Top Police Officer in Chicago Backs Random Searches
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CHICAGO — The head of the Chicago police force says that he wants some constitutional rights suspended to fight crime, including strictures against random searches.
“We need to take a look at it (the Constitution) and maybe from time to time we should curtail some of those rights,” Police Supt. LeRoy Martin said, “because some of those rights have gotten us into the position where we’re living in an armed camp right now.”
He said he wanted random searches of citizens to be legalized.
Harvey Grossman, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, criticized Martin’s remarks, saying that “highly charged statements like that send the wrong message” to the rank and file of the Police Department.
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