Let me say at once that I'm a retired member of a law enforcement organization, was trained with other law enforcement officers, and had powers of arrest. I speak not as an outsider, but a former 'insider'. Nevertheless, news reports like this one make me absolutely bloody furious!
The incident began January 2, 2013 after David Eckert finished shopping at the Wal-Mart in Deming. According to a federal lawsuit, Eckert didn't make a complete stop at a stop sign coming out of the parking lot and was immediately stopped by law enforcement.
Eckert's attorney, Shannon Kennedy, said in an interview with KOB that after law enforcement asked him to step out of the vehicle, he appeared to be clenching his buttocks. Law enforcement thought that was probable cause to suspect that Eckert was hiding narcotics in his anal cavity. While officers detained Eckert, they secured a search warrant from a judge that allowed for an anal cavity search.
The lawsuit claims that Deming Police tried taking Eckert to an emergency room in Deming, but a doctor there refused to perform the anal cavity search citing it was "unethical."
But physicians at the Gila Regional Medical Center in Silver City agreed to perform the procedure and a few hours later, Eckert was admitted.
While there, Eckert was subjected to repeated and humiliating forced medical procedures [including two manual examinations of his anus, two X-rays, three enemas and a forced colonoscopy].
Throughout this ordeal, Eckert protested and never gave doctors at the Gila Regional Medical Center consent to perform any of these medical procedures.
"If the officers in Hidalgo County and the City of Deming are seeking warrants for anal cavity searches based on how they're standing and the warrant allows doctors at the Gila Hospital of Horrors to go in and do enemas and colonoscopies without consent, then anyone can be seized and that's why the public needs to know about this," Kennedy said.
There are major concerns about the way the search warrant was carried out. Kennedy argues that the search warrant was overly broad and lacked probable cause. But beyond that, the warrant was only valid in Luna County, where Deming is located. The Gila Regional Medical Center is in Grant County. That means all of the medical procedures were performed illegally and the doctors who performed the procedures did so with no legal basis and no consent from the patient.
In addition, even if the search warrant was executed in the correct New Mexico county, the warrant expired at 10 p.m. Medical records show the prepping for the colonoscopy started at 1 a.m. the following day, three hours after the warrant expired.
"This is like something out of a science fiction film, anal probing by government officials and public employees," Kennedy said.
There's more at the link, if you can stand the sickening details.
Mr. Eckert is suing the officers, agencies, doctors and hospital concerned - and good luck to him. I hope he wins big. The only problem is that taxpayers will be on the hook for much of the damages awarded. The officers concerned are likely to escape without personal sanctions. I want to see these ******s suffer. I want them fired, and disbarred from any future employment in a law enforcement or security capacity. In fact, I want them barred from any employment on the public payroll whatsoever! They've demonstrated conclusively that their oaths of office meant absolutely nothing to them. They're completely untrustworthy.
I swore the oath of law enforcement office. I swore to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic", and that I would "bear true faith and allegiance to the same". These clowns did likewise. The difference between them and myself is that I meant it when I swore that oath. Clearly, they didn't. Their actions crossed so many Constitutional and legal boundaries it's almost beyond belief . . . but that didn't stop them for a moment.
It's precisely the same with many other law enforcement agents and agencies today. The most egregious example in recent history is the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) with its 'Operation Fast and Furious'. So far, "some 211 people were killed or wounded by Fast and Furious weapons in Mexico, according to Mexican authorities" - including a police chief - and two Federal officers - Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and DHS ICE Special Agent Jaime Zapata - were murdered by criminals using weapons that the ATF allowed to be supplied to Mexican drug cartels. How any law enforcement officer with any sense of honor, dignity or decency can work for the ATF after such disclosures is utterly beyond me.
All those who continue to work for out-of-control agencies such as the ATF, or (in this case) the Hidalgo County Sheriff's Office and the Deming police department, are, in my opinion, utterly amoral and of no worth whatsoever as human beings. The same applies to those who work for or support other Government agencies that use their powers to oppress innocent citizens for political or social reasons (such as the IRS auditing opponents of the Obama administration, or delaying the tax-exempt registration of groups opposed to it). I consider those who work for or support such agencies to be 'accessories to the crime', even if they're not personally involved in it, because by their presence and their activities they're supporting organizations and individuals who appear to lack any semblance of ethics, morals and honor.
It's no wonder that there's a growing sense that the USA is becoming a police state. With jackbooted thugs on patrol like those mentioned in the report above, that's becoming an ever more clear and present danger.
It's up to us to stop it.
Even if officialdom won't act to rein in such excesses, we can make a start in our communities by shunning all those involved. Shut them out of civilized society. Make them into pariahs. Teach them the hard way that there's no place for them in our midst.
Peter
11 comments:
There's another item that really adds the "special": the hospital has billed Mr. Eckert for the treatment.
$6000 to be derived of civil rights, privacy, and more.
SiGraybeard @ work
And apparently this isn't an isolated incident: http://www.kob.com/article/stories/S3210356.shtml
"All those who continue to work for out-of-control agencies such as the ATF, or (in this case) the Hidalgo County Sheriff's Office and the Deming police department, are, in my book, utterly amoral and of no worth whatsoever as human beings.
You can add the physicians who performed the unnecessary and illegal procedures to that list. I took an oath as well, part of it went: Into whatever houses I enter, I will go into them for the benefit of the sick, and will abstain from every voluntary act of mischief and corruption.
Now we pretty much don't do house calls anymore, but the principle still applies. Calling the physicians who collaborated with those police "dirtbags" would be an insult to dirt.
Such incidents seem to be becoming more frequent, or at least are better publicized.
Will there be a tipping point, where some citizens see officers as too dangerous to deal with civilly?
I think the line between becoming and is was passed years ago, though the exact timing is a bit blurry.
By the time he's done, I suspect the Mr. Eckert is going to be a very rich man indeed.
Had the account of these events come from a source other that yours Peter, I would dismiss them as outright fantasy, or the babblings of some conspiracy idiot'.
After reading, I have no words,...suitable for a public, family oriented forum.
I so desperately hope that this is something so beyond the pale, that it cannot, must not, and will not, be repeated.
Sadly, so very sadly, I feel my hopes are bordering on futile.
Here, in New South Wales, Australia, I firmly believe, (I was bought up to trust the Police), that, if something like this happened, truly, heads would roll, from the highest office, that NONE of those responsible would escape scrutiny and sanction.
That is not to imply that our Police force is spotless, far from it.
Historically, it has been tainted by failure of duty that bedevils every Authority, whatever its warrant.
Simply, they are human, just like the rest of us, though that never excuses the abuses, as you have reported here.
One can only ask, "Quis Costodiet Ipsos Custodes".
Very loosely translated, "Who guards the guard that guards you".
You say, "It's up to US to stop it."
How exactly do you recommend we do that?
I can go to the City Council Meeting in my hometown and bring this up. I can find a nice Police Officer taking note of my Lic plate number after that meeting is over.
I can then expect to see police cars in my rearview mirror for the foreseeable future.
Not, that I have done anything wrong mind you. They are just there to ensure that I am following ALL traffic Laws, and that my car is safe enough to be on the streets. If they have to pull me over sometimes in order to assure themselves that the forgoing is indeed the case, well, that's just the way it goes........
Ordinary citizens cross the "Thin Blue Line" at now only at great risk. The "I'm going home, even if I have to kill somebody" mindset, and the wedge that has been driven between LEO's and the general public both work to make it very risky to 'cross' the Men in Blue.
We are , sadly, long past the time when citizens could speak out in public against this. Now the implied threat of Legal Troubles Harassment, and even Jail Time for those who speak out against Corruption and Malfeasance is impossible to ignore.
So, Peter, What do you recommend?
Grow some balls.
Easy for you to say, Anonymous.
Sadly, however, real life is seldom just a matter of Having Balls, as you so quaintly put it.
Do you have any OTHER advice on how to rein in our, adversarial LEOs?
it seems this was not an isolated incident - pretty much the same thing has happened before.
In this case (and the earlier one) the warrant wasn't valid in the county where the hospital performing the procedures is located, the search continued after the warrant had expired, and so forth.
In the case in question the police originally took the individual to a different hospital where the doctors refused to perform the procedures because doing so would be unethical at which point the police took him to a different hospital in a different county.
The screwups here are such that this guy is going to end up very wealthy.
The doctors in the case are being called up infront of a medical tribunal and may (hopefully will) lose their licenses to practice medicine and the police officers are being called up in front of a complaints board. Hopefully they'll be fired.
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