Opinion| Whatever happened to everyone being equal under the law?
If there was one common theme for the last … 4 years or so, it is that the law is not equally to all in this nation.
I know what you are thinking … ‘it took you until 2015 to figure this out?’
No, I was aware of this before 2015, but ever since Trump’s victory, it seems like the establishment has just stopped even pretending that they are not above the law, and those of us with certain values and beliefs are subject to the use of the law as a weapon against us.
Not only are the likes of HRC and her cohorts roaming free, not indicted and staging coup attempt after coup attempt against our duly elected President, it seems that certain classes of ‘ordinary’ Americans are now recipients of ‘extra’ rights.
Recall, if you will, the story we reported on earlier this week in which a man was sentenced to 15 years for stealing and … burning a gay pride flag.
Burning the American Flag is Constitutionally protected speech, as I believe it should be. Would I ever burn the American Flag? Most likely not, however, I do believe that doing so should be covered under the 1st Amendment as political speech. Besides, the act of the burning our flag in and of itself tells the nation a lot about who the person doing so, IMHO.
Anyway, it seems that a Minnesota woman was able to turn a traffic violation into a $120,000 pay day in tax payer funds.
The Gateway Pundit reported: ‘A judge issued a warrant for Aida Shyef Al-Kadi’s arrest after she missed a court hearing after she was ticketed for a traffic offense.
Al-Kadi filed a lawsuit claiming the county “violated her constitutional rights and discriminated against her for her religious beliefs” for forcing her to remove her hijab in front of a male jail guard.
Al-Kadi also says her religious beliefs were violated because she was forced to wear a jail uniform — like everyone else in jail.’
According to a report in The Guardian:
A Minnesota Muslim woman has received $120,000 to settle her lawsuit alleging she was forced to strip in jail and remove her hijab for a booking photo over a traffic offense, the woman and her attorneys said Tuesday.
Aida Shyef Al-Kadi appeared with her attorneys at the Minneapolis headquarters of the Council on American-Islamic Relations to announce the settlement approved last month.
Al-Kadi, 57, said her treatment at the Ramsey county jail in August 2013 was “one of the most humiliating and harmful experiences” of her life.
“I knew that I did not want any other Muslim woman to experience what I did,” she said.
When Al-Kadi turned herself in, she said, she was told to remove her hijab and abaya, a long dress that covered her body, in front of male jailers. When she objected, she said, she was removed from the area and taken to a holding cell, where she removed her hijab in front of a male jailer.
I wonder how many Jews have sued and won after being asked to remove a Yarmulke? It’s a serious question, as I do not know the answer.
…
Under the settlement, the jail has put in place specific rules about how to accommodate inmates with religious headwear when taking booking photos. The county also agreed to destroy all hard copies and delete any electronic copies of Al-Kadi’s booking photo, the Guardian also reported.
What do you think about this case? I do think the state needs to respect everyone’s religion, and that needs to apply to everyone equally.
