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Cop in the Hood


Winner of the 2008 PROSE Award for Best Book in Sociology

Buy Cop in the Hood from Amazon.com

Never mind "The Wire." Here is the real thing. --The Wall Street Journal

Cop in the Hood is an explosive insider’s story of what it is really like to be a police officer on the front lines of the war on drugs. Harvard-trained sociologist Peter Moskos became a cop in Baltimore’s roughest neighborhood, the location for the HBO drama The Wire. He provides an unforgettable window into a world outsiders never see. Those who read it will never view the badge the same way.

March 1, 2009

Strip Searches in Central Booking

These stories happen every now and then. "Respectable" person gets arrested and is shocked (shocked!) that they're strip searched in jail.

Did you not know that people get strip searched after being arrested? Well they do. Now you know.

If the idea that other people get strip searched doesn't bother you today, right now, while you're reading this, please don't be all bothered should it happen to you when you're arrested.

But really, it's not an outrage. Not in Baltimore's Central Booking. It really is for everybody's safety. No, it's no fun to be stripped searched. But if you're arrested, do you really want to be jail with other people who haven't been strip searched? Trust me, you don't. You may not know this, but there are lots of bad criminals in jail.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

As there are "lots of bad criminals" in jail there are lots of innocent people too. Strip searching a violation of civil rights.

PCM said...

But you're not understanding my argument. People are being strip searched not because they're criminals but for safety.

Let me pose it this way. Let's say Central Booking was divided into two halves: a strip-searched half and a non-strip-searched half.

Let's say you, personally, were arrested. It doesn't matter if you're innocent or guilty. Which half of jail would you prefer to spend your night?

Me? I'd drop trow, turn, and spread 'em in a second. I don't want to be in jail with others who aren't strip searched.