BY KEVIN SAWYER – It was all a nightmare of epic proportions because he allowed the police to search his car without a warrant. So what happened to Alexander Bernstein was that he ended up serving a month in jail because the police stated that the two bars of home made soap he had in his Mercedes Benz was cocaine. Their field test even said so.
Later, however, when the bars of soap were properly tested in a real, and independent of the police, laboratory, it turns out that the soap was actually soap. Did he get an apology from the Pennsylvania State Police or the cops who wrongfully accused him? Of course not. In fact, police around the country routinely use their field tests as a way to get people to plead guilty to crimes they haven’t committed. According to the latest statistics, this happens over 100,000 times a year.
Bernstein was originally stopped for going 5 MPH over the posted highway limit of 55 MPH which has been in place in the country since Nixon. Bernstein is a respectable man with a respectable job and nice apartment. The police asked if they could search his vehicle. Bernstein, naively, gave his consent. It was the biggest mistake of his life.
The police found two bars of his home made soap in the trunk, did their field test, and stated that the test came up positive for cocaine. Bernstein ended up being charged with felony drug possession and was thrown into prison for 29 days until and independent test, ordered by his lawyer, determined he was innocent. In the meantime, however, he lost his job, his apartment, and all of his belongings were seized by the police and the government. And, on top of it all, he is $32,000 in debt on court costs.
Even if Bernstein does manage to get a new job and a new place to live and even if he does manage to get his stuff back, he will still have the arrest and drug conviction on a police record which will also sit in the FBI’s database.
Many organizations and nationwide watchdog researchers continue to rail against the arrogance of the police and their tactics in their willful refusal to think they are subject to any kind of law. The Constitution continues to be struck down by the judicial branch everywhere in the country which just seems to encourage this reckless and unlawful behavior which shows no regard for Constitutional due process.
PHOTO CREDIT: Pixabay