Why can the police put you in jail for a week, after an illegal a

A recent U.S. Supreme Court case affirmed the ability of police to engage in strip searches after an arrest, at a police station, even for minor arrests. I am kind of torn on this, because while I don't support the drug war, along as it exists I can understand police wanting to control the flow of drugs within the jail, or to stop someone from bringing in a weapon.

But, on the other hand, there is the question of someone arrested for non-payment of a traffic fine, being strip-searched, which normally would be a violation of the 4th Amendment. After all, non-payment of a fine is not grounds for reasonable suspicion or probable cause of a drug crime.

Maybe those arrested for minor crimes can be put in isolation, so searches wouldn't be necessary and their rights respected. But the most amazing thing about this case is that this man had documents on him that showed he was in total compliance with paying the fine. The officer who arrested him, simply ignored these documents!

The man arrested, Albert Florence, spent a week in jail, before released! A week, when he had the documents to show that he was in compliance.

I have to ask, were these officers lazy or did they just not care? This arrest was clearly an illegal arrest but the officer (and those who processed him) didn't care. They didn't want to spend the 5 minutes to show this man should have not been arrested. I find that, simply amazing. If Mr. Florence was a wealthy congressman, would they have listened to him?

But of course. This arrest didn't have probable cause because any officer who truly cared about the 4th Amendment, which guarantees against arrest without probable cause, would have inspected this man's paperwork. He would have, if necessary, verified everything was legitimate. But sending a man too jail was more important than spending a few minutes showing that there were no grounds for arrest.

Would he have wanted his own brother or sister or cousin, or even himself, treated in such a fashion? Of course not. But he was all too willing not to do his job and verify that this man should not have been arrested. I am sure the cop got absolutely no punishment whatsoever, it is amazing what we as citizens will put up with.