happen, but that almost makes it an even better idea :)
 
Of course they fight drug testing. After all they only want the rules to apply to the people they are "protecting " and "serving" (on a silver platter to the prison industrial complex :( ).

The damn cops always want to be free from the very constrictions they impose; for example : they speed usually on the streets I've seen 30mph+ over for no apparent reason( I guess they respond to calls but it seems dubiously rate that they aren't speeding) and they feel they can rough citizens up hard, physically and mentally assault any person who they deem requires that level of dickishness from their judgement.

But never dare touch a cop or you will end up in jail a long time or possibly beat to death and called "resisting" when you only want to live. Sad shit. Hope they fail and get fired. Fuck the lot of them. Maybe hire some kind and caring souls instead?
 
Whatever, if I were a cop I'd fight drug tests too. We're all hypocrites, one way or another. This doesn't really upset me.
In the medical field, another group which one might like to see tested, there are loads of addicts.
Administration always knows this but it makes good business and personnel sense to not to know about it until they become a problem.
In a union shop (so too the police), forget about it. For cause only, if that.
Good for the cops TBH. You gotta fight for your right ...
Also, AlterNet is a preposterous website and their smug leftist hyperbole is annoying ("paramilitary," yes, in the strictest of technical senses only)
 
Stop complaining and either find a way to quietly beat the test, stop doing drugs, or get rid of drug testing in general. I think that all holders of that position should be drug tested and psyche evaluated on a routine basis as the job is demanding and it often sets the tone for the way the public views the streets. In my mind there are two factors to how safe people feel. One is how person to person interact so when there are shootings and an over all lack of respect for life people get scared. The inverse is true too when there are over zealous cops around people are afraid for their safety as well as privacy. I think because both are so important to how we feel about living in a town that if you are going to patrol the streets for people committing crimes against each other you have to patrol the streets for crimes committed by police as abuse of power can only occur if power is granted and for that reason there needs to be a way to ensure police officers are conducting in the proper way.

If you want a job that gives you authority over people you forfeit your right to not be "searched by the people" in the same manner they search us. If I think an officer is behaving in a manner unbecoming of an officer i should be able to request a full search of his previous tickets and actions as a cop in a sort of audit. If that could be done accurately and fairly it may help because right now they can be watching me but we cant watch them in the same fashion.

I live in orlando. I actually felt safer in the dopeholes than I did when I got pulled over. I had two empty baggies once that came back negative when they field tested them....I ended up getting my ass beat and my face smashed into the hood of their car while they were searching and then field testing. Also, the verbal abuse was terrible...I had a problem with drugs...it doesn't mean I am any less of a human being than them. They ended up letting me go. I was alone and I wish someone had filmed that.

Recently in the Orlando Sentinel they have been running a lot of stories about police brutality because it has gotten way out of hand. Mayor Buddy Dyer has actually hired a separate lawyer (besides the team of lawyers they already had) to keep a watch over what the Sentinel puts in the paper. It is that bad here now.

actually in one of my mugshots there is a cut on my hairline where a cop put his knee in my head while he was cuffing me. I was just standing there and I guess I wasn't resisting enough because he took me to the ground and smacked my head on the pavement. My face got all puffy too.
 
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Also, AlterNet is a preposterous website and their smug leftist hyperbole is annoying ("paramilitary," yes, in the strictest of technical senses only)

I've waited a long time for someone to point this out, made me smile a little. My favorite alternet articles seem like they're almost always DPA reposts ironically enough - I find checking in with them more than once or twice a month gets old. A little too much preaching to the quire otherwise. Then again, there is a lot of other bad hyperbole out there among the cobwebs.
 
I hope it comes down to driving around with a twelve panel test in your car and when you get pulled over, before they ask you for liscence and registration you pull that out and say "I am going to need a sample from you real quick before we get things underway here."
 
Fuck, they're basically doing that in certain places with oral swabs and those crazy pupil detection meter machine thingies.

I'm gonna start carrying a UA cup, a temperature strip and a 15 panel urine screen so that whenever a cop pulls me over and asks for my license, I will ask for a urine sample.
 
Of course they fight drug testing. After all they only want the rules to apply to the people they are "protecting " and "serving" (on a silver platter to the prison industrial complex :( ).

The damn cops always want to be free from the very constrictions they impose; for example : they speed usually on the streets I've seen 30mph+ over for no apparent reason( I guess they respond to calls but it seems dubiously rate that they aren't speeding) and they feel they can rough citizens up hard, physically and mentally assault any person who they deem requires that level of dickishness from their judgement.

But never dare touch a cop or you will end up in jail a long time or possibly beat to death and called "resisting" when you only want to live. Sad shit. Hope they fail and get fired. Fuck the lot of them. Maybe hire some kind and caring souls instead?


I know for real. These cops want their constitutional rights while denying those same rights to people they come into contact with while on the streets. They claim the right to privacy but at the same time violate US citizens privacy rights on a daily basis. Next time you get pulled over and the cop asks to search your car tell him you don't consent to searches and watch his attitude change real quick like you just insulted him/her by exercising the same rights they want... bunch of hypocritical d-bags.
 
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