Attention NJ state police: Stop sticking your finger up the butts of suspected pot smokers

A state trooper issued Jack Levine a ticket for tailgating back on March 8 on a road in Southampton, down in Burlington County. Footage of this incident was captured by both body and dash cams, and was discovered by John Paff, an open public records advocate, who in turn allowed NJ101.5.com to edit and post the video. Yep. A tailgating ticket. The ticket came at the end of the video, after Levine was handcuffed. Why was he handcuffed? Because the troopers thought they caught a whiff of marijuana in his car. So they searched him. They didn’t find anything. “He might’ve stashed it somewhere,” one of the troopers is heard to say. So then, they really — really really really — searched him. Searched him to the point one of the troopers put on a pair of latex gloves and apparently stuck his finger up Levine’s anus. “Yo, yo, he’s doing some real crazy s--t right now, yo,” Levine says. “Yo, I can’t believe this is f-king happening, just because a f-king cops says he smells weed.” Eventually, the cops found nothing, and Levine was sent on his way with the aforementioned tailgating ticket. The trooper did tell Levine if he thought his rights were violated, he could file a complaint. Which Levine did, and it’s presently unclear where the case stands, according to the NJ101.5 report. It’s worth noting Levine has long hair. Looks like he could be in a Skid Row cover band. Wonder if that had anything to do with it … ***** About 25 years ago, I was in the front seat of a Plymouth K Car cruising down I-195 on the way to Monmouth. We were going to play the ponies. My hair was about as long as a pony’s. We get pulled over by a state trooper. When the driver asked why, the trooper said because my friend’s view was obstructed by an air freshener hanging off the rear view mirror. Ridiculous, I thought. It got more ridiculous when the trooper asked us if we had any marijuana. We looked like we might, but that’s not exactly what’s known as “probable cause.” Obviously, we all said no. He then asked if he could search the car. To be clear, he didn’t even catch a whiff, like the troopers claimed in Levine’s case. He just sized us up as dope smokers. So he turned the car inside out and found nothing. Then he approached us on the side of the road, asked for our IDs. “Oh, a Jew,” he said when he saw my license. He then proceeded to stick his hands in all of our pockets. He found nothing. He skipped the anal probe, thankfully. But he did go through my friend’s pack of Marlboro Reds, where he somehow missed the remains of an eighth buried at the bottom. (The fact the trooper was right about us holding weed doesn’t matter; he had no business searching us in the first place.) Later, I called the local barracks and said I wanted to file a complaint. The trooper on the other end of the line told me I could, but then told me I’d be a marked man and every trooper would know who I was and did I really want that? I decided to let the matter pass. ***** So to recap: State troopers these days are fine with you filing a complaint, but they’re first going to stick their finger up your ass to make sure you’re not carrying small amounts of marijuana. ***** I’m not even going to express anger or outrage here. It’s implied. Watch the video for yourself and you’ll see how ridiculous these state troopers were. One of two things will happen as this case winds through the courts. Either Levine will get some cash settlement and the troopers get some form of punishment, or we find out this type of police behavior is 100 percent legal and I’ll start furnishing my one-bedroom hobbit hole and I’ll check you all later.