Posted on 02/04/2008 7:36:26 AM PST by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at wkyc.com ...
“So, they stripped her. Pretty clear from the video. But it was not a strip search. OK. Then what was it?”
It wasn’t a cavity search but she was forcibly stripped by males. i don’t think she appreciates the distinction.
Things like this are why people don’t like calling the police and don’t trust the police.
Yeah. Never happen. They're too professional and besides, they work for us. It's not like they get off beating and stripping women or anything like that
Bookmarked for follow up.
You know, I'm really shocked to find a fellow who has been at FR even longer than I have, who has not yet learned the proper skepticism when presented with a story like this.
I mean, look what we've got: a sensational-sounding story, with all of the "details" (of which there are almost none) being provided by the plaintiff's lawyers. Those stories are almost NEVER accurate, and are often incredibly inaccurate.
What we have here, is possibly a "Rodney King" video -- something that looks ghastly, until you understand it in context.
All at the Dunkin Donuts with the rest of their cop buddies.
That's because we don't really have any facts worth mentioning in this case. You've got a video that looks bad, and some vague comments from her lawyer, and absolutely no context in which to place them.
When you talk about "smell tests," I've got an almost infallible one for stories like this one.
1. Story that sounds bad.
2. Story reported by a TV station
3. All of the "facts" are provided by the plaintiff's lawyer and relatives
4. No real facts about why the cops were called
5. No real specifics as to why the plaintiff was arrested in the first place.
When I see that combination, my "smell test" meter goes off the scale.
I hope the Steffey’s enjoy their retirement in the Turks and Caicos Islands as guests of the Stark County Sheriff’s Office.
Yeah. That’s just like loading families on flat bed trucks. I bet they videotape that too.
thugs.
I agree
Contact Information: Sheriff Timothy A Swanson
Telephone
(330) 430-3800
FAX
Postal address
4500 Atlantic Blvd., N.E., Canton, Ohio 44705
Electronic mail
General Information: strkshrf@raex.com
I think your meter needs adjustment.
“So where are the cop lovers now? Defend this one.”
They’ll be here. There’s a video of their comrads forcibly stripping a woman of her clothes. They dig that kind of power.
Well, that's certainly a new way to justify these kinds of things...
“until you understand it in context.”
Please explain the context.
Did you watch both videos?
The sheriffs violated their policy.
They didn’t turn over all of the evidence.
Some of the video was either not captured or not released.
A dose of skepticism is always healthy - but being forcibly stripped with two males in the room is bad news.
They asked her “have you ever thought of harming yourself?”...her response...was the wrong thing. She replied “now or ever?”.
____________
I heard the reporter report that the q & a happened as you suggest, but I did not myself hear them on the video. I couldn’t turn it up too loud, though, so I may have missed it.
Seeing what I have, I’m inclined towards skepticism, as there at least one policy that our police friends did not follow (male cops strip searching a female - I know they claim it wasn’t a strip search, but what would you call it when you are cuffed fully clothed and then have the cops take all your clothes off?)
No cop hater here, they’re human like the rest of us and screw up periodically.
Were I the husband of this woman, I would do everything in my power to sue this bunch of creeps and the county that owns them back to the stone age. That would be my mission in life. And, as you may have noted, I suggested that this woman's attorney might want to enlist some outside help.
And yes, I have been here for a long time and, being in my seventies, have seen a lot of what goes on on this earth. I'll be damned if this doesn't take the proverbial cake though.
Ok, I'll bite. Maybe there is something we're not seeing here. Give me a "fer' instance" supposition as to what could have transpired to precipitate 1) two male police officers stripping a young woman naked, and 2) leaving a naked woman, not under suicide watch, in a cell for 6 hours. Please, incorporate what we have seen in the reported issues and "facts" as presented by the local news station.
The only thing in short supply in Stark County are teeth.
The problem is, when they DO screw up, often times innocent people get HURT really bad.
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