Strip search of woman by Sheriff's Deputies called outrageous

WKYC.com ^ | 1/31/2008 | Susan Vinella

[VRing]

CANTON -- Hope Steffey's night began with a call to police for help. It ended with her face down, completely naked and sobbing on a jail cell floor. Steffey says Stark County sheriff's deputies used excessive force and assaulted her during a strip search 15 months ago, according to a federal lawsuit.

[Shryke]

All the evidence is IN! We don't need facts! Why, even the woman's attorney told us! The cops are guilty! Jack boots!

Etc. Etc. There are even some decently intelligent people in this thread pounding their "guilty" gavels before ANY important information comes to light. Pathetic, is it not? Pathetic.

[laker_dad]

bump for later

[2nd amendment mama]

And the libs believe that putting panties on the head of a prisoner is torture. Wonder what they would consider this?

All I hear is chirping crickets.....

[epow]

When I lived in FL during the early '90s there was an incident in our county in which a squad of cops acting on a tip broke down the door of a young couple's home in the early AM hours and dragged a young couple out of bed. The man and wife were held at gunpoint on the bedroom floor for over an hour while their home was ransacked by cops searching for drugs. That kind of thing isn't at all uncommon these days, but if true the worst part for the couple was that the wife had a habit of sleeping in the nude and she claimed to have been held at gunpoint on the floor completely naked for over an hour while the search was conducted.

She told reporters that male cops stepped over and around her while she was lying on the floor naked, and that the cop in charge refused to allow her husband to cover her with a sheet from the nearby bed. If that's true, and who besides the people who were there can know for sure, there is no excuse for treating even a convicted female criminal like that, much less a woman who had not been convicted or even formally charged with anything. The couple filed a lawsuit against the police dept before I moved from FL, but it hadn't gone to trial yet when I left and I don't know how it turned out.

BTW, no drugs were found in the raid, and the local paper discovered that the tip came from a known druggie who had previously given the police another bogus tip.

After reading or hearing of incidents like that, will you still take the very real chance of being riddled by police bullets if you respond to a late night invasion of your home with a gun and it turns out that the invaders are a squad of cops? A totally innocent 91 year old black lady was killed by police bullets in exactly that manner a few months ago in metro Atlanta when she brandished a gun thinking the cops were criminals. That no-knock raid was based on a tip from a known drug pusher who was cooperating with the police.

No-knock police raids on private homes are an abomination in a nation where the 4th amendment supposedly protects our right to be quote; "secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures". I don't approve of illegal drug use by anyone anywhere anytime, but is enforcing drug laws with late night no-knock raids worth surrendering our inalienable Constitutional rights to the "authorities"? No-knock raids on private homes sound to me more like Hitler's Nazi Germany than the USA.

[r9etb]

draggie, you ask a bunch of questions the answers to which I do not know. I'd be willing to guess that "committing suicide by taking a header into a concrete floor" has not been a problem in the past. But hanging most assuredly has been.

When you say, "seems to me," it suggests that you're operating on emotions, rather than facts.

[Abundy]

ping for later

[Eyes Unclouded]

I like your idea but you know how people in government are nowadays all about protecting fiefdom and their own turf. May I ask why you don’t like liberty? “I am as far from a Libertarian as a person can be.”

[dragnet2]

When you say, "seems to me," it suggests that you're operating on emotions, rather than facts.

Well of course, rather than a hospital where she could be restrained to a bed or gurney, a concrete jail cell is always preferable for a potentially suicidal individual.

[TankerKC]

To watch later...

[ladyrustic]

My brother told me about the time he was in a bar and fell into conversation with a man who turned out to be a cop.

In the course of the conversation my brother asked the cop if the police were worried about the recent huge growth and spread of a certain dangerous gang (of which I don’t recall the name) in the area.

The cop replied very seriously and with a bit of bravado, “No. We are not afraid of them. OUR gang is bigger.”

Police mentality in a nutshell, unfortunately.

I hope the police department pays this poor woman, big time.

[timm22]

bump

[hoping more evidence comes to light]

[Uri’el-2012]

Does no one use a psychiatric restraint device ?

Call john Mccain or do we treat terrorists better than citizens ?

[CSM]

This is very disturbing and I have no doubt in my mind of her account. I have seen how county sherriff deputies act when they are the little king’s in their jailhouse castles. They think that they can get away with anything, including ignoring a judge’s order.

The only thing more disturbing than the video, will be the inevitable FR comments that will still blame the victim.

[B-Chan]

I like liberty. I simply do not hold it to be the greatest good. Individual liberty has its place, but charity and devotion to duty are more important. A man without charity and devotion to his duty is a slave, not a free man.

[4yearlurker]

This video looks like a R rated drive-in movie from the 1970s. Totally unacceptable behavior. We were once citizens now we are cattle. I’m surprised they didn’t tase her for her own good.

[anonsquared]

In the old days the police treated citizens with respect and knew that their job was to protect us from the bad guys. Today most cops treat ALL CITIZENS as the bad guys. High time to cut the funding of law enforcement across the country.

As another Freepers tag line states...
I carry a gun because I can’t fit a cop in my holster.

[wbill]

I always enjoy reading these cop-bashing threads. I think that it's absolutely hilarious when Freepers, who for the most part, are fairly well-reasoned people, begin to froth at the mouth at the thought of stringing up a cop.

Examine the evidence...there's the lawyer for the plaintiff that says the cops did something bad. And, a videotape which may or may not be in context that supports the lawyer.

And these Freepers - who IMHO, generally hold reporters and lawyers to be in the same subset of fungi as used car salesmen - look at this evidence and say - "String up the cops, they did it, case closed". Must be a shame to be so overcome by hatred that you lose all reason.

I'm with you, r9etb. Most cops I've dealt with are OK. Jury's still out on this one, AFAIC. If it turns out the cops were in the wrong - they'll be taken down, I'm sure.

[Eyes Unclouded]

True. Liberty without sense or duty is at due to human nature just hedonism. Still though I’d err on the side of liberty more often than not.

[rogue yam]

If her only crime was showing the wrong drivers license, then arrest my butt too.

There is a difference between having and showing and you know it so cut the crap.

[wbill]

“No. We are not afraid of them. OUR gang is bigger.”

Bravado? Sure. But would your brother felt better if the cop had said "Yep, they terrify us. In fact, we avoid all calls on their turf and run, hide, and wet our pants if they knock on our doors."